I had a Clip fail recently with a sudden leap in volume followed by ‘deadness’ but the worrying aspect was the Clip kept getting hotter. So hot that although I was parked, I didn’t drive on until I was sure the Clip wouldn’t overheat to the point of flammability. The USB connector metal shroud was definitely too hot to touch and I was using my hands to try and conduct heat from the casing.
When I got home and the Clip had cooled I tried the short ‘restart’ method but thought the thing was dead as I assumed the battery (or its charging circuit) had internally shorted, so being only week, or less, old I took it back the retailer for a replacemen. The retailer had no stock and offered a refund, although I noticed a different colour same capacity Clip on a stand as I was leaving. When I challenged the retailer (a chain) the reason given was my unit was previous stock/reduced price, where as this was new stock/higher price.
Anyhow with this particular failure I was doubtful if I wanted to chance another Clip if overheating and early failure is likely. OTOH I haven’t found anything similar at the pricepoint which doesn’t have other foibles, so I’m considering the Clip again.
At the time I was using the Clip in the car, usually alone but sometimes with an attached USB/accessory socket to recharge as I go. Usually I would connect all before switching on the Clip, but that day I switched the Clip on noticed the charge was low and plugged the USB in. The clip didn’t fail immediately but around the time it takes for the clip to sense it has a USB attachment. The Clip failure also ‘blew’ the USB/accessory socket unit, but I later found it had an internal fuse, and seems to be working now with that fuse (250v 1A) replaced.
There was something strange about my Clip, or my particular PC (running XP SP2) in that it wouldn’t boot with the Clip attached, only if the Clip was attached after booting, otherwise OK.
Is pluggin in a USB power cord while the Clip is ‘on’, a known cause of failure and/or overheating or was I just unlucky?
I’m not sure what you were using to charge it in the car, but have you considered that as a cause? It like, happened on 2 Sansa Clips which is highly unlikely, unless used with something that is not meant for it.
I agree that it might be the car charger at fault. I’ve only heard of one other report of overheating (and I believe they solved it by putting in in the freezer and it worked fine after!!). If you do get another clip, try charging it via USB or with an AC adapter and see if it charges ok under normal circumstances before using the car charger. At least that way you may be able to see where the fault lies. If the car charger works without overheating too, it must’ve been a dodgy unit.
Oh and plugging the USB in when the device is on is ok
Just to add: I don’t recommend the freezer method
Message Edited by summerlove on 07-28-2009 07:07 PM
@chux wrote:
I’m not sure what you were using to charge it in the car, but have you considered that as a cause? It like, happened on 2 Sansa Clips which is highly unlikely, unless used with something that is not meant for it.
The car charger worked OK before up to the point of failure. It only failed on 1 Clip for me.
I agree that it might be the car charger at fault. I’ve only heard of one other report of overheating (and I believe they solved it by putting in in the freezer and it worked fine after!!). If you do get another clip, try charging it via USB or with an AC adapter and see if it charges ok under normal circumstances before using the car charger. At least that way you may be able to see where the fault lies. If the car charger works without overheating too, it must’ve been a dodgy unit.
Oh and plugging the USB in when the device is on is ok
Message Edited by summerlove on 07-28-2009 07:04 PM
It charged OK from the PC and the car charger. Never tried an AC USB charger. No (noticeable) overheating during charging prior to this failure.
@miikerman wrote:
Sounds to me like you may need a warranty replacement, if you still are within the warranty period (1 year in the U.S.).
That’s what I asked for but they had no stock (although I later saw they had stock but with a different colour, stock code and higher price, so difficult to argue it was ‘identical’) so they only offered something of equivalent value at first, so I asked for and received a refund.
@miikerman wrote:
Good to hear that you got a refund. Sad to hear that SanDisk itself couldn’t replace a unit with its own stock. It’s like a business going out.
The OP means the retailer wouldn’t exchange it I think
Message Edited by summerlove on 07-29-2009 04:38 PM
