fuze going batty

I have a 8gb fuze either 2 or 3 yrs old.  there are 2 things that seem to happen periodically(1 or the other) every 3-4 weeks over the last year or so.  One is the songs will disappear but the memory is still occupied.  In other words,  there would be 0 songs listed but the memory would still be filled.  The other issue that I would have is that after I would turn on the player, no songs would play,  the pause icon is displayed, but song titles are  fast-forwarding across the screen. it’s like the player is stuck in fast forward,  the player displaying say 3 songs every second.  I keep formatting the player and reloading my songs on there, but have just about had it with this process.  Anyone have any suggestions?

I would:

  1. Verify that the song files you’re having problems with are of a supported type (mp3, wma [not protected], ogg, flac)
  2. Check those song files (while on your computer) with ChkDsk for any problems/corruption. If any of the files are found defective and repaired, them delete the ones on your player and transfer over the newly repaired ones. If nothing changes, I would then
  3. Format the player. Note this will erase and optimize the memroy, so it’s a good idea to do this if you need to delete any files and re-transfer. If nothing changes, I would then
  4. Manually re-install the firmware. If nothing changes, I would then
  5. Buy a new player, given that it’s no longer within the warranty period.

I would:

  1. Verify that the song files you’re having problems with are of a supported type (mp3, wma [not protected], ogg, flac)
  2. Check those song files (while on your computer) with ChkDsk for any problems/corruption. If any of the files are found defective and repaired, them delete the ones on your player and transfer over the newly repaired ones. If nothing changes, I would then
  3. Format the player. Note this will erase and optimize the memory, so it’s a good idea to do this if you need to delete any files and re-transfer. If nothing changes, I would then
  4. Manually re-install the firmware. If nothing changes, I would then
  5. Buy a new player, given that it’s no longer within the warranty period.

Whoa, slow down Tapeworm. Formatting is the nuclear option.

It probably is an unsupported file format–.m4a files from iTunes, perhaps. But it might also be finder files from albums ripped to mp3 by Apple computers. Connect the Fuze to the computer and Search it for MACOSX. You might find file folders under that name inside album folders. Inside the MACOSX folders are files with names like _01-Trackname1.mp3 that are 0kb in size. The Fuze tries to play them because they are called .mp3, but there’s nothing in them–they are just markers for Mac computers.

You can delete any MACOSX folders from the Fuze (though you might want to check in Properties to make sure they are 0kb). 

And before formatting, you should also try mp3tag to fix tags. Follow these directions to fix a problem album.

http://forums.sandisk.com/t5/Fuze/Files-appear-on-computer-but-not-on-Fuze/m-p/248900#M49238

Reload the firmware manually.

http://forums.sandisk.com/t5/Fuze/Sansa-Fuze-Firmware-Update-01-02-31-amp-02-03-33/td-p/139175