I bought the Sansa Clip at a local retailer this past weekend. I took it out of the box and noticed it indicated half battery life. I charged it, downloaded songs, etc etc. All was good. It only took about 6 hours to drain the battery, and it wasn’t 6 hours of continuous play, either. I took it back to the retailer who exchanged it for another Sansa Clip unit. This one didn’t even turn on in the store. The guy told me that MP3 players usually won’t turn on until you get it home and plug it in, that they need a “jolt” to get started. I reluctantly went home and plugged it into my computer’s USB and it showed zero battery and was charging. It turned on long enough to say low battery…
I took my second unit back and just got store credit. I’m very bummed because I really liked the few hours I got out of the Sansa Clip. I keep hoping to read online that this battery issue has been resolved. I drive 2 to 3 hours a day for my job and I go into rural areas where I don’t get radio signals. I have a single CD player in the company car but was attracted to everything about the Clip. I don’t feel like I need the whole package of video, photo, etc. And I also love the fact that I can clip the unit to my clothing for working out. I reaaallly like the Clip!! Would ordering the item from SanDisk be better vs. anything online or from local retailers?
The reason the clip is not charging might be that you don’t have Windows Media Player 11 installed. Then if you want to get maximum battery life out of your clip then go to settings/display/backlight and change it to 5 seconds. Then turn down the brightness down all the way down.
I have had my clip since Thanksgiving Day 2007 where i purchased it from my local BestBuy for $35 on Sale. I have a red and black 2Gig models that work fine.
The Clip, or any electronic device with an integrated battery, may not have a sufficient charge to operate properly when first used. This is why it’s critical to plug in and fully charge the device prior to “going to town” with it.
The first machine’s run of six hours is fairly typical, as the device and its lithion ion battery get acclimated. The Clip has a higher initial charge rate, as decided by the unit’s microprocessor, then it slows this rate, taking a total of up to 3 1/2 hours for a full charge.
If the device has problems establishing a USB connection, be the problem on the device itself, or with your host PC, it can sometimes “forget” the charging operation, and appear to be defective.
The key is to open a window from “My Computer”, and see that the device is recognized successfully. Once the device appears, you will see the mode chosen for communication, as the device will show up under “devices with removable storage” (MSC), or as a media device or “other devices” (MTP mode).
As the odds of three dead players is very slight, you can pick up a new one, and we can help you here, or SanDisk support is available at 1-800-SANDISK too, where they can walk you through the process via telephone.
I have purchased devices via the Sansa Store (link in the upper right), and their service is excellent.
The first unit charged quickly and I was able to get it from half battery indicator to full battery. It just drained quickly. The second unit as I said turned on long enough to say low battery and then I started charging it and decided…I’m just going to return it. I was just angered and upset at that point.
Okay, so I thought about it all day and decided I’m going to give the Clip one more go-round. Third time’s a charm, right? Well wouldn’t you know it’s Sunday, which means the sale at Target from which I bought the other one(s) was officially over yesterday. So I now own the baby pink Clip, courtesy of another local retailer and spending $10 more than I did 48 hours ago for the same product. I thought the people at Target would get upset with seeing me three days in a row so I chose another store. And though I’m not a huge fan of baby pink, at least it stands out so much it will not be easily lost in my stuff.
It came with 25% battery power so it’s charging as we speak. Thanks for your input. I’ll keep you posted.
Message Edited by SleepyHound on 06-01-2008 06:04 PM
Very nice! The pink will grow on you…and the advantage of visibility is worth it. These wee beasties are small, and easily disappear amongst the clutter.
