You certainly got your money’s worth out of the player! I hope my sansas last that long. 
It does sound as if the clip is in it’s final days. Still, there’s some troubleshooting steps that you can take.
First, try to force a msc mode connection to see if the computer can recognize the clip. With the player off, slide the hold switch down to lock. Then press and hold the center button while you connect the device to the computer. If the computer doesn’t recognize it right away, sometimes continuing to hold the center button for a while will force the connection.
Once the PC recognizes the player and you can access the internal memory, manually reinstall the firmware. You can get the firmware download with instructions on how to do it here.
See if that gets the player working again.
