My Sansa Clip is dying!

SanDisk MP3 players Sansa® Clip | Sansa® Clip+
1

I bought it 6 months ago. First symptom: the “move ahead” button wasn’t always working. Next symptom: music started freezing. Next symptom: the display turned to hash. This all happened within the past 4 days.

I plugged the clip into my computer(via USB) and the computer doesn’t see any content on it(in fact, there’;s about a full gig on it). Now the thing doesn’t work at all.

Suggestions? Another clue–this began  happening after I searched for firmware updates, although no updates were found.

2

In order of preference, try:

–  Reset:  with the Clip off, hold the on switch uppermost for 15-20 seconds.

–  Reapply the firmware; it could have become corrupted.   See the firmware upgrade sticky thread at the top of the forum.

–  Reformat the Clip under its Settings.

–  Telephone SanDisk for a warranty replacement.

3

I held the button for 20 seconds, but the screen is still hash–so I can’t reformat because I can’t read the screen to do it.

Is there a way to format through the computer if the sansa screen is unreadable?

Re the firmware–I didn’t update it the last time I checked because the firmware updater said there was no available update.

4

Format it using the computer. Push the power button to the down position. Hold the middle button while connecting to the pc. Keep holding it until the player is recognized. On the pc, find the Clip, right clip on it, and choose format. Next download the firmware and install it manually. If the firmware on the player is corrupted, reloading the same firmware version you have will solve the problem. After this, turn on the player and format it again using the player’s menu. After this, you can reload the music.

5

Tried that, and got a message: “WIndows is unable to complete the format.”

6

Arggh.  Can you reapply the firmware?  That could fix a corruption of the software.