Had the same problem everyone else had. My SE was bricked, only showing the Sansa text when turned on and then dying.
Did exactly like Mandrake, plugged it into my Linux. Seems to be a MSC/MTP kinda thing as windows absolutely must detect it as MTP, which it doesn’t seem to like and you can’t update firmware with it.
I plugged it into my Linux, mounted it as any normal flash stick and deleted the settings.dat file (only file I needed to delete). This caused it to remake the necessary stuff and it started up as usual. If anyone more experienced can figure out a way to make windows see it as MSC you could probably help the ones without a linux box to save the day.
Big thanks for this hint, hoping the firmware upgrade will ensure this wont happen again. And did it all without deleting a single mp3 :).
I had the exact same experience as everyone else. I pulled my Sansa Express out of the USB port and it just stopped working. If I pressed the power button long enough it seemed to sometimes flash up the Sansa logo but that was all. I too kept getting the weird little dots/symbol in the middle of the display. I thought about just trashing it and buying a new one because the players have come so far down in price but I really like this model. (When it works, that is!) So I went and looked at the players at a store, the cheapest of which was like $30, but I didn’t like them as well as the Sansa. The micro-SD card was $20 and I figured if I bought it and it didn’t fix the problem I could use it for other electronics, like digital picture frames. I paid for the micro-SD card and had the clerk open the package right there at the register and I popped it into the Sansa Express and it started right up like nothing was ever wrong with it!!! (This was after having spent a couple of frustrating hours online researching the problem and trying everything I could find.) So that’s what worked for me. FYI.
well i connected to my sansa express to mycomputer but when i unplugged it stills show connected on the screen when its not even connected to the computer,someon please help me i only had it for 3 weeks
My won’t work either. It has the same problem. I think the problem was that I used to charge it with my usb slot at the back of my wii but it still worked for a couple of months perfectly until a while ago.
@sansaexpress wrote:
My won’t work either. It has the same problem. I think the problem was that I used to charge it with my usb slot at the back of my wii but it still worked for a couple of months perfectly until a while ago.
I don’t think that charging it on the Wii damaged your player. If the Wii is underpowered, you can try to leaving it plugged into your computer for 2 - 3 hours to charge it. If that doesn’t get it working, try manually loading the firmware following the instructions in the following thread.
I am now faced with this same problem… Sansa will sometimes show… and when plugged into the USB drive the wierd little dots show up…
I haven’t even had the D@m#$ thing for 24 hours yet. I plugged it in… powered i up and left it alone for 3 hours, upgraded the firmware fine, loaded it with music, listened to it for about an hour, raved about it on my live journal, and it has just died on me. I want to kill something. … I went though a huge fiasco yesterday jsut to get the stupid thing… ugh I am SO disgusted right now!!!
I had a similar problem with the Sansa Fuze and called the SanDisk help line at 1-866-726-3475 and they advised me to hold the “On” slide-button for 45 seconds–which is what resets the Fuze. I did it and nothing happened. I repeated the process a few more times and on the third or fourth try, it came back on. All the data was there, nothing got lost. The battery was very low, so I rushed to recharge it. I was very happy to see it working again. I sure was not looking forward to have to go through the hassles of mailing it back to SanDisk to get a replacement.
Maybe if you try the reset procedure for the Express (Select button and Volume +) several times, at some point the reset will kick-in. Also, make sure the player has the Lock button off.
I was advised to go to the website “kb.sandisk.com” where information on this matter is made available. I still have not checked the site.
Message Edited by Yellowcat on 03-24-2009 02:20 PM
Message Edited by Yellowcat on 03-24-2009 03:08 PM
When I tried to switch on Sansa Express, while the lock was enabled, I used to die after it shows the Booting Screen and Lock Symbol.
But when I unlocked the Sansa Express and booted it, it used to boot properly. My guess is that Sansa Express cannot boot (or connect properly to computer) if its locked.
Try unlocking the Sansa Express and booting/connecting to computer.
It Bricked. I have a sansa express (or had) and it bricked once. I gave it to my dad who is a system librarian and he plugged it in to several computers. That freed it up. I hope this was some help.
I had this problem as well. Putting a microSD card in the slot solved the problem. I was then able to remove the MicroSD card and it seems to work fine. Thank you to whoever first discovered this solution.
One more thing: in general I dislike this device as an MP3 player. It was cheap and I thought it was cute but I much prefer any iPod including the Shuffle to this. The main thing I dislike is the user interface which is unnecessarily complicated. The other thing I dislike is that it doesn’t randomize songs when in shuffle mode - it’s the same play list over and over. The ONLY thing I use if for is as an FM radio. And the FM radio user interface is even worse than the MP3 player UI. Everything about it is totally non-intutive and if you add in the reliability problems - well I don’t suggest anyone actually buy one of these things and I guess that Sansa has pulled it off of the market.
I’ve had this Express for almost two years when it up and died on me last night. I thought it was the battery, but even when my battery’s completely dead, when I plug it in, I still get the “powering” graphic. Now, nothing. The computer sees it as MTP, even though I know it was MSC before.
I’m about to give up. I tried reset and I’m trying firmware and I was connected to an XP Home Media machine, now an XP SP4 machine and a Win2000 machine and it makes no difference.
Any more ideas before I go get some other MP3 player?
Hey guys, I experienced the same problem last night. The sandisk sign will turn on for 3 seconds and then it couldn’t turn on. My comp also couldn’t recognize it. Instead of inserting a microsd card into the slot, I folded a piece of paper and insert it into the slot. It got funky for a bit, and then wa-lah, it worked. Try doing that if you are having the same problem.
This is crazy, but I tried the piece of paper and darn it worked!!!
My Express was driving me nuts to. I couldnt turn it on, it wouldnt wake up for the pc…dead it appeared except for the flash of name when it attempted to power up with the on botton.
My battery was fully charged too!
But I scratched my head at that paper idea and gave it a try. I folded and stuck a piece of paper in the card slot, moved it around as I tried to turn it on and bingo! Power!
Had same problem as rest of people here. Wouldn’t turn on. Wouldn’t charge. Wouldn’t read in USB. If reset, display “Sandisk” for a few sec and then turn off.
I suspect when they battery gets drained so low, it is unable to initiate memory, and is unable to charge properly. Perhaps SD memory takes less power.
Anyway I put a spare (had one in my camera) SD card in, pictures and all in slot. Started up right away. Gave some weird message about the database after building. Anyway once it was on finally, I could plug it in and it started to change again. Once charged up, I just removed the SD card… Works fine again now.
Guess I will have to remember noto to deplete the battery down to absoultly nothing, or just keep an SD card handy.
Glad I read this thread, was about to throw in garbage and buy another earlier today. Still got some life yet!
I was charging mine and my computer battery died, the logo and everything came up. However when the computer came back and i plugged it in to complete the charging, it just died. I am getting absolutely nothing out if it now. the hard reset doesn’t work and i don’t even see the logo
