Hi all. I have a Sansa Clip+ that I have absolutely loved for the past two years or so. I keep it on the dashboard of my car, held on with velcro. I normally have a power-only usb cable that I plug in to a USB port I have in my cigarette lighter. I plug a stereo cable into it and into my head unit. For the past couple of years, this has worked perfectly.
But a few days ago, I started my car, and instead of turning on and playing/charging, the Clip simply thinks it’s connected to a computer. It does not charge when it does this, it simply shows a “full battery” indicator, even if I let the battery die and try it again. I have done a full reset, to no avail. I did a firmware update, and the problem still persists. I tried a few different cables. I took a data cable and tried it both with the data pins exposed, and with them covered by tape. Same problem. I even removed the data pins from the small end of a mini usb cable and had the same issue. It seems that even if the data pins don’t exists, the Clip still thinks it is connected to a computer.
This is really annoying me as I’ve been ruined by the luxury of having all my music at my fingertips. Now I can’t stand the crappy sound quality of the radio and I REALLY HATE COMMERCIALS! lol.
Does it charge normally when connected to a charger outside of the car (AC)? If it’s the same, something must have failed with the charging circuitry inside of the player.
And does the player play when not connected? When I was using my player in my car earlier, I seem to recall having read that when a car is first turned on, there can be a surge of power through the car’s electrical system, hence a recommendation not to have a player attached to the car’s electrical system until the car is first started up. I wonder if some sort of power surge could have blown part of the electronics in your player out, or otherwise affected them.
When charged, the player works fine running on battery.
If I connect the player to a computer, it connects and charges normally. I can transfer files to and from the player without issues. Since it started acting up, connecting it to a computer is the only way to charge it anymore.
I tried a cellphone charger with a mini USB tip with the same result as in the car.
I tried a USB AC adapter, just a little unit with an AC plug and a USB port. I tried that one with a few different USB cables, including both data cables and power-only cables. Both types gave the same result.
In short: The player works normally when connected to a computer or running on battery. Connecting it to just a power source causes the problem. The only exception is if I connect it to a computer with a power-only cable or a data cable with the data pins covered. Then it has the same problem as in the car, as would be expected.
I really like my little Clip+, and would be sad if this is the end for it, as I don’t really have the money to be buying another one. But, if it can’t be fixed, I guess it actually had a pretty good run… This thing has been in my car pretty much 24/7 for a year and a half or two years. That means it’s been in the car on hot summer days when the interior reaches close to 200 degrees, and cold Northeastern winter nights when it reaches 10 below. This player has figuratively been to hell and back.
In fact, it’s spent so many hours playing music that a few display areas have “ghosts” burned into the LCD screen where it’s been showing the same image for thousands of hours.
@miikerman wrote:
And does the player play when not connected? When I was using my player in my car earlier, I seem to recall having read that when a car is first turned on, there can be a surge of power through the car’s electrical syste m, hence a recommendation not to have a player attached to the car’s electrical system until the car is first started up. I wonder if some sort of power surge could have blown part of the electronics in your player out, or otherwise affected them.
Miikerman and Tapeworm, is this a common occurrence? I drive my car a LOT. Normally more than twice a day. I would be inclined to think that if this were to happen, it would happen sometime before the first 1,000 or so startups.
What I’m saying is, with the approximately 20 times per week that I start my car, it seems far-fetched that this wouldn’t happen until now.
From what I can tell, though, this is the most likely cause I can think of. It’s what I thought of first, but then I dismissed it because of the fact that I’ve literally started my car well over 1,000 times with the sansa plugged in with no problems. But perhaps I finally played the odds 1 too many times.
What bothers me the most is that really, the thing still works. I can charge it with my laptop and use it… I just never really listen to music unless I’m in my car. So now what I have is a (mostly) working MP3 player that I like a lot, but can’t really use anymore.
Unless you have an exceptionally cheap, poorly made AC adapter, any power surge would be blocked by the regulated DC power supply on your charger, so I doubt that is an issue. However, it does sound like something on the failed if its suddenly unable to recognize that its connected to a charger. Have you tried a different charger? Hopefully its that and not the player. Doesn’t sound like it though given the experiment you did with the cables.
I do wonder if it just was the player’s “time,” combined with and as a result of all the other factors you mention: the cold, the heat, the amount of use, and perhaps some power surge in the car. Maybe all of this was enough so that one day, the power-only circuitry in the player blew. But odd that the player otherwise functions–perhaps this particular circuitry is separate from the data+power circuitry that you note otherwise works when you connect to your computer.
Ham… Just got solution from my friend electrician for playing FM while charging, and was happy when I’ve read Snakermans post, where saw same thing. Since i didn’t find power only cabel in stores, he advised me to tape two middle connector of USB… It worked! Now I’m just wondering how that affects battey? Does it damaging her?
I had a similar problem with the original clip, nothing to do with cars. Could only charge via computer and sometimes had to wait a long time before it would start charging. This continued for months until one day it just refused to charge so I got a clip+.
