The other day I spilled a bit of water on my 4GB Sansa Fuze. It was a tiny bit of water, but the screen was malfunctioning and the audio kept resetting. I turned it off immediately and left it for the night. The next day I turned it on and it worked just perfect with one problem, the wheel is stuck and won’t move most of the time unless I really press down hard and try to turn it.
It was just water I spilled, so I don’t think this is sugar or any kind of gunk stuck in there.
I have spilled all sorts of things onto my wheel, and it was SO ANNOYING having it stuck, it would be free sometimes and others it wouldn’t budge. I’m surprised yours was stuck with only water!
Anyway, I really, REALLY, do not recommend this and I am claiming no responsibility whatsoever for anyone’s Fuze if they do this, but I disassembled mine and soaked the entire control portion (read: just the wheel and buttons on the cover) in vodka for like half an hour (rubbing alcohol would have worked just as fine). I panicked so much when it seemed to work but the buttons would work very erratically, but after a few days of drying it ended up fine.
After a little more carelessness my wheel is a little less free now than immediately after the soak, but it is still highly useable. One thing that has been persistent even after the soak is sometimes a button press won’t register unless I press it just the right way, not too hard, just the right pressure and location. Also sometimes a press will register as a double press.
I bet, although I haven’t tried it, high concentration isopropyl would work well. I’ve purchased 90+% concentrations at CVS and walmart. The high percentage would leave much less water behind once the alcohol evaporated and should reduce drying time.
I don’t know if you need some form of lubrication to follow or what that would do to the electrical contacts.
I knojw this thread is kind of old, but my Fuze wheel bound up after getting sweat on it the other day. I found another site that mentioned rubbing alcohol to free it up. I put some on a Q-tip, rubbed it around the edges of the wheel and within a few seconds it was back to working properly again.
I knojw this thread is kind of old, but my Fuze wheel bound up after getting sweat on it the other day. I found another site that mentioned rubbing alcohol to free it up. I put some on a Q-tip, rubbed it around the edges of the wheel and within a few seconds it was back to working properly again.
As did the post directly above yours. Glad you got it working again!
“Contact cleaner” is not what you should use, as it contains solvents that will attack the plastic, effectively gluing the scroll wheel to the clear plastic ring!
Classic contact cleaner was mostly 1,1,1-trichloroethane, a good polar solvent, but years ago other nastier solvents have been substituted, and these readily attack ABS and PVC plastics. Good old fashioned moonshine, common alcohol, is your safest bet.
When your scroll wheel got wet, accumulated sticky substances, were softened, and “joined forces” in just the wrong location. No worries, it’s usually right at the scroll wheel / ring edge. It may take a few successive applications of alcohol, but the little guy will free up. Get some fresh business cards, and slide a corner in that gap, allowing it to wick the goo out. Take a scissor and clip the card edge, making a few successive passes with some sharp, dry stock… Be careful that you don’t wedge the paper stock deeply, as torn bits are a bad thing.
