voice recorder problem- 4GB Sansa Clip V01.02.15A

nasty hum throughout all recordings/playback on either Sansa device or when xferred to PC.

has anyone else had this problem or may have any ideas?

Could it be that i just need to re-format my Sansa?

The firmware version that you have is for the clip+.  That is the player you own, correct?  And not the original clip (has the round button wheel).

You could try reinstalling the firmware.  It has to be done manually.  Look for the sticky thread on the top of the board for the download link and instructions on how to do it.  Formatting may also help.

If that doesn’t work, then it’s probably a hardware problem and you should contact Sandisk Tech Support for a warranty replacement if the player is still in the warranty period and you purchased it new.

The Clip+ and Clip are nice audio players, but quite bad at recording, especially if the player is more than around 3 feet from the speaker’s mouth. I suggest that you use the Clip or Clip+ as a player, and get a separate  recorder. A  recorder to consider are the Olympus ws700m, which has a micro SDHC card slot, stereo mics, and a mic input.

To the 9/11 helpers,

I am a guitarist of the plasmacarwash and when songwriting concocted a scheme to mount a cheap alt. to capture any riffs for songwriting while in my 1 hr. warm-up.

A gob of mounting putty and a Sansa Clip and I thought I was off to the races.

I have recorded in “voice” on the Sansa, in different scenerios but to no avail.

I may get the zoom H1 or the Olympus as recommend. here by you fine folks.

But I will try to format (not a prob.) as long as its do-able.

I imagine its just a matter of having my Sansa USB cord and of course, a pair of earbuds or a cord for connecting to my audio jack in the back of my PC.

I will turn to the firmware I guess.

Heres some angles of my part. model:

Pic 1

Pic 2

Pic 3

Pic 4

Pic 5

Thks.

Jay

The Zoom H1 gets only around 10 hours of battery life using a AA battery. The Olympus ws700m gets around 25 hours of battery life using a AAA battery!

yah dude

Olympus, lol.

The value is the highest of all 3: SanDisk, Zoom, Olympus.

new addendum:

After reading that Sansa would like your battery life at at least 50% before you manually install your firmware- I did something almost completely different.

I DID recharge my battery up to 75% (takes no time a tall through Sansa USB cable).

I DIDN’T install no stinking firmware because for my V.01.02.15- they don’t have a manual install (only an auto-updater you download which only said that I needed the pdf manual and nothing else).

I “formatted” though under “settings” in my Sansa Clip menu.

The nasty loud hum I first mentioned has, for now, vanished.

AND the general public is right- the sound pick-up and/or noise cancellation is astonishing for this little mini media player.

FYI and thankyou Sansa forum community.

Jay Peek

P.S. by the way- is this forum style solely owned? I’d like to have this forum template for my own inscrutible purposes.

@jpeek345 wrote:

 

I DIDN’T install no stinking firmware because for my V.01.02.15- they don’t have a manual install (only an auto-updater you download which only said that I needed the pdf manual and nothing else).

 

Yes, they do:

 

http://mp3support.sandisk.com/firmware/clipplus/clipplus01.02.15.zip

 

But since you already have it on your machine, it’s not necessary to install it again.

Thx. But I don’t see what to manually do with your link. 

Is there a set of instructions for the contents of the unzipped file?

I didn’t see nuthin’ in the unzipped file.

Go to the firmware upgrade sticky thread at the top of this forum.  The firmware, and the instructions, are all there . . . .

@jpeek345 wrote:

Thx. But I don’t see what to manually do with your link. 

Is there a set of instructions for the contents of the unzipped file?

I didn’t see nuthin’ in the unzipped file.

It really doesn’t matter in your case as you already have this latest firmware build. But for the future, you:

  1. Download the .zip file.
  2. Extract the .zip file to somewhere like your Desktop.
  3. Connect the player to your computer.
  4. Drag & drop (or copy & paste) the .bin file (extracted from the .zip file) to the root directory of the player.
  5. Un-plug the player from the comtputer. It will install the new firmware.
  6. Reset your language and other personal settings.
  7. Finito!

Sometimes, reapplying the firmware can help, by correcting firmware code that’s become corrupted over time–it can easily happen. 

aah

I don’t know if I was clear but I “formatted” my drive through the option pre-exisitng on the device itself.

I don’t know if that action and this manual method are necessarily the same for my original post.

I have discovered with a full battery that the voice recording feature still inserts that hum originally posted but only for the first 1 to 2 minutes.

I don’t know if this helps your techies. :manhappy:

Thanks for all the follow-up on my post.

peace,

Jay

Just for the future, reformatting and reapplying the firmware are different and will correct separate issues.

Aside from the Olympus recorder I mentioned, Sony has 3 interesting models of mp3 recorders with a card slot, mp3 recording, and a mic jack- the ICD-PX312, ICD-AX412, and ICD-UX512. The PX312 has a mono mic, however I think it has stereo recording via the mic jack, and stereo playback via the headphone jack. The bitrate maximum for these recorders is 192 kbps. The AX412 has a stereo mic built in, and the UX512 has a stereo mic built in and uses just one AAA battery rather than two for the other two players.

Why doesn’t Sandisk make  high quality mp3 recorders with a mic jack, and advanced recording features?