Well… After 10 nice months with Fuze (apart from a common white screen/20 seconds slider up for reset) my nice Fuze started playing tricks. The screen goes white, than black, than shows part of the screen somewhere in the corner (the rest is blackened) The problem sometimes disappears and I can see a normal screen… Then it goes white/black again. Neither format nor new firmware helps… I also tried various file formats thinking it might be something in the tags (though I use only folder browsing)
Having looked through the forum I noticed that folks start complaining about their Fuzes somewhere after this period - 10 months. It might be just a coincidence, but I wonder if anyone has Fuzes which worked over that period without those problems? In other words I wonder if a Fuze lasts more than a year or it is just my local problem?
Imo typical life is probably around 2-3 years with regular use. You should send your Fuze back to Sandisk for replacement before the one year warranty is up. Call the company and get an RMA. I don’t think your experience is typical.
JK98 wrote:
You should send your Fuze back to Sandisk for replacement before the one year warranty is up. Call the company and get an RMA. I don’t think your experience is typical.
I’ve had my Fuze since summer 2008 (v1 obviously). I use it quite often. Every so often, pressing the left side of the wheel too hard causes it to Refresh Database because I think it mechanically dislodges the microSD card a little bit. That’s been happening for a while. Other than that, battery life remains strong and everything else is fine.
I have 4 Fuze’s I bought 2 years ago in a New Year’s morning sale for around $29.99 I think. One was given to my niece, two I possess and one is still in storage. None of the three active Fuze’s had any hardware or software problems since its inception. Of course, I don’t abuse my units at all. They all have hard cases and I don’t jog and sweat on them. I charge them regularly (after draining to empty or almost empty) through charge docks. I listen at home and at work. For me, the solidity of the unit is one of its great qualities. I looked at its innards from some pics on the internet and noticed what I believe to be a 741 IC on the main board. I believe this to be a quad op-amp for the output stage. If that is true, I am impressed with the designers for using dedicated amplifliers instead of embedding it in the LSI (large scale integrated circuit). This tells me that this is a quality audio device. In my opinion, my Sansa Fuze’s should last ten years or more (I can always replace the batteries).
neutron_bob, ggin1 - It is Sansa Fuze 8Gb, V.2 with the latest firmware. I emailed and then rang to Sansa technical support, they suggested the usual - to reset with the button up for 20 seconds, update firmware, format etc. Nothing helped and they sent me to amazon where I had originally bought it for exchange. Hopefully this time it would work longer…
I have 4 Fuze’s I bought 2 years ago in a New Year’s morning sale for around $29.99 I think. -snipped- In my opinion, my Sansa Fuze’s should last ten years or more (I can always replace the batteries).
ggin1
Message Edited by ggin1 on 02-15-2010 04:27 PM
I guess all you old owners of Fuzes have version 1. The version 2 might have a shorter life span. 10 years… Hm… My casually used Fuze has its rubberized back in patches - there are some places - (especially surrounding the On button) where the rubber film fallen off exposing the metal underneath. This is in spite of the fact that I always keep my Fuze in its enclosed pocket in a dry place…
I charge them regularly (after draining to empty or almost empty) through charge docks.
Not sure if you mean you do that intentionally, but Li-Ion batteries aren’t like NiCad or NiMH – no memory – and draining them to empty is neither necessary nor beneficial to battery lifespan.
I did it out of habit. But you got me curious and I found this in Wikipedia. I think my instinct was correct to allow it to discharge more, so that less charging is necessary.
[Disadvantages of traditional Li-ion technology Shelf life
A disadvantage of lithium-ion cells lies in their relatively poor cycle life : upon every (re)charge, deposits form inside the electrolyte that inhibit lithium ion transport, resulting in the capacity of the cell to diminish. The increase in internal resistance affects the cell’s ability to deliver current, thus the problem is more pronounced in high-current than low-current applications. The increasing capacity hit means that a full charge in an older battery will not last as long as one in a new battery (although the charging time required decreases proportionally, as well).]
However, it seems that we must be careful not to allow the voltage to drop too low in storage, or it will not be able to recover.
[Safety requirements
Li-ion batteries are not as durable as nickel metal hydride or nickel-cadmium designs, and can be extremely dangerous if mistreated. They may explode if overheated or if charged to an excessively high voltage. Furthermore, they may be irreversibly damaged if discharged below a certain voltage. To reduce these risks, lithium-ion batteries generally contain a small circuit that shuts down the battery when it is discharged below about 3 V or charged above about 4.2 V. In normal use, the battery is therefore prevented from being deeply discharged. When stored for long periods, however, the small current drawn by the protection circuitry may drain the battery below the protection circuit’s lower limit, in which case normal chargers are unable to recharge the battery.]
It seems that Li-polymer batteries may have an even worse life-cycle rate than Li-ion batteries.
From the same source (Wikipedia):
When compared to the lithium-ion battery, Li-poly has a greater life cycle degradation rate. However, in recent years, manufacturers have been declaring upwards of 500 charge-discharge cycles before the capacity drops to 80% (see Sanyo). Another variant of Li-poly cells, the “thin-film rechargeable battery”, has been shown to provide more than 10,000 cycles
I got just over one year out of my v1 before both the earphone jack and the the power switch went south.I now have a v2 and i’m hoping for better results.A ten year life span seems awfully opimistic though…
You’ve experienced one of the great truisms of MTTF (mean time to failure) for electronic equipment. You’re more likely to have a mechanical failure before an electronic failure.
I did not include software or firmware anomalies, which can induce, mask or otherwise produce similar failure symptoms.
Once you get to number 4, your device is pretty much gone from a consumer standpoint. Notice that large scale integrated devices like a CPU is the least likely to fail. Most failures occur from the surrounding components. Power supply failures are due mainly to components in 3 and 4. In my opinion, if you can get past 1, 2 and 3 in the first two years, your unit will last at least ten years. Even if 1 or 2 fail, the do-it-yourself’ers can replace/repair, at the very least, the components in 1.
Failure graphs look like a U-shaped boat. Lots of failures in the beginning, mostly due to faulty assembly/components. Then it steadies out for a long time during regular usage. Toward the end, failures begin to crop up due to aging components, corrosion, mechanical stress, electrical stress, dialectric breakdown and semi-conductor junction breakdown (shorts and opens).
Is anyone really that worried about the “lifespan” of these players? With the speed at which technology improves, who is really going to have their player more than 2 to 3 years anyway? I don’t know about you, but I like to upgrade to bigger and better technology every so often…and if SanDisk stays in this market only safe to say better things are on the horizon.
Ok…I guess there are a few people that stilll have their Zenith portable am transistor radio with the 8 foot telescoping antenna…lol…but really?
