We have a 4GB Fuse, firmware v02.03.31, purchased December, 2008. It popped up with a white screen yesterday. Went through the reset phases, connected to Updater to verify firmware, checked that the system could connect to Napster, and listened to songs on the unit. However the white screen is still showing. Visited forum for an hour. Spent 30 minutes with tech support and they said “we’re sorry, it must be a firmware issue” and the unit cannot be fixed. I’ll attach the conversation later.
Not wanting to give up (two hours into this now), I reformatted the drive, via Windows. I couldn’t find the “version.sdk” file listed on a forum response, but I went ahead and attached to Napster, which recognized the unit. I downloaded “Isn’t Life Strange”, by the Moody Blues, which I’m listening to now, caught in a repeat loop.
I guess I’m writing because I’m a bit peeved. This is not an abused player, so it must be a connection, or a firmware coding issue. With all of the forum discussions focused on this issue, I think it’s a bigger issue. Should we start collecting names and see if there’s a pattern? Any other ideas?
I suspect that the mulfunctions like that might be caused by static electricity damage while carrying the unit unprotected in a pocket. The Fuze has no antistatic isolation at all, there are some open metallic surfaces at the bottom, apart from that the back of the Fuze is made of metal covered with a unreliable rubber film which goes of very easily.
I would recommend to keep the Fuze in some kind of antistatic enclosure - the clothes produce very strong charge which bangs on the circuitry from time to time. Or, have a look at some nice thick rubber enclosures.
The dreaded white screen is one of those things that can be caused by a few issues, the simplest of which is a brain freeze. A white screen results if the display illumination is active, but there’s no raster, or alternately, if we have equal red green and blue pixels.
If the LCD panel goes dead, or the device has an electronic failure, the same white display can result.
I have seen a white screen that results from a brain freeze; the soft reset (hold the power switch ON for 20 seconds or so) will resolve it.
Regarding static discharge, the case if the Fuze should uniformly conduct static voltages, but there is the issue of a dry headphone cable, or the open docking port, of course. With the Sansa Clip, wearing a polypropylene jacket, I’ve lost count of teh times I got zapped in the ears while pulling off the jacket. The Clip has never reacted to these little lightning storms, but I sure did!
I’d had my fuze about 6 months when it whitescreened. It’d done it on plenty of occasions before, but the 20secs power trick sorted it. Unfortunately, no more. I considered it dead and buried for a month or two, but on an evening with nothing else to do, I mailed the Sansa support folks. I was pleasantly surprised -
In my email, I explained that I’d reset it. I explained that I’d reformatted it, and reinstalled the firmware. I’d removed the uSD card, and tried without that to no avail. It was playing music, but no display at all - just white. I also stated that I no longer had the receipt (though did have the Amazon emails if they wanted them - and they didn’t) and didn’t have the original packaging. To my surprise, they said that it was obviously knackered - and didn’t get me to go through the rescue attempts again… Just gave me an RMA number, and an address in the Czech republic to send it to.
Which I did, and have just received a spanky new Fuze, 8GB v2! Woot, and all that. Quick, easy and painless.
a few months ago, I got a white screen too. What I did is I turned it off and hooked it up to the charger, left it there overnight and voila! White screen fixed! Ihave never had a white screen since if this does not work then you are pretty much screwed. I purchased mine December 4 2007.
I keep getting a white screeen. But then I hold the power button up for about 10 seconds and it turns off, and when I turn it back on it seems to be fine. Is my player going to be damaged? Why does it keep doing this? pleasee hellp
