M230 loses FM station when turned off and on

I recently bought an old Sansa M230 to use as an armband FM radio.  I got it from an independent seller on amazon.com

I’ve preset my favorite radio stations and that feature seems to be working ok.

But when I turn off the player and then turn it back on, instead of hearing the station I had been listening to just before turning it off, I hear white noise instead.  Yet the display still shows the broadcast frequency of the station that was previously playing, e.g. “94.9”

This is my third M200 series Sansa player, and the previous two didn’t have this problem, i.e., when I turned them off and then back on later, the station that had been playing before would still be playing when I turned them back on.   So I fear it may be a hardware failure.

I can get the radio station back by pressing any one  of the four direction buttons and then pressing its opposite.  For example, by first pressing “Next” and then pressing “Previous” the audio for the station comes back on.  But that’s a bit of a nuisance and an annoyance.

Before I give up on this player and return it to the seller for a refund, I’m wondering if there are any tricks I could try to get it working correctly, such as perhapsattempting to replace the firmware. 

If so I’d be grateful for some guidance in trying something along those lines,

Will in Seattle

a.k.a. “Clueless”

I found these instructions on the web:

Updating the Sansa m200’s firmware

And have downloaded this file:

sdmx3-iv001.exe

So, would you say that I’m good to go?

Any warnings or cautions I should be aware of before I give this a try?

Will in Seattle

a.k.a. “Clueless”

I’d wait for a staff to confirm this. m200 and m230 are close but the firmware might not be compatible. Just in case.

The seller agreed to refund my purchase price and the shipping charge to return the m230.  So I didn’t need to try installing new firmware.   And since then I managed to pick up a fully functional M250 in very nice cosmetic condition for a very reasonable price.  So now I’m a happy camper

Good thing you didn’t upgrade the firmware. Some resellers void the warranty I think if that’s done. If I’m not mistaken.

@rhodesv wrote:
Good thing you didn’t upgrade the firmware. Some resellers void the warranty I think if that’s done. If I’m not mistaken.

No, they do NOT!

And please quit giving bad advice and posting irrelevant comments. And while you’re at it, please also stop registering and posting under different names. It’s well known around here that you are also fosterdrew and many other aliases. This serves no purpose other than you mistakenly thinking you can hide whenever someone cals you out on your (shall we say) less than helpful posts. On most forums, you would be banned immediately, and I believe you should be on this one too! :angry: