Plugged in 1st time on WinXp - Does not work

hey sandisk community!

great forum going on here!
i got my friend the sansa express 1gb for x-mas but as he plugged it in to his laptop windows couldn’t install the driver (some “inf” file missing).
i tried it on my laptop, same result (both run winxp pro, sp2, wmp 11).

so i chéck out this forum to see how others have solved this issue. i use the method “device manager - update driver” posted elswhere in this forum and the player immediateley gets recognized and initiates into its charging process. so far so good.

BUT: if i connect to my friend’s laptop (and i guess any other computer) it won’t be recognized, nothing works.
of course i’d like to be able to “plug and play” on every computer i choose and not just on the one where i fiddled around under device manager and changed some driver update settings. think of having some documents (pdf or doc) on your sansa and bringing it to a printstation at some shop. you want to just connect the sansa and print your documents. you won’t be able to go to the device manager and change settings (-> administrator).

so how in the world - excuse me for getting emotional -  is this supposed to work?!
plug and play i thought.

i couldn’t installt the latest firmware following the sticky thread in this forum (when i hold the volume button and the computer recognizes the sansa under some other name and i make him install the driver he just says that he can’t install the driver, even though i put the mentioned file into c:windows:system32:drivers). so i can’t put the firmware on the sansa.

also, if i go to the sansa homepage and download/install their sansa-update program, the sansa won’t mp3player react either.

so i really don’t know what the deal is with this player. how can i make it function the way sandisk promises: plug and play. just plug it in and winxp will recognize it instantly?

i’d be thankful for any answers,
best regards,
shadow.

p.s: i’m seriosly thinking of returning the device and getting it replaced with the same model (because my device just can’t be functioning properly), but if this it how is it shipped then what good will it do if the replaced one functions the same way?

Hi, there is a media transfer protocol porting kit on microsoft site that you can try to install that might be able to fix it.

hey!
thx for your answer!

but will this only make it work on the computer i’m working on, or will it change something in the sansa player itself (so from then on any pc will be able to recognize the sansa the moment it is plugged in)? -> true plug and play or just on my computer?

is my sansa defective? i really hope so!
i just can’t imagine that this is how they (don’t) work!

thx,
shadow.

you said that your computer keeps saying it’s missing some .inf file so I think the MTP database on your computer might have been corrupted.  I hope that this porting kit will correct it…if not, I would suggest your uninstall WMP11 and reinstall it just to be safe.

thanx for clarifying that.

but i thought the sansa would first try to connect via MTP and if that was unavailable (not installed on the pc) it would switch to MSC mode instead (then the sansa would only function like any usual usb stick). i read this in the description of the player (you could either manage and copy your mp3 via the windows media player, MTP, or just via the explorer - drag and drop, MSC).

shouldn’t that be the case with this mp3player?

i’m really getting desperate at this point, the information on this player sounded so great and easy and you can’t even get it connected to a pc? and then i see all these posts/problems in this forum…

to all of you sansa express users in here: can you plug and play your sansa into any pc/laptop and it works fine?

nice greetz,
shadow.

in faireness of the forum…

people come here to post issues. 1 out fo 50 people might come on the forum to boast about how good the player is. So reading all these comments doesn’t do it much justice. Im sure considering the number of players sandisk sells, its not that many complaints.

hey!
thx for your comment - what you said is definetely true.
if you own a sansa, or if you know of people owning one: how do they work for them? can they/you connect them to any pc or have you had troubles as well? do they get recognized all the time or not?

i’m just looking up on some philips models (sa gogear 1330, 1350) as alternatives in case i really do have to give the sansa back. i thought i could just plug it in into any winxp with or without windows media player 10/11 as the handbook says it’s possible to just drag and drop files without using the media player (which to me means that i don’t need MTP to be installed - i don’t think many people have it installed anyway). don’t get me wrong, i don’t have a problem installing any kinds of software to make the player work, but i want to work on any winxp pc, and i thought the sansa wouldn’t have any troubles with that.

any reactions to this?

thanx and greetz,
shadow.

It should be able to connect to any winXP computer and work fine. Thats what sandisk was aiming for anyway. But PC’s are just that, personal. No 2 computers are the same in regards to whats installed, drivers it has, etc…

MTP drivers should be pre-installed on any machine that is sp2 or has wmp10. That is why it is the minimum requirements. You dont ahve to use WMP per say, it just enables you to use the device to its full effect.

personaly, my friends express has worked find since he got it. I would say try the player you have on different comptuers and see the results you get, see how many times its recognized. If you can fix it on the computers its not recognized.

Once your able to look at a broader perspective, then maybe it might be easier to make a decision in regards to buying a new player.

thx enigma!

another question: when i connect the sansa to my laptop i see the following under “my computer”: 2 drives. the first one is the sansa and the 2nd one must be the empty micro-sd slot. when i click into the first drive i enter the sansa and there i find 2 folders: music and recorded. i thought there should be a “data” and a “music” folder. one to put the music in and the other one for anything else. where do i put “anything else” on this sansa? just in the drive outside the both folders?

yeah, its working fine.

You can put your “anything else” files on the root directory. I would say create 1 folder called “anything else”, and put your stuff in there.