Try holding the power button depressed for about 20 seconds, release, then restart the player. This performs a soft reset on teh device.
You mantioned that new music was transferred to the device. If the machine is freezing during the loading (database refresh after unplugging) process, there is something wrong with one or more of the music files transferred.
Do you have any further information about your music files (source, format, etc) ?
I’m experiencing the same problem. I have had my Fuze+ since Dec. 2010. I downloaded and installed the new firmware update Sunday. Everything went well, listened to music for several hours. Today, Tuesday, when I powered on my Fuze+ it went into the same endless loop you described. I’ve tried the soft reset (hold the power button for 20 seconds) several times, no luck. I’m willing to reformat but would rather not if possible. Any suggestions are greatly appreciated.
The only ‘fix’ a user can do to these things is re-load the firmware (which you’ve already done) and format the memory. Anything still amiss after these attempts is beyond your control and you should call Sandisk Tech Support. If it’s determined to be defective, they will replace the unit.
It seems to be fixed, for now. I did reinstall the firmware update. I did it the manual way, downloaded to my computer, extracted the file and dropped it in the Fuze+ root directory. It reinstalled successfully and everything seems fine. Thank you, Tapeworm, for the advice.