Charging the Clip

 I got the new sansa clip for christmas and I have having trouble charging it.  I am using the usb cord and it show the connected symbol and the battery, but it dosen’t charge.  Am I doing something wrong?  I haven’t downloaded the installation cd, should I do that first?  Please let me know.

Thank You

I have just begun using four wee Sansa Clips, the first three for my girls, and the fourth for Daddy- I have charged them both on a Windows 2000 machine and an XP.  Once the unit has “introduced” itself to the PC, the Clip’s screen will show the SanDisk logo, and alternately the communicating icon with the upper (yellow) screen section stating “connected” with the battery icon.

I would venture a guess that if the device is busy trying to communicate, the charging process could feasibly be messed with.  This seemed to be the case when I first set them up with the earlier firmware installed.

For now, don’t worry about updating the firmware until the battery is charged.  Install the CD in your drive, and follow the screens.  Once the Clip is happy communicating, you should see the waving logo as the battery charges. :smileyvery-happy:

dont run no cd… it aint an install and contains no drivers… nuetron shouldnt post what he doesnt know… just leads to confusion…
make sure you got requirements met on host pc…connect in msc mode…things will be diff then… there is an occasion where pluggin into a front usb wont work but the back usb will … i cant say percentages but it does happen… do this after  trying the other things first

Message Edited by amkoas on 12-30-2007 07:18 PM

You don’t need to do anything to it to get it to charge, except plug it in.

As amkoas says, try moving it to a different ports.  Some ports don’t support high power devices and the clip reports itself as a high power device during the little negotiation it does with your PC when you plug it in.  If the unit doesn’t start charging withing a few seconds after plugging it in, move it.  if it doesn’t work in any port then you probably have a bad unit.  Exchange it.

One final thing, if you have a powered hub around, unplug that hub’s USB from the PC, but keep it powered and it definitely should charge.  It’ll act like a battery charger and you can listen to music while charging that way - there a couple of freebie songs built into the unit so this will work even before you install any new songs.  If this works, you’ve got a PC problem, but that’s not real likely.

Robert

Out of the box, my clip won’t charge from ANY USB port on my computer (a Sony Vaio running Windows XP SP2)-but I’ve discovered that that may be a driver issue, as I’m not running WMP 11.  However, that does not answer why it won’t charge when plugged directly into a wall outlet using an AC adapter. 

The charger for my cell phone appeared compatible, so I gave it a try.  When I plugged the clip in, I got the locked symbol (but no orange color on pad).  When I unlocked it, the battery icon flashed for about a minute, then the screen went completely blank.  After three hours-the battery indicated a 50% charge.  Perhaps a charger charger compatibility issue?  To investigate, I went to the retailer and let them sell me a compatible charger (which is identical to the charger I already have for my cell phone-it’s even made by the cell phone manufacturer).   I plugged it in with the new charger, and left it alone for about six more hours.  The battery icon still showed only a 50% charge. 

This has already been a nine hour ordeal for a “plug and play” device, and, I haven’t even tried to install the hardware on my PC, yet!!!  I’ve read the threads for that, and I’m about to take this thing back and replace it with a good old fashioned portable CD player.   What am I doing wrong? 

With the first charger, when you had the battery charging active, then the screen went blank - that was normal and it sounds like it was charging!
It got to 50%. 
Mine fully charges in 4-1/2 hours.

Robert

Ok…when you plug in your player, it had a LOCKED icon because your device is still in HOLD mode, so go ahead and slide the power button up to get off from HOLD mode…now check to see what is your firmware version by turning it on and go to Settings >> System Info, if it’s 1.01.11, you do not have the latest firmware, so go to this thread, follow on how to update and see if after upgrade, your charging problem should go away OR check to see if your USB is 1.1 or 2.0, Clip does not work with USB 1.1 (I think)…as for the charger, it should be 5V and 500mA…check those criteria to see if you meet them and tested out the above method to see if it will work.  If not, you might have gotten a lemon…go exchange for a new better one.

The clip works with USB 1.1.  Don’t laugh, but my computer was manufactured a couple of years before the USB 2.0 spec was released (April 27, 2000 according to the spec).  Just for completeness sake, a USB 2.0 device is not _required_ by the spec to work in a USB 1.1 system, it may, and all the USB 2.0 devices I have do work with 1.1.  I’ve probably just been lucky.

Robert

>The clip works with USB 1.1.

This is true, however I first ran my clip(s) on a newer machine with no problems. 

When using an older machine, I was unable to get it to recognize the Clip(s) until I

upgraded to the latest firmware via my newer machine. 

I did this as per a “connection problem post - suggestion” on a different post on this site.

The newer firmware supports selecting alternate usb connections.

By the way, if you’ve already tweaked your clip to your taste and have multiple clips,

you might want to back up your particular clip to another location before you upgrade firmware,

so that you don’t have to resort and delete extra songs.

It seemed that the upgrade wiped my songs(I was gunea pig)

Upgrade should not wipe out your songs…only when you format the player after upgrade.

What is most likely is that during/after the upgrade you switched the Clip to MSC mode and prior to that you had been using MTP mode with WMP… Try accessing the Clip’s Settings/USB menu and changing it back to MTP mode and see if your songs are still there (I don’t believe switching modes will remove any flash content, but you won’t see the MTP folder structure under MSC mode).

Ok. I read this whole thread. I am still going to have to post to ask exactly what i need. I dont have a operable home computer so i am at work. I bought a charger for motorolla phones and it starts to charge for a while. Then it shuts off and doesnt charge at all. So i turned off the Auto power off and it will stay on now. But after the 90 seconds the screen goes blank.

Then when I press a button it shows up but the battery symbol just sits on full. So i unplug it to see if it really is charged. NOPE. Now i am charging currently via USB and the battery symbol is blinking between full and the 1st level lower than full rapidly. BUT the screen does stay on unlike the wall charger. 

 I need so help understanding whats going on here

The screen turns off while charging on AC adapter.  Its normal.  Press the center button to wake it up and view the charge level.

Screen goes off on AC or DC; not on USB.

Ok. I understand. What about the fact that the battery symbol that tells you its charging stops moving? At that point its not charging anymore. I left it on there for a few hours and the batt level was still low. I have to unplug it to see the level

I just got the 2 GB Sansa Clip, & I was wondering… does it need to be charged before I can use it? I plugged it into my computer, & I’m not sure about what I’m seeing on the display. I see “connected” & the yellow battery symbol flashing rapidly, but I don’t see a percentage to let me know how much it has charged… IF it’s actually charging. I’ve had it plugged in for about 2 hours now. Can someone please help me understand what I’m seeing, & what it means? HELP!!!

It’s charging and is full when the battery symbol is full and quits “pulsing.”  There is no percentage listing.  3-4 hours to charge (I seem to recall seeing 3.3).  You don’t have to charge pre-use, but I think many of us do, to “top it off” and get a full first charge.

It’s charging and is full when the battery symbol is full and quits “pulsing.”  There is no percentage listing; the percentage of the battery symbol that is full gives an approximation of how much the battery is charged.  3-4 hours to charge (I seem to recall seeing 3.3).  You don’t have to charge pre-use, but I think many of us do, to “top it off” and get a full first charge.

Thanks, Milkerman. If I don’t have to charge it before the first use, then shouldn’t the battery symbol have stopped flashing by now, meaning that it’s already fully charged? I’m a little confused.

Ok, it stopped flashing :slight_smile: Thanks again for your help!