I have no sound coming from my left earpiece when I am listening to music with my Sansa Clip. The earpiece plug is connected directly and completely in the player. I try to rotate the earpieceplug around and I’ll manage to get sound coming into the left earpiece but I have to hold it there, and it quickly manages to slip and no more sound enters :(. Do I need to just get new earpieces?
This is a very common problem with other Sansa players. Inadequate support at the headphone jack & cheap Chinese labor resulting in improperly soldered connections are the reasons! If your player is within the 1 year warranty, definitely take advantage of it 'cause your problem isn’t going to get any better or go away. And it probably isn’t your earphones (you can verify this by trying them on something else to see it they work).
The e200 series is plagued with this problem, but at least you can open up the player and if you’re good enough (or know somebody who is) the headphone jack can be re-soldered. Not easily, but it CAN (sometimes) be done.
One person with a CLIP posted here that they had this problem and was able to get it apart and fix it, but as the CLIP is not designed to be taken apart, he admittedly scratched it up pretty badly and it will never look the same again. BUT , both sides of the earphones work now.
So again, warranty replacement is the best way to go if that’s still an option for you.
I’m on Clip #3 (soon to be #4) because of this very problem. I’ve found that the more robust the plug is on the headphones, and the heavier the headphone cord, the quicker the jack in the Clip is trashed.
I’ve found that using an intermediate piece (in my case a 90 degree adapter) between the clip and the cord can prolong the life if the Clip.
Good luck.
I too, use what I call a “jumper cable” that I leave plugged into my player all the time. As I sometimes listen to my e280 through my home stereo system via a base or docking station, there’s a lot of plugging & unplugging of earphones. Knowing this is the “Achille’s Heel” of the Sansa’s, I wanted to save all that stress on the player’s jack if I could, so all the plugging/un-plugging happens at the cable end, saving the jack.
This is what I use; it’s actually called a “Headphone Extension Cord.” I wish it were a little shorter, but it works well & it was the only one I could find at the time. It even has the 90 degree angled male-end plug. You can pick it up locally & not have to pay shipping, but it was $1 more in the store. But you get it right away; you don’t have to wait for it. The volume control is a bonus.
I used this one:
I like that! That’s pretty much what I was looking for, but all I could find was the cable. Just note that by leaving this plugged into your player all the time and then plugging /un-plugging the earphone cord into this; that because it’s at a 90 degree angle, you will be putting a lot of sideways stress on the jack itself, and it could weaken and work the solder joints loose. The jack is not anchored to the board very well, if at all.
Actually my primary problem was the straight-in cord getting wrenched sideways all the time due to the way I carry my clip. It seems like the straight cord would be better, but it kept getting torqued on. Also, since my headphones have a heavy cord (which is too long, so I keep a section of it wound up, adding to the weight), the weight of it bouncing as I walk was also pulling down on the jack.
With the 90, the weight is directly in line with the jack, so if it gets jerked too hard, it just unplugs. For my purposes, the 90 works a lot better than the straight.
YMMV.
Message Edited by cydewaze on 08-27-2008 04:10 PM
Radio Shack also sells a nice/well-engineered right angle adapter, $3 or $4.
That’s what I hate about Radio Shack . . . before the door even close behind you, the guy is asking what you’re looking for. I tell hiim, & he shows me this “extension cord” for $10 so I buy it. If he had just let me look on my own, I might have found the $3-4 adaptor plug! 
Great customer service isn’t always that great!
That’s what I hate about Radio Shack . . . before the door even closes behind you, the guy is asking what you’re looking for. I tell hiim, & he shows me this “extension cord” for $10 so I buy it. If he had just let me look on my own, I might have found the $3-4 adaptor plug!
Great customer service isn’t always that great!
@tapeworm wrote:
That’s what I hate about Radio Shack . . . before the door even closes behind you, the guy is asking what you’re looking for. I tell hiim, & he shows me this “extension cord” for $10 so I buy it. If he had just let me look on my own, I might have found the $3-4 adaptor plug!
I lol’d at that.
It must be the RS ethic: greet and help everyone within 10 seconds. ;) I’ve also noticed that even if I tell them I’m just looking, they can tend to follow me around (and I really don’t have a shoplifter look about me . . .).
Maybe they get some sort of credit for ringing up sales or something.
Ah, Radio Shack has changed quite a bit over the years. That’s what happens when you put a bushel full of young marketing geeks in cubicles that spend too much late night time watching HBO. The memos overtake reality.
They solved the lack of available training for the sales staff in this ingenious way:
“You got questions? We’ve got answers Uh, we’ve got new cell phones! With cool contracts and everything. Look! This pretty one has headphones too! You can call someone with your question!”
Hey, at least they’re still around. Oh, and if you need electronic parts, they’re hidden in those teeny drawers. Somewhere.
Ah, happy days!
Bob 
I wouldn’t mind the RadioShack salespeople following me around so much IF they knew anything about their products. We live in a small town where our only shopping choices are Walmart or RadioShack. Recently I went to our RS store and asked if they had any red 4gig Fuzes in stock. I was told the lady that they don’t sell fuzes in different colors. I explained what I wanted and she looked at me like I’d asked her if she lived on Mars. She said again that fuzes don’t come in colors. If she had had ANY training at all, she would have picked up on the words “mp3 player” or the word “gig”. After I bought a red Fuze at Walmart (which was a dollar cheaper than RS on same day that RS advertised theirs on sale) I went in to RS to see their accessories. Again the man who met me at the doorway was of absolutely no help. After we looked at speakers and connectors for while he said “maybe you should talk to your husband and maybe he can figure out what you need”(!!!) GRRRR. These examples are the reason why I posted my original mesage to this board asking what accessories to buy and where to find them. I really mean it when I say thank you to you all for being so helpful. There are a lot of other newbies to mp3 who read this board, too. We NEED your help. Thanks again.
Sara
So many people here are happy to help–just great to see (and be the recipient of!). This is especially the case when not being the “market leader” player–it can be more difficult especially in looking for accessories. The board to the rescue! And SanDisk customer service seems to be good and helpful as well–
My 3rd Clip is finally dead, a victim of Headphone Jack Disease. I get intermittent sound on one side as I walk. I think the problem is that I had the phones plugged in directly for a few months before I got the 90-deg adapter, so hopefully the next one will do better since I’ll have the adapter from day 1.
Now I have to decide whether to 1) call Sandisk and try to get it warrantied, and be without a player that whole time, or 2) pick up another one at Best Buy, then return my dead one the next day using the reciept from the new one, and not have to go without the player.
