My sister just handed me her Clip that we bought for her over Thanksgiving break and it seems to be frozen. When I start it up, it plays the SanDisk sansa startup screen and then freezes. If I try to connect it to the computer to sync it will do the same thing and be detected as an unknown USB device. Is there anything I can do to unbrick the mp3 player, or is it dead for good?
I have the exact same problem. I plugged it into my computer to charge it up and put a couple of songs on it for my son. I unplugged it and everything was working fine. So plugged it back in to finish charging and when I came back about an hour later my computer was sleeping and there was a folder on the desktop instead of the Sansa volume icon. So I ejected it and unplugged the Sansa and now I only have the startup screen. I can turn it off and on but that’s all. The 15 second reset feature does nothing. It’s not recognized on my PC or my Mac now.
Okay…do the 15 seconds hard reset…and then put device in LOCK mode and press-n-hold the center button while plug in your MAC…then format the device…see if this will help.
Greetings,
My 2 GB Sansa Clip froze about 90 minutes ago. I haven’t had a problem until today and I purchased it around Thanksgiving. It is frozen at the very beginning of a song. If it helps any - I had charged it from about half full, played part of a song, then forwarded two songs and it’s been frozen ever since. I cannot power it off or use any of the buttons. Plugging it back into the computer does nothing. I have 284 songs on it and no recordings. I was charging it on a laptop that doesn’t have Rhapsody installed on it. I’ve done this since day one. But when I need to sync it I use the other laptop or the desktop that does have Rhapsody. Again, no problems until today.
Is there a solution to the freezing problem? What is the 15 second reset feature mentioned on the earlier post and how do I activate it?
Any help will be greatly appreciated.
Thanks much.
Scott
Okay, I reread the earlier posts and tried the 15 second reset but nothing happened. Perhaps I didn’t do it correctly but I put it in lock and held down the middle button for 15 seconds.
Thanks.
lets get this straight: in this frozen state, the hold button is off…
you didnt say how up to date yer FW is…
you turn hold button ON / push centre button and plug into pc all @same time …
nothing happens… is all this correct?
if you have access, have you tried an AC charger?
Message Edited by amkoas on 01-02-2008 05:36 PM
Thank you, Amkoas! Problem solved!
Turns out even though I was pressing the center button and had it plugged in via USB I had been pushing the switch toward Hold instead of toward On/Off. So, it has now reset properly and I’m able to play music again and use the device just as I had before the problem started.
BTW, I haven’t updated the firmware since I purchased it. Hadn’t thought about it. Since the freezing problem seems to now be resolved do you think I should still update it or just leave it alone? Also, any idea what may have caused it to freeze up like that?
Again, thanks for such a quick response and being so helpful.
Best regards,
Scott
thanx for your kind response… update, do it–bugfixes and a new feature or 2, including the opt for msc or mtp…
as far as a freeze, could be anything…assuming the one frozen song plays fine now… thiings freeze
Message Edited by amkoas on 01-02-2008 06:31 PM
Upgrade to .18 firmware …
I have exactly the same problem.
I followed all the steps, suggested above.
My Sansa clip freezes in welcome screen.
On Mac: nothing happens.
On PC: USB device is detected, blah blah blah, then a little tooltip from taskbar: “One of the USB devices attached to this computer has malfunctioned, and Windows does not recognize it. For assistance blah blah blah…”. That’s it, nothing is mounted.
you formatted from device itself?.. youre sure youre in msc?
Here is what you could try…
- Hard reset (slide power button up and hold there for 10 seconds)
- Force the device into MSC while plugging in your computer (to get to MSC, slide power button down to HOLD and press-n-hold WHILE plugging in your computer)
- Then format your device under MAC using Disk Utility and choose to format as DOS
This should fix your problem.
BAH!
My clip was working fine-- on both Mac and PC-- for a bout a week. The battery died while I was working out yesterday, so I left it to charge on my Mac for a few hours today.
I properly ejected the clip, as I have in the past, and now it is frozen on the welcome “SANSA” screen. I followed the instructions in this thread: put it in HOLD position, then press-and-held the center button while plugging it into my mac.
The screen unfroze and it shows the clip as “connected.” But when I eject the clip again, it is either back to the frozen “SANSA” screen or a frozen “connected” screen. What am I doing wrong? What is causing this so that I can prevent it in the future?
Me Again.
I gave up on searching for a Mac solution and went to my PC. DId the reset instruction, then downloaded the new firmware. Seems to be working again. As of now, I am just vowing to not use my Mac with clip ever again. But although it is fixed, I would still like to know what I have done wrong (if I did) and if I could ever use it with my Mac again now that is formatted with my PC.
Thanks!
Laur,
What you need to do with the Clip and your MAC is to use your MAC to format the Clip to wipe out all the trash that could have caused the froze-up. So, again, put the device into HOLD and press-n-hold button while plugging in…once it’s connected and seen on the MAC, go to disk utility and format it as DOS FAT16. Then safe eject again to see if it works. If it does, then you can reload your music and I think it should be working fine. On the side note…please upgrade to the latest fw 1.01.18 to ensure a more stable working device.
Too bad, nothing of the suggested works for me. My sansa clip is frozen, the only thing I can do is turn it on or off.
The “hard reset” (pushing the on/off button up towards on/off) only turns the device on or off depending on the state it had before. In either state putting the device into HOLD and press and hold the center button while plugging it in does NOT make the computer recognize the device. No matter if PC or MAC. Any other idea what to do?
schneif wrote:
Too bad, nothing of the suggested works for me. My sansa clip is frozen, the only thing I can do is turn it on or off.
The “hard reset” (pushing the on/off button up towards on/off) only turns the device on or off depending on the state it had before. In either state putting the device into HOLD and press and hold the center button while plugging it in does NOT make the computer recognize the device. No matter if PC or MAC. Any other idea what to do?
Return it.
And when you hard reset and push the on switch up, you’re _ holding the switch uppermost _ for 15-30 seconds, right?
See? Miikerman is thinking that one through. A fine cigar does wonders for thought…
It may take 20 seconds for the soft reset to work.
Bob 
I just had the same issue while charging. But I turned it off. Lock button up for 30 seconds and it turned off. And then back on and it started working. Glad it was not permanent.
