deinstitutionalize or factory restore

What are you asking?

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What “security”? What are you trying to do?

I am trying to take off the institutionalized setting that were programmed into it so that i dont have to revalidate it every two weeks. I can send it in and pay 25.00 but i wonder if i can just do it myself and save the wait time

When you say take off the “institutionalized” setting, are you referring to a player issued by the Bureau of Prisons for inmates?

If so, we’ve had this question before and unfortunately there is no known way for you to do it yourself. Send it in and pay the $25 or buy a new retail "unrestricted’ player.

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Thats very interesting. I did not realize they made a special firmware for prisons. If it won’t accept a normal firmware file from this forum, reflashing it would be very difficult. It is possible to short out the memory and then reflash it from a linux machine, but often this destroys the player so I do not recommend trying unless you are going to throw it out anyway. Can you post the firmware version that is already on the player?

I found a firmware dumped from one of these prison players, and its labeled “V01.03.23A”, which is an odd version that I’ve never heard of. Also mentions an AAC decoder, which the clip+ should not have. As for how to update it, I have no idea.

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i have not tried to put new firmware into it, how would i try this?

Again as I explained, there is no (consumer) known way for you to do this. Pay the 25 bucks and send it in so they can do it. They have these things locked down pretty tight; nobody to my knowledge has found a way to circumvent it.

Just follow the manual firmware update instructions on these forums. But my guess is that your device will refuse to update.

@saratoga wrote:
Just follow the manual firmware update instructions on these forums. But _ my guess is that your device will refuse to update. _

According to others who have had one of these that will be the scenario.

There is always http://www.rockbox.org/wiki/RockboxUtility#Download

what would rock box do?

This is the alternative firmware provided by the community.  There may be problems with patching though.

Yeah if you can’t update the firmware there would be no way to patch it either.

@black13662 wrote:

i am trying to deinstituitionalize my sansa clip + has anyone done this? could a factory restore do this for me?

Who do I send the $25 to?

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Did the Bureau of Prisons provide you with the information?  I believe it has it.

my dad just got out and I have his trying to unlock … he was told Radio Shack will do it for $15, although have not verified … from what I can tell it’s got some NSA level firmware as I’ve found others who cannot crack either 

I haven’t heard that Radio Shack has this capability, but by all means check it out. I think you have to send it into a specific company, and if I recall correctly it’s $25.

Try to find a Radio Shack–they are all closing.

Here’s the official info.

http://www.corrlinks.com/MP3Reset/

http://kb.sandisk.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/12839/~/atg-mp3-player-deinstitutionalization-and-warranty-processing