Further notes on the Clip volume button breakage:
I had the same problem. I found some information that indicates that the art of soldering has improved over the years, to a point where it is 99.9999% perfect. Every electronic product has hundreds of solder connections in its construction and a computer board, for example, has thousands of connections. The chance of a board failing in a 5 year life-time is less than 1%.
Also, I believe this issue involves what is called a Cold Solder issue that happened at the factory. A cold joint is a joint in which the solder does not make good contact with the component lead or printed circuit board pad. Cold joints occur when the component lead or solder pad moves before the solder is completely cooled. Cold joints can be recognized by a characteristic grainy, dull gray colour, (this is what I found when I looked closely at the contacts of the switch), and can be easily fixed by removing the old solder and resoldering.
(I am also entertaining the idea that there may not be a ‘stop’ on the volume button. That is to say, something to stop the switch from being over pressed by the button. It’s a tiny switch, and if what ever pressure is applied to the volume button is transferred directly to the micro switch, I could see that it might end up being just too much pressure for it to handle so that either the contacts break off the board, or perhaps the switch itself will break over time)
It seems logical from these two points, and the apparent frequent identical failure of this specific switch, it really is a manufacturing fault and not a user fault.
Contacted Sansa, but without packaging and receipt, no service. A pity, since everything else about Sansa and Sansa products seems so wonderful. I personally think a company should stand behind their products on manufacturing defects, regardless.
For an idea of how service/non-service works, transcript included here…personal details edited out. Reads from bottom to top by date.
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Message Edited by krom on 06-14-2009 03:49 PM
Message Edited by krom on 06-14-2009 03:49 PM
Message Edited by krom on 06-15-2009 04:58 PM
