Having owned this player for less than 7 days, I am NOT impressed. Was sitting here listening to some music and the thing just went completely dead. I tried the following:
Attempted to power it up via the switch…Nothing
Plugged it into my PC…No response from the player and the PC didn’t detect anything connected
If I unplugged/plugged in the earbuds, I could hear a bit of static indicating it had power, but there was no screen, no music and controls didn’t light up or respond to anything.
** After about 5min, it just powered up: Not sure if it was caused by this, but I held the power switch in conjunction with the button in the middle of the wheel and it powered up. “It said refreshing media” and after a couple of seconds, it worked again. It reset my wallpaper color to default and started showing album covers in the list again. I had turned album covers off because they made the music skip if I was scrolling the list while playing a song.
Any idea what happened here? I kinda torn about this and feel I should return it to the store since tomorrow is my last day to exchange it. Not crazy about spending $130 on a player that could die on me next week. If its a firmware glitch then I can deal until an update is released.
You have just stumbled upon the soft reset function: holding the power switch in the ON position for 10 seconds. It’s not unusual for your sansa to freeze every now and again. Note the changed wallpaper and “database refresh”- it erases the very last saved settings as part of the reset.
But it literally went dead in the middle of playing a song. No screen, lights, nothing. Thats a bit more serious than a freeze isn’t it? I read another thread here that someone’s Fuze crashed after changing the wallpaper color so I’m wondering if thats what I experienced since I had just done that prior to playing the song.
Firmware is version 01.01.07A. As I remember, I switched off album art, changed the wallpaper color, scrolled through the songs and I think it made it about a minute into the song then completely died. It didn’t immediately crash after the color change if thats what you’re asking.
I switched off album art because it caused my music to skip while browsing song/album lists.
Do I need to switch the player to MSC mode to flash new firmware?
I feel your pain brotha. I barely got mine yesterday and I barely started using it today. I just finished transferring my songs to my fuze and then I decided to put more songs. After I decided not to put anymore songs, I disconnected it. Next thing you know, my Fuze turns off and wouldn’t recognize the drive. I went online to try to find the solution; tried that “turning on while pressing the middle button” trick and seconds after, it turned back on and refreshed everything. I hope this doesn’t happen A LOT. It shouldn’t even happen once.
I’ve had mine for 2 weeks and it just died in the middle of a track. Nothing seemed to work to try and power it up (thanks pinoy89). Connecting it to the AC charger or the PC did not work.Tried the “hold middle button while powering on” thing and it actually powered back up.
Message Edited by squrlgurl on 08-15-2008 07:22 PM
Hey, I had the same experience as denzilla and i’m such a dumb to not even try anything with this gadget when it went dead. I made my mind that i’m going to slam it on their face. But then I found this lucky blog. Thanks.
I have a quick question. Did you ever face the same problem again? Or any other problems with this toy? It looks good to me otherwise and I really dont want to loose it. (Firmware version for mine is V01.01.11A)
Be sure to update your Fuze firmware if it’s the .07 version. I do remember of crashing after changing the wallpaper being discussed.
The Fuze has had relatively few issues with its firmware. It’s nice to navigate about and have everything actually work properly.
Its only drawback is the lack of a wraparound scroll, multiplied by the change in scroll wheel design. At least I’m not in the habit of searching by song title (the biggest list of course); I think in terms of Artist or Album, then I roll to the song I feel like.
The soft reset is useful for those inevitable freezes that will happen occasionally. Remember that your Fuze is juggling quite a few things in the air, especially if the file is a DRM encoded one. At the least, it’s quite posssible to confuse the machine, if you push a button at the wrong instant, say while a new song is loading. Sometimes, the program is halted as you make an interrupt take over control.
The soft reset forces the Fuze to restart from the last saved position. It’s nice to know how bulletproof these wee beasties are!
Same thing happened to me. The Fuze was on it’s first charge so I let the battery competely run do to zero.
Before the battery ran down, I plugged the Fuze into a USB hub powered by a USB AC adapter (Motorola) and could see the “charger symbol” come on, indicating the battery was getting juice.
However, after the battery completely ran out, I plugged it into the charger setup again, and nothing happened at all! I left it on the AC Hub USB charger overnight and still nothing. Then I switched back to the PC’s USB port and it still appeared dead.
After about six hours on the PC and still no life, I held the middle and power buttons for 10 secs as above, and still nothing!
I was ready to give up and unplugged the Fuze cable and plugged it in again, and finally it came back to life!
You guys rock. Woohoo!
Is it safe to charge this Fuze off a USB hub powered by a USB AC charger (Motorola) and not the PC port? I do not have the Fuze AC charger.
Is this a recommended charging configuration, if you don’t use the PC?
Yes, as long as the USB port has the requisite current available, the Fuze will charge just fine. Sometimes, with passive type hubs, there isn’t enough current to fully charge the Fuze, or it will charge slowly. A powered hub is just like using a solo AC adaptor, essentially.
With the lates firmware, the Fuze should power up as soon as it sees DC power on the USB plug.
The Fuze will not charge if it is OFF.
Note that after about an hour, the display will blank out. This is normal.
