Thought it was dead! (but it wasn't!)

SanDisk MP3 players Sansa® Fuze™
1

I’ve had my Fuze for several months and have been very happy with it.  I am also grateful for finding this board; you have all answered questions that the user manual never comes near to addressing.

I don’t have a problem, but thought I would bring up something that happened to me in case it happens to others.

I was listening to an audiobook on my Fuze when, without warning, it just died.  Sliding the slider for 15 - 20 seconds did nothing.  Holding it up for more than a minute made no change.  By my mental calculations it should have had about 45% charge remaining but it was, for all intents and purposes … DEAD!  I couldn’t get a twitch out of it.

I connected it to my computer.  Windows 7 (64-bit) attempted to load a driver and then told me my ‘UBS Device’ had malfunctioned.  Windows suggested action was to disconnect the device and dispose of it. (Don’t you just love Windows?  It is always the graphic cards fault, or sound card, or unknown UBS devices fault! :dizzy_face: )

I was crushed!  My beloved Fuze was dead! I was starting to look online to see about getting another one.  I had bought the fuze refurbished and it was out of warranty.  To buy another Fuze?  Decisions, decisions.

This morning, I looked at the Fuze on the desk and couldn’t help myself giving it just one more try. 

LIFE!!!  I got the black ‘Low battery’ screen.  I immediately connected it to my computer and after a few seconds longer than normal connecting time, up popped the Sansa Fuze Device Page.  It showed my battery at 11%, but it quickly started charging.

I should mention here that I had just installed a micro SDhc card the day before (8gb Sandisk … it was on sale)

What I believe happened is that I experienced a higher than usual battery drain because I was listening from the micro SDhc card.  I had not been checking the charge and it (almost) completely drained the battery to the point that nothing would work and Windows would not even recognized what type of device it was or even connect to it.

I think because I let it sit overnight, the battery ‘relaxed’ or recovered enough to let Windows connect to it and start charging.

I have seen other comments here from people who have their Fuzes completely die.  I just wanted to mention this incident.

If you think your Fuze is really and completely dead … don’t chuck it against the nearest wall in frustration!

Put it down and come back at it the next day.   You never know.  It might just be ‘playing dead!’

2

Petrae wrote:

 

Put it down and come back at it the next day.   You never know.  It might just be ‘playing dead!’

 

Or just playin’ possum! Thanks for the post. People tend to panic when something goes awry with these things. As you discovered, sometimes the best immediate action is no action at all. Relax, take a breath, come back when a cooler head will prevail.

Patience can bring its own reward. :wink:

3

I’m glad to hear that it came back to life for you.

I had a Fuze for nearly a year, and I really don’t think the microsdhc card eats up very much more power at all. I nearly matched the factory battery life ratings while playing music exclusively from the external card. Sometimes electronic gadgets simply need to be shut down, and re-started later.

As far as your mental calculations on battery life remaining, be aware that the meter does not run down in the most linear manner.:wink:  I made it a point to charge mine at the latest if I was down to 50%…then the occasional time that I couldn’t, I had a safety margin.

Tapeworm is correct though…sometimes it’s best to take a deep breath, and try again the next day. I recently had a player that I thought was completely bricked…I was ready to send it in for a warranty replacement, but after 36 hours, I decided to try one last time, and voila! it worked.:smiley: