sansa fuse malfunction

I’m quite irritated-

I just bought a new sanza fuze 4GB MP3 player, popped it out of the box, charged it, loaded it with music, even tested it out to see that it worked properly.  It ran perfectly, I was really happy with it.  Then I came back to it a couple hours later and attempted to turn it on and the screen is completly black.  The thing acts like its dead no matter what buttons I push.  My computers can detect the usb but it will not turn on.  On my PC running windows 7 it says that it is an unidentified usb device.  On my PC running vista it says that the device has malfunctioned.

Any advice?

Hopefully I can return this thing.

Sounds like it might be an open power conductor in the cord…

That would leave you “DOA” as soon as the battery went too low.

The best way to find out would be to try another Sansa cable, if you can get your hands on one.

Good Luck,

LyleHaze

First try resetting it. Slide the spring-loaded power switch up as if you are turning it on, but hold it in the uppermost position for 20 - 30 seconds. Now release, and see if it will ‘come back from the dead’.

I have a similar problem.  The unit works fine as long at it is connected to a charging cord.  When i disconnect it the unit locks up and will not function.  The battery is showing as fully charged.  The unit functions disconnected from power in the radio mode.  However i can only turn the unit on using a power cord.  It will not turn on without being connected to some form of external power.  I have tried to reset the unit 20-30 times and always the same results.   Please Help.  I love my Fuze.

@wnh305 wrote:

I have a similar problem.  The unit works fine as long at it is connected to a charging cord.  When i disconnect it the unit locks up and will not function.  The battery is showing as fully charged.  The unit functions disconnected from power in the radio mode.  However i can only turn the unit on using a power cord.  It will not turn on without being connected to some form of external power.  I have tried to reset the unit 20-30 times and always the same results.   Please Help.  I love my Fuze.

If your Fuze is still under warranty, you may want to contact SanDisk Tech Support. It sounds like a hardware issue and I think you need more help than what we here on the forum can give you.

This is my 3rd Sansa Fuze since September 2010. This is my 2nd Sansa Fuze+. My problem is the same as the previous. I can not disconnect it from the macbook where it was plugged in to charge as it would not charge through the wall plug usb. As with the previous player when I try to eject it the pop-up say “it can not be ejected because it is in use”. The last player I turned off the macbook using force quit. I was able to restart the audiobook I was listening to at work. When I tried to see how much time was left on the book I found the screen black and would’t open. When I tried to turn it off it wouldn’t turn off. On the way home I stopped at the store where I purchased it and exchanged it for the present player. I too will not eject. I bought this fuse because of the microphone. There seems to be only similar connection problems in this forum and no fixes so this player will be returned to be replaced with a different brand mic no mic which is too bad because the previous model had a superb mic. 

“Similar connection problems”? Yours sounds pretty unique, involving how it’s interacting with the Macbook. 

I trust you are connecting it with the Sansa cord, and not an iPod cord.

I hope you have it in (Settings/System Settings/USB Mode) MSC.

I hope you tried holding the power button to turn it off much longer than you might think–like 30 full seconds, to do a soft reset.

And I would be curious what kind of files you are putting on it–what the file extension is (.mp3, .aa, etc.) .

But maybe you’ll have better luck with another brand.

If I remember correctly, to tell if you did reset the device, plug in the earphones and stick them in your ears (or one, if you prefer).  When it actually resets after holding it up for the given time, I believe it gives a little pop in the earphones.  I just thought this would help anyone who is not sure if it reset or not.

@wnh305 wrote:

I have a similar problem.  The unit works fine as long at it is connected to a charging cord.  When i disconnect it the unit locks up and will not function.  The battery is showing as fully charged.  The unit functions disconnected from power in the radio mode.  However i can only turn the unit on using a power cord.  It will not turn on without being connected to some form of external power.  I have tried to reset the unit 20-30 times and always the same results.   Please Help.  I love my Fuze.

I’m no expert when it comes to Macs, but is it possible to run some sort of hard drive file system error checker? That may solve your problems. If not, find someone who has a Windows PC, connect it in MSC Mode, and run Check Disk (If you click on the link, it will say something about taking several hours to complete. This applys to most hard drive, as they are huge, and there is a lot of space to check. However, this does not apply to the Fuze, as it is small, and only holds up to 8 Gigs, depending on the player, plus the space of your card).