Sansa "bricked"? Stuck at Sandisk logo, not recognised by e200tool (ubuntu)

[inspector_gadget]

Hi All:

Sorry that my first post is a question, but a friend of mine handed me his e280 (US version) - he said he copied some stuff onto it and after he turned it off it never turned back on.

Currently, when you press the power button, it flashes the Sandisk logo (complete with the shimmer effect thing) and then proceeds to do absolutely nothing. I can get it into the recovery (the hold switch + record thing) and I can then mount the 16MB recovery partition, but other than that, it's a brick.
I've tried sticking on a new .MI4 firmware file in case the current one was corrupt or missing, with no change whatsoever. I have to hold down the power button for approx. 15 seconds to power down the device.

Windows doesn't recognise the device unless in recovery mode. Linux (I'm using Ubuntu 6.06 here) isn't even noticing the insertion of the device, and - I assume consequently - the e200tool is drawing a total blank. I've tried getting the e200 tool (version 0.2.3) to talk to the player while in recovery mode, but it must be offering up a different device ID than the tool expects.

Any ideas/suggestions would be appreciated...
Gadget

[X86]

you have to put the device into manufacturing mode, turn on hold button and then press center button and then connect it,so then use e200 tool to restore the firmware and the boot loader, in windows e200tool doesn't work,it  searches for two devices numbers one of those numbers is 0780:0720 and that is the usb id of my device,thats weird,I ven have libusb installed on my pc.

[Llorean]

And you've been told, clearly, MANY times that e200tool doesn't yet work properly in windows.

To the original poster: We'd need some more information on what happened to cause this, as well as what it says, if anything, when you put a .mi4 file in the recovery partition, and what .mi4 you've put there.

[inspector_gadget]

Hi All:

Eh, The file I've put there has been what the Sandisk Updater program has provided me with; the latest version as of right now for the US-flavour e280 (don't remember the exact version number, ends with 18?)

PP5022.MI4: 5,853,184 bytes, dated 16th April?
BL_SD_BOARDSUPPORT_SD.ROM: 393,624 bytes, dated 16th April

I have been using Linux for e200tool; Ubuntu 6.06.1 LTS and Knoppix 5.0.1, respectively. The output from lsusb shows that the device is there, but e200tool (even when I built it from the source) doesn't see that.

I'd be happy to try any firmware recommended to me, if someone can point me to where I can get them?

While I'm asking questions, are repeated "LUN0 locked/LUN0 unlocked" messages normal when in recovery mode, and what's this about holding the centre button???

Thanks,
Gadget

[inspector_gadget]

Right. In order to provide more info, the Sansa Firmware updater says it's version 1.02.18 for the "America" region.

[inspector_gadget]

Hi All:

Thanks for the comments - got it sorted. I instructed the sansa to reformat itself (the sansa.fmt trick), and this time around I was able to politely eject the player from Windows. Once I did that, it came up first time, so this one's resolved (woohoo!)

Thanks again for all your help, everyone!
Gadget