Grey screen when powering up a sansa e260

[TomSawyer]

Hello all. I have a problem with my E260 and am reaching out those who may have solution as I await another reply from sansa tech support. Today my e260 when I turned it on came up with a grey screen with a line of black pixles start at the bottom and running up to the middle of the right side. I can not reach a boot screen in either normal mode nor recovery mode. Guy in tech support has been assisting me but sometimes others may have had a similar problem and can offer their fix for which I would be grateful. I have received from tech support a new mi4 file and sansa fmt file which following the instructions on that email I put into the 16mb file/folder that comes up in windows via the recovery method. However once I disconnected and restarted the e260 I once again reached the grey screen. I have also tried the sansa autoupdater which I just clicked on and its showing SANSA E250 firmware version VERSIONINF.

Guy was asking me to format the 16mb file/folder but windows will not format the drive, it gives me an unable to format error, perhaps due to it being a removable drive.

Once during the phone assist I managed to see a folder in my directory that read sansa with all related files within but Guy had me format that and I have yet to see it again. Perhaps again due to the setting within the player itself one can switch so that windows can interact with it as a removable drive. However due to the grey screen I can not reach that option.

I have been bouncing around the web, rockbox site, ect and realize there is a deeper recovery mode which involves pressing the center button instead of the mic button when attaching the e260 to the usb cable but I do not know the mechanics of that process. I realize that I may have to create a linux boot cd to pursue that option and will do so if others who have had my problem suggest that I do so.

Anyone else out there experienced a grey screen and lock out of the e260? And if so any ideas you can offer that might fix it? Or should I be seeking an RMA or such for this. I got it about 6 months or so ago from newegg and they passed me onto the sansa tech site for assistance as newegg after 30 days passes the buck.