Sandisk Sansa e250R does not start anymore

[MasTaT]

Hey folks,

I bought a refurbished version of the e250R, it contains probably the newest firmware from Sandisk. I installed Rockbox due to the tutorial provided at http://www.rockbox.org/tw...in/SansaE200RInstallation on a WindowsXP system. The patcher said okay, I copied the firmware. The Sansa player rebooted, installed the firmware ("firmware upgrade"). Afterwards it rebooted. Since then, the only thing I see after switching the device on is the Sandisk animation and then it stops. After pushing a couple of buttons including switching on/off the hold button, it turns off. That is it   I can still access the device via the patcher (manufact. mode) but I do not see it as a mass storage device any more. Now I am kind of pissed off - was this the short life of my "new" Sansa? If you need further information, just let me know Thx for your help.

[zajacattack]

Are you sure you installed the rockbox BL for R series? Try going into recovery mode and re-installing the rockbox bootloader from there.

[MasTaT]

Thx for your answer. I used http://www.rockbox.org/twiki/bin/view/Main/SansaE200RInstallation and downloaded all the files corresponding to this article. So I probably got the right files.

What do you mean with "Recovery Mode"? Please explain what I should do and I'll give it a try tonight. Thanks!

[zajacattack]

To get into recovery mode, you turn ON hold, hold Rec, power on the player, and KEEP REC HELD while plugging in the USB cable (keep holding it until the computer recognizes it).

Then, simply drag the rockbox bootloader (pp5022.mi4) to the 16MB recovery disk and safely disconnect the Sansa.

[MasTaT]

Hey zajacattack,

I followed your instructions, copied the boot loader from
http://download.rockbox.org/bootloader/sandisk-sansa/e200R/pp5022.mi4
to the drive (recovery mode). The device noticed the upgrade, installed it successfully and rebooted. Unfortunately, the result is still the same, it stops after displaying the Sandisk logo. What is next? Thank you!

[Bagder]

this being a refurbished thing, are you 100% sure this really is an R model?

[MasTaT]

it has the model number e250R on the back of the device and a Rhapsody logo...

[Bagder]

Right, but we've seen several reports about refurbished Sansas before that say Rhapsody but that weren't R models anymore after the refurbishment. The way to tell is to see if it runs the Rhapsody OF...

[MasTaT]

How can I figure this out at the "current status" of the player?

[Conundrummm]

I have the same player and had the same problem last night, after trying to install Rockbox. I found the solution here: http://www.freewebs.com/recoversansa/ and it worked like a charm.

I tried several times more to get Rockbox to work. I was able to install and play around with it. But, once I restarted the player again, it would update and it was back to just the Sansa splash screen. Each time, I had to recover the player. But, all I had to do copy the 3 files I downloaded back over to the player and it was back to the original condition. It seems I can install Rockbox. But, I can't get it to stay.

Hope this helps.

[MasTaT]

Thanks Conundrummm, I am going to try this - so I can at least use the player

[MasTaT]

Alright, now the player is at least booting the original system again....

My current firmware is: 01.02.18P.

I just searched the forum for "Rhapsody"...looks like Bagder is right:
"If the USB options are "MSC" and "MTP" it's non-R." This is exactly how my USB options look like. I did not expect that the cover of the player does not tell what is in there

So I am going to try to follow the non-R installation steps. Do I have to take care of something since I already tried to install the R version? Do I have to remove anything before I start with the installation of Rockbox? Thanks a lot for your time guys, you helped me out a lot.

[Conundrummm]

Mine has the same firmware version. Knowing that my player is not a Rhapsody model makes a world of difference now. I reinstalled Rockbox using the non-Rhapsody instructions and it's working great now. I have restarted the player to the original software and it's still working. I can now switch between Rockbox and the original software without the player failing. Thanks a lot.

[MasTaT]

Great job! I installed the non-R version of Rockbox, it was so simple! Maybe the admins want to add a couple of words at the installation manual to warn users about refurbished Sansa players and to avoid further problems like this. Thanks to everybody!

[GodEater]

Perhaps you'd like to do that yourself? Or at least submit a patch for the manual ?