Sansa e200 lockup when out of memory

[FreeMan10]

New to Rockbox & loving it!  Thanks for some great software!

I bought an AData 4GB micro SDHC card, and it was working great.  I was able to load some songs on the internal memory, and I set up Rockbox to do voice recording to the 4GB card.  I didn't have a card reader for my PC, so I was using Rockbox to copy some files from the SD card to the main memory, and ran out of room in main memory.  The Sansa now won't do anything.

When I attempt to delete a file, the display reads:

Deleted
/battery_bench.txt

       Deleting...

It will stay like that for hours.  The only way out is to hold down power until it turns off.  Note, I've tried deleting some of the larger files that I'd copied from the SD card to main memory and get the same response.  All other attempted operations will hang like that, as well.  For example, I go into the database, then Artist.  When I click on Artist, nothing happens and I can't go anywhere from there - the ring doesn't work, back button doesn't work, etc.  I just have to power off.

Plugging it into the USB port, I get the SanDisk logo, the Rockbox boot loader, the SanDisk logo again, then the original Sansa firmware.  It does not go into USB mode, start charging, or list itself as a drive available in Windows.  (The OF is set to MSC mode, as it had been working properly until I filled the main memory.)  My only recourse at this point is to unplug from the PC then turn it off.   (As a side note, my e250 under OF reports the original songs that were on there before I installed RB, not what's currently on there.)

Plugging it into the PC with it on and RB booted gives me a USB Device Not Recognized error from Windows (XPSP2).

Rockbox Info:
 Battery 43%
 Int: 45.7MB/1.84GB
 MSD: Not present
 Buffer: 29.255MB
 Version: r16778-080324
 Apr 11 2008
 20:58:13

At this point, I'm pretty lost.  I've got some stuff recorded on the SD card, and I've installed my card reader, so that's now secured.  I'm willing to reboot, reformat or whatever else is necessary to get things functioning again.  Any suggestions will be happily followed.

Thanks!
FreeMan

[pixelma]

Plugging it into the USB port, I get the SanDisk logo, the Rockbox boot loader, the SanDisk logo again, then the original Sansa firmware.  It does not go into USB mode, start charging, or list itself as a drive available in Windows.

I get something similar on my c200 on some USB ports (or with microSD plugged) too, but for me the original firmware only doesn't register the data connection but starts charging. What helps for me: making sure that there is no memory card plugged and/or boot into the OF manually before connecting USB.

[FreeMan10]

Interesting.  With the SD card out, and the player booted into the OF, the OF recognizes that it's been plugged into the PC and starts charging.  Windows also recognizes that there are two new drives available, but it's still not showing me the contents of the drives.

EDIT:
Does anyone else have any suggestions?  At this point, the player is basically useless.  I can't get more than about 3 button pushes without it locking up, and I can't get access to it from the PC to try to delete rockbox and start over?  I've tried different USB ports on two different machines, and I'm still getting nothing.

Thanks!

[gevaerts]

Maybe try the sansa.fmt trick as described on http://www.rockbox.org/twiki/bin/view/Main/SansaE200Unbrick#Formatting_the_device ?

[FreeMan10]

Thanks for the suggestion.

Since formatting seemed really drastic, I followed that link, and looked at some of the rest of the info on the un-brick page.  I followed these instructions:

Recovery Mode

Recovery mode can be used to replace a bad .mi4 image on the player. If you by some reason can't boot into the original firmware, like if you messed up the installation or similar, you can boot into the recovery mode as follows:

    * Power off
    * Turn ON lock/hold
    * Hold down record
    * Hit Power/Menu Button

You will find a 16MB USB drive now, this is the recovery partition.

I don't think I found myself in the recovery partition, but I was able to execute more than 3 button presses without the sansa locking up on me.  I was able to remove several large recorded files, so now there's plenty of room on the device.  Unfortunately, it still doesn't seem to want to connect to the PC. 

If I pre-boot into OF (I assume that means Original Firmware, otherwise, I'm a bit of a moron...), it connects with the PC (WinXPsp2), I get the two-tone USB connection sound, I get a drive letter, and the 'connection icon' appears in the tool tray.  What I don't get is actual access to the device from the PC.

Any additional suggestions?  I seem to be making progress, thanks to fg.

FreeMan10

[gevaerts]

What I found on my c250 is that if the filesystem is corrupted enough, the OF USB mode doesn't work properly anymore, so it needs a format. I don't know how well e200 handles that case

[FreeMan10]

Does anybody have any other suggestions before I delve into reformatting the player? 

What do I need to do after I reformat?  Will the OF still be on there?  Is there a special way to install the OF, or do I just have to have the Sansa updater software running on my machine? 

Is there a section of the manual I should read to find these answers?  If so, I'll be happy to read if someone wants to point me in the right direction.

TIA, again!
FreeMan10

[gevaerts]

The OF should still be there.

[zajacattack]

Have you tried running "chkdsk /r" yet?