Sansa E260 - Rockbox sound gone, Sansa sound okay

[5-11under]

Hi there,

I've got a Sansa E260, which has worked well with Rockbox until now...

When booting with the Sansa software (left button on start-up), the sound works fine. however, when booting with the Rockbox software, the sound does not work. Sometimes I'll get a bit of medium-level "digital" noise at the beginning of songs, but then it just drops to a low level. The timing of the songs/videos is all proper, and the VU meters respond as if everything is fine. The results are the same for MP3 and WMA files. Videos are similar (video good, audio bad).

I've completely uninstalled and reinstalled Rockbox (a couple of versions) three times, with no change.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. If someone has any details on the differences between the way Rockbox and Sansa play music, that would be helpful also.

Thanks,
Long time listener, first time caller,
5-11under

[Febs]

Try clearing your settings.  I don't remember offhand the button to pressing while the player is booting to do this, but it should be in the manual.

[5-11under]

Try clearing your settings.  I don't remember offhand the button to pressing while the player is booting to do this, but it should be in the manual.

Hi Febs,

I just tried that now (record button after power on - says cleared on screen), and it made no difference. I think it's a hardware problem, but I can't narrow it down any further.

Thanks,
5-11under

[Llorean]

What was the last thing that happened before this problem started occurring, and what version of Rockbox, exactly, are you using?

[5-11under]

What was the last thing that happened before this problem started occurring, and what version of Rockbox, exactly, are you using?

Hi Llorean,

It was working in my car yesterday, with a cassette adapter, then a few minutes later (I don't think it powered off in the meantime), with the headphones, I had no proper sound. Right now I'm running 3.2-090323. I'm guessing I was running the same version when the problem occurred.

Additional information: I'm running the DarkSpectrum theme right now (I normally run a modified version of this). When I do get some medium level noise at the beginning of a song, the green "play" light in the top-right corner appears. After a few seconds, however, the green light goes off, and I'm left only with low level noise.

Edit1: I just saw this thread: http://forums.rockbox.org/index.php?topic=18757.0
My symptoms are similar, except the volume of the noise I get is very low.

Edit2: The battery dies about 5 times faster now, too (only with Rockbox, not with Sansa). The whole thing gets warm, but I think it's just the battery. One chip doesn't seem any hotter than the others. I've cleaned the PCB with flux cleaner and then alcohol, with no improvement in operation. I think it's toast... time to modify a bunch of ID tags for the files, I guess, for this unit, and give it to the kids (or keep the battery as a spare - btw, anyone try swapping the flash memory daughtercard between units). This case is pretty much closed, I think.

Thanks,
5-11under