Sansa C200 sometimes cuts out dead

[bobbydriver]

Is this a common problem? Sometimes when playing back mp3 on the Sansa C200 series, it will just stop dead mid-track and then I can't even turn it back on via the power button

To fix it I have to take the battery out and then put it back in. After that it restarts OK via the power button and carries on playing as normal.

This doesn't seem to be related to the length of time left on the battery as it happens at random times (maybe one or two times a week - when using every day for ~ 1-2 hours a day?) regardless of when it was last charged

Any ideas?

[Llorean]

Is this a v1 or v2 C200?

[bobbydriver]

Sorry I meant to say - v1

 

[saratoga]

See if theres some specific file that can reproduce it, otherwise I'd assume its a busted player.

[yapper]

Are you running a recent version of Rockbox?
Does the problem occur using the original Sansa firmware?

[bobbydriver]

It's been running on a recent build r23718

I just updated to r23931 to see if it makes any difference.

I don't think it's a busted player as it works fine for 99.9% of the time - just a bit odd that occasionally it stops dead and needs the battery to be removed before it will come back to life

I thought maybe it was a common problem or something people had seen before. I'm not a techie so I don't know how many things could kill it and why taking the battery out & in  would make it work again

I never run the original firmware (as it's rubbish!) but that's a good point, I could try that for a while as it might prove out if the issue is the player or the Rockbox OS

[bobbydriver]

I've now identified 3 mp3's that seem to consistently trigger this bug

so now it should be a case of figuring out the common feature

[BlastTyrant]

I've had this (or a very similar problem) happen on my c240 v1 before with a single Godsmack mp3. Playback would get choppy about halfway through the song and then about 15 seconds later it would completely freeze up the player.

I would also need to remove/replace the battery when it happened. I can't remember right now if a hard reset would power down the player without removing the battery (this happened every time I played the one mp3 >5-6 months ago).

I ended up deleting the song through RB one day when it started playing.

I've attributed it to the mp3 being corrupt. I haven't actually checked out the mp3 that's still on my computer to see if there is a problem with it (I forgot about it until I read your post just now). I'll have to try to remember to check it today.

[saratoga]

They're probably corrupted, but even so they shouldn't crash.  Can you post one of them online?

[BlastTyrant]

They're probably corrupted, but even so they shouldn't crash.  Can you post one of them online?

I found the mp3 that I had problems with, though it doesn't crash on RB anymore. I can still hear the choppiness/glitches in the song though while playing in in RB, the OF, and Windows Media Player. So the problem with the mp3 must have happened when ripped. I checked the mp3 with Checkmate MP3 Checker and it tests good which is strange.

You might be better off getting bobbydriver's songs than mine, but I put it up here just in case: http://www.mediafire.com/?1zh2mix4emt
The choppiness/glitches occur between 1:20 and 1:33.

[bobbydriver]

I've now observed that it's not the mp3 itself that is causing the Sansa to stiff

When it happens (which is infrequent) it's always the first track after I turn it back on. A hard reset  will consistently crash on the same starting track until I skip to the next track - and then it continues to play fine

So - my instincts are telling me it must be something to do with the way that Rockbox handles the track restart? I don't know enough about the technicalities to take any further guesses, but the fact it doesn't do it every time suggests that there is another common condition which I have yet to determine…

I'll get there eventually!

[gevaerts]

Have you checked the filesystem? Slightly corrupted filesystems have been known to cause this sort of intermittent strange issues

[bobbydriver]

No I haven't - good idea.