Should I reformat my Sansa Clip Zip?

[pmennen]

A few days ago I used the rockbox utility (v1.2.13) to install rockbox on my sansa clipzip. (I forgot which radio button I clicked for the version to load, but I believe it said that this was the recommended choice). I tested it for a while and everything worked fine. The text was too small however, so I loaded the "runners" theme which fixed that problem. I turned the brightness to max since I usually need only a few hours before recharging. Then I deleted the music, added perhaps 5 or 6 new albums, refreshed the database, and went on a run. It said 90% in the top left corner (which I presume is battery life remaining) when I started. It played the first album great and was about half way thru the second album when it suddenly stopped. Blank screen ... couldn't restart. Also unsuccessful booting to orig. firmware. 30 second power button reset also failed. My computer no longer recognizes it as a clipzip, but it shows up as a drive letter. However it says that it must be formatted before use.

Did I brick my device, or is there a way to recover from this? Should I try to reformat and if so, should I use a FAT32 quick format? Would the rockbox utility then work or would a manual install be required?

I'm not using an external memory card, although I could get one if that would help. I'm not adverse to taking apart the device if that turns out to be necessary.

Thanks in advance for any help you can offer.
~Paul

[saratoga]

How big is the drive it shows?

[pmennen]

> How big is the drive it shows?

The file manager just shows unformatted, so I went into disk management (windows 7) and it says the drive is 31 MB RAW Healthy (Primary Partition). Oops, that kind of looks like a bad sign. I was expecting to say 4GB. It's definitely the clipzip however because when I disconnect it from the USB port the drive immediately disappears.

~Paul

[saratoga]

The 32MB disk shows up when the flash memory doesn't power up during boot.  What you're seeing is actually an image of the player's RAM, which is why there is no file system on it.

Usually the only way to get that disk is to unsolder or short out a connection to the player's flash memory chip.  You're saying the device just powered off and you got that? 

[pmennen]

> You're saying the device just powered off and you got that?

Yes, that's what happened.
So is my device busted?
I was sweating somewhat, but gee when I took it off I didn't notice that it was particularly wet. I had run with it (old firmware) before under similar circumstances with no problem.

~Paul

[atarilynx]

How did you recover from this? I have a Clip zip that has the same problem...will not boot at all but shows as a drive of 31Mb formatted RAW

[czajunia]

My first post here so 'Hello' to everyone.

Really sorry for digging out the old thread but I have been searching for the solution and ended up here.

Yesterday my Sansa Clip+ developed the same problem. The only difference is that I have been using it for much longer than OP. I had it Rockboxed from pretty much day one since it was my second player. Never had any issues.

So essentially I just wanted to check if it means that the memory is gone (broken) and there is nothing that can be done in such case? Or does it mean that the memory is corrupted and I should try to re-flash the player by using the recovery mode?

Many thanks for your help.

[saratoga]

I doubt the only difference is how long you have been using the player given the long sequence of unique events in the original post.

[czajunia]

OK, but whatever caused it, judging by the fact I can only access 30.6MB in Windows do you think the internal memory is gone completely or just corrupted?

[Bilgus]

For the moment We haven't figured out what the 32 mb disk is, it is suspected it is a ram disk since writes don't persist but that isn't for sure. Its probably toast but don't throw it out just yet.