Sansa Fuze V2 has very broken USB connectivity

[Simon818]

I recently did a rockbox reinstall on my Sansa Fuze. After upgrading to the latest development build and attempting to generate voice files, I found that I couldn't view any of the files on my device anymore. With some random button pressing and plugging / unplugging f the device, I got it to show up properly long enough to install the latest stable build instead, and generate the proper talk files so I at least know when it's turned on and working properly. However, I'm still having USB issues.
Most of the time when I plug in my player, I see two empty drives show up in my computer. I can click on either of these and see an empty folder, despite the fact there is no micro SD card inserted. If I try to do anything to affect them (create a folder, paste a file, format them) etc, I get various errors all leading back to the fact that the drive cannot be accessed, or the specified path could not be found. If I go to the drive properties on either one of these mysteriously empty drives, the file system shows as unknown, and the capacity, 0 bytes. I'm not sure if anyone else has experienced this, but even after several rockbox reinstalls and much fiddling, I still can't seem to make USB work consistently. Rockbox loads on the player perfectly, and plays the one song I was able to copy, but something between the player and the computer is not working, whether it's a rockbox issue or not.


I'd appreciate any help or suggestions on this, as I don't have a large memory card and so the player is largely unusable to me at the moment.

[Notary Sojac]

First - try to connect the Fuze to another PC.  Preferably one that it has not been connected to in the past.  If it works and you get a drive letter and can transfer files, then you know it's not the Fuze, the Rockbox install, or the cable.

If everything works on the "new" PC, then go back to the PC where it's not working and

(1) make sure the Fuze is not plugged in
(2) fire up your browser.   Go to http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/usb_devices_view.html  and download "USBDeview".   
(3) Run the program and look up and down the "Description" column for everything that says "Rockbox" or "Sansa". 
(4) Every time you find such an entry, right click it and then click "Uninstall selected devices".

What this does is cause your PC to "forget" that a Fuze was ever plugged into it, it has to reestablish an all new USB connection. 

(5) reconnect your Fuze and cross your fingers

This has worked for me every time I have lost the ability to connect over USB with a Sansa player (E200, Fuze and Clip+).  If it does not work for you or if you can't connect with any computer, sorry, you'll have to keep the help request alive.

NS