Sansa C250 Nothing But Noise on playback

[vmaxman]

Installed the Firmware but now when I play the files that were already on the player, all I hear is white noise. I can play the files on my computer ok. Do I have to format the player and start over?
vmaxman

[saratoga]

I don't think formatting will help.

Do all files play as static or only certain types? If you reboot into the Sandisk firmware, are the files static?

[vmaxman]

All the files are noise. I can hear small snippets of music pop up, but 99% noise. I've tried rebooting into the SanDisk firmware (Press << while powering up), the SanDisk display comes up, and then nothing, it just sits there. How long does it take? If I plug the player into my computer, I can play all the files on the SanDisk fine.

[saratoga]

If the sandisk firmware isn't booting, then something is pretty broken.  I would check the disk for errors and see if you can get the sandisk firmware to boot again.  Do not try to reinstall any firmware files until you fix that problem though. 

[redblade8]

The flash memory might be failing. I'd backup everything if it isn't already.  Mine started to fail to boot into rockbox; I booted once into the sansa firmware, and then it just stopped working. The screen would come up black, with a blue ring of death.

[vmaxman]

Good news! After attempting checking the drive for errors, defragmenting, etc. I decided to "REBOOT", that is, start from the beginning. I had to manually remove the .rockbox file since the Utility wouldn't work. I reinstalled the Sansa Firmware, verified that the unit was back to it's original working state, and then followed these instructions to get the player into MSC Mode <http://kb.sandisk.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/61/~/enabling-or-forcing-msc-mode-on-your-sansa-player>. Once I had that and my Computer was recognizing the player as a drive, I reinstalled the Rockbox Firmware using the Utility (it worked properly this time) and all the problems were solved. I'm listening to the player now! Thank you all for the advice.
Vmaxman