Sansa Clip Zip - broken micro sd card slot

[pinkdog]

I have a clip zip that works but cannot read microsd cards. Any idea why and how to fix?
It was dropped plenty of times to the floor and washed in washing machine. When I opened the case, card slot looks good without any damage. But it can't detect card. The card is good and works in other sansa clips.
The internal memory of that clip zip does work.

[saratoga]

I would take the circuit board out and inspect carefully for any corroded pins that might be shorted.  If you don't find any, it is possible one of the socket pins is bent. 

[Bilgus]

Most likely you can't see it inside but there is a card detect pin that gets closed to (Ground?) when you push the card in
(IIRC it shorts to the case)

If the card detect pin is not activated then the player will not recognize the card (or even try)
you could try cutting a small emery fingernail sanding board to the shape of an sd card and insert + remove it a few times
but that will not take care of the card detect pin (which I suspect is the issue)
the socket and the connections to the board are fragile
hot air is the only way I'd attempt to replace the socket

otherwise you could try shorting the detect pin to ground permanently and just make sure it always has a card in


Don't go probing in the socket it is very fragile

[pinkdog]

I looked at the pins while slowly inserting sd card. All of them moved as the card was being inserted. However, one of them was bent a little different that the others. I changed it's shape while sd card was partially inserted. When doing that, I accidentally took off one of the cables from battery. I have resoldered it.

I turned it on and sd card started working. It is fixed.
Now I don't know if bending the pin helped or if cutting the power did it, but I am guessing it was the pin, as I think I have tried hardware shutdown (hold power for 10-15 seconds) before and didn't fix anything.

[pinkdog]

Most likely you can't see it inside but there is a card detect pin that gets closed to (Ground?) when you push the card in
(IIRC it shorts to the case)

If the card detect pin is not activated then the player will not recognize the card (or even try)

otherwise you could try shorting the detect pin to ground permanently and just make sure it always has a card in

Which pin is the card detect pin? How to short it?