Quote:
Originally Posted by Katsunami
Bought a new computer after using your old one for 15 years?
...
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Well, as a matter of fact, I
did just buy a new computer for internet surfing, ebook downloading, etc. But my old computer is only 12 years old, TYVM.
(I'll get the new one set up any day now!)
My current triumph probably means very little to anyone else, but it's a big deal to me.
For many (many) reasons, I like dedicated MP3 players for my music. I've always been a Creative fanboy, but they can be very finicky about what operating system they take orders from. I'm going to keep them (a 32GB Zen and a 32GB Zen Vision:M) going but I wanted to get my hands on something that I could really make
mine. So, I spent about $30 on a used Iriver H320. It came with a 20GB hard drive, and well respected hardware, but the user interface got no love from reviewers.
I was pleasantly surprised when it arrived. It
looked brand new. I connected it to the computer and there were only 40 songs on the hard drive, all loaded in 2004 and definitely not my style. And I quickly saw why reviewers panned the user interface -- it was kind of ugly and hard to figure out.
The H320 uses a semi-proprietary wall charger, but it can be made to charge via the USB through a menu selection. I checked and it was already set up for USB charging, so I connected it to the computer to charge it up.
I loaded Rockbox onto it, solving the user interface problem and really expanding its usefulness. Then I opened it up, removed the hard drive and replaced it with an IDE-CF adapter and a Compact Flash card (it didn't like two of my cards, but it worked with a Kingston brand card). Before I closed it up I installed a new, higher capacity battery.
When it was done I had a 32GB solid state player. Rockbox was set up the way I liked it, and it reported that the new battery should give me more than 24 hours of use between charges. Nice!
Then I connected it back to the computer ... and ... nothing. The computer showed it as a "read-only" file system. I couldn't put any music onto it. I tried every trick I could think of, but no good. My media software wouldn't make it work, and the disk utility on my netbook would not allow me to write to it. Period.
Well, this wasn't a
total loss. I took the card back out, connected it directly to the computer, and loaded about 5GB of music onto it. Plugged it back into the player and it would play the music, but still refused to allow me to load any more through the USB. Just to be sure I reconfigured it to
not allow charging through the USB. No luck.
I figured it must have a defective USB port. That would explain why there were so few songs on it and why it appeared to be nearly unused. I bought it "as is" so I was stuck with it, but it had been cheap and a good learning experience.
So, not a total loss. I could load 30GB of favorites onto the CF card manually, install it in the player, and keep it as a back-up player and for vacations.
I found another $30 H320 online, ordered it and a wall charger.
When the second player arrived I checked and the USB worked fine -- when it was plugged into the wall. The battery was completely, hopelessly dead. I ordered another new battery for it (it should arrive next Tuesday).
Then, I plugged the defective H320 into the wall charger and topped it off. When it was charged up again, just for fun, I tried connecting it back up to the computer. And, for some unknown reason, it
worked! I deleted the music from it, sync'ed 12GB of music to it, swapped out Rockbox themes ... it worked fine. And has continued to work fine.
I guess it must have a firmware problem, but if I stick to the wall charger and never use the USB charging option again, I should be okay!
Meanwhie, I'll convert the second player this week. I have a 64GB card waiting for that one!
