Sony Walkman, E344 model problems

raditus

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Apr 30, 2012
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10,510
I have an E-series; E344. Have had it for awhile and my unit was very dependable.

I let my music play the other night as I slept, as I am trying this bineural beat stuff. I woke up and my battery was so gone it wouldn't even boot up to say about the low battery. I hooked it up the the main computer for a couple of hours. When I checked on it, it was at full charge. the only thing was when I unplugged it from the computer, it said it was on HOLD. I turned hold off, but it was stuck. I restarted it using the restart button, but what it was, was that gunk got around the hold button. I cleaned it out and got it from on HOLD.

Right after, the main buttons messed up royally. Up would be down and many times at my music menu, the player would flip through my list of songs by itself. This would happen espacally to the vlume botton. the volumn couldn't be turned up or down. the Option button 'power off/on' will not wrok at all.

I got pretty much all of the buttons fixed, except with some problems with volumn button. The option button will not work at all, though. It will not even bring down the little menu that includes the clock display.

After all of this, I found out that no computers, even an Xbox 360, will read the Walkman at all. When I plug it into the Usb port, the Walkman shuts off completely! it won't even charge in this state. When I unplug it from the computer, the Walkman goes through it's process. If I plug it in at this time, and it's hits the creating playlist stuff, then it starts charging. this lasts only for a few minutes because it gets done with the playlist thing. then goes back to the problem of a black screen, no detection at all, and no more charging. I even borrowed my dad's E344 USB cable in case the cable itself got hosed in some fasion; no such dice.

I literally have dozens of mp3, vids, and photos that I literally will never be able to get again if it went South. The same thing goes for the other files that I placed on there, that I created. I will Never be able to get those back either.

Can someone please help me?
 
Solution
i bought one of the smaller mp3/radio walkman units a few years back as a gift for someone and it worked fine up until one day when it just didnt work anymore. not sure what happened to it. sounds similar to the issue you are having.

we ended up tossing the unit because we never did get it to work right again.

as far as you getting information off... you could try toggling the hold button a few times and restarting it. perhaps leave it off for a few hours and turn it back on. in general just fiddling around with it.

if the information on the device is critical then you *might* be able to get information off using a data recovery program but i've never tried myself. in general always back up your information on two or more sources...
i bought one of the smaller mp3/radio walkman units a few years back as a gift for someone and it worked fine up until one day when it just didnt work anymore. not sure what happened to it. sounds similar to the issue you are having.

we ended up tossing the unit because we never did get it to work right again.

as far as you getting information off... you could try toggling the hold button a few times and restarting it. perhaps leave it off for a few hours and turn it back on. in general just fiddling around with it.

if the information on the device is critical then you *might* be able to get information off using a data recovery program but i've never tried myself. in general always back up your information on two or more sources.

i take it the mp3 player doesnt have removable memory (sd card)? if it did that would be a cakewalk to take data off of. i know my unit did not.
 
Solution

raditus

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Apr 30, 2012
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I couldn't cough up enough dough to send it in; I took the back casing off myself. I messed with the battery, unsticking it from the metal plate, but not removing the wiring from the board itself.

I blew slight air into the little gap that leads into the main circuitry in the bottom. Generally, I messed with it, cleaned button ect. I re stuck the battery onto the plate and placed the back casing back on.

Today, I get home from doing business and the USB is recognizing the computer and Vice versa.

I am not unhooking the unit until I back all of my critical files over to computer; which I am doing right now.

Where would I get a battery from? I tried looking the model number of it up, but I kept getting this site through Google Search that claimed to sell them, but it was in another language.
 
the mp3 player is most likely made in another country like china or thailand or taiwan so that doesnt suprise me. you might be able to get something similar through a mail order electronics supplier but finding an exact match might be difficult. sony service might be able to hook you up but the cost might be too much to warrant a fix.
 

raditus

Honorable
Apr 30, 2012
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0
10,510


I did not unhook the USB last night until I had all of my major files backed up. I unplugged the unit as it was fully charged. Now today, I plug it back up and I am back at square 1.

I probably need to get another unit. I just format the old one when I get it.

Question is, can I recycle the old unit? Even with the apparent USB problem?
 

raditus

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Apr 30, 2012
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10,510
Cool, thanks; I'll be sure to format it beforehand.

bad that I pretty much have to get a new one; but pretty cool that I ended up not losing any of my files in the end.