Does anyone know how to fix an MP3 Player?

Anic

I have had a wee MP3 player for about six months now and it has been working perfectly with no problems whatsover - until now.

It is the type that hangs round your neck like a necklace. Anyway, last week I was going to sit back in my seat on a long train journey when it "banged" into the back of the chair in front of me (not hard) and "switched off".

Now I can't get it to switch back on. When I press the power/start button the window shows "starting...." for a couple of seconds and then switches back off. If I keep my finger on the button it says "starting" and then shows one of the songs but as soon as I remove my finger it switches off again. If I keep my finger on the song still shows but it won't play as it is as if the song is "stopped" and needs to be re-started. (hope that makes sense)

Anybody got any suggestions how to fix it or is it a case of buy a new one.

debeast

unless you've got a mate with a soldering iron and knowledge of electronics then get a new one.
two things to consider

---

is it within warrenty ?
and could it be covered by accidental house hold insurance ?

saves some pennies!!!!

Anic

debeast wrote:

unless you've got a mate with a soldering iron and knowledge of electronics then get a new one.
two things to consider

---

is it within warrenty ?
and could it be covered by accidental house hold insurance ?

saves some pennies!!!!

Thanks debeast

Unfortunately I bought it about eight or nine months ago and it didn't have a warranty with it, unless I wanted to take out a Dixons coverplan which I didn't bother to do.

I think you are right with the soldering iron though, I took the battery out of it last night and the wee metal strip that touches the +ve end fell out.

I put it back in and pushed it down a little bit and it started to work. I just need to find someone with a soldering iron now.

debeast

http://www.argos.co.uk/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?storeId=10001&langId=-1&catalogId=3151&productId=116965&clickfrom=name


1 soldering iron

and i think i'm right in saying you automatically have 1 years warrenty on all electric products!!!

Anic

Thanks Debeast

Thanks for your help, I phoned Dixons again and explained that the metal strip has broken off and he has told me to bring it in so the Customer Services Manager can look at it. I remember when I bought the player the guy told me I would need to buy a coverplan which would cover it for a year. He never mentioned anything about it already having a warranty which covered mechanical parts. Maybe he was trying to earn commission or something!!!! As the warranty only covers mechanical parts does and not accidental damage do you think this bit is covered or is it just the bits inside? There is no harm in taking it in to find out.

I have also reserved one of those soldering irons to pick up tomorrow just in case it isn't covered by the warranty I'll let you know how I get on.

debeast wrote:

http://www.argos.co.uk/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?storeId=10001&langId=-1&catalogId=3151&productId=116965&clickfrom=name


1 soldering iron

and i think i'm right in saying you automatically have 1 years warrenty on all electric products!!!

andy88_2

As I looked at the first post I thought loose battery. It sounds like it should be easy enough to fix, even if they charge a couple of quid, though I'd suggest to them it should be robust enough if they guess it's accidental

If you do end up doing it yourself, be careful not to get so engrossed in looking only at the tip of the iron that you melt part of the case with the rest of the iron body.

Anic

Thanks for the advice Andy

If I do need to "do it myself" I have a friend who has a really steady hand through years of painting those tiny wee warhammer and heroclix model things, so I'll see if he would do it for me. I know what I am like and would probably make things worse or melt the whole case.

andy88_2

Sounds good. I'm glad you didn't think I was patronising. 2 friends did this several years ago while wiring up an instrument panel

Anic

debeast wrote:

is it within warrenty ?
and could it be covered by accidental house hold insurance ?

saves some pennies!!!!

andy88 wrote:

As I looked at the first post I thought loose battery. It sounds like it should be easy enough to fix, even if they charge a couple of quid, though I'd suggest to them it should be robust enough if they guess it's accidental

If you do end up doing it yourself, be careful not to get so engrossed in looking only at the tip of the iron that you melt part of the case with the rest of the iron body.

Hi Andy and Debeast

Sorry I haven't replied sooner but my mother in law had a stroke and I've been running up and down to the hospital for the last week or so - so the MP3 player took a back seat for a while.

Anyway, I took it back to Dixons today expecting them to send it away for repair but no - the guy told me they would exchange it for a new one but as they didn't have the same one I would need to bring the disk, USB cable etc back in and I could swap it for any new one. Needless to say, I rushed back home, got the bits and bobs and went back.

They let me take one that was double the size with its own rechargeable battery and gave me £10 change as it was a tenner cheaper than I paid last year due to them coming down in price since I bought mine.

Thanks again for your advise Debeast, I assumed cause I hadn't taken out their coverplan then it was hard luck but I didn't know you got a 12 month guarantee automatically anyway. If you hadn't told me then I wouldn't have even thought of taking it back as I got it so long ago.

Top marks also for Dixons for changing it without any fuss whatsoever and I've not got a better player so I'm well chuffed..

andy88_2

sounds even better. Hope the mother in law is improving

I just bought something like this too - use as memory stick as well - 512 Mb one returned to PCWorld - couldn't resist at £25, cut from £80 then £60