I bought a ChiPod "4GB" Nano clone (the kind with MENU at the top of the button circle) off eBay from Hong Kong. Yeah, yeah, I know. Massive postage, but AU$83 all up didn't seem too bad.
I assumed it had the hacked problem, because of corrupting and disappearing files. Windows said 4GB, and files went on there, but disconnect the USB, connect again and they're gone.
I reformatted the disk using the tool downloaded from here (after getting a virus warning on the supplied tool) - I had to tell it to format with a secure section then reformat without to get around the "Disk type not supported" message. Now Windows tells me 2GB, and I only had a few files go corrupt, probably as a result of moving them around on the device (or maybe they're at the memory limit - I've never seen a "Drive full" message).
The seller swears that it was checked as 4GB (dubious). So, being an ornery stubborn person, I've cracked it open to look at the chip and get some evidence (probably voiding any kind of refund possibility, but at least I'LL BE RIGHT, and we all know that's what counts). The chip imprint says:
SAMSUNG 622
K9NBG08U5M
PCB0
CAE520HE
According to the Samsung website, that's a 4G x 8bit chip. Am I confused? Well, yes. Have they printed it with a fake chip label? Or could it be an actual 4GB chip, and I've somehow stuffed it up with the formatting?
I'm really confused about the folder file limits people have mentioned. Can I just pile everything into album subfolders under artist folders in the root folder, or not? I kind of expected I'd be able to see song lists, not just folders, but no. And why does the song name scroll so slowly? Hurrah for Chinese knockoffs, hey?
The battery life was advertised as ~8 hours. With the LCD screen set to go off after 5 seconds, I've gotten about 3 hours out of it just playing MP3s. That's rubbish. (By the way, does anyone know what "Darkle" means? Under LCD settings, it has Black and Darkle, which both have sliders, but if I change one then check the other, it's also moved to the same setting. Seems to be the screen poweroff time after a button is pressed, but why have two settings, and why call one Darkle, like Sparkle but Dark?!!! Do they not have Chinese-English dictionaries?)
Any assistance from electronics experts, Windows boffins or reasonably-priced hitmen based in Hong Kong would be gratefully accepted.
Tristan