Que,

"Up in smoke"?
Literally?

Yes, and a nasty smelling one too! Funny how the little red light went off slowly, reminded me of HAL. "this sort of thing has cropped up before, and it has always been due to human error", if I remember right. lol So I have to find some new usb chargers, but I'm afraid everything on ebay is low profile stuff. Keith asked for my order number, when I asked if I could buy a new one and the converters 1 month ago. Oh well, can still charge off the computer.

Great thing about the Glacier, is you dont need to look around for special chargers. You can find them on eBay and dirt cheap! (Well under $10 shipped). That's because of the Nokia battery of course. I ordered one recently that can charge the BL4c, and plugs directly into an AC outlet (not requiring the special Nokia power adapter). I expect it will charge better (and safer) than the cheap $2 charger that these players all come with (plus it has overcharging feature and some other features).
I will post my findings if I find a difference.

It seems that the $2 chargers thta come with the players are too cheap to take 240v on European outlets, because the problems I'm hearing seem to all come from using the foreign conversion adapters. I'm very wary about using these cheap AC chargers on my NA voltage also, because I have experienced weird (not good weird) results when first trying to charge my replacement Glacier using the included AC charger. I now charge solely through USB for fear of frying another Glacier, and I have had no problems. In fact, for the moment... I am able to connect with no USB errors either! (I"m keeping an eye on that to see if its consistent.... All I can say at the moment is I changed many system settings on my XP Pro system recently, and theres a possibility of a link between that and the USB connections).

PLAYING VBR MP3's:

Finally, I mentioned in this thread problems playing VBR Mp3's on my Glacier. Well I no longer have that problem for some reason?! I have seen VBR's play on it, and the kps rate will change in the Glacier while the song is playing, to reflect the fact that its a VBR.

Now that I'm finally able to actually use my Glacier, now that I currently have no USB problems or charging problems (& its pretty slow to drain), no current format playing problems, and it fits perfectly in the leather mobile phone case I found (see Gallery), and can be used 100% without ever taking it out of the case.... must say, very happy with the Glacier! It's what the mP4 experience was meant to be...... ;-)

A dedicated bl-4c charger, great idea. I found 1 on ebay from Hong Kong, comes with 2 batteries for 3 GBP, 6,5 extra for shipping. Can you give me a link for yours, or isn't it bought online? Have to check local shops for usb chargers, can't take my laptop with me on vacation just to charge my glacier. About the ac voltage, it is 230 in Europe. We (the Netherlands) went to 230 from 220 some time ago. Must be the quality of the chargers that came with the glacier, never had anything blown in that manner.
Had the player laminated btw, well, looked great, but no sense of the buttons, had to look at the player to operate it, so removed it again.
Are you able to fast forward in a mp3 song normally, or only in ogg ones like I am?

Sure thing, Que. This is the one I bought (below). It was the best quality I could find on ebay, but I dont know that I did an exhaustive search, you may even find better (but not at the price, it was only $7US shipped!). One Nokia BL4C battery seller on eBay says in his ad to use the AC charger to first charge a new battery, and do it for 14 hours. Then after use, a second 14 hrs, and this will ensure a longer life, so I will try that.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...MEWN:IT&ih=012

The ones that come with batteries wasn't that appealing to me, because their batteries are always the cheapa$$ ones. When you can get genuine Nokia's (with the holographic logo) for way under $10 shipped, I dont see the point in saving $1 or $2 on the knockoffs, if even that. So I bought the charger, and a true Nokia in separate auctions.

You know, for all we know, this separate Nokia-specific AC charger may be the panacea for some of the Glacier's deficiencies (Im suggesting the player itself may not be the ideal device to charge its battery - thats why I wanted to try a separate charger. Besides, it couldn't hurt, it gives you a chance to charge one battery while you're still using the player).

230v? That's even worse than 220v! I mean these chargers are small and light... seems like there's almost nothing in them! I'm surprised why they are not ALL blowing up in people's faces each and every time. Over here on this side of the pond, on our 120v system, 240v plugs are massive, you could take an elephant out just swinging one around. If these USB chargers passed certification, well... given all I've heard and everything, I'm not sure they should have. For now, I continue to use my computer.

Why not just laminate the screen. I used to retain the plastic film that the player comes with to protect it, but I have removed it completely because the mobile phone case I've put it in has a plastic window that protects the screen from scratches (hopefully, unless the case itself scratches the player! Guess I'll end up finding out).

I am indeed able to fast forward normally in an mp3 song, both in my new player (9.0.50) and the old one (9.0.48 firmware). Not sure why you might not, perhaps try mp3's from various sources, it may not like the encoding used on the ones you tried.

Thanks! Just bought one too. Strange those mp3's, tried a lot for fast forwarding, none, encoded with jetaudio, winamp, oh well....