hacked "4, 8Gb" player
 

This is to address the problem of memory in chinese players bought primarily on Ebay:

Here is an excerpt from a previous post re: hacked "4 or 8Gb" players:

Posted: Fri May 19, 2006 5:56 pm Post subject: Re: Lost Memory Problem - explained

http://www.mympxplayer.com/viewtopic.php?t=262

Here is a quick clarification :

The issue is BIT versus BYTE. 8 bits=1 byte. (1 Byte of memory is equal to 8 bits of memory).
OK, stay with me.

If a chip is stated as having 1gigaBIT .....(in manufacturer white paper), this is actually equal to 128 true mb. SO....
2 gigaBIT=256mb,
3 gigaBIT=384mb,
4 gigaBIT= 512mb,
8 gigaBIT = 1024mb or 1 true gigaBYTE.
So, you buy a 1gb player from honorable Chinese merchant, you load 1 true gigBYTE of data onto it.
A week later you start playing files past about 119mb and BAM!
The dreaded 'Format error' message....
You reformat w/ windoze, which shows true mb info, and you see you only have 128mb. Files placed on chip up to 119mb play fine. After 119mb, 'Format error' !

You cannot get back something you never had to begin with.

Advice :

1) immediately load mp4 to it's capacity, and play the last files first.
2) if there are errors ( 'format error') on last files, delete them, reload 1 at a time.
3) if there are still errors, save content to HDD, and format using HP format tool
http://www.mympxplayer.com/dload.php...le&file_id=127
or format utility that came with unit.
4) Do NOT partition player. Ever.
5) read capacity data in tool, and in Windows, and compare to stated capacity in Ad.
6) repeat process to verify.
7) if Windows/ hp format tool indicates less memory than stated in the Ad, notify seller immediately that you have a ' hacked player'. This is a deliberate hack by the manufacturer ( not necessarily by the seller) of the player to show more memory than actually resides on the chip.

There is no way to 'recover' memory that was never there to begin with.

8 ) DEMAND A REFUND! .....Before warranty runs out.

This is the only way to stop the manufacturers from ripping us off. Complain. Loudly. In huge numbers. It will eventually help us all.


"BEER.... IT'S NOT JUST FOR BREAKFAST ANYMORE...."

Iridium

Binh,

If you feel this would be appropriate as a ' sticky ' , please feel free.....

Re: hacked "4, 8Gb" player
 

I found this player on the web. I was going to buy one but after reading this thread I'm kind of hesitant. What do you guys think about this place. Is it real or possibly a hack? Has anybody else boughht one of these from this place?

Thanks, Paul

8GB MP4 player link

paulm64, I still have yet to see any proof that 4GB players actually exist ie Memory chip details and pictures. To achieve 4GB iPod Nano uses 2x2GB chips. Just looked at the page, 8GB for $78.00 it is most likely a hacked chip or 8 gigabit (1GB) not 8 gigabyte. In fact the more I read the more suss it gets.
Touch Sensitive Click Wheel (do not exist in ChiPods)
22+ hours play time (generally around 7-8hrs)
AAA Battery ( about 2mm wider than my 2 ChiPods)
Holds up to 2000 songs ( Then stated only supports 9 Folders 99 files in each = 891)

Paul my advise is to stay away if anything.

Re: hacked "4, 8Gb" player
 

Ok. I will. Instead I bought a Nanoclone 1GB from Tirgerdirect. So far so good. I loaded about 967MB worth of songs on it and they all play fine. I love this thing. Nice having an FM Radio on it. And I love this site. I've already replaced my firmware with better screens and menus. And was able to recover mine after accidentally killing it once. And it's only been two days! :)

paulm64

That site looks very dodgy.

It mentions a 2.5" LCD screen as well. Which is very unlikely.

So taking into account, it has 8 Gigs and an expensive 2.5" LCD screen all for only $78.99, it tells me either they're too generous and like making a lost, or are ripping you off with a hacked player and wrong screen size.

Re: hacked "4, 8Gb" player
 

Paulm64: Do not buy from that site, its full of crap.

I just find a site like that funny, i really wonder how many people buy stuff like that.

Its just like on eBay a lot of people are selling just junk, selling for dirt cheap, i think they're getting away with it as many people never fully load their player, i mean i only have about 300mb worth of songs on my 1GB player, so many people probably don't know they have a hacked player and it'll only be a month or more when they do try to use the max memory and see that somethings wrong, and by that time the seller can just say its passed the time allowed for returns and that the buyer has to deal with the manufacturer to get it changed....which i can tell you from experience, you'll get more of a response by banging your head on the wall.

Becareful, look carefully, know that right now 2GB is the max memory and if the deal sounds too good, it probably is.

Re: hacked "4, 8Gb" player
 

I purchased a 4gb unit from this seller 'eshop3721'. As I have found the unit is a hacked 2gb unit. I contacted the seller and they are acting surprised and offering me a refund on the sale price of the unit. This is not acceptable as half the cost was postage and handling. I have emailed a few other users who purchased the same unit from this seller to inform them of the scam. Ebay would only let me message about 10 users. I have received one reply with the person stating that they have now also found that the unit will corrupt files after the 2gb mark.

Hobbsy, Good on you man. This should at least alert others not to trade with 'eshop3721'. How did eBay react to the fack that the seller is ripping people off?

I purchased a 2 GB Mp4 player from eBay, and I found that it is a Hacked one with HP tool(Thanks mympxplayer.com), and I reported to seller that it is a hacked one. I am expecting his replay....

Re: hacked "4, 8Gb" player
 

how it goin i bought one from ebay member lcdguard and it was also hacked tahts for the info mpxplayer i'm starting a claim through ebay dirty rat he cheaged about 50 for postage and 25 for the item so it's going to be a hard battle

Re: hacked "4, 8Gb" player
 

I got the 8GB player so it should actually be 1GB right? But after formatting it, I ended up having a 233MB player, meaning it is actually a "2GB" player labelled as 8GB. Double con at one time. Luckily its a gift heheh

I reckon if enough of you start hammering eBay some traders may start to feel the pinch.

Re: hacked "4, 8Gb" player
 

I emailed mediabsolute (they sell 4gb players on ebay) asking if they could email me a screenshot or something that proves the players are 4gb and asking why there are negative coments saying the players are hacked. This is the response:

''the 4GB player is made by 2 x 2GB sometime one of them corrupt but not often''

Doesn't really help, but I won't be buying one from them.

Hi folks,
Was recommended this post by someone else who got ripped off.
Have fallen victim to the same as many - bought a 4GB player, cost £55 (majority of cost was postage). The player corrupts very quickly.
I have contacted the seller several times and had no reply. I am now starting a dispute on this.

The text of my dispute is below. Please read and offer comments, hopefully if we work together we can get a watertight complaint text for people to use in the future.

Complaint text for PayPal dispute:

"I paid for this mp3 player which arrived promptly.

However the player has a 2Gb storage capacity, not 4gb as advertised. It has been hacked.

I contacted you twice by 'Messages' and asked for your help, but you have not responded, despite claiming to have done so in your feedback.

Please refund £20 of the purchase price of £50 to reflect the true value of this product."

Deep Sh..
 

Everything looks obvious when you know what to look for.. when you don't you pay the price to get that knowledge


I actually bought several mp3/4 from this site for resale and thought the 2,5" was a typo as they're really 1.5" lcd wich I expected, prices made sense also as those are prices for 100 MOQ and are about 20% lower than ebay's best prices unit prices is similar than Ebay's,

what I didn't expect is that in fact they are hacked memory, interesting thought is that the Bit/byte math does not even apply here as either the 1 GBs and 2GBs are actually 128MB (108MB usable) and the 8GBs are actually 512MB ?? didn't get any 4gb

what had encouraged me to buy with this site is the fact that they accept scrow wich 99.99% of the scammers don't.. so I'm not blaming the seller by now, I had 25 hours to inspect the merchandise before accept it so what I did was ramdonly chose about 5 of each items and download some 200 mb worth of stuff then after a quick navigation trough those files everything seemed fine so I just deleted them and start selling,

I had a few DOA wich was promptly replaced by them with no haslle then about 1 month later "boom" buyers start complaining, and I started to look for answers. sadly we just find sites like this one when is too late
been trying to contact them unsuccesfully since yesterday, if I can't contact them by the end of the week I will be looking for a lawier specialized in consumer rights next week

Can you Guys give me tips on legal advice

Re: hacked "4, 8Gb" player
 

hi steve.. i just bought from the same member, the night before i found this site :roll:
i've been told the item's been despatched, but i emailed anyway asking if it was a true 2 x 2gb.
still waiting for delivery, but want to ask you, how did you check the unit/ what did you find you ended up with 512MB? 2GB?/ how's the ebay dispute going?
good luck, to all of us

Re: hacked "4, 8Gb" player
 

Well the plot thickens! I also purchased a 4gb mp4 player from lcdguard on ebay,seemed ok at first,put a few songs on it and a couple of converted films and all was good.
So made the mistake of leaving some good feedback for him.
Next day we added some more mp3`s then strangely some of the mp3`s that played fine the day before would not play and mp4 turned itself off,not just one bad track but alot,also they woundnt even play through windows explorer,so removed everything and stuck a few songs back on and all was well again,added a few films and all worked fine again,then added some more mp3`s - guess what? turned itself off and data corrupt again.Was really cheesed off by now so did some searching and found this place and many other sites/posts about the fake 4gb players.
Have filed with paypal for an item being supplied thats not what it claims and i want my money back for the missing memory i paid for and never received. I think the reason people dont notice at first is because it takes a hell of alot of mp3`s loaded to get to the point where problems occur and alot of people do not fill it right up when they first get it. :x

Re: hacked "4, 8Gb" player
 

well, got the unit today, and i first made a firmware backup.

then i used the mp3 player disk tool.

the first tab info told me there was 4gb, fat32, but the encrypt tab told me the capacity was 2gb which i trusted more.

it has 2 pre-loaded songs.
it's also a portable drive, so i transferred 3 divx films, then some mp3s.

and guess what, it couldnt find any of my mp3s to play.
i deleted the films, and now it can only find the first pre-loaded song, but switches off. so, that was my quick memory test.
i've just taken the cover off, and yes, only one samsung k9wag08u1a
pcb0 chip.

i've given the seller some time to reply to my email, requesting 50% refund, then will go through the PayPal process. was flagged as paypal protection, so let's see what happens. :roll:

btw, very nice player, clean unbranded cover.
and thanks for the s/w and advice guys 8)

Re: hacked "4, 8Gb" player
 

i got my mp4 4gb off mediaabosolute off of ebay and turned out it was a hacked 4gb and was only 2 gb i got a 10pound return from 50pounds for the thing so only cost me 40 for the 2gb player but ah well 2gb isn't that bad and for only 40quid i shouldn't complain. it's better than getting an actual nano as i have gotten a headphone jack and can listen with 3.5 headphones now instead. and the 2gb nano is over 100quid in my local stores. so i'm happy with 2gb.

Re: hacked "4, 8Gb" player
 

Oh oh, I just bought one off Ebay, the 4gb from lcdguard, and payed directly with paypal. Mailed him right after I found this forum, to check the player for real 4gigabytes, as he advertises with 4 GB (capital letters= gigabyte). He can hold the pos and refund me rightaway and save me the shipping cost. What a scam, playing on a small refund, and selling a 512MB player, no way!!!
And I believed his feedback where he stated that 4gigs where 2 gigs due to delivery problems, on earlier sales, I wonder if those 2 gigs where really 2 gigs at all.

I wrote that, no username showed up, anyway, I paid 58 Euro's, of which 28 posting/insurance, duhhhh

Re: hacked "4, 8Gb" player
 

3 in a row, sorry no editing earlier posts here: is that why he states in the ad:

Caution: Please do not format the player; otherwise, you will loss all files that needs for running of the MP4 player.

Ad is here:
4GB??

Re: hacked "4, 8Gb" player
 

I think it should read:-

Caution: Please do not format the player; otherwise, you will realise that its not 4gb at all.

Maybe we should email all the other buyers of the same product and get them to check the true size they have?

Mine was also only 2GB, not 4GB as stated and the headphones broke after 5 days use.

He`s a con-man and knows exactly what he is selling is fake. :evil:

Look at his feedback (LCDGUARD), when someone complained yesterday:

Warning NOT!!!! 4GB MP3 Only 2GB & Hacked. NO EMAIL REPLIES. FRAUDSTER. WARNING!

LCDGUARD'S reaction:: hi, i had email you many time, the mp3 is 4GB, there are techinacal problem,

Yeah, "te-china-cal" problems, I emailed him 4 times since the 2th august, no replies, as with the other buyers.
Too bad for him I will go all the way to get him, ebay- and paypal notifications/complaints are ready, and I have his true identity through paypal.

I was thinking maybe the reason I am having trouble, Juicing up my gizmo again is because I have (found) two drives. The updater is looking @ the one Meg drive which is the real one but it cannot but the info in there because it is too small.

A good 15 or more years back (when hard drives where really expensive and all we had was a 20GB there was this program called STACKER which doubled your hard drive space.

I do not recall exactly how it worked – but I do remember that: 1) it made a seconded drive read only 2) it slowed the heck out of the computer 3) you would have to defrag all the time, or else you where in risk of crashing or it would work even slower

So my guess this is what they are doing and somehow hiding the second drive (which popped up by me).

Re: hacked "4, 8Gb" player
 

Quoting myself, it seems that LCDGuard's shop is empty now. Take the money and run! Glad I used paypal. All should go the full way and file complaints at ebay, paypal, maybe better-business-bureaus, seller's residencial police (online complaint)
Look at your paypal personal history to see his/her real name.

markshmid1
I am not sure if your player is running or dead when you mention you are having trouble juicing up. If your player is running check your Settings>Online Mode and make sure it is set to Normal and the 1MB drive should go away.

Re: hacked "4, 8Gb" player
 

Update:
In my mailbox, a massage sent through Ebay:
"refund made, we do not sell to buyer who do not trust us, thanks."
Crystal Wong

And he/she did.
Now I will have to file a complaint anyway, coz I had to pay 2x the conversion British pounds/euro. Buyers beware of lcdguard, well, his shop is empty now :lol:

Re: hacked "4, 8Gb" player
 

lcdguard - No longer registered with eBay
Looks like the con-man has done a runner before more people complain.

Bit like when he/she had an account called kcshophk

I wonder what the next account will be opened as? :x

Re: hacked "4, 8Gb" player
 

I got one of those "hacked" 4GB units from powerturboseller (scumbag). I cried foul, and when the vendor wouldn't respond, I filed a fraud complaint, and escalated it to a claim. I got some retaliatory feedback from the vendor, but I got ALL my money back, including shipping.

He is selling under the ebay name bestmp4 now!.

How did you find out? What is the link between lcdguard and bestmp4?

Re: hacked "4, 8Gb" player
 

Bravo!!!, Good on you mates !!! May I say, thank you all;

For verifying what I initally found in doing a 'lil research before buying my first nanoclone from China (ebay) in May 06.

It seems my initial hypothesis was correct, and that there are many sellers who have hacked 'Chipods' ( but probably don't know it).

I mean that the sellers don't know as much as we all all know, which is that the manufacturer has duped them into thinking they are selling an 8 Gig or 4 Gig player. Most sellers have no clue that 2GB is the max currently available in a flash player. Please, please do NOT buy 4, or 8 Gig players as they do NOT exist!!!!
Please read my original post, and if necessary send a copy of it to your seller.
Maybe he will forward it on to his supplier, and if enough of us do this, all of this madness will stop!!!!! CAVEAT EMPTOR! (buyer beware).

Good luck all.....

Iridium

OKI

Which formating tool should I use if I have a coned mp4 player ????

it says 4 gb when I use windows soo...

and the software that came whit it(downloaded as well) wont format it ??

lekie

Re: hacked "4, 8Gb" player
 

:lol: [color=#][/color]I have found that corruption can occur through the sync function of Windows Media Player. The MP3 player has a limit in the number of files in folders and the number of folders. I found a lot of MP3s were corrupt after doing a sync operation. These MP3s had played fine before on the MP3 player. I could not delete the corrupt files. The player had to be reformated.

I can only format my Wilson Nano clone with Windows Me for some reason I am not sure of. It could be Windows XP will not allow less than fat32.
I am able to format and able the check the device as a disk using Windows Me full format and it gives me 3.99 gb useable space.

I have created folders in the root directory of the Mp3 player for Video, Artist, Oldies, etc. In these folders are subfolders. For example under Artist I have a serperate folder for each artist. I then transfer each album of that artist to theArtist's folder. I rip the CD with Windows Media player and use it to update the CD information. This way I get the album art in the folder with song title, genre etc.

When I transfer to the Nano clone, I only use the copy and past method. I copy and paste the whole album folder from Media player to the MP3 player.

In order to see the folders when using the player, I select local folders and keep going back until I see root or the subcatagories of root. I keep making my selections with the M button until I reach the folder with the songs and then use the play key.

I am telling you all this because it is very easy to get format errors with files and that they can be avoided and are not necessarily a memory problem. Sending over 99 songs at a time the the MP3 player is asking for trouble. It does work sometimes.

But have you played all songs? Everybody with a hacked 2gig sold as 4gig can put 4 gig (lill less) on their players, but half won't play, because they are not there, just indexed as being there, that's the hack.
Use the tools on this forum to do a real format, you will end up with 2 gig.
As long as stores like uxcell.com do not sell 4 gig nano-clones, there are no 4 gig nano-clones.

This is what I've had written about earlier. The old HD proggies would hide the real cylinder values and would let you to write to the factory reserved sectors of the drive what is reserved for recovery only in case you have a bad sector.This way constantly moves data back and forth but would crash soon as it reaches the logical limit of the given platter.
Similar trick here.Reserve about 1M of protected space and use a spoof to map out the rest of the memoryblocks.
Windows is a stupid operating system it's easy to fool.
It's still operating on the arcane x86 pc architecture what supposed to be dead and buried since the late seventies.
This is just shows the inadequacies of men.
Human nature never likes things to change but it must.
Because of this stupid safezone what ppl need usually, is the very couse of suffering we must endure.
Not just technical but social in nature.
anyhow...I'm off subject already..lol

i buy mp4 player 4GB .. real 1GB this is imposible ?

my chip is K9K8G08U0A samsung with firmware 3.5.37 thereby arrive . and this is 1 GB????????? :( ???

Yep, you are scammed. go complain to the seller, demand refund, leave him bad feedback, complain @ paypal if you used it, and @ ebay. The full works!
http://www.google.com/search?lr=&ie=...8&q=K9K8G08U0A