Fake 4Gb player memory headache

renniw · #1 (**permalink**) 3rd Oct 2006, 11:19 am

It seems I've joined the fake MP3 player club. I bought on eBay from mp3_exp what appears to be a fake 4Gb MP3 player. It worked OK storing up to 2Gb of data then corrupted the files as more data was added. I opened the player and found that it has the SAMSUNG 637 K9WAG08U1A memory chip which evidently is only 2GB in capacity according to the SAMSUNG web site.

It is formatted in Fat32 and reformatting in Windows still shows 4Gb rather than the true 2 Gb capacity. The format utility on the support CD does not work either, as it likely handles only FAT formatting. Nothing I've tried so far lets me format as a 2Gb chip in FAT format, as the storage size and format fields remain locked.

Is there a way to format this fake 4Gb Fat32 player so that it will report and support correctly the 2Gb of physical memory?

Thanks.

tadad1 · #2 (**permalink**) 3rd Oct 2006, 3:17 pm

renniw,
You can try reformating with the HP Format Tool HERE
or try a double format with the MP3 Player Disk Tool by going to the Partition Encrypt tab and moving the slider all the way right then apply to format, then move the slider all the way left and format again. This seems to work for others.

renniw · #3 (**permalink**) 3rd Oct 2006, 6:41 pm

tadad1,

Thankyou. This solved it. The fake 4Gb player is now a real 2Gb player.
It work after taking this series of steps:

1. The HP Format tool allow a FAT format getting rid of FAT32, but still showed 4 Gb capacity.

2. Then used the Format Tool from the player support CD. This now allowed a Full FAT Format, yet ending in some sort of error message. This may have something to do with the 4Gb not supported by FAT.

3. Somehow a double FAT was found when I ran Scan Disk. A Windows Full FAT Format corrected this. Scan Disk then showed the correct 2Gb capacity to match that of the 2Gb SAMSUNG 637 K9WAG08U1A memory chip.

4. This worked to eliminate the 2Gb of fake memory.

tadad1 · #4 (**permalink**) 3rd Oct 2006, 8:10 pm

renniw, I am currently testing an application that will delete the partition on the memory chip, then a new partition can be created using Windows Drive Manager. This should make it easier to fix hacked chips. Good to know you got it sorted though, at least now you should not have any more corruption errors.

renniw · #5 (**permalink**) 4th Oct 2006, 4:39 am

tadad1,
I tested for potentially corrupting files by coping more that 2Gb of data to memory. The copy simply terminated with an error, and all previously saved files remained usable. Solved. Thanks again.

renniw · #6 (**permalink**) 9th Oct 2006, 5:54 am

The above worked, and the player has worked flawlessly since.

The new one step tool looks much better however, to remove fake memory (see recent admin post).

Gerome · #7 (**permalink**) 9th Oct 2006, 4:40 pm

Hello,

I got a 4GB mp3/4 player ipod clone...
It used to work fine unless i reformat it under win2000 Sp4 with FAT32...

Now my 4GB ipod clone is seen as 474 MB !!!
does anyone has laready experimented this problem ?

I've tested the sliders with Mp3 Player utilities, but it gave me same result, i can't recover my 4GB disk space onto my player... :cry:

tadad1 · #8 (**permalink**) 9th Oct 2006, 4:51 pm

Gerome, It sounds like you have a hacked player and the chip is only 512MB. The reason you can not recover the 4GB is because it was never really there. You will find heaps of posts from othewrs with this problem in the forums. I suggest you open the player and check the serial number of the largest chip on the board with this list
http://www.mympxplayer.org/samsung-a...rs-vt1692.html
There is nothing you can do for this, if you used eBay and PayPal to purchase your player there is an article that explains what you should do to report the matter and get a refund.
http://www.mympxplayer.org/hacked-pl...ay-vt1883.html

Ghost · #9 (**permalink**) 10th Oct 2006, 1:08 pm

Gerome

I have the same problems i have mp3/4 player of 1GB space and whene i format it with mp3 tools i have juste 474MB of space :-( and i search a solution for this probleme, cause if it is hacked player and the 1GB is not real i want recover this 1GB for uploading my movies cause my player under formating support 990MB of information ...

Gerome · #10 (**permalink**) 10th Oct 2006, 1:09 pm

Hello,

I've opened my beast and discovered this one :
Samsung K9F4G08U0A

It was sold as a pure 4GigaBit, and in fact it's capable of only 512MB!

I've written back to MARSDIGITAL.DE the reseller to see how I can return them the beast and get my money back...

I'm very shocked about this experience, it's really a pity to see those kind of fakes!

Thanks a lot for your support, it was really appreciated, your forum is very rich an intelligent!