How To: Removing Memory Hack
 

This guide is for you if:

1. You've bought a mpx player larger than 2 GigaBytes capacity (eg 4GB, 8GB, 60GB, etc). Not limiting to larger than 2GB, smaller capacity (eg 512MB, 1GB, etc) players are also subjected to possible memory hacks.
   However, recently i've realised that the Actions chipset does support upto 4GB (2x2GB). Also, there were some unconfirmed news of genuine 4GB players.
2. You just bought a new player.
3. You are experiencing "Format Error" messages when adding or accessing music/videos on your player.
4. You are experiencing frequent Player Restarts (hanging on the hourglass) when playing certain songs.
5. Your player duplicates the music/video files that you add to it.
6. Your player does not allow you to move/delete files that you have copied to it.

If you fit any one of the above (or even all), then this guide is for you.

Why you should format:

1. Not formatting will only cause you ALOT of trouble and hassels in the future.
2. Not formatting increases the chance of killing your player in future, and you will need to perform the "Dead Player Recovery".
3. Ensures that what you have bought, is of the actual memory capacity.
4. If it is a gift for someone, you don't want them to come back to you with the above mentioned problems.

Common Myths regarding this formatting procedure:

1. You will not lose any firmware/theme related files.
2. You will not accidentally kill your player whilst doing so (unless you unplug or disconnect your player during the format process).

On completion of this guide, should you end up with lesser memory than what you have paid for, it would be recommended to contact your seller for a full refund.

Also, take a minute to fill in an online petition against eBay, Paypal and fraudalent sellers who knows about this problem, but persists to trade with such fraud items for monetary gains.

http://www.mympxplayer.org/petition-...y--vt3442.html

Every signature plays a significant factor, the more signatures we have, the better chance of eBay shutting down such sellers permanantly.


STEP 1
Back Up All Your Data Before Proceeding! This Guide Will Clear Everything In Your Player's Memory Chip!

Install MP3 Utilities, any version will do. It usually comes on the CD with the player, or you can download version 3.68
Here, or version 4.03 Here, or version 4.05 Here. Any one of these will do. The Disk Tool Utility is the same.


STEP 2
Start up MP3 Utilities Disk Tool.
You will be shown a screen like this:
http://img206.imageshack.us/img206/1760/1lg4.png
Ensure that you select LOW Format Type.

Next, go to the Partition and Encrypt tab as shown below.
http://img206.imageshack.us/img206/851/2av3.png
Now, slide the Partition Slider all the way to the Right.
You will notice the "Setting encrypted disk capacity" increases, it is normal.
In this screen, you will also notice the first signs of a hacked memory. After sliding the slider to the right, you should see the actual capacity of the memory chip in the Partition box.

*NOTE* Ensure That You Do Not Click The "Set Username And Password", Leave It UNTICKED.

Next, click on Start to begin the format and partition process. You will be presented with a dialog box like below, click on Yes to proceed.
http://img80.imageshack.us/img80/2108/3vw6.png
It will take a few moments for the process to complete. You will notice that your player would disconnect from the computer, and then re-connect back again.

You will be presented with the "Complete setting disk partition!" dialog box like below.
http://img228.imageshack.us/img228/7013/4pk5.png


STEP 3
Go to My Computer and check that now you will two memory drives for your player. You might need to click Refresh or press F5.

http://img228.imageshack.us/img228/6605/5ku2.png
One of which would be small (about 17MB), and the other would be the remaining memory capacity.
*note* it seems that some members reported that they do not see this extra drive appearing. Do not worry if it does not appear, just continue to proceed with the guide.

Now, go back to the Partition and Encrypt tab.
Slide the Partition slider to the Left, and click on Start.
http://img80.imageshack.us/img80/2556/6oo8.png

You will repeat the process and the "Complete setting disk partition!" dialog box would appear.
http://img206.imageshack.us/img206/3330/7qo9.png

Check in My Computer that now you will only have One single memory drive for your player. Right click on it and select Properties, this is your actual real memory capacity.

http://img80.imageshack.us/img80/9555/8wb0.png
Now check your player's Memory Info for the correct memory display.
To access this, go to your player's SYS TOOL >> MEMORY INFO.
Your player should display the actual memory size that you have just checked.
Check if the percentage is at 0%. If it is, you can skip Step 4 below, and continue to Step 5.


STEP 4
If your player's Memory Info does not show 0%, you will need to complete the below procedure.

Right click on your player's memory drive, and select Format.

http://img213.imageshack.us/img213/9641/9pi3.png

Now a new windows format screen would appear.
http://img176.imageshack.us/img176/1939/10yx5.png
Select FAT in the File System dropdown menu.
If after completing Step 3, your player really does have 4GB of memory, then you need to select FAT32 instead. As FAT only supports upto 2GB.
Click on Start to begin on the format process.

A warning will appear for the format, click on OK to continue.
http://img176.imageshack.us/img176/4231/11lg9.png
Wait for a few moments while Windows formats your player.
When completed, check your player's Memory Info again, it should display 0% now.


STEP 5
Once completed, sit back and start copying music/video files to your player and enjoy your stuff! :D

To further verify your player's real memory size, you can open up the player, and check for the memory chip's serial number. The list of serial numbers can be found Here.

Now, i've received a few "hate-mails" from members who used this formatting guide and blamed me for ending up with lesser memory capacity than before.
Here are some threads further explaining the hacked memory chip.
By Zaidon: My Fake 4GB MP3 Player - Detailed Findings!
And Iridium: hacked "4, 8Gb" player
So much that i'm 100% confident in this guide and the whole hacked memory thing, that i did not put any disclaimer, nor will i put any in future.

So your player had a memory hack?
Contact your seller immediately, and demand a partial or full refund.
Also, click on Here to read up on what you can do against them.

Re: How To: Removing Memory Hack
 

just thought i would say that the download links on the utilities suite is broken.

thank bro.

Hi methiroth,

Thanks for letting me know about this. I would in that case suggest using a newer version instead. I'll change the links in the post.

Re: How To: Removing Memory Hack
 

bro!! this really helped me a lot! i really thought my bestfriend's player was a 4 gig!! but now i see it was just a 250 mb!! i had gone nuts on what was going on with her player.. its a wilson co ltd s1 mp3 player ipod nano 3.5.37.. i even thought i broke it or something.. but now im really mad.. cuz she got ripped off!! :evil: its been 2 years since she handed this to me.. now i can finally rest in peace :)

Re: How To: Removing Memory Hack
 

w00t th3 $#@%?, my fake ipod said it was 8gb, now ive done this and it says its 100 megs, but i dont care, got it for free :wink:

Re: How To: Removing Memory Hack
 

In my case, i had to set it the online mode to Multi Drive for this to work because after changing the encrypted drive to full, windows didn't recognize the device at all. As I have two MP4 players, one of them had to set it to Normal Only. I hope this gives some hint to others for this to work.

Bye

Re: How To: Removing Memory Hack
 

well I did what you said to the letter, and now my player doesnt turn on at all. what do you suggest I do now?

Re: How To: Removing Memory Hack
 

I recently purchased a Nano 3rd gen clone 4GB and it also had a hacked mem. After i removed the hack it said I had 2GB. When I load it up it will only accept about 560MB. I've deleted and reloaded it 3 times and I am up to 572MB. Any suggestions?

Hi, try making a new folder and putting songs in it. Most players will only hold 99 songs per folder.