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.

That was too easy. Thanks for the help.

You're very welcome. Glad it worked. Welcome to the board. :)

Re: How To: Removing Memory Hack
 

MP3 PLAYER
QSB11_COCO
2007-12-29
9.1.52
2005-01-09

That's what I find on my Chipod..
I'm getting really mad right now, because my dad bought 2 and spent like 300$ or something on it..

I can't return it since he brought it over as a present.. >_>

--
If anyone can help, that would be great.
I'm stuck at Step 2, since my Chipod didn't come with the MP3 Utilities disc, I downloaded the version 4.03 tab.
When I open the "RsdiskUtility", a window pops up saying it can't recognize the program, so under the "Drive J:" tab, nothing appears?

Edit: I've tried switching the Online Mode to the three different options already.. still doesnt work.

Try the older version of MP3 Player Utilities.

Re: How To: Removing Memory Hack
 

I joined Just to think you for telling how to unhack a mp3 player Thank you so much i was soposed to have a 8 gig mp4 player but it was just a 1.89 gig player....i was very Upset and im not going to send it back cause i dont want the hastle..its still 2 gigs 30 bucks is about what a cheap 2 gig player cost anyways....I was Wondering what Firmware Upgrade should i get for it.. i have tjd 1322 20 2008 03 04

9.1.52 2005 01 09

Or should i just stick with it.... Again i think you i was going crazy with the format errors and the dups of all my files

Leave the firmware alone. Read this if you're interested.

Re: How To: Removing Memory Hack
 

Hi,

I have problem. I have tried your guideline step by step, anyway if I insert MP4 in computer, I can see its memory, download or upload files etc, BUT if I start program MP3 Player Dics Tool, there appear text "Not detected removable disc! Please check the dics connecting, or reboot system!"

If I press OK, it will start anyway and it can see the letter name of my MP4 disc. I can check "low" in the "format menu", but when I go to "Partition and Encrypt" menu, I am not able to slide the slider right. That means that I am not able to reecnript the memory.

Do you have any idea how to solve it?

Thanks a lot

That message means you don't have an Actions player, therefore it is unlikely to be hacked. Does it show any symptoms of file corruption (strange noises, songs dissappearing)? If not, there is no need to carry this procedure.

Re: How To: Removing Memory Hack
 

Hey, I am experiencing the exact same thing as tomas5556. I'm quite sure my player has a hacked memory as it is supposedly an 8GB Ipod Nano 3rd Generation.

I have also experienced "Format Error" messages when accessing music/videos on my player and I am unable to move/delete some corrupted files on my player that have weird symbols as file names. When I attempt to delete them, I am either told that the file name is too long and thus unable to be deleted or that the file does not exist, or that it is a system file.

As I cannot follow the steps in your guide, are there any other steps you would suggest I take before enabling my player to be formatted with the MP3 Player Disk Tool?

Re: How To: Removing Memory Hack
 

Hi.... I have a big problem with my "china pod"

i have similar mp4 like this

http://img246.imageshack.us/img246/3...player1vw4.jpg
http://img246.imageshack.us/img246/s...jpg/1/w274.png


this iPod look like 2GB MP4 player from a store in China but my windows show me that it is 8GB. when i play the songs, it stopped at 12 song and it is suspend system and I must it shutdown if I want use it later...

I formatted it with FAT32. but this action don't finish in 100% ... and now my system don't see my pod ... I suppose that I erase system in this pod through this format... I'm very unhappy :( ...

Can anybody know what now i Do ??...

I tried to upgrade firmware by " mp3 player firmware " and " S1fwx tool" but this program doesnt detected my pod ...

http://www.mympxplayer.org/how-to-ex...tool-vt66.html

on this page i can't do anymore that 6 steps...


please see this:
-----------------------------------------------
s1fwx v2.6 - copyright (c) 2005 wiRe (http://www.s1mp3.de/)
dump s1 firmware from flash into file...

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
NO WARRANTY NOTE

BECAUSE THE PROGRAM IS LICENSED FREE OF CHARGE, THERE IS NO WARRANTY FOR THE
PROGRAM, TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW. EXCEPT WHEN OTHERWISE
STATED IN WRITING THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND/OR OTHER PARTIES PROVIDE THE
PROGRAM "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED,
INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND
FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. THE ENTIRE RISK AS TO THE QUALITY AND
PERFORMANCE OF THE PROGRAM IS WITH YOU. SHOULD THE PROGRAM CAUSE DAMAGE TO
ANY KIND OF DEVICE, YOU ASSUME THE COST OF ALL NECESSARY SERVICING, REPAIR
OR CORRECTION.

IF YOU DONT AGREE TO THIS TERMS THEN PRESS ESC NOW!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

scan for devices...
no device found

<a>..<z> select device
<.> scan for devices
<?> display help
<~> exit program

$.
scan for devices...
no device found

------------------------------------------
although that I conected my pod to USB !!


-------------------------
another what can I say about this pod (now) is that when I switch on on the screen there is a egg timer on the blue desktop...

this is serial and model number about my "chinapod"
SERIAL no.: YM5387WZSZB
MODEL no.: A1137EMC No.:2066

I have the same problem. And my mp4 shows some symptons. What do I do?

THANKS A LOT for this tutorial mate!

Re: How To: Removing Memory Hack
 

You know people some of these sales on e/bay say these players are 4GB.
Which can also stand for Giga Bits not Giga Bites and that is the difference between a real 4 Gig and a fake. I think that Giga Bits is about 25% of a Giga Bite

Re: How To: Removing Memory Hack
 

I have bought a "16 gb" SD memory card from one of these bad sellers.
My problem is, that when I move or save a file to the card, it is visible the first time, but next time I open the card, it's gone.
Can I use the mp3 tool, you are linking to, or what should I do?

MP4 disc formatting problems
 

Hi
I have just joined this excellent site having purchased an "8GB" Lisong MP4 via Ebay - bad move! The radio gave up first and when I attempted to update the firmware (did not know about the issues ) it corrupted the drive. Neither Windows nor the HP download on this thread can re-format the drive - I get the Error message "failed to format the device" - that applies to FAT and FAT32. Windows can see the drive and it states it is 5998mb whereas the ebay seller stated the size was 8GB.

Any advice would be really appreciated.

Re: How To: Removing Memory Hack
 

Got a hacked player - advertised as 8GB but was actually 4GB. I performed the above process but could not slide the partition bar - so I just performed a Low level format. This worked okay on Windows XP. I then plugged my player into a PC running Vista and the device went crazy and kept restarting. I quickly performed a windows vista disk format (FAT32) on this PC and things calmed down. I did not perform the mympxplayer de-hack this time and so its back to reporting the capacity as 8GB. Perhaps I should of changed the capacity value to 4GB on the windows dialogue box. Yes I should of done this properly but I had just given it as a present and was trying to demostrate it. I suppose if the recipient tries to put more than 4GB onto it then that will be the point at which it goes crazy again. I kept quiet because it seemed to work and they didn't have the de-hack software.

Thanks for the formating guide..I did one of mine & instead of 8GB I really had a 4GB..not too bad I guess, but for the prices these sell for why don't they just say 4GB and stop hacking the shit out o stuff..

I have about 8 of these that won't even startup..Stuck on the hourglass..My computer won't pick them up when i plug them in..lost here big time!@!

any ideas as to what I need to do to bring these into the startup menu...I'm tired of looking at hourglass...heck the houglasses don't even work..LOL

Thanks for your replies
Ftanl

I think the big reason why they advertise it at 8GB because it's MORE than 4GB.

"Why buy a 4GB when you can get a 8GB one for the same price?"

That then gives them more of an 'advantage' over legit sellers who are selling a true 4GB player for the same price as a bad seller selling a hacked 8GB player.

You should try to get a PARTIAL REFUND for your player to make it worthwhile for you and also get as much back from the seller as possible. File a dispute with PayPal and get a partial refund. Hopefully then it will not be as worthwhile for them to hack the players in the end.

Regarding the issue with your player not starting, I would suggest starting a new thread for it and put in as much information as possible as well as the firmware version of your player.

THANK YOU SO MUCH GOT MY MP3 PLAYING MUSIC AGAIN!

Test

Grand thanks for the help !

Re: How To: Removing Memory Hack
 

I too bought a hacked player. This one is a 16gb nano clone. When I performed the memory hack removal I end up with 1.89gb. But it will only let me put 988mb of mp3s on it. It shows the 1.9gb size but will only let me use half. Any ideas on how to make the other half available?

Re: How To: Removing Memory Hack
 

Got lucky, reformatted using FAT32 and recovered the other half of my players memory. So now my "16gb" player is a true 1.9 gb player.

I just tried the info above to see if my 4GB Chipod Nano clone was really 4gb. Well, after doing the above it does in fact say 4gb. Actually, it's more like 3.82GB. Is it possible that it is a real 4gb player?

Re: How To: Removing Memory Hack
 

Hi, I have similar problem to some of the other people in here. I have tried different versions of the tool MP3 player disk tool, but it would not see the player connected and when I go to "Partition and Encrypt" menu, I am not able to slide the slider right. My player looks like this http://mympxplayer.org/image-full-asp631.html and it has a sticker that says 8 GB on the back, I bough tit recently on ebay, but I get format errors and loose files and my PC (Vista) also sometimes gives disk error and has to scan the flash to recover from error. With a few MP3 music it works fine. Have those with similar problem managed to solve it? Please tell me how if you have.

Re: How To: Removing Memory Hack
 

I have this same problem. ^

Hi rimaamir and richardwad1,

Try formatting your player in WINDOWS instead and see if that helps resolve the problem.

i have problem with mp4 8 gb palyer chines model now its shows blue screen an egg timer even it won"t turn off and computer wont search storage device plz help me thanks

Thank You Mr Admin

Ok Guys, Not my first time using this tool so when I received 3 supposedly 8GB players on ebay I decided to run the hack test..bad idea!

I did everything as outlined in the how to guide above..

On opening the MP3 Disk Tool it detected drive F:
Capacity said 4072.31MB I set Format type to low & proceeded to partition/encrypt. Disk total capacity in there said 8170MB so I slid the bar to the right..still said 8170 above. Did the P/E and 2 drives appeared F: & J: ......F: was in FAT and had something like 17.2 MB & J: was in FAT32 and had something like 3.95GB ...so I slid the bar all the way to the left & hit start..When it finished only one drive appeared (F:) it had 3.96GB

When I went to drive F: and clicked on the Format with windows it was reading 7.97GB and FAT32 seems impossible to me....usually after completing the how to above it showed actual memory..When I eject the player and check memory info from the Mp3 setup menu it says 0% of 00MB

NOT GOOD AT ALL!!! Is there anything I can do to bring back what ever memory was on there??? 1GB sounds good at this stage in the game..LOL

It's an Actions player AK2025 9.5.54 firmware v
Do not use the how to guide for this type of firmware or player...at least until I get mine fixed..

Any help from the mods would be greatly appreciated.. Thanks

FTANL