Player going into restart loop

[Blackarrow]

Hi Everyone,

I'm having a bit of a problem.

I bought one of these 16Gb MP3 players: 16GB TFT LCD MP3 MP4 VIDEO FM RADIO PLAYER USB GIFT A16.



The problem I had was when it arrived it would only hold 8GB of data, I tested it by creating 16 x 1GB files on it using the linux command 'dd'. It failed on writing the 9th 1GB file.

Now I assumed that I'd been scammed, but just to give the guy the benefit of the doubt I though I would reformat it as suggested in the notes.

Before I reformatted it I also repartitioned the drive, there were 4 partitions and now there is only one.

When I try to start the mp3 player up when it's not plugged in it goes into an infinite loop of trying to start up with the hour glass and then spontaneously restarting.

When it's plugged into a PC I can see the information on it and if I remove it (safely) it goes to the main menu and I can see firmware versions etc but can't do anything with media files, if I try it goes into a restart loop.

Does anyone know how I can recreate the partitioning information or have I borked it?

Would a firmware update fix the problem?

Firmware version from the device :
LSD-91N18V-A3
2009-03-03
9.1.54
2005-01-09

Chip: AK1025
Memory: Samsung 928 K9GAG08U0M
Screen ID: XY-1.8V-BY090416
Board ID: BKS25030V10

Given the info can anyone tell me if it is a 16GB player and how I can recover it?

Any help would be very gratefully received.

Many Thanks

Blackarrow

[Blackarrow]

Update.

I used the MP3 Tools on this site to repartition the flash drive and remove remove any memory hack.

After formatting the drive FAT32 it appears to be up and running again.

Windows recognises it as 16GB, I wonder if I'll be able to use all that space?

I'll keep you posted.

Ta

Z

[lolita]

K9GAG08U0M

http://www.samsung.com/global/busine...Nand_Flash.pdf

16Gbits or 2Gbyte.

[Blackarrow]

Hi Lolita,

Thanks for your help, I'll try copying more than 2 GB of unique files and see what happens.

I've just been contacted by the seller in Hong Kong, he said if there is a mistake then he is willing to replace it, so that's a start.

Thanks again.

Z

[Binh@MyMPx]

When I first saw your post and the problem with the player restart, I pretty much figured it would be hacked player as those are the clear symptoms of a hacked player - when it restarts or when you get "file format error" messages.

Yes, I would say try filling up the whole player then playing them. Even if you have to do a copy of a copy of an existing file that is already on that player.

If you've found it is hacked, then consider getting it exchanged (make sure they pay for the player to be sent to you) otherwise consider filing a dispute with PayPal for getting a hacked player and you've been scammed by the seller. Don't try to send the player back as you may not see the replacement and it will cost you to send it back as well.

Good luck and keep us posted on how you go.

[Blackarrow]

Hi Binh,

I fixed the problem of it going into a restart loop by using the MP3 Management Utility, which worked great by the way.

I followed the instructions to remove the memory hack, but the total disk space still appears as 16Gigabytes, even though with my previous test I could only copy 8 gigabytes of test data before it died, does that mean the memory is hacked or just faulty?

Even when I wiped the partition information using fdisk it still showed as 16Gig, that's what killed it, my removing the partition info

On another note, it takes ages to copy data! Even within the mp3 player file system itself e.g. not across USB. To copy a 932Megabyte folder took about 40 minutes, so perhaps it is faulty memory.

I'm still trying to copy data to it to see where it falls over now after a repartition and a reformat.

I'll keep you posted.

Thanks for you help

Z

[admin]

The slow USB copy could be that it's using the older USB 1.1 speeds instead. I know some of my players have the slower USB speeds than the faster USB 2.0 FULL speed.

Generally following the "Removing Hacked Memory" post should bring the player back to it's true memory size, so it's strange it's still showing up as 16GB though.

Lolita did mention that the chip you posted was a 2GB chip so it would be interesting if you can copy more files onto it.

Let us know how you get on.

[Blackarrow]

Update,

Now, I've copied a 932Megabyte music directory onto it and I've had some interesting results.

I then copied this directory (folder to you Windows guys) 7 times to different folder names.

When I do a 'df -h' on the drive, 'df' is the linux 'disk free' command which looks at the disks own reporting of free disk space, it shows 6.8 Gigabytes used, which is what I expect.

When I do a 'du -sh' on the drive, 'du' being the linux 'disk used' command which actually traverses the directories and counts up file sizes, it returns saying 3.8 Gigabytes of data is on the drive!

Looking into some of the subdirectories I see that previously copied mp3 files have dissappeared which makes me conclude that the memory space where they resided has been over written.

So, there we go, even though it's misreporting the amount of free space it must be a 4 Gigabyte unit and not 16 Gigabytes.

Lolita, I may have misread the serial number on the memory chip, but it definately appears I have 4 Gigabytes of unique files.

Thanks for both your help, I'll keep you posted on any updates from the seller.

Z

[lolita]

A real 4GB (32Gbit) NAND flash will have BG in the part number. The only other possible way to have 4GB of real storage is if you have two *AG* chips.

I recommend you use md5sum to verify that the data is intact.

[Blackarrow]

Hi,

Thought I'd do an update as to the final outcome.

When I contacted the seller he replied quickly and seemed quite apologetic.

He suggested that I could return the player or get a partial refund.

The price of the postage alone would have been a fair percentage of the cost of the player and I thought it would be better to have a 4GB player than none at all (as these things can get "lost in the post" ehem!). So I decided to go for a partial refund.

The price of the player was £17 something, including P+P, I suggested to the seller that he refund me £7 to bring the price down to nearly £10.

Surprisingly he did it immediately! So I don't know if he knew he was selling dodgy gear and got caught out or was duped himself, either way £10 for a basic 4GB MP3 is OK, so I'm satisfied, I'd prefer to give the guy the benefit of the doubt and you get what you pay for after all.

Maybe next time I won't be such a cheapskate and buy something half decent not off of ebay.

Thanks for your help,

Z