Requesting yr kind help Ebay 1.8" Mp3 player
 

Hi guys, First let me say thanks a bunch for the info I found here.
I successfully followed the instructions and reformatted my player from it's fake 16Gb start to it's real 1.9 Gb. Excellent. Oh I should say it's a bog-standard Ebay special 1.8" slim Mp3 player like so-
http://i183.photobucket.com/albums/x203/smr65/sqq.jpg

Things I need:

1/ help with the FM radio - I only have it on one side. It's not the headphones/jack or anything. It works fine with music/movies. So, is it part of the inherent crap-ness of these or is it an issue? Perhaps someone that has one could tell me.

2/ I reformatted in FAT not FAT32 is this OK? I read afterwards people using FAT 32.

3/ I might try updating the firmware, just in case I get my radio functioning on both sides. Presently it shows exact this: 2008/09/30 9.5.54 2008/12/10 HST_SDKV91 Does anyone know where I can find a suitable upgrade? Thanks in advance!

For some reason my punctuation isn't showing - sorry!

The radio on one side only is driving me nuts ;( Anyone want to chime in and help??

Bumpeth Awww pretty please take a look. Is this best place to ask??? Anyone out there?

Hi Randolf,

Just to try to answer your questions:

1. I haven't heard of the radio only sounding on one side of the earphones before though that's a new issue for me. Just to rule it, can you try another set of earphones just in case? Generally the earphones have the antenna as part of the cord, so perhaps that's abit dodgy? Does sound weird. I know you said you can hear fine with music from the earphones, but if you can try some different set of earphones to see what happens, that would be interseting.

2. Formatting in FAT or FAT32 depends on the chipset of the players. Older chipsets only work with FAT while the newer ones work with FAT32. Try one and the other and see what happens. You can always format it back.

3. I would highly recommend AGAINST updating the firmware on your player. You only need to see the "Dead Players" section of the forum to see what I mean. You have a higher risk of a 'dead player' if you do by flashing it with an incompatible firmware.

Hope that helps.

Hey thanks! Ok totally hear you on the firmware, I'll leave it. I was entertaining the idea in the hope that it would solve my one sided radio issue. I can confirm without a doubt that it is with the radio function only and with any headphones. Always normal stereo with any other setting. Also there doesn't appear to be be any "balance" or any other paramters I can see. Must be either hardware or firmware based? (dodgy FM module/soldering perhaps?)

>dodgy FM module/soldering perhaps
Yes. This is not a firmware issue. Either FMINL or FMINR from the FM chip is not properly connected to appropriate pin of CPU.

Ah cheers. I'll pop the hood on it and get busy with the jewellers loupe and multimeter. See if I can find anything.

Just to let you know... I have it running perfectly now.

Turns out there was a tiny solder glob shorting out to pins on the FM module.

Damn but they do some ugly work in there! Anyhow all good now.

Thanks for letting us know that the problem has been resolved.
Can you share some PHOTOS of your handy work? It would be good to see what you've done and would be a great reference in the future for similar problems.

Hey Binh, I ended up gluing the whole thing together with double sided carpet's tape so no go on dis-assembling it again as there was not much in way of support for the screen. What I found inside was quite simple. The whole thing is SMD and there are three boards with flat ribbon connectors between each. The problem was a booger type splatter of solder shorting three pins on the FM module. It was pretty easy to scrape it off with a dental pick. It was obviously "wrong" and not supposed to be there. I was surprized just how crappy the solder job was - there are micro globs and little balls everywhere. I wanted to clean it in some Meths with a toothbrush but I was not sure what that would do to the LCD screen so I just blew it out with a can of compressed air. So all good for now. They have a ways to go before they give the Japanese and Koreans any frights with quality control!