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Comment by dsr_ | Hacker News Reader

Why are yours dying so fast? (Alternatively, why do mine hold up so well?)

I have had two Clip+ in the last 15 years. I retired the first one because I broke the clip off; it still works otherwise. I was using them about 2 hours a day until the pandemic.

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I have had several clip+ses over the year, and the one thing that died every time was the onboard flash (which prevents the player from booting at all). I resurrected my last one where it was only corrupted and not dead, but I did not have other issues otherwise.

Now I am using an hiby R3, which is quite clunkier, but allows me to choose between microsd storage and streaming from the phone in high quality, while also having 2.5mm balanced IEMs (kind of a gimmick, but I like their sound a lot).

edit: and of course being able to finally ditch USB-mini is great.

For anyone affected by this, a simple trick to reviving a Sansa Clip+ that won't turn on is to hold the power and home button simultaneously for about 20-30 seconds. Let go and press the power button and it might turn on.

I'm not sure what causes these players to become unresponsive. It's happened to me when it tries to play an unusual file or after I've transferred music to the device and left it plugged into the computer for a while.

They are still my favorite standalone portable mp3 player, even with the stock firmware.

Yeah I had the onboard flash die once too. Apparently the trick is to never put media files there, but rather use SD cards for that.

One ended up on a trip through the washing machine and didn't survive. Another's jack broke (common problem that I didn't back then know how to prevent), and I broke it even more when being an idiot in trying to fix it. The last wore out its internal flash (I think).

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