Very interesting, Sandisk obviously using a special "homebrew" SOC. Seems they got it right with their own part, contrary to their other players using Sigmatel chips and other popular cheap ones.

now that you have it dissembled you could paint it some color that is not pink

Very good work.
Could you please dissasemble the new ZEN 4GB/8GB/16GB for us!
I got that player, but haven't found a way to open it without doing damage.
That yould be very nice.
Thank you.

No SDRAM chip? Interesting, must be integrated in the SOC...
Very clean board, looks like the shuffle. Much better looking than the Express. The SOC is probably a Samsung or Nvidia branded as Sandisk...

No SDRAM chip? Interesting, must be integrated in the SOC...
Very clean board, looks like the shuffle. Much better looking than the Express. The SOC is probably a Samsung or Nvidia branded as Sandisk...

So if it is so hard to open without damage, does it mean that when it needs repair or when the battery dies, you are supposed to throw your player away and get a new one?

FYI: Best Buy is advertising the Clip for $39 as their 'Door Buster' for Black Friday (11/23).

@Chris
Got mine one this morning, it's 35usd for the 2GB at my store and it's not selling too fast, so there is still a good chance to get one, even if you don't get there early.
I already have a 8GB Zen MicroPhoto, so this one is being shipped to my brother.

Got mine at Best Buy's Black Friday sale too. The more I use it, the more I like it. I seem to be collecting mp3 players but this is the only one I have that has a radio.

I payed less for it than I payed for my Zen Stone. This has a screen and twice the storage (and a tuner).

My only wish is that the center button was play/pause so it would be easier to pause while in my pocket instead of having to feel for the top of the player to pause it. I play podcasts at work.

what is the flash type, how hard is it to upgrade ?

BEWARE!!! Bought mine last week also. Couldn't read the fine print till I got home with a magnifier. You can't change the battery! I called the support line and the tech had to go ask. Non-replacible! He said the battery lasts between 2-5 years. I am not paying for something to last about 2 years.

Anyone have a better solution to the Sansa Clip at a low cost? I am disabled.

Thanks

bee youre rite..an awesome player like this for 35$--the battery should last forever.. solar powered even..not just for daily use for only at least 2 yrs..what will they have by then to take its place for 35$?.. youve never had a dap before have you..youre cell phone battery last that long at full charge? not likely..use it during the holidays and think about it..read up on it.

I have found that a lot of the newer MP3 players, no matter what brand, are going towards the integrated battery route. With a unit that is this cheap, it is just easier for the companies to replace the whole unit rather than send out a battery. 'Sides, in two years, you're going to want a new toy anyways.

'Click' at Sansa forum found out that SOC in the Clip (and v2 e200, c200, Express, may be some others) is the Austrian Microsystems AS3525.

http://www.austriamicrosystems.com/03products/products_detail/AS3525/description_AS3525.htm

Well, I found that info on the RockBox forums...and if I had a disassembler for the Clip FW binary (5MB! Man it's HUGE!), I'd be doing some hacking.

Many thanks for the pictures! They helped me to successfully disassemble and dry out my Sansa Clip. Without them, I might have irreversibly damaged the case.

I found the SansaClip laying face-down in a shallow puddle of water on a table. It showed no signs of life, and I could see water drops in the display face.

I knew I had to take it apart to dry it completely and your photos showed me the best places to insert a razor knife to separate the case. Then the photos confirmed the subsequent steps to disassemble.

After disassembly, I put the parts in a shallow bowl along with rice to help absorb moisture and let it sit for three days. I just reassembled and, voila!, it works fine. The case even clips together. Many thanks again!

Aight, so I got mine...But I left it in my pocket for a few weeks. It went through he washer and dryer atleast 4 times since then, and didn't work.

Thanks to you, I was able to open it and reconnect a single disattached wire without doing damage. Now it works beautifully, with no damage what-so-ever.

Needless to say, I think these things are built pretty well if after all that all I had to do was reconnect the black wire to the battery pack.

This is a kewl site, btw. =P

Oh, yeah, and mine clipped together rather nicely. There's one section where the casing broke from forcing it open, but the result is barely noticable.

Great little player, but, look out for Rhapsody, who "gives" you a 30 day "FREE" trial of their service, with songs that self destruct after 30 days. Wish i would not have wasted time downloading them!After 30 days, it defaults to a pause mode before every downloaded song..and oops..sorry..no mention of this in the description!

You poor thing. Why did you break it? It was quite easy to open it unlike the Creative Zen which was partly glued together.
It's a very good player for its price tag.

I bought one of these sansa clip a year ago, and i payed a lot for it... now the volume + button is broken, and my volume is too low... can't hear a thing.
i was wondering if i can open it, put the volume - button on the volume +, set the volume to a higher level, and then just use some headphones with volume control in case i need to turn it down... how hard can it be?

Thanks! The pics helped me crack 'er open, now I can re solder the battery wires!

Now she's all fixed up, with the case only slightly mangled :)

Thanks again.

I had to re solder my battrey wires because of a short from washing it in the washing machine and it going through the dryer. Now everything works great. I have no idea how but it is still working!

how did you open it ? i cant do it without destoying the case?

The Clip apparently uses same battery as 1st gen ipod nano. Those batteries are fairly easy to find from aftermarket dealers. Actually taking the Clip apart and reassembling it may present its own obstacles though.

Fantastic! Thanks for the pictures - my Sansa Clip died today, it would still synch to the PC and act all happy with 5 volts coming in via usb, but as soon as you disconnected...all was black.

Then I noticed something moving inside if I gently waved it back and forth (which my wife's doesn't do) - so figuring it was a disconnected loose battery I tried opening it, but without your photos I would have trashed the snaps. But by using the photos I was able to see where to push, got the player open (and sure enough the two thin stips of double sided tape had given out and the positive wire had pulled free from the solder joint). One quick wire strip and resolder and I am back in business.

Which means it should also be rather easy to change the battery out, it looks like a simply Li-ion battery.

my brother droped his into the toilet and now it wont work and hes opened it and every thing, any suggestions?

but where do i start open'n. .its sealed so well . .i jus dunno wher t' start from. .

Let me ask this more clearly, the pics are great, but not showing where to start, what to press or what to do to actually break this thing apart make this tutorial not very interesting. Those of you that have opened it, please indicate how you did that, did you use a knife, razor (broke one already and no luck) which side did you start on, did you press a tip in or the blade, any help would be great, I would prefer not to destroy it before I get it open.

thanks

Thanks for the pics. Without em I'd have broken a snap for sure! My clip had started to function sporadically & the screen had gone out on it. I had gotten sweat in it from one of my afternoons jogging (it doesn't take much moisture at all to hose this little player up...) With your help I was able to open it, not break any snaps, hit it with a blow dryer briefly & it works like a charm again. Save me $40 to replace it. For those that can't figure out where to open it I suggest trying to start on the volume side just below the switch. gentle pop that hook out of it's clip. Then slide up & get the top corner clip just above the headphone jack. Then go back down & they the one on the bottom side of the player under the volume slide. After that just work around gently popping each one. It's not easy, ya gotta be forceful, but not too rough. Slow easy pressure with a THIN tool. Like a razor blade. Good luck folks.

Thanks Everyone,
I washed my Sansa Clip 4gb and it would work when hooked up to the USB cord, but as soon as it unplug it was dead.

Opened it up with a razor blade and battery leads were unhooked. I soldered them back on and everything worked. And I can't remember the last time I soldered anything.

Thanks.

I accidentally put my Clip through the wash in a coat pocket. To my amazement, the Clip still worked when it came out!

However, after drying out the screen was covered in washing powder :-( I rinsed it in RO (not electrically conductive) but it remained. Thanks to this guide I successfully disassembled the player and was able to clean the screen and re-assemble. Not so much as a scratch on the casing! Take your time and you'll get the same results.

One thing worth mentioning, is that on the 8Gb model that I have, the screen is actually attached to the PCB, and comes out with it, unlike yours in the pic which stays behind ;-)

Hope that helps, K22

i droped my sansa and the vol+ button got broken. the instructions of helped me to open the clip. i soldered 2 contacts and everything works fine again!!!

Thanks so much for your pictures of the disassembly! My volume up button stopped working yesterday (much like alichair above) and this posting helped me fix it without breaking it! When I opened the case, I found the button had separated from the circuit board on one side, nearest the headphone jack. With a little careful soldering and a spring clamp, my Sansa Clip was able to make a full recovery. And, thanks to your pictures, I managed to only break one snap on the case. Thanks again and keep up the good work!

The nano battery has a different color wiring scheme than the Sansa Clip. Anyone know which points the red whtie and black wires connect to? Thanks!

Thanks for cracking yours open and the great close up shots of the inside.

My sansa stopped holding a charge a while back and I almost tossed it. I decided to see if I could fix it, found this page and became inspired.

Turns out my red wire was disconnected and just needs to be resoldered.

Also, when I opened mine, one of the little switches popped out, your photos show me where it belongs. THANKS!

We've just fixed my sansa clip! Droped it at the floor and the volume +button didn't work. With help from this forum we did fix the sansa. We got it open with some clips and a knife (which resulted in a bloody finger, but everything for the sansa)
Could't solder because we did't have anything to soldering with.
So we placed a metal-thing between the battery and the volume button so it stayed in touch with the metalboard.
Thank you all!

Beautifull but does an one know where I might obtain that little infamouse volumne rocker part (s) and rear clip for the sansa clip?? Slight puppy accident waited for days nothing found.OUCH

The Sansa Clip sounds so good because it doesn't have output capacitors. It uses a "phantom ground" instead, according to the AS3525 datasheet. So no more tinny sound due to bass roll-off. It also puts out a massive 40 mW into a 16 ohm load. Chew on that, AAPL iSnot!