I need help with a bricked RCA Pearl. Please.

[BILL/T/D/Y]

Hello everyone. I have a RCA Pearl model TH1802-A, and it seems to be bricked. I've had this for awhile and had no issues with it. But all of a sudden wether I have a micro sd card in it or not it goes as far as the pearl screen with the please wait notice and usually it looks like the lights move as it checks the data bases. However now it just shows the pl;ease wait with no motion and stays there till the battery runs out. I keep the same music in the internal files on the player and have not changed or added to them as long as I have owned it. I do change the contents of the external 1 gig external card from time to time. But it does this with or without the card installed.
Does anyone know of steps to put this player into a diagnostic mode or a recovery procedure for it? The files are replaceable as I store my music in an external hard drive and only use purchased C.D.'s to get the music. (I learned years ago not to trust the "free or safe" down load sites. I am checking my flash drive library for the backup that I think I made of this player when I first pluged into my system.(kinda anal about that)
Thanx in advance for any and all help.....Bill

[CrowdAds]

[ultrauber]

Typically these cheap players don't have very good recovery options. But good luck!

[aarons510]

Originally Posted by BILL/T/D/Y

Hello everyone. I have a RCA Pearl model TH1802-A, and it seems to be bricked. [...]
Does anyone know of steps to put this player into a diagnostic mode or a recovery procedure for it? [...]
Thanx in advance for any and all help.....Bill

You didn't mention what recognition, if any, your player gets from a computer when it's connected to one. But, presuming you have a MS Windows machine or access to one, go to http://www.rcaaudiovideo.com/downloads/?sku=TH1802 and click on one or more of the Firmware Update[s]/Restore Utility links. If you run one of these programs -- I'm not sure which is the latest or the best, or if it matters -- it will ask you to connect a player. Hopefully, it will recognize yours when you plug it in and be able to do something useful to it.

If, and only if, the player is not recognized by the program when you plug it in, try plugging it in again while holding down the play/pause button. That puts some RCA players, at least, into ROM Recovery mode, which I wouldn't try unless the player is not otherwise recognized.

Good luck!