Dropped my Clip+ and now the power button is broken

[PhantomGoddess]

So I accidentally dropped my clip + this morning and now the power button feels really loose, and it can no longer be pressed. The only way I can turn on the player now is by plugging it into the usb cable.

Any suggestions? This is my only player right now.

I have/had a Sansa Fuze but I had to send it into Sandisk to get replaced because the headphone jack was faulty and the white screen of death kept showing up. And I only bought the Fuze and this Clip + in Nov, 2010.

I am actually pretty disappointed in Sandisk right now. I've had other players, including an Ipod Touch and Creative players that have lasted through accidental droppings. And it's not like I am hard on the players or anything. In fact I pretty much baby them as much as possible.

Sorry, just frustrated right now.

[CrowdAds]

[sunami88]

If you bought it in Nov 2010, then it should still be under warranty. If not directly from Sandisk, then perhaps a 90-day warranty at the store you purchased it from?

[McDougal]

I agree...pretty much the only thing you can do is contact SanDisk or the seller you got it from. I suggest contacting SanDisk, I've had good luck with their support back when I had my e270, they sent me a free replacement when the scroll wheel started acting weird

[Adub]

Originally Posted by PhantomGoddess

So I accidentally dropped my clip + this morning and now the power button feels really loose

I am actually pretty disappointed in Sandisk right now.

Sandisk didn't drop your clip+, i think your disappointment is misplaced and your emotional response is backward.

You might be able to RMA it, but the odds are they will see it was physical damage which the warranty does not cover.

[McDougal]

heh lol you're right, its not sandisk's fault

[ted209]

As a workaround, you could always use a portable USB battery charger to "kickstart" your clip+ every time you want to turn it on! e.g:
http://www.anythingbutipod.com/forum...ad.php?t=59511

Just think of it as an car ignition key!

[WalkGood]

Originally Posted by Adub

Sandisk didn't drop your clip+, i think your disappointment is misplaced ...

Keen observation and how true, I applaud you

[Brett_val]

About the same thing happened to me yesterday.. It fell off my jacket when I took it off and now the power button has lowered, almost flattened with the surrounding surface as if it's pressed down all the time. I can't move or press it anymore. Going to use the USB kickstart for a while...

It must have hit the ground with the power button first I suppose.

[carpetmojo]

Originally Posted by ted209

As a workaround, you could always use a portable USB battery charger to "kickstart" your clip+ every time you want to turn it on! e.g:
http://www.anythingbutipod.com/forum...ad.php?t=59511

Just think of it as an car ignition key!

Would a PowerMonkey work the same way ?

[Haven't dropped it yet, but thinking ahead..........]

Actually, I've had 3 so far, my son's had 2. I've lost 1, had another "borrowed" by family member, while son dropped amp on his first. Apart from this catalogue of disaster, they seem to be good - I've dropped mine loads, from all heights, with no problems. ( The amp was a very big one, the fool.)

[Brett_val]

Originally Posted by carpetmojo

Would a PowerMonkey work the same way ?

[Haven't dropped it yet, but thinking ahead..........]

I think that should work, if it delivers 5 volts. Three 1.5 volt batteries also do the trick


Not a very elegant solution but for now it works.

Sometimes it even boots into Rockbox Not sure why it does that but I like it.

[priell3]

Originally Posted by Brett_val

Three 1.5 volt batteries also do the trick


Not a very elegant solution but for now it works.

Don't leave that laying around in an airport!

[portachking]

Hi,

I happened to do the same thing to my mp3 player this weekend. I dropped it on a tiled floor and the button went flush against the casing.

Excuse my lay-mans language from this point forth..

I did happen to fix it though. When I propped it open I saw that the power button had disconnected from the main board. If you look at the forth picture from the following link you can see the part in question on the top right corner. It literally is another physical button that the power button on the clip+ casing pushes. http://anythingbutipod.com/2009/08/s...-disassembly/#

Using my very basic knowledge of soldering I was able to re-attach it and after carefully fitting the casing back together again (taking special care that the power button was directly over the internal button) it's been working just perfectly.

I'm sorry I couldn't explain myself as clearly as I'd like. This is a completely alien field to me, but I want to emphasise that it is fixable even to a fool like me, there's no reason no one else shouldn't be able to do it too.

[Mikerman]

Good for you--bravo!

[ahaque89]

When I propped it open I saw that the power button had disconnected from the main board.

Let me just say from my personal experience.... You want to be VERY careful doing this (if you decide to at all). I just tried to prop open my sansa clip + and the lithium battery completely exploded on me. Thankfully no fire.... but one heckuva lot of smoke.... and a totally destroyed unit. Pretty unexpected response!

[G4Oblivion]

There's no reason for the battery to explode just because you opened it up.
Did you try to force it open with a screw driver and puncture it or something?

Not sure if it matters, but I would suggest draining the battery before trying to open it (or any electronic device), if you didn't before.


My Clip+ had its biggest drop last night because I was trying to get house keys out of my pocket, hands full, Clip was clipped onto my pocket... It was about a 3ft. fall onto concrete. No problems, though I think one of the latches on the side popped out. I popped the latch back when I grabbed my clip later that day.

[mfaughn]

OK, for those of you that read this far...The clip+ switch is weakly secured to the board. it is a little press fit job with two little plastic pins. I'm not even sure the contacts are soldered to the board (guessing not, maybe some conductive grease??). Anyway, I dropped mine and the on/off button quit. Opened it up and the switch is rolling around in the case. put back in place (carefully) and it works again. just use some superglue and pray for the best. IF you can solder SMD parts then go for it. IF you haven't soldered SMD before you will almost assuredly screw it up. Practice soldering tiny stuff on some throwaway boards first.

[Brett_val]

Finally came around to fixing mine. (The unit I posted above had died due to water damage a few months ago but has now magically revived.. Tough little player! To celebrate and welcome it again to this world I decided to (try to) fix his power button permanently)

And it worked!

So thanks to portachking for the idea, and I also agree with mfaughn here: You don't even have to solder it, the switch was probably never soldered on there anyway.

The two little plastic pins on the switch fit right into two holes on the mainboard, so it's really easy to align it right for the metal parts to make contact with the board. The next step is to make it stay there.. Because I was already prepared to solder it, I just put some soldering tin on both sides securing the switch to the board, but I'm sure some superglue would work just as well.

Sorry if this thread is too old, I just wanted to confirm that this is an easy fix for anyone having the same problem.

[MuffinMachine]

I had an older version of the clip, not the + version and the plastic seem was a bit tighter so I had to use a tiny pocket knife to get it open which resulted in a little cosmetic damage that I couldn't care less about.

My issue was not the switch housing coming loose from the board. Instead, my switch was being jammed by the broken off little plastic piece that serves as a pivot/holder for the volume button. Somehow when dropped it this piece made it all the way across the device and lodged itself perfectly so the switch wouldn't move to the on position.

"jumping it off" would have been a good solution but I could see myself being on the road and it turning off and me having to go buy a charger for the car...nah.

anyway, no exploding batteries or other detrimental results from doing this. The volume button works fine even though it's missing the pivot (for now).

THanks for all the help!

[skip252]

Welcome to ABi

Always good to hear that a little bit of DIY and careful observation was able to salvage a nice player. I've been lucky that my drops haven't caused any long term problems. I hope that lucky streak continues.

I've been taking the exploding battery report with a grain of salt. Not to say something can't happen if things aren't done right but that's the only time I've heard that just opening a Clip+ caused the battery to start burning.

[jaddle]

A word of caution - don't, as I did, glue the switch down sloppily, and get glue into the switch itself. It won't work. I think that's what happened, anyway... if I short out the two contacts, the player turns on without any trouble, but nothing I do can get the switch to activate it. Anyone know where I can get a new switch?