Hints and Tricks

[gregorykicks]

I don't know how many people already know about this general hint/trick for any mp3, watch, gameboy, etc.. anything with a screen. Using toothpaste (minimal! be careful!) you can buff out scratches. I put a bit on the corner of a kleenex or my finger and rub firmly, but not extremely hard on the scratch. Then just use rubbing alcohol, or an alcohol based cleaner to clean the paste off. Alcohol won't damage your electronics if you accidentally get some in your player. Again, as always, be carefull when using a foriegn substance on your sensitive electronics.

[phoenix]

I've got my E280 working with Win98SE in MSC mode without problems using the following steps(Assuming your USB drivers are installed and functional):

1) If your motherboard has an onboard USB 2.0 hub install the USB 2.0 drivers provided by your motherboard manufacturer. They are not installed by default on many VIA chipsets and have to be installed seperately.

2) Download the Windows 98 USB Mass Storage Device Drivers written by Maximus Decim.

You can get it them here: http://www.technical-assistance.co.uk/kb/usbmsd98.php

nusb24e.exe is the latest English version.

3) Set your Sansa to MSC mode and connect it to your computer.

It may take a minute or two to negotiate communications, but once the player reads 'Disconnected', you should see two new drive mapings under Explorer and can drag and drop to the player.

If you go to "My Computer" -> Properties -> Device Manager -> Universal Serial Bus, the Sansa should be listed as a "USB Mass Storage Device"

I've only tested this with my E280, but it should work for other models. As long as the player reads 'Disconnected' you can physically disconnect the Sansa at any time.

[Destroyer14094]

An easy and fail-proof way to get the converter to work, is in the converter itself. Next to the "Powered By Inter video" thing, clickon the paper with lines in it, you will see a menu drop down, go to tool, then option. You will see a box with Temporary Path,you will see a folder address thing that will be something like-"C:\Documents and Settings\Pat\Local Settings\Temp\SanDisk\Sansa Media Converter\". Change the folder to a location where you will easily be able to find it(With me, I changed it to "C:\Documents and Settings\Pat\Desktop\"). Then convert your videos, and they will show up where you changed to folder to, then take those, and drag and drop them to the video folder on the Sansa. I do it a lot since it doesn't usually detect my Sansa, and it works perfectly.




*Note:
1.I'm assuming that the Inter video and arcsoft converters are the same, since I use the Inter Video version that came on the cd that came with my Sansa e250r.

2.If the converter does by freak accident happen to pick up your sansa, I do not believe you will be able to find the converted video where you had the converter convert to since it uses that folder as a temporary thing until it can finish putting the video on the player.

[Woody20]

If you have a playstation 2. plug in your sansa, or any USB connectable player into one of the USB's on the front. this charges your sansa almost like an AC adaptor does.

Advantages:

1. You can listen to music while charging your mp3 & play your ps2 at the same time. (lol)

2. It charges faster than a computer USB, computers suck up all your power.

[reiterstahl]

Use rockbox :-) Except to video (the mpeg1/2 codec mmm its poor)
R+

[helpme123]

~~~EXTREMELY FASTER WAY TO PUT A SONG ON GO LIST~~~

i don't know if anyone knows this but.......to quickly enter a song into the Go list:

1. simply go to the music list
2. put the highlight thingy over the song you want to be entered
~hold the select button for like a second and you will see a loading bar~
4.the bar will complete in a nano second and congrats! your song has been placed in Go list faster than playing song and adding it!!!!

[WalkGood]

Originally Posted by helpme123

~~~EXTREMELY FASTER WAY TO PUT A SONG ON GO LIST~~~

i don't know if anyone knows this but.......to quickly enter a song into the Go list:

1. simply go to the music list
2. put the highlight thingy over the song you want to be entered
~hold the select button for like a second and you will see a loading bar~
4.the bar will complete in a nano second and congrats! your song has been placed in Go list faster than playing song and adding it!!!!

Thanks, I think I read that last year in hints & tricks.

[cpchan]

Originally Posted by reiterstahl

Use rockbox :-) Except to video (the mpeg1/2 codec mmm its poor

Huh, I don't understand this- what is wrong with mpeg1/2? For your info, mpeg1 video is used in VCDs and mpeg2 video is used in DVDs.

Charles

[ledcat]

Hi folks newbie here, I am trying to follow this tip:

"thx to Ordered CHAOS for the following:

• Listen to Music While Charging From Computer USB

Hit the Voice Record button on the side and then plug in your player to the computer USB port. You will notice nothing really happens. Hit Stop Recording and then exit. You will be back in the main screen but yet the battery is showing that it is being recharged. Pretty slick I thought and I was surprised when it I stumbled on it. Thought I would share my findings as I have learned a lot from here."

This method does not work for my e280 with 1.02.18 firmware, any ideas if this should work for me or not?
Regards, Randy

[WalkGood]

ledcat, Welcome to abi >>

I can’t remember exactly when this was written, but was probably around the time of 1.00.12A, one of the original FW. So you’re right, it doesn’t work w/1.02.18A, did you try the trick of not fully inserting the cable into your e280?

[ledcat]

Thanks Ray, that does work, doesn't seem to be to loose either. Hopefully this will still work out in the car.

[GermanY]

Originally Posted by kwerdenker

[*]Changing the filesize of videos created by Sansa Media Converter

1. Go to the C:\Program Files\SanDisk\Sansa Media Converter\Profiles
2. Make a backup copy of SanDisk_E200_MSC.apr
3. Open the SanDisk_E200_MSC.apr in Notepad
4. Find the [OPTIMIZE] section
5. Locate the VideoBitrate= entry
6. Change the 70.
7. Save the file.

VideoBitrate=100 creates larger files of higher quality, VideoBitrate=0 smallest size of lesser quality. VideoBitrate=0 creates files that are less than 1/2 the size of the default files created with VideoBitrate=70.[*]Modify the interval that video files are split

1. Go to the C:\Program Files\SanDisk\Sansa Media Converter\Profiles
2. Make a backup copy of SanDisk_E200_MSC.apr
3. Open the SanDisk_E200_MSC.apr in Notepad
4. Find the [TRANSCODE] section
5. Locate the SplitTime= entry
6. Change the 600.
7. Save the file.

SplitTime= specifies (in seconds) when SME should close the current output file and create another. By default, SME will generate files for every 10 minutes of video footage. (10*60 = 600) Setting SplitTime=3600 will tell SME to split the video for every hour of video footage.
kwerdenker: please note that the sansa can not play videos longer than the original 10 minutes. this is presumably due to the size of the videobuffer or some sort of firmware problems. we have to see how it works in the future.[/LIST]

How can I adjust this in the new version of Sansa Media Converter 4.236 ?

[Sinatra]

Hello to all. This is my first use of a forum so ^pmlease don't beat me up too badly if I transgress

too many unwritten rules.
I'm a retired old English fart who just broke his wrist 2 days ago and wants to use the E280 8GB.
I tried to load a file but it was refused (.avi SHOULD be accepted). I mean, 8GB should be enough,

right ?
Any reason why, other than the vague system message I got?

BAsically the err msg says the file is not taken into account. If it is a multimedia file you can

maybe convert it with WM before transferring (I used drage and drop).

Oh, there is another thing.
In the E280 menu system, there is a category for Artists, Genres, Songs, Albums etc AND ONE FOR

AUDIOBOOKS.
How do I get my books appropriately categorised ?

My E280 was bought in the US, but I travel and like it a lot. I have a fair chunk of music on it, but

far from all of my e

[WalkGood]

Originally Posted by Sinatra

Hello to all. This is my first use of a forum so ^pmlease don't beat me up too badly if I transgress

too many unwritten rules.
I'm a retired old English fart who just broke his wrist 2 days ago and wants to use the E280 8GB.
I tried to load a file but it was refused (.avi SHOULD be accepted). I mean, 8GB should be enough,

right ?
Any reason why, other than the vague system message I got?

BAsically the err msg says the file is not taken into account. If it is a multimedia file you can

maybe convert it with WM before transferring (I used drage and drop).

Oh, there is another thing.
In the E280 menu system, there is a category for Artists, Genres, Songs, Albums etc AND ONE FOR

AUDIOBOOKS.
How do I get my books appropriately categorised ?

My E280 was bought in the US, but I travel and like it a lot. I have a fair chunk of music on it, but

far from all of my e

Hi Sinatra, welcome to abi >>

1 - Did you convert the .avi with Sansa Media Converter (SMC) software? This is on the CD that came with your e200 series, if not it won’t play.
2 -The e200 series does not read file name, it uses ID3 tags, try a free software called mp3tag to properly tag & name your files. The help files are the best to learn how, but we have a short tutorial here.

[Sinatra]

Ahhh, Ramon, A friendly welcome. MANY thanks.
No, I do not have a CD with my E280 - is it on the Sansa site ?

Frank

[advcomp2019]

The CD is not on the Sandisk site. The Sansa Media Converter is.

[WalkGood]

Frank, just dl from the sansa site and install, drag & drop your vid and see if it works

[Sinatra]

I dld the converter, brought the file I want converted into the main window and now I have TWO buttons only ADD and DELETE (the 3d button shaded inacessible).

Any ideas ?

[carpenter940]

Maybe the media file is corrupt. What does the INFORMATION part of the screen have in it after you bring in the file?

[Sinatra]

Thanks for trying to elp this old fart.
The left hand side (the info side) has a mini screen of the file
I want to transfer.
I viewed a few parts and looks good to me.