Small audio problem with fuze

[fuzed]

Hey guys, first off I want to say hi and introduce myself to the forum. Picked up an 8gb Fuze just yesterday at Best Buy, and love it so far. There seem to be a couple little quirks though, and I thought I'd see if anyone else has the same problems.

First is the scroll wheel. When a song is playing and the screen has gone black after a few seconds (I have mine set to 10 seconds), if I try to adjust the volume by twirling the wheel I usually get at least halfway around the circle before the backlight 'wakes up' and the volume starts to change.

Second, and perhaps more annoying than this, is when a song is playing and I hit the list (down) button to go back to the music list. When scrolling through artists or song titles I have no trouble, but when scrolling through albums the song will cut out for a couple seconds at a time and I can't scroll smoothly. I thought it might just be an issue when a song is playing, but scrolling is not smooth or quick with the song paused either.

I know both of these are minor, but they can be frustrating at times. Are all the Fuzes like this or should I return mine for another one? Or alternatively, does it sound like something that a firmware update would fix?

Thanks for your help guys,

Brad

[CrowdAds]

[SawJai]

First problem is there for all players I believe. I think it's to prevent accidentally activating the player since it's so easy to move the wheel when it's in a pocket.

The second problem I just tried to reproduce on 2 players and could not. Anyone else have that problem?

[advcomp2019]

The other day, I tried the Fuze again at two different Best Buy's. The one Fuze worked OK in my opinion, but the other Fuze had lots of lag. So I am not sure what is with this too.

[jaylicht]

I also have the 8GB.

I have the first issue as well (just under a second to light back up and respond) and it seems it might be like this by design. I can be more purposeful by making my first move a press of the center or home button.

I'd update the firmware to .11. I can't reproduce that problem either with my album art displayed in lists setting on or off.

With my firmware at .07 in my first hour of using the Fuze, twice when music was playing and the display was off, if I moved the wheel, the music stopped it would not turn the display back on. I could only get it back when I held the power switch a few seconds until I heard a click. Then I was able to start it back up. Since moving to .11, 1 week ago, this problem hasn't come back.

[fuzed]

Thanks all, I just updated firmware but it didn't seem to fix the problem. Seeing as how it is on shuffle most of the time I am not too bothered by the lagging in album lists, so I think I may as well just keep the thing. Other than this one thing I love it, great little player. Thanks again,

Brad

[jaylicht]

I'm just curious though if not displaying the album art in the albums lists helps any?

[fuzed]

Yes! Thanks jaylicht, I don't know why I hadn't thought of that before. It seems to scroll much more smoothly now.

[jaylicht]

Hah, happened to me today. I kept it in album art mode and normally I can roll through that fine even when playing music but suddenly the music became intermittent and the whole thing seemed to stutter to a halt. That's a problem. I shut it down and brought it back and it was fine. I'm just going to run with album art off on album listings too.

[AOforever1]

Same here; never found it to be a real bother.
I believe this problem has to do with either buffer priority or simply slow random access times on the Fuze flash memory. As I mentioned in my "First Impressions" post, the Fuze transfer speeds seemed awfully relative to Sandisk's previous players. I guess you have to cut cost some where at this price point right?

[jamma]

I don't know if anyone else has had this problem, but I figure since this is a 'I have a problem' thread...

When I use a male to male mp3 cable to plug the Fuze into my car, the Fuze is very picky about it. If the plug is ALL the way in, there won't be any sound. A loud tick every once in a while, but no music. It has to be at the point just before all the way in. I've tried with two different cables going out to three different sources and they all have the same problem. Headphones don't give me a problem at all, tried at least 3 pairs of those. The jack is the same size... I can't think of a reason why it would only happen with a male to male 3.5mm cable and not 3.5mm headphones... anyone else having this problem?

[ROMzombie]

I had the same issue, and was advised by Sandisk support that it's probably a bad connection internally on the Fuze's audio jack. e200 series devices also had this problem...

You'll want to exchange it for a new one at your place of purchase, probably.

[jaylicht]

As I mentioned in my "First Impressions" post, the Fuze transfer speeds seemed awfully relative to Sandisk's previous players.

And your first impressions were helpful in my decision to get a Fuze but I took it on my own to put numbers to your slow impression and found that it isn't all that slow and I posted this to your first impressions thread you started.

3.8 MB/sec to internal 8GB (the Clip is 3.0 MB/sec)
3.2 MB/sec to SanDisk 2GB MicroSD card

At that rate, it should have no trouble at all reading my tiny folder art and play music with almost no buffer. I think there is something else wrong and I doubt it is the speed of the memory.

[jamma]

I exchanged my first Fuze that had the problem with my male to male 3.5mm cable for another one where I bought it. Lo and behold, this one has the same problem too. I've decided to return this one and go back to my Insignia Pilot that I had no problems with. I simply wanted to try something different when I traded the Pilot in.

Sorry Sansa, I use my mp3 player mostly for playing music in my car and if there's a major hardware malfunction in that sense, I can't bother to trust you a third time.

[WalkGood]

Originally Posted by jamma

I don't know if anyone else has had this problem, but I figure since this is a 'I have a problem' thread...

When I use a male to male mp3 cable to plug the Fuze into my car, the Fuze is very picky about it. If the plug is ALL the way in, there won't be any sound. A loud tick every once in a while, but no music. It has to be at the point just before all the way in. I've tried with two different cables going out to three different sources and they all have the same problem. Headphones don't give me a problem at all, tried at least 3 pairs of those. The jack is the same size... I can't think of a reason why it would only happen with a male to male 3.5mm cable and not 3.5mm headphones... anyone else having this problem?

I know this is blatantly simple, but did you make sure you were connected in msc mode? And said 3.5 mm cable is good?

[jamma]

I'm not using MSC, I use windows media player to sync the music to the fuze. The mp3 cable is good and I've tried three different known working ones that all worked. The only remarkable difference between the headphones I'm using that work and the mp3 cable that doesn't is the base
Also, I don't think the fact that I'm not using MSC is a factor, it is definitely a hardware problem.

[WalkGood]

Most car stereos that I’ve read about require you to connect in msc/ums mode, does yours require mtp, as you said you do not use msc?

[d311_5uxor]

from your picture, the little space on the jack that you circled will not interfere with the audio output at all, its simply a stopper preventing you from shoving the plug too far into the player
also, the green jack appears to be one of the less expensive ones that tend to have broken internal wires from use
try replacing the green plug with one of greater quality

[WalkGood]

Originally Posted by d311_5uxor

from your picture, the little space on the jack that you circled will not interfere with the audio output at all, its simply a stopper preventing you from shoving the plug too far into the player......

That little stopper is a gift from ipoo to all of us ... thank steve

[Skinjob]

I use my 8GB Fuze in the car as well. Hooked up via the headphone jack and it works without problem. As expected with a headphone hookup, the signal is kind of low, but my JVC head unit has an adjustable gain on the aux in to help compensate. Boosting the EQ on the Fuze helps too.

Not to insult your intelligence, but are you sure the cable is inserted all the way in the Fuze? I only ask because I thought I had a problem at first and then realized the cable wasn't all the way in. For some reason the cable I was using required a bit of force to insert all the way into the Fuze the first time. After that, no problems. Oddly, the headphones required no force, it was something specific to the cable.