OH NOOOO! I think my S545 walkman is dead!

[burntrat]

My player does not start up anymore. It was fine up until yesterday. Battery was low so I charged it last night to full. I hit play blindly this morning and I didn't hear anything. I pressed all the buttons and none of them seem to work. I just got a blank screen. I figured it was maybe from the cold weather from the commute to work (which wasn't that cold, but I had no other explanation at the time). From time to time I would press the buttons for any kind of response. I would either get a blank screen or a reaaal faint sony walkman logo. I tried reset button, but nothing. I just tried plugging it in to the computer and it just stays blank. It has been about 12 hrs. I now get the sony bootup screen, you know the one with the walkman logo and 'Every moment has its music.' but it goes to black right after. There is nothing after that. I am probably the only one in this situation because I have the worst luck. I had the a729 for almost a year and it was smooth. I had the s545 for about a month and it dies already??? So what are my options? I got this brand new off of ebay last month, so I can't go to a store or anything. Sorry for the long read. I have been getting nothing but bad luck lately. I appreciate any help. Thanks.

[CrowdAds]

[StevoJD]

I feel your pain dude... Similar thing is happening to my E438F.

You've probably already tried this, but just in case, have you tried resetting the device by pressing poking a needle into that little button in the back?

[burntrat]

Yeah, I tried the reset button on the back. Does it matter how long you hold it down? And what became of your E438F? Is it in constant paperweight mode?

[quintets_man]

Originally Posted by burntrat

Yeah, I tried the reset button on the back. Does it matter how long you hold it down? And what became of your E438F? Is it in constant paperweight mode?

To answer your questions...Just hold the reset button till the screen shows it's reset. Or in your case I guess you could hold it for around 5 seconds.

As for what happened to his E438F just look here.

[Curiouss]

could you still charge it through the computer and swap music and go through its folders?

[burntrat]

I only get the boot up screen. Nothing more.
I tried resetting, charging, etc.

[burntrat]

Whoa, I plugged in the charger and nothing happened so I forgot about it. And now it just recognized and is charging.

[burntrat]

This is weird. A Couple weeks before, songs wouldn't play. When I hit play/pause, I would see the play/pause symbol change, but nothing played or moved. It would not count down. I turned it off/on then it started to act normal. I must have a real buggy player.

[burntrat]

Well the same problem in my original post just happened today. I have no idea why. I plugged it into pc to charge it. Came back like 15 mins and heard a connect/disconnect sound on my pc. Said something about a bad driver install or something, I don't really remember. I can't get past the Every moment has its music screen. This player sucks so bad.

[vegetaleb]

Try to flash the FW from PC,if any file is broken it will replace it

[burntrat]

Originally Posted by vegetaleb

Try to flash the FW from PC,if any file is broken it will replace it

Don't I need it to connect to the pc for that? All I can so is charge. The only button that works is the play/pause button. It won't shut off or anything.

[vegetaleb]

Give it a try, even if the PC doesn't see it as usb memory the Sony FW updater could still flash the fw

[burntrat]

I plugged it in the pc just now to do what vegataleb said and it connected and seems to be fine. It is weird how everything went back to normal after doing nothing. I was basically using it at work stuck on random with no control over anything except occasional play/pause. Couldn't control volume, check time, skip tracks, nothing. I think it's weird how I had the same problem just over a year ago. Odds are I'll probably have it again next year. I am leaning towards some type of battery and cold issue, I don't know.

Anyways, I should probably update the firmware anyway right? How do I do it correctly?

[DragonKeeper]

This has happened to my S545 as well. It's happened about three times. One time I just turned it off and turned it back on again and it began working. The other two times I was told by a friend that connecting it to my PC might override the virus/problem, and it worked. So I just connect it to my PC.


Draco

[burntrat]

Originally Posted by DragonKeeper

This has happened to my S545 as well. It's happened about three times. One time I just turned it off and turned it back on again and it began working. The other two times I was told by a friend that connecting it to my PC might override the virus/problem, and it worked. So I just connect it to my PC.


Draco

First time, I could not do anything. The second time this happened, only button that worked was play/pause and sometimes skip to next track. I think charging or connecting to pc works after a while.

When it happened to you 3 times, was it all during cold weather and the battery was low?

[DragonKeeper]

No. It's been in the 60-70's. Once the entire MP3 player froze except for the play/pause button, and the screen was showing one song, but the MP3 was playing shuffle, all because my friend plugged a headphone jack into it. The battery was almost completly full.