Thoughts on S545 from a new user

[Marvin the Martian]

Originally Posted by lestatar

@ Marvin:

Man, I am VERY SAD to hear about your S540 troubles...Really hope you can get this sorted out...

Good luck buddy,
-lestatar

Thanks, lestatar. I just tried it again, plugged it into the computer first, then the wall charger after, and no response. So I guess sometime in the next couple weeks, after another paycheck or two, I'll have to think about sending it in like Matt described before.

If that all goes well, and I have a working S545 again, I'll be leaving it in MTP this time.

[CrowdAds]

[Dreamnine]

Don't tell Sony what you tried to do lol...

[Marvin the Martian]

Originally Posted by Dreamnine

Don't tell Sony what you tried to do lol...

Good point! It's too bad, because the only reason I tried it was the potential for faster loading times. Other than that, the whole MTP-MSC thing didn't matter at all.

[Dreamnine]

I remember when I got the X it seemed to take forever to put stuff on - Sonys are definitely slower, but it was around 25GBs worth and I was impatient.

[CDMP3PlayerFan]

Originally Posted by MattMc3

I'll add that I'm transferring my music via Windows Explorer drag-and-drop. For the people who have year tags working with MTP, are you using syncing software or drag-and-drop?

Matt

I've left my player in the default MTP mode. I've used the following programs to transfer my music to my player and the year shows up with each of them: MediaMonkey, Windows Media Player, and Content Transfer. The year shows up whether I sync my player or I send my music to my player though the software. It's when I transfer the music to my player via Windows Explorer that the year doesn't show up.

[MattMc3]

Originally Posted by CDMP3PlayerFan

It's when I transfer the music to my player via Windows Explorer that the year doesn't show up.

That's what it looks like. So drag-and-drop via Windows Explorer loses the Year tag, and syncing or transferring via other software keeps it. I though it was an MTP issue but I guess not. Thanks for your input.

Matt

[lestatar]

@ Marvin:

Listen, just a thought...I know you have tried everything to bring back your S545. But...

How about running/leaving it on somehow, try to drain completely the battery? Then after it is well and truly "dead", try the hard reset again.

Can't hurt right?


@ rest of the thread re: YEAR tags...

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, from Day1 of my E345, using Winamp to sync/copy music onto the device, all my tags display 100% correctly.

The only time I use Win Drag/Drop is to copy over videos to the E345.

Since the E and the S are sister/cousin devices, I can only assume what works for 1 will work for the other...

for what it's worth at this point...

cheers,
-lestatar

[Marvin the Martian]

Originally Posted by lestatar

@ Marvin:

Listen, just a thought...I know you have tried everything to bring back your S545. But...

How about running/leaving it on somehow, try to drain completely the battery? Then after it is well and truly "dead", try the hard reset again.

Can't hurt right?


cheers,
-lestatar

I would do that, if i could only get it to turn on at all. But it just seems to be lifeless.

Edit: I just plugged it into the wall charger after I posted, walked away for a few minutes, not expecting anything, and I just looked over and it was coming to life!
The battery had drained completely, apparently. After a few minutes, I pulled the cord from the wall charger, and plugged it back into the computer, and voila!! The proper drivers reinstalled, nice as can be, and all appears to be as it was before. Now I just have to fill it up with tunes again.....good thing I'm not busy the next couple hours

[Dreamnine]

Originally Posted by Marvin the Martian

I would do that, if i could only get it to turn on at all. But it just seems to be lifeless.

Edit: I just plugged it into the wall charger after I posted, walked away for a few minutes, not expecting anything, and I just looked over and it was coming to life!
The battery had drained completely, apparently. After a few minutes, I pulled the cord from the wall charger, and plugged it back into the computer, and voila!! The proper drivers reinstalled, nice as can be, and all appears to be as it was before. Now I just have to fill it up with tunes again.....good thing I'm not busy the next couple hours

Back from the dead!

[Marvin the Martian]

Originally Posted by Dreamnine

Back from the dead!

No more tricks.....this time I'm leaving it as an MTP device. It never failed when it was set up that way before.

Just threw a couple thousand songs on it, and was pleased to discover that even after two formats, pressing the reset button a couple times, and everything else the last couple of days, all my settings and saved EQ's are still there.

[Dreamnine]

I don't have any wall chargers but I'm paranoid about letting any of my players run down so much that they can't start (although I know this wasn't the case with your S545).

[MattMc3]

@Marvin: Good news! I hear that MSC mode might transfer those files a little faster. Might want to give that a shot next time

I forgot to post this earlier, but I used to have an older Creative player I would frequently run until the the unit powered off. The battery would be drained and the DAP appeared to be totally "dead" - it wouldn't turn on, charge, or be recognized by the PC. A couple of times I got it working again by leaving it connected to the the PC and then rebooting the PC while the DAP was still connected. For whatever reason that woke the DAP up. It wouldn't always work, but somtimes it did. Just one more thing to try if it happens again.

Matt

[Marvin the Martian]

Originally Posted by MattMc3

@Marvin: Good news! I hear that MSC mode might transfer those files a little faster. Might want to give that a shot next time

I forgot to post this earlier, but I used to have an older Creative player I would frequently run until the the unit powered off. The battery would be drained and the DAP appeared to be totally "dead" - it wouldn't turn on, charge, or be recognized by the PC. A couple of times I got it working again by leaving it connected to the the PC and then rebooting the PC while the DAP was still connected. For whatever reason that woke the DAP up. It wouldn't always work, but somtimes it did. Just one more thing to try if it happens again.

Matt

I actually did try that. And even the night before I had tried the AC charger bit, to no avail. So I really have no answer as to why it works now, especially given that during the whole MSC experiment, it was connected and fully charged.

For whatever reason, it works now, and that's all that matters.

[lestatar]

@ Marvin:

AWESOME NEWS!

Good for you man! But...

I am kinda sneaky and yes, occasionally guilty of being morally suspect so...

...were I you, having gone through this little hiccup, I "might" be inclined to buy a brand new S545 from someplace with an ironclad [and loosely inspected] refund policy and "mistakenly" return your old unit for a refund, whilst keeping the "new" device...

Of course, I am not "advising" you to do this...But as my lawyer is fond of saying:

"I am merely pointing out that this MIGHT BE possible, should YOU decide to pursue such a course of action..."

Try not to think too badly of me...my heart is in the right place!



cheers and congrats again Dr. Frankenstein...[IT'S ALIVE!!!],
-lestatar

[Marvin the Martian]

Originally Posted by lestatar

@ Marvin:

AWESOME NEWS!

Good for you man! But...

I am kinda sneaky and yes, occasionally guilty of being morally suspect so...

...were I you, having gone through this little hiccup, I "might" be inclined to buy a brand new S545 from someplace with an ironclad [and loosely inspected] refund policy and "mistakenly" return your old unit for a refund, whilst keeping the "new" device...

Of course, I am not "advising" you to do this...But as my lawyer is fond of saying:

"I am merely pointing out that this MIGHT BE possible, should YOU decide to pursue such a course of action..."

Try not to think too badly of me...my heart is in the right place!



cheers and congrats again Dr. Frankenstein...[IT'S ALIVE!!!],
-lestatar

Nope, I don't think badly of you at all. It is actually a good idea, but the hassle and expense of getting to the same store twice, make it not so practical.
I appreciate the suggestion though....and I still may at some point buy an E345 too, as a stablemate for my S545, Q2, and the Clip+ that is on its way. Who knows, an E345 could replace the Q2, perhaps....

[MattMc3]

Earlier in this thread we talked about the slow transfer speeds of loading music onto our Walkmans. Today I edited a bunch of my MP3's and decided to reload everything. Transferring 11GB onto my S545 took 80 minutes. Then I transferred the same 11GB onto my Imation 16GB thumb drive (for my car stereo) and it took 22 minutes. What a shame.

Matt

[Marvin the Martian]

Originally Posted by MattMc3

Earlier in this thread we talked about the slow transfer speeds of loading music onto our Walkmans. Today I edited a bunch of my MP3's and decided to reload everything. Transferring 11GB onto my S545 took 80 minutes. Then I transferred the same 11GB onto my Imation 16GB thumb drive (for my car stereo) and it took 22 minutes. What a shame.

Matt

It is a bummer.....outside of my ill-fated attempt to use MSC with it, the slow transfer is really my only complaint with mine. Although if I'd known the E345 would be so similar, minus the speakers, I might have gone that route....but I had no way of knowing it at the time , and after hearing all the horror stories about the previous E-series, I didn't dare. No regrets though....I'm happy with it, as long as I don't have to reload it from empty very often.

[jsk68]

if thats the only issue we have I think were doing good lol, I'd rather have slow transfers than crappy sound quality, I actually watch more video's on mine than listen to music (loaded up a bunch of top gear reruns) the video quality is outstanding.

[CDMP3PlayerFan]

Originally Posted by Marvin the Martian

It is a bummer.....outside of my ill-fated attempt to use MSC with it, the slow transfer is really my only complaint with mine. Although if I'd known the E345 would be so similar, minus the speakers, I might have gone that route....but I had no way of knowing it at the time , and after hearing all the horror stories about the previous E-series, I didn't dare. No regrets though....I'm happy with it, as long as I don't have to reload it from empty very often.

Originally Posted by jsk68

if thats the only issue we have I think were doing good lol, I'd rather have slow transfers than crappy sound quality, I actually watch more video's on mine than listen to music (loaded up a bunch of top gear reruns) the video quality is outstanding.

The whole transfer speed hasn't been much of an issue for me since I rarely delete everything on my Walkman. I estimate that over 90 percent of my Walkman's contents remain on it at all times. Plus I rarely put videos or pictures (excluding album art) on my player.

My Walkman DAP does have its quirks. However, once I learned how to deal with them my player became a simple and reliable player with great sound quality. It may not have all of the features of the other players, but what it has works great.

[jsk68]

Originally Posted by CDMP3PlayerFan

The whole transfer speed hasn't been much of an issue for me since I rarely delete everything on my Walkman. I estimate that over 90 percent of my Walkman's contents remain on it at all times. Plus I rarely put videos or pictures (excluding album art) on my player.

My Walkman DAP does have its quirks. However, once I learned how to deal with them my player became a simple and reliable player with great sound quality. It may not have all of the features of the other players, but what it has works great.

I totally agree, I'd buy another if something happened mine.