How common is the White Screen of Death?

[vittau]

I'm considering buying one, but this WSOD thing is scary... Is it still common in newer units?
Does upgrading firmware helps?

Also I heard someone say the Fuze has an audible background noise at all volumes, is it true?

Thanks!

[CrowdAds]

[dgb52]

I have never had the WSOD on my fuze and its a newer one

[FreeZ5]

Originally Posted by vittau

I'm considering buying one, but this WSOD thing is scary... Is it still common in newer units?
Does upgrading firmware helps?

Also I heard someone say the Fuze has an audible background noise at all volumes, is it true?

Thanks!

Not sure where you've been getting your info.

Based on reading the forums, the WSOD is rare with modern Sansa products. I don't use my Fuze much (preferring the Clip/Clip+), but haven't encountered it yet on any of them. My oldest Clip was bought Nov 2007.

Audible background noise? Presumably, from the player? Might be dependent on earphones used? Possibly you mean from the outside world? Definitely a function of the earphones.

Again, not a problem that I have encountered. The modern Sansas are well respected in performance.

Steve

[vittau]

Originally Posted by FreeZ5

Not sure where you've been getting your info.

Based on reading the forums, the WSOD is rare with modern Sansa products. I don't use my Fuze much (preferring the Clip/Clip+), but haven't encountered it yet on any of them. My oldest Clip was bought Nov 2007.

Audible background noise? Presumably, from the player? Might be dependent on earphones used? Possibly you mean from the outside world? Definitely a function of the earphones.

Again, not a problem that I have encountered. The modern Sansas are well respected in performance.

Steve

Just google sansa fuze white screen. It's even mentioned in an wikipedia article.

Some reports are as recent as Sep 2010.


Now, the background noise is supposedly from the player, an audible hiss.
This info is from an user comment in the abi review page, by Chris on January 15, 2009 5:25 PM.

My old Sony Ericsson W200 has this problem, and it's quite annoying some times, that's why I'm worried...

[FreeZ5]

vittau:

Please read my reply. "Rare" means that it is not reported by very many people. It doesn't mean that it doesn't happen. The player would not be recommended as often as it has been if the WSOD was common.

I just listened to my Fuze (a V2 puchased Xmas 2008), and do not hear any hiss using JVC FX-66 AIr Cushions. I cranked the volume up higher than I would normally use, and dropped it very low. Nothing.

Perhaps you can post a link to Chris's comments as I could not find it? Were the earphones mentioned?

Steve

[vittau]

Originally Posted by FreeZ5

Perhaps you can post a link to Chris's comments as I could not find it? Were the earphones mentioned?

Steve

His comment is here. I'll quote it below:

Originally Posted by Chris

Well my fuze has a minor but audible white noise when the fuze is on irrespectively to the volume. If this happens to most fuzes then its sound quality is not that great.

But nvm, I'll trust you on this one Steve. Thanks for testing.

[Marvin the Martian]

I've owned 2 Fuze V1's, for a total of about a year and a half, and a V2, for a month or so, and in all that time, I only had one white screen, which went away after a reset.

[FreeZ5]

vittau:

That appears to be the only comment in that thread mentioning "white noise" or "hiss". I wish Chris had provided more details.

Steve

[face]

I get is OCCASIONALLY, or what might appear as the WSOD. However, when it happens is after I add/remove things from and disconnect it form the computer. My impression is it is doing it's typical activity after the disconnect and for some reason just does not show the progress bar. I just ignore it and all is well later when I come back to it.

[big g 94]

OK, I posted about this in the Fuze Rockbox forum, but there have been new developments and it has to do with WSOD so I'm tossing it out in this thread. If the mods want to move it, feel free.

I started having WSOD problems on my V2 Fuze after installing what was supposed to be a stable build of Rockbox for V2. After some observation, investigation, etc., I found out that what was causing the issue was disconnecting the player from my computer, or my AC charger.

I have a V1 Fuze that's Rockboxed and two Clips, and I always have been able just to disconnect those things from the computer by pulling the USB cord out, without going through the step of ejecting or using the hardware disconnection function, or the AC charger and they would refresh fine and I'd be good to go. When I just pulled the cord out of the USB port on the computer, or used the AC charger at all, with the V2, that's what was giving me WSOD.

Every time I got WSOD, I could get the player going again by doing a reset, but I didn't figure it was good to keep getting WSOD so I started, with this player, going through the process of actually disconnecting the player (and its memory card) from the computer, and stopped using the AC charger at all, and the problem stopped.

However, last night, I was charging the thing on my computer, and I won't go into great detail how, but the USB cord accidentally got pulled out. And I got WSOD big time. And it would not come back with multiple attempts at resetting, even after leaving the player alone and letting it sit for a while.

Even though I had WSOD, the computer was still recognizing the player and memory card, and I finally said #$%^&*(@ this and uninstalled Rockbox and used the Sansa Updater to install new firmware. I now have the player back, with the original Sansa firmware and no Rockbox. And while I can't say with metaphysical certainty that Rockbox caused this problem, the player had been absolutely bulletproof with no issues whatsoever since I bought it in Feb. 2009, until I installed Rockbox. So there's certainly circumstantial evidence that Rockbox was the culprit. And I certainly can live with a Fuze with the regular firmware.

And I've never heard any hiss on either of my Fuzes. I find the sound quality of both to be superb.

[Enigmatic]

Originally Posted by big g 94

So there's certainly circumstantial evidence that Rockbox was the culprit.

I have a version-one Fuze and two version-two Fuzes, all Rockboxed. I do not think I have ever experienced the white screen of death. And for vittau, I do not hear any background noise when playing back music at moderately-loud volumes.

[big g 94]

Originally Posted by Enigmatic

I have a version-one Fuze and two version-two Fuzes, all Rockboxed.

I'm going to keep an eye on my issues and if the WSOD happens again, I'll know it's something else besides the Rockbox. Only thing I'm going by is that problem didn't manifest itself until after I'd Rockbox'd the V2. Maybe there's something about mine that just didn't like the RB ... or either the thing is haunted, LOL!

[TuFur]

In reading about and suffering through white screens myself, I believe there are two different types of wsods. One occurs when the fuze is refreshing in the OF from sandisk and is very rare as pointed out above. I have never had a first type wsod booting directly into rockbox. The second type, for me, was caused my fuze coming off the table and landing on its head. My fuze is housed in one of those clear plastic enclosures. I was a little surprised to damage my fuze this way.

The second type of wsod is characterized by a white screen or the screen looking like the horizontal sync has gone as on an old tv set. The screen also may appear split with the icons starting in the center of the screen and wrapping around. Its very hard to use the menu when its like this. Most of the time the screen would just fade out to white. I fixed this by tapping my fuze headphone jack down on a plastic or wood surface until the screen came back. Remember, I dropped it on its head. I did this from Aug. to Nov. and my fuze is back to normal now. I haven't suffered a wsod or screwed up screen for all of Dec. Interesting thing I found was the rockbox screen was easier to bring back than the OF sanza screen.

My fuze v2 started running 3.6 rockbox in july and is now running a customized 3.7 rockbox compile. The bookmarking button was moved from the home key to the play key going from 3.6 to 3.7 and I moved it back. I wouldn't blame rockbox for any wsods. As during my period of hell, many times rockbox was the only screen that would show uncorrupted.

[pkrjones]

I've got 5 Fuzes (V2.6 on board, 4GB) in my house and love them, however 1 currently has WSOD and I can't recover from it. I was able to copy contents into a folder on PC. Have tried soft-reset, holding power switch up (for up to 3 minutes), downloading new firmware, reformatting, and now have it opened-up. Had heard that there was a "hard reset" by jumpering 2 open capacitor solder-joints while plugging-in... no dice.

It's accessible by computer if I hold down left-most wheel arrow and power-up, but still can't get anything on-screen besides white. Any other suggestions?