teenagers and their mp3 players

[punkoholic]

system files missing + connecting to computer + beeping noises. Please share your wisdom!

i've had my iriver h10 for maybe 2 years now with its far share of problems, my sister got hers just over a year ago (so just as the warranty ends, the issues begin). personally i'm amazed the player made it this far- she drops it, chucks it around and doesnt look after it in the least. i'm her big sister so thats my job. twice now i've used recovery tool to sort out 'system files missing' errors and have been told that this error is due to large numbers of protected files being put on the player in a small amount of time which sounds about right for the situation.

now we have the same message on the player saying system files missing, and when i try to connect it to my computer (using emergency connection of course) it takes ages (minutes) to appear in my computer or to be recognised at all, and then it wont let me create any files on the player (i was trying to throw rockbox on to see if that would sort it out), i right click on E: and select 'format' and nothing happens. i use the 'safely remove hardware' thingy and the player display doesnt change, it just freezes on usb connected.

also, when i select properties it shows that silly pie chart thing and says the drive has a capacity of 0kb. My gut tells me thats not good.

i guess its the harddrive, that makes the most sense to me, but i dont know if there's any chance i can save it, to save my mother $300 for a new player that will probly end up the same as this.

when i turn on the h10 it makes a lot of beeping noises and some soft crunching sounds for around a minute, displaying the iriver ptf inizialize screen. then the system files missing message appears. the beeping noises worry me coz i've never heard mine make that kind of noise while starting.

[Sanitarium]

Sounds like there are Hard Drive issues. The hard drive is probably one of the most delicate components in the player and even dropping it can do damage to it. Imagine taking the hard drive out of your computer, dropping it a few times , throwing it onto a couch and then sitting on it. That hard drive will probably not work after all that, and if it does, it will have serious problems later on.
If you pick up the player and hold it up to your ear... then shake it up and down lightly... can you ear a click? This is a sign of loose heads (or something... not sure) in the HD and can often (not all the time) result in HD failure.
My advice is to get a new player or replace the hard drive, and be more careful for this next one. You should even consider getting a flash based player so there are no moving parts in it.

[bobbitov]

Hi, I had this exact same problem and I thought my iRiver was doomed but I fixed it (it took ages to work out!). Firstly hook up the H10 to your PC (it might take a few goes for the PC to acknowledge the H10 is there - keep on trying it will do it eventually) and go into "My computer" - you can then access the H10 browser and cut all the music from it and paste it onto a folder on desktop ready for re- sync.

Now go to the folder on the desktop with all the music in it - and use Windows Media Player to sync the songs onto the H10. (How you do this will vary depending on which version of media player you have - but start with a right click on the songs you want to sync and then either click "add to sync list" or "send to Cd or device"- then go through the steps to finish the sync) I did this and it worked like new after several days of not initializing and doing wierd beeping. I now only ever sync my music onto the H10 via Windows Media Player - I have taken the Iriver software off my PC because I felt it was not really working the best compared to Media Player. Good Luck, I hope it works for you as well as it did for me!!

[sum_guy]

I've had this same problem TWICE. Your sister sounds similar to me: I have dropped this thing countless times. However, I know my way around electronics.

The First Time, I dissected the H10 apart. Scary sounding, I know. Especially since the Instructions were in Italian, and then translated by Google... Never Good. However, I got results, and I was on my way. Let's hope you don't have to do this.

Now, I stumbled upon another fix (mainly because I received this error again). Connect your H10 to your PC using Emergency connect (take out the battery, then put it back in. Then turn on the H10 while Holding down the O button, until you see "Emergency Connect" or "UMS Mode" in the corner.) goto your control panel and under "administrator tools" is an option called "Computer Management". Under the "Storage" tab is an option called "Disk Management". Your H10 hopefully appears there. Reallocate the space on the H10 if necessary, and format it. After that, run the recovery tool. Everything should be good now. though it's longer, this option is MUCH EASIER.

Yeah, the top is meant to say Potential, not pontial. INT -20.