IFP-899 "crashing", later dying

[omergrigg]

Hello,
I don't know if these two issues are related, but I'd appreciate help with both.
1. On playing certain songs, my player would make a high-pitched beep and shut down. Then, it would automatically restart at the next song. The interesting thing is, these songs would "crash" at different parts of the song when played at different times. Another thing is that certain songs that would play well several times wold crash once, and then they would keep causing crashes.
2. Today, my player crashed and then stopped restarting. It's no longer under warranty (I bought it refurbished from an ebay store). Does anybody know what repair options I have?

Thanks!

[gmarino]

I would think 1) and 2) are related - and 2) is really the issue causing 1). Sounds like the player is on the fritz.

I am sure that if you COULD find someone to repair it, you would spend as much to try and get it fixed as you would buying another one. One consumer review on Amazon for this product stated that:

"One day, while playing music, the unit just quit, and the display went dead. I sent multiple emails to iRiver and received no reply. I called their 800 number, and was informed that they do not have a servive center, and make no repairs of the flash players

Apparently, if the unit is still in warranty, they can send out a new unit as a replacement, but beyond the warranty period, you're out of luck as iRiver won't touch the unit."


Best bet is to try and find another IFP-899. At $80 and for the functionality and form that this unit provides, I think it's a bargain. I used my 899 during bike rides and loved the no-look joystick control. The LCD Display started to go bad and I sent it in to Best Buy's extended warranty dept and got 100% of my money back. That was the BEST $30 I ever spent for an extended warranty. I would suggest that MP3 players are one of the best products to get an extended warranty for since they often go bad. I now have an iRiver Clix and while I like it, I miss my 899...a lot...

Here's an eBay link for IFP-899's on sale (don't buy the one with the broken display)
http://search.ebay.com/ifp-899_W0QQf...dsreturnedZ300

[aw614]

see if you can get an rma from iriver you may be able to get amother ifp back.

I was over the 3 month waranty on my ifp 899 and iriver replaced no questions asked after I had LCD problems

[omergrigg]

Hey aw614,
How did you do it? I looked at the iriver america website, and there is no link to any RMA thing... Can you give me more details?
THANKS!

[aw614]

i went into support then iriver ebox, and created an account and did an rma, I think registering on the same tab may do the same thing

[omergrigg]

Thanks guys!
However....my player started working again!
Now I really don't know what to think...
Why did the player stop playing (the battery was half-full, so it wasn't 100% recharged, but still not empty!)?
What about my first question (top of the page)...Can it be that these "crashes" are damaging the player (still, it is flash based and not HD...)?
Is my beloved iFP-899 <<shivering with fright>> dying???

Any comments/technical ideas are most welcome!
THANKS AGAIN!

[omergrigg]

OK guys,
I did some more digging in the forums, and i found other people with VBR/ID3 tag problems, causing crashes similar to mine. I didn't check this yet, but it is possible that the songs that cause crashes with my player are indeed VBR. If this is the case, I can fix the filesm no problem.
My troubling question is this: Can these crashes cause any kind of damage to the player?

Also, Please see my post above...

[gmarino]

Originally Posted by omergrigg

My troubling question is this: Can these crashes cause any kind of damage to the player?

Highly unlikely...unless they are causing the firmware to be overwritten - in which case you can reload the firmware and be on your way. But code/bad tags causing malicious physical damage to the hardware? HA! That's a good one...(right HAL?)

[omergrigg]

what I meant is not the actual code, but that maybe the crashes themselves, the fact that once in a while the player crashes and reboots, maybe these cause some damage in some way?

[wulfrun]

Originally Posted by omergrigg

Hello,
I don't know if these two issues are related, but I'd appreciate help with both.
1. On playing certain songs, my player would make a high-pitched beep and shut down. Then, it would automatically restart at the next song. The interesting thing is, these songs would "crash" at different parts of the song when played at different times. Another thing is that certain songs that would play well several times wold crash once, and then they would keep causing crashes.
2. Today, my player crashed and then stopped restarting. It's no longer under warranty (I bought it refurbished from an ebay store). Does anybody know what repair options I have?

Thanks!

There's a known issue with songs that contain ID3 V2 tags and VBR. Remove the tags and you should find all is ok. What you describe is exactly what the player does - screeches then reboots or moves on to the next track (or both).

Sounds pretty awful but I can't see how it can do any damage.

[ifp_890clix]

no, I have the same problem, and I deleted the song that had the problem, then downloaded the other one, then it worked ok, BUT then this happened to another song, whats wrong? the song before was playing normally...

[ifp_890clix]

the song that had the problem was WMA...but not VBR

[KitTempest]

My 799 usd to do that. I figured out that it didn't like the VBR mp3s I was getting from eMusic. Converting it to a straight 128 mp3 solved the problem.

Haven't had such issues on my H100. Haven't tried it on my 899, so I don't know about that.

Originally Posted by omergrigg

Hello,
I don't know if these two issues are related, but I'd appreciate help with both.
1. On playing certain songs, my player would make a high-pitched beep and shut down. Then, it would automatically restart at the next song. The interesting thing is, these songs would "crash" at different parts of the song when played at different times. Another thing is that certain songs that would play well several times wold crash once, and then they would keep causing crashes.
2. Today, my player crashed and then stopped restarting. It's no longer under warranty (I bought it refurbished from an ebay store). Does anybody know what repair options I have?

Thanks!