that geeky dude

So, I did order the SanDisk Sansa Express I spoke about in my last post, and I was quite pleased with it for a couple of hours. I plugged it in, Vista saw it as a “music device” with both internal and external storage available in my computer. I dragged a couple songs to it, unplugged it, and jammed for a few hours. That’s when the drama began…

Being a good little bleeding edge technology dude, I downloaded the Sandisk Firmware Updater from Sandisk’s website, and I was told that firmware version 1.01.01A was available. However, there were no details about this update on their website. Figuring it was a bugfix, I told the updater to go ahead and install it. The upgrade went smoothly, or so I thought. The player was now sluggish to start, and the songs I had put on the microSD card weren’t showing up in the list. I plugged it back in, and now only 2gb of “internal storage” was available from the player.

I did some checking on the Sansa Express Forums on sandisk.com, and apparently this has bitten a lot of people who didn’t buy Sandisk MicroSD cards. Considering the major price difference between Sandisk cards and the Kingston card I bought, I found this exceedingly unacceptable. This Kingston card has worked without an issue in my digital camera, my cell phone, and in my card reader on my PC. It even worked in the player before I did the firmware update! If this was an accident, it should never have made it out of quality control in the Sandisk development center. If it was intentional, then this is an even worse case of vendor lock-in than Apple is trying to accomplish.

I have contacted Sandisk support, and they have advised that I update the firmware. My latest response to them follows. (if you’re reading the blog directly, please use the “More” link)

Hi,

I will refer you to these threads on your forums, indicating that a firmware update is the root cause of the problem. This Kingston 2gb micro sd card worked JUST FINE until I updated the firmware yesterday, now it will not recognize any card except a Sandisk (I went to a local computer store and checked) — My Kingston card works just fine in my cell phone, my digital camera, and in a card reader — I will have to determine that this is a manufacturing defect.

For your reference :

http://forums.sandisk.com/sansa/board/message?board.id=express&thread.id=631

http://forums.sandisk.com/sansa/board/message?board.id=express&thread.id=33

http://forums.sandisk.com/sansa/board/message?board.id=express&thread.id=459

Off site, but interesting : http://www.anythingbutipod.com/forum/showthread.php?t=18019

Now, I am perfectly willing to work with Sandisk on fixing this problem. However, I am not willing to RMA this product (possibly at my expense) — I would rather a real solution be offered, either via a firmware update or an exchange for a similar player (2gb onboard, microsd supported) such as the e250. If this is an amenable solution, I would be exceedingly pleased and would rave about you on my website and other websites where my opinion is respected, as well as to my friends, family and coworkers. If we cannot reach an amenable agreement, I will write off the cost of this device as a loss and will report your company to my local BBB and tell everyone I know to avoid all Sandisk products at all costs.

I am not a novice user, which is what i believe that your support is expecting when we respond. I am a Linux system administrator, and my computer skills are far above par. I know what I am doing, so there is no need to assume I am not.

Thank you.

Christopher McCoy