Help!!! Crashed NW-HD5

[lnj]

Hi

I have a nw-hd5 (with cracked buttons) which crashed this morning and will not come back to life. I usually just take out the battery and it will start up again. However, this time it just displays the circles turning and thats it.

I called the sony helpline and they make you fell like a criminal for calling them. Also I'm not sure if I still have the receipt as it was a present for my 30th birthday!!! That means a chargable repair.

Any ideas on how to make this blasted thing come back to life?

cheers in advance.

 

[lnj]

does anyone think it might be possible to upgrade the firmware whilst it is in this state?

 

[Sasso]

Have you tried taking out the battery for a longer period of time? I'm not too sure how effective it would be but i think computers take a while to clear all it memory.

 

[vtah236]

This is exactly what happened to my HD5 a week ago, and I mentioned it here. I found the Sony helpline to be very sympathetic and asked me to send it in Freepost but with proof of purchase. Obviously it's too early to tell whether this is going to be successful but I live in hope.

As for taking the battery out - surely if it's switched off, then it doesn't matter whether the battery is in or out?

 

[lnj]

vtah236, did you send it then? I was baffled by the way they basically ran off a list of prices that it might cost me if I send it then said "do you still want the address to send it to then" as if they had put me off some how and I would be happy to just keep my broken player.

They put big emphasis on the unit bing dropped (which it hasn't) so I am gonna take loads of pictures of it and keep a copy and send them a copy in the cover letter they asked for.

 

[vtah236]

Sounds like the person you spoke to was being excessively ana1. The number I rang was 08702 408060 - Central Service department. I mailed it (although it was Freepost I still registered the package) last week.

My wife said that the delivery guy threw it over our fence onto our back yard when he got no answer at the doorbell. Despite this, there were no cracks and it worked well for five months. It was via Amazon and packaging was pretty well insulated anyway. I didn't tell Sony about this, mind.

 

[lnj]

yeah I got mine through Amazon.
Not sure about the need for the reciept in this case though as the units have not been available for 6 months yet so they will all be within the 1 year warranty still. they want 76.22 fixed cost fix without it and until I get home and speak to the missus I don't know if I have it or not.

 

[vtah236]

You should still have a record in your Amazon profile of recent purchases. This is what I included and Sony seem to have accepted it.

 

[lnj]

great news vtah236 thanks for that, I was starting to panic at the thought of a 76 quid charge. have you had yours back yet?

 

[vtah236]

My HD5 is finally back from Sony after being repaired (not booting up; not going beyond twirly circles on bootup screen before switching itself off). They replaced the hard drive.

Of course, those tracks that I foolishly downloaded from the Connect store now won't transfer to my HD5 'cos it thinks it's a different Walkman.

Someone tell me: at 99p a track, limited catalogue, and appallingly tight DRM, what is the POINT of the Connect store?

 

[NSaints]

I'm not attempting to be sarcastic but a genuine question.

Is there anything better than Connect?

I'm into mainly 60's, 70's soul which isn't really catered for with Connect. They don't even have Soul listed as a genre which is an illustartion as to how they view this genre of music

Any help appreciated.

 

[vtah236]

I'm into mainly 60's, 70's soul which isn't really catered for with Connect. Any help appreciated.

For a month I was signed up to eMusic. At the time I had to give them my credit card details and was given one month to download 50 tracks for free (after which I cancelled the sub). They may still be running this offer.

It's a pretty weird archive of music - there is some really obscure stuff there, including a lot of session tracks and live performances. It doesn't really stock modern rock (although I was surprised to see Ian Brown and Interpol's last albums on there), but I'd recommend you check that site out. I was impressed, but their spread of music didn't really match my taste. I think the format is mp3.