Hi there,
The player is actually recognized by my windows 8.1.
The support page of my player here http://esupport.sony.com/US/p/model-home.pl?mdl=NWZA818&template_id=1®ion_id=1&tab=download#/downloadTab
in the Drivers and Software section offers to choose my operating system and in the dropdown list there is a choice of Win 8.1 systems. Why give this choice if the model is not compatible?
So as I said the player actually recognizes by my windows 8.1. The problem occurs when trying to load music files from the hard drive. The process starts normally but freezes after a little while.
I saw somewhere a suggestion to use Windows Media Player 11, but it is not supported by Win 8.1.
Any suggestions?
Thanks,