NW-HD5 malfunctioning

[vsherry]

Last week, I cleared everything off my NW-HD5 drive, which I fear deleted some essentials because the device now says "No database found." I cannot transfer songs to it anymore. Does anyone know what causes this error, how its remedied or if my suspicions about its origin are correct? When I open the drive, I still see the OMGAudio folder.

I had not been using my NW-HD5 but would like to make it my workout player. My Archos 5 simply doesn't cut it there. I would be grateful for your help.

PS: Wow, the updates to this forum are out of this world. This is a first-rate message board.

[Azureal]

I have a couple of these units myself and they are great little players. When you say you "cleared everything off", did you use the format device option from the utility menu on the device? If you deleted the device file system contents via the USB mass storage device connection to your PC, you would likely delete required files for the unit to function properly.

You can recover by performing a format device command from the utility/settings menu item. I am sorry that I don't have the exact details as I am at work and not near one of my HD5 units to verify the verbiage. Performing the format on the unit from the menu will recreate all of the necessary files for the unit to function as expected.

You will need to download all of your music files via SonicStage. I believe this model also plays MP3 files without conversion and there were a couple of nice applications written over the years to make this easier to do without SS, one that comes to mind was called "Grab Your Music" or GYM, I think you can find that available here on the forums.

I can verify some of this information this evening.

[vsherry]

Thanks very much for your help. Also, I was unaware of that music management software. I'll give it a try. I don't care for SonicStage. You are correct that HD5 has native MP3 support.

[vsherry]

I would greatly appreciate learning how to go about this if anyone can help before this poster returns. Thanks.

[Christopher]

To format the device, please read the instructions in the manual on page 60, available here:

http://www.docs.sony.com/release/NWHD5_english.pdf

[vsherry]

It says "mismatch in system files" now.

[Azureal]

Did you perform the format disk routine, or the reset to factory defaults? I would think that performing the disk format should return the drive to its original state and prepare it for new data.

[vsherry]

Did you perform the format disk routine, or the reset to factory defaults? I would think that performing the disk format should return the drive to its original state and prepare it for new data.

I reset to factory settings. The page I was pointed to instructed me to do that. I don't know what the format disk routine is. How do I do that?

[Azureal]

Go to the menu, select "Options" then "Initialize System", then "Initialize HDD". You'll be asked to verify that you indeed want to do this two times. After a short period of time, you should be returned to the main menu. I really think that after performing this operation, you should be good to go. Let us know ... :-)

[vsherry]

Go to the menu, select "Options" then "Initialize System", then "Initialize HDD". You'll be asked to verify that you indeed want to do this two times. After a short period of time, you should be returned to the main menu. I really think that after performing this operation, you should be good to go. Let us know ... :-)

We're now back to the no database found message, which perhaps simply means there are no tracks? Anyway, SonicStage continues to state that the connection between the device and the computer is unstable. Maybe this indicates a separate problem? I appreciate all input, as I have from the start. Thanks, guys.

Also, do you think it might be worthwhile to attempt a firmware update? That's if I can even find a link to firmware for this model nowadays.

[sfbp]

just a quick word here - no experience with this line of players at all. But USB unstable may be exactly that. Try to

a. eliminate all other USB devices

b. clean up the USB device map (many many posts about this here)

c. start using "Safe Device removal" religiously

d. see if there is anything else using up vast amounts of CPU. A favourite current candidate is Firefox's "plugin-container.exe" from 3.6.4 and on which can use 30-80% of full CPU power. This typically does not bode well for USB devices which are even slightly time critical (and that is MOST such devices).

Hope this helps...

Stephen