Yikes! Defects, Bad Docs -> Customer Frustration

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I recently purchased a Sandisk e250 so that I can take advantage of Rhapsody On The Go’s music subscription service. I opened the device and plugged it into my USB port thinking that I needed to charge up the device before I could use it. Unfortunately, my system churned and produced an error message “unrecognized device”. With very little troubleshooting help, I was forced to call Sandisk for support. Their support was excellent in quickly diagnosing the issue; I needed to upgrade my Windows Media Player to the latest version. Once completed, I needed to go into Devices, drop the Sandisk and add it again. Problem solved.Lesson 1: If you’re software or device has an important software requirement, put in some bright materials in the packaging or a sticker highlighting the requirement.My woes weren’t over. I loaded in Rhapsody 4, authorized my e250, and went to copy playlists. I thought it was all working, but then saw a bunch of alerts with the following error message.

“A problem has occurred in obtaining the device’s certificate”.

At least there is a link to Rhapsody’s knowledge bases with assistance on this issue. Unfortunately their remedy is one of those ‘try everything’ answers from setting dates (easy), reformatting device (upsetting), to upgrading firmware (annoying). Two hours later I had tried all seven remedies with no success. So I emailed Rhapsody about the issue, listed their url, and told them I had tried the remedies. Their response:

This issue would occur due to many reasons like your device is supported, but does not have updated firmware, incorrect date and time settings in the device, So I recommend you to follow the instructions in the link given below:

http://real.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/real.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=5224

Ok. So the person responded clearly didn’t read my email showing that I already tried everything in this remedy. I escalated a second time and didn’t get much of an answer except a suggestion to call Sandisk’s support.

Great, call Sandisk about a problem with Rhapsody. I had my doubts, but I called them anyway. After trying a number of things, we finally found the issue.

Root Cause

It turns out there are three different ways to reformat the e250. You can do it directly from Rhapsody’s software. You can open up My Computer, click on Sansa e250, then right click on “Internal Memory” to do a format. Finally you can format the device directly on the e250.

It turns out that formatting the e250 from the device performs other steps. The format via Rhapsody and Windows Explorer didn’t work, but the hard format on the device completely solved the issue.

Is this a defect? Bad documentation? Poor customer service? With the exception of Sandisk’s customer service which was excellent – all the above. Lucky for them I was persistent.

Published on:

February 6, 2008

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4 comments:

Isaac Sacolick

Thanks to neutron bob for the help on fixing a subscription problem. If you see this error message on Rhapsody/Sandisk “your subcription tracks have expired”, here’s the remedy:

Ah, open Rhapsody and click ‘My Account’. From the pull down list click ‘Update Track Licenses’.

You should get a pop up message for the update (successful).

Then right-click on the Sansa, under the Sources pane, and click ‘License.’

Next, the tricky operation: hold (Control) (Shift) and right click again on the sansa, this time selecting ‘Reset Secure Clock’.

These initial steps should synchronize your device and the licenses.
Unknown

I’ve tried your trick Isaac, but unfortunately it didn’t work. I do know a new thing about Rhapsody though thanks to your post. 🙂

To the original poster. I also tried all of Rhapsody’s tricks to include reformatting my e250 via Rhapsody and Windows and both also failed to do the trick. I searched for a ‘format’ option on my device but I couldn’t find one though. I have a version one e250, so it may not have that option. Oh well, I’ll keep looking.
Unknown

I’ve tried your trick Isaac, but unfortunately it didn’t work. I do know a new thing about Rhapsody though thanks to your post. 🙂

To the original poster. I also tried all of Rhapsody’s tricks to include reformatting my e250 via Rhapsody and Windows and both also failed to do the trick. I searched for a ‘format’ option on my device but I couldn’t find one though. I have a version one e250, so it may not have that option. Oh well, I’ll keep looking.
john bailo

I’m in the same situation with a Sansa View.

Tried all three re-formatting. Tried running as MSC and deleting WM folder.

Tried restarting, rebooting, etc.

Tried resetting clock as advised — still getting the device’s certificate error message.

Also spent 1/2 hour with Rhapsody chat support, no answers, they had to escalate me and said they will work with me via email.