mp3 player, incommunicado!

June 17, 2008 2:26 AM

I just reinstalled XP, and on first plugging in my little mp3 player / USB stick (a Samsung YP-U3), I declined to go through any of the "install new hardware" process, figuring it would just show up as an external HD and I could manage my files like that. Well, it doesn't - the display on the stick reads "connecting", then it connects, then straightaway the display assures me that the USB is safely disconnected. As far as my computer's concerned, it's invisible. Running the bundled software does no good either - the stick's just as invisible through the Samsung media manager program as through Explorer. On any other computer than mine, it works perfectly, and I can see it no trouble. So - is there any way to render my poor stick visible?
posted by nicolas léonard sadi carnot to Computers & Internet (4 answers total)

Best answer: Try Device Manager (right-click on My Computer, Properties, Hardware tab, Device Manager) and look for any icons with a yellow triangle or question mark next to them that look as if they could be the player (so YP-U3 in the name is a good clue). If there are then delete them and reconnect the player; it should come up as if it were being connected the first time.

(I assume it's the player that says it's been safely disconnected, not the computer -- that's probably because it assumes that if it was connected and can no longer see the computer it must have been ejected.)
posted by katrielalex at 2:41 AM on June 17, 2008

Best answer: Connect the mp3 player via usb. Then go to Device Manager ( Windows + Pause key -> Hardware tab -> Device Manager). You should be able to see an entry about a USB device with a small exclamation mark next to it suggesting that it has problems. Select that entry and uninstall it from the Action menu. Then click on "Scan for hardware changes". That should ask you for the drivers again; just go ahead and install them.
posted by cyanide at 2:42 AM on June 17, 2008

Ah crap, owned by katrielalex :(
posted by cyanide at 2:42 AM on June 17, 2008

Best answer: FYI... I have the same player. It became about 1000x more useful to me when I "downgraded" to the 1.10 MSC firmware. This makes the player appear as just another USB mass storage device (that doesn't need an additional driver), instead of a media player that requires MTP.

If you don't need Windows DRM support, and would rather your MP3 player just work with virtually any computer you plug it into, you might consider the same thing. The firmware, utilities, and a PDF with instructions are here.
posted by toxic at 9:25 AM on June 17, 2008