My M6SL died...

Hey everybody, i've been on my 2nd M6SL 4GB. I've had it since last year, and in the last few months the LCD started leaking. It had a little green line at first, then it slowly expanded, and formed a curve on the right side of the screen. Nothing but a minor annoyance, i had no problem with it as i only use my player for music.

However, today, i was listening to a song, the song finished, and then the MiniPlayer shut down. Battery was full btw. Nothing can bring it back up, it isn't recognized by the computer either. Great. I just lost my Nokia N73 ME a couple weeks ago (i was carrying 30 kg worth of monitor, must have slipped out of my pocket), now this. I NEED MY MUSIC MAN!!! Great. Now all that's left is for my main laptop to crap out as well, as it's got one of the faulty 8400GS video chips. Well, at least i have two laptops. Regardless, i'm gonna miss my Miniplayer a lot. It was hands down the BEST sounding device i have ever owned. The only thing that got close to it was the Archos Ondio i had five years ago, but that too died within an year due to a power circuit fault.

I opened the Miniplayer up and measured it, it looks like two SMD transistors are shorted. Now trying to find equivalents for those won't be too much fun i guess.

Seems like my friend just got a free screen. His girlfriend managed to crack the screen on his M6SL a few months ago so considering the condition of my screen i'll give it to him for free. The worst thing is that i can no longer find the guy who was selling the players, now all i can find is the 2GB version, which sucks.

Guess it's time for me to get a M8... That is, order one from China. Or grab some random 3G-enabled PDA and call it a day.

Edit: I was able to get it to start, unfortunately that was short-lived. It immediately showed "Battery low, shutting down" even though the battery is full. I've left it to charge for some more, the battery does charge, but the player still sees it as empty when it powers up.

Another power supply IC failure, just like that Archos i had. To top it off, the power IC is made by the same Linear Technology. Too many coincidences don't you think?

Aw man...It sounding you one that also messing with some real bad circuits. I cannot help you solve your power failure you having, I have simply no skills with such thing, but I am least sure eBay can help you get a new M6 SL but that's up to you if you want go that way.

Well i have some computer parts arriving from the US, so if those end up at my house in one piece i'll probably be using ebay to get a new M6 as well.

I have electronics knowledge but i simply do not have the equipment for working with parts that small. Anyway, that's just it.

I have this strange luck - i always run the craziest computers, i have some motherboards that weren't even designed to run the parts they are running, and they just keep on chugging. The laptop i was telling you about (HP DV9750ed) is worth at least $800 and i got for just $300, i bought it off someone who said it was overheating and shutting down after 20 minutes. I put my ear on the fan's exhaust, noticed it wasn't running so i kept really quiet about it, gave the guy his money and left. Once i got home and took it apart what do you think it was - the fan cable had unplugged itself from the motherboard. Plug back in and glue -> perfectly working laptop. Funny thing is that just 2 weeks prior to that i had spent $750 on a HP DV5-1120eh, and the DV9750 beats the DV5 in everything. I decided to keep both though.

Now, since i got it i knew that the video chip in it is meant to fail, so i've overclocked it to the max and have been playing Devil May Cry 4 or GTAIV almost every day. If she's meant to die, let her at least die in style. Yet she doesn't give up, just keeps on working. 3 months down and still going strong.

Having a laptop like this working perfectly, then a simple device like the Miniplayer failing without warning, that's a bit weird don't you think?

Heh, i found my phone, it was in my laptop bag... :D

I have bought myself a HP iPAQ rx4240. Not the latest or greatest, but it only cost me $80 and it's in mint condition. Lacks a bit of the M6's volume, but it is satisfying in the bass department. On top of that it's also got bluetooth and wifi built-in, and i also get a (way too quiet) speaker. Cool.