I have been having lots of fun lately with my Archos Jukebox 20 Recorder. I've had it for 3 or so years, so there's no question about warranty - it's out of warranty.
I accidently left it on "charge" over a long weekend, recently, and since have been having problems getting it to boot. Search the web for "Archos Jukebox HD register errors" to get an idea of what I've been fighting.
Figuring I had somehow ruined the original batteries by charging them for so long (even though the charger seemed to have shut down when the charge cycle was complete), I invested in 4 new NiMH AA cells with an external charger. Later I found out that the JBR is prone to damage from frequent removal/insertion of the batteries because the battery terminals are on the printed circuit board in the unit, and can be cracked from the flexing necessary to get at the batteries.
Needless to say, the new batteries worked for about 10 minutes, then I was back in the "HD error" situation. Following the instructions at Archos' website, I error checked the hard drive (after some difficulty getting it to mount under USB), then eventually did a full backup (8 GB of music! ach), reformat, and restore to the HD. Worked great - for 20 minutes this time.
It's working now, sort of, after I completely disassembled the unit (thanks to this website), error checking the HD again in a USB enclosure, and reinstalling everything.
I can use this technique someday to make it into a JBR 40 or JBR 60, provided I can get it to run for more than 4 or 5 minutes at a time. Having 1000 hours of music on a device that will only play one or two tracks without dying is kind of lossy, you know?
(It just died again. If you see one of these on Ebay, give it a pass. It's not worth the frustration.)
Posted on September 9, 2005 01:36 PM