Stupid new mp3 player and windows won't recognize it. Can anyone help please?

There an unknown device in my device manager, I'm not even sure if it's the mp3 player? Windows doesn't find the drivers for it.

Not much luck trying to find the actual website with the drivers I need. Some help recommended I install the USB Hub manually, but there is no USB Hub in the list...

It's a prolink / sheffield mp3 player model PL3010.

If I can just work out how to get it recognized it should be a okay player.

Help!

Go to Device Manager, select the supposing unknown device and uninstall its driver. If it has the option "Delete the driver software for this device.", check the option before clicking OK.

Then go to Windows Update and check for update, maybe it might find the driver for it. If not, go back to Device Manager and select Action -> Scan for hardware changes.

You also have to see what type of connection the mp3 player is using, check the settings in the device.

[s] What type of player is it exactly? (make and model) [/s] err never mind on that.

Something to note, some players will just open up and act as a thumbdrive letting you access and add/remove files. Others (iPod and the like) require proprietary drivers which won't let you run through anything except them, quite an annoying DRM scheme.

I know I had an old model of MP3 player back in 2005, 512Mb, more than enough for my purposes. The programming and abilities very minimal, requiring to run on FAT16 (sometimes a fresh reformatting would fix things) and you drop the files/folders of music you wanted and it would go from that. no display, 4 buttons.

If you have the manual you might read that too.

Now the unknown device in the device manager is gone as well...

The manual, the manual says it should automatically install drivers when you plug it in...

How do I tell where it actually is in the device manager? Should it be under USB controllers?

It must be plugged in okay because it charges?

Have you plugged it into the correct port? I have, from time to time, experienced problems when connecting a piece of USB 2.0 equipment to a USB 3.0 port, even though the port should be backwards compatible. It would do pretty much as you say, that is, charge normally, but not work otherwise.

I have also seen equipment refuse to work when plugged into the USB ports on the front of the cabinet, but work fine when plugged into the back.

Tried every USB port, back and front, no pop ups at all from windows saying anything is connected or not working.

Then I'm out of ideas, sorry man. I hope you get it to work somehow.

What OS do you use? Have you tried on a another computer while booting up? How do you plug it in: directly to the mamaboard, or via a usb hub? As Wishbone suggested - use a usb 2 port, always.

Most Mp3 players that I have tested in the past doesn't rely on the standard protocol of accessing the drive, and every windows version does have a "common" driver to access it. There are several standards. And some devices needs to have the drivers already installed, like some printers. And some cheap ones refuses to work on newer/older OSes.

That's why you should be very skeptical when buying pure mp3 players, especially the cheap ones with soldered flashmemory. They're problematic to put it mildly...

If another computer/OS and different version of the usb/mamaboard drivers doen't work, then go somewhere else to buy a mp3 player. I myself stopped buying cheap mp3 players with soldered flash memory a long time ago, only to try some mp3 players with a SD CARD slot, awhile ago. Those are way more agreeable.

Everything uses SD/TF cards now so you would have more luck with that type, and many supports up to 32 GB.

I recommend one with a angry face, like this one :P

Did you try the old restart the PC thing? Sometimes Windows likes that.

You could also try to boot a Linux Live CD and see if it's seen there. If Windows and LInux don't see it, I think it is safe to throw it away or ask for a refund.

You've got something so obscure that not even Rockbox has a post on it.

It sounds more and more it should be acting like an external drive when plugged in. It didn't come with a CD or something did it? Or dare I ask... a floppy?

Probably not... Maybe it's defective?

Yeah I'd try looking at it and seeing what a Linux OS says about it. Perhaps get the DeviceID.

Alternatively... you could force a driver on it, refer to a generic storage device used for thumb drives, and see if it works. Sorta 'at your own risk' type of thing.

No mp3 player, Nooooooo!

And, yep, I think I'll return this piece of crap, luckily it was really cheap and I can return it. Not the best time for my Ipod to break.

Unless anyone has any brilliant ideas.

I'm on Windows 7 and also tried it at the shop on a computer there, it wasn't picking up either. Not much for it.

Try forcing a driver. Storage media, generic, etc. See if it works.

Update driver->chooser driver->disk drive->Generic or similar.

Although not really sure what will happen. It's going to either work, or refuse to work.

Actually, I've had more or less the opposite experience. Cheap simple MP3 players tend to just interface to the PC as a standard USB drive, and you can copy files to them directly through the file system. Expensive MP3 players on the other hand often come with proprietary drivers that give no direct access to their file systems, and the only way to move files to them is by "synchronizing" through a special proprietary app. I have had way more problems with the latter than the former. The problem is that only the latter tend to support the various DRM schemes that some commercial audio files are infected with.

^This mirrors my experience. Especially with Apple's iPod and iMusic software which is happy to delete music off your iPod, but won't return it to your computer if you request it, actually syncing will delete it if you don't have it immediately on hand.

Unlike say a $40 cheap mp3 player which i still use today 10 years later, acts like a thumb drive, 1 AAA battery, simple interface, if it gets clunky for any reason reformat and copy your music to it again. Limited, but simple. Powerful, and underrated.