Top 20 Rio Carbon MP3 Player Questions & Answers

remove the power and batteries asap and leave it that way for two days. power kills not water--- removed any removable parts. good luck

1. look on ebay for battery if anybody would sell one. 2. go to walmart look in the flash drive isle for a sandisk ultra 2 cf card 8gb about 40$ . 3. open the rio and take out the old hard drive and then find a pc to format the cf card with a cf card reader make sure to format with windows 7 in my computer and choose quick format select default allocation size and then hit start. 4. when succesfully formatted put cf drive in rio carbon. 5. then put back plate back on carbon. 6. then look here for rio carbon developers firmware http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rio_Carbon 7. go to bottom of wikipedia page and click 3.04 Download link 1 and download the exe program and then run as administrater load up the firmware and then walla you have a working mp3 player again.

did you check if you tryed every solusion and look ooon google if so that must be the best thing i can think of

try reformatting it then putting music back on it see how that helps

try puting a cf card in it or look up problem on google if this doesnt help hold in menu and power for 4 seconds see if this helps in undoing the upgrader message if not try connecting it to a windows pc with xp or 7

if its just the stop button on the click wheel dont work try tilting the player sideways and hitting stop or push on the on the stop button on the player harder

if your using linux try formatting your carbon if not use windows and see if that works

You cannot restore the player without a computer but by formatting your drive and re-loading the Rio Carbon Firmware, you can reset it to factory settings.
The Developers cut firmware (latest (unofficial) firmware) is still available here:
http://biomoose.com/files/rio/carbon%203.04.EXE

go to frost wire and download music to chip then plug in chip tranfer music from chip to phone.

At best, the hard drive will have come slightly disconnected or seek arm may have become stuck. Try giving it a sharp tap and re-try.

The hard drive may be permanently damaged however.

Not compatible or not working well with windows 7?

Maybe, It doesn't work because the driver/application you installed is for other versions of operating system. I am also using windows 7 like you so don't you worry, You can still use your old installer/driver from other versions of operating systems. Just remember that before installing any program in a windows 7 Operating System Computer, Use "troubleshoot compatibility". Right Click the Icon of your program installer/application first, then choose "troubleshoot compatibility". This will allow you to choose on what type operating system your program will run. Just reply back if it still doesn't work.:D rate and vote for me:))

The product itself is nothing to do with any of us.
The Rio Carbon player contains a Microdrive so is prone to damage (such as the old iPod Minis) - if files are corrupted, it is very unlikely you will be able to recover them as the hard drive is likely corrupted itself.

Yes, this does require disassembly of the player though.

The front (silver) faceplate can be removed, and then the backplate and then the volume wheel can be re-glued (best to use some kind of epoxy resin).

Hi, the nag screen "The semaphore timeout period has expired" is showing up because the file copy retrial time out limit is being reached & hence the error. (A firmware Problem)
But this normally occurs after your unit has frozen during file transfer or there about.
It is possible that the unit is defective. But first, re flash the firmware and then try again. You have to upgrade the firmware of the unit and you can do this while downloading the utility from the support page HERE.
If that does not solve the problem, you have no choice that to contact Rio directly to help fix the unit...

Reset the Rio Carbon by inserting a small pin or paperclip into the EMERGENCY
RESET hole while it's plugged into USB-AC.
Then Press POWER.

Hello,
Try to transfer the tracks from the explorer.
1 Connect the Rio Carbon to a computer using the supplied USB cable.
2 Double-click My Computer on the Windows Desktop or in the Start Menu.
3 Locate MP3 or WMA audio files on the computer.
4 Highlight files and/or folders to transfer to the Rio Carbon.
5 Click Edit.
6 Click Copy.
7 Double-click My Computer on the Windows Desktop or in the Start Menu to open another window.
8 In the new window, locate the Rio Carbon (X:) icon that is associated with the Rio Carbon. (X equals the drive
letter assigned to the Rio Carbon.)
9 Double-click Rio Carbon (X:).
10Click Edit.
11Click Paste.

This forum http://www.gearhack.com/Forums/DisplayComments.php?file=Electronics/Rio_Carbon_Internals talks about and gives images of the battery as well as many other "hacks" that allowed them to use an otherwise dead Rio. This site http://www.greghughes.net/rant/PermaLink,guid,e9bdfa3f-da94-4c6e-a2f9-5ff3260040f1.aspx also has a good look at what the inside of the device look like and the many parts.
If you can plug the Rio into your computer and it charges then does this the battery is probably the culprit, but if it wont connect the drive might have died.

Your internal microdrive is probably playing up. You can either get a new microdrive (can be found in old ipods) or a CF card (sandisk CF ultraII work) or buy a new one.

Mowcius