Sansa e260 my sansa e260 keeps on rebooting itself over and over how do i fix it?

Hi, the Sansa E260 is a portable MP3 player released by SanDisk in 2004. Several problems may cause the E260 to not function as intended from time to time. Common problems that occur are the device freezing, album art not appearing on the screen when a song is playing, pictures not filling the screen size and missing information on the separate tracks. You can troubleshoot the device and fix many of these common problems without the need of a service technician.

Reset
1. The Sansa E260 may freeze or function in other unexpected ways from time to time. This generally occurs when the unit's software has developed an error. Reset the device to clear the error and return the device to normal working operation. A unit reset is similar to rebooting your computer. You won't lose any data stored on your device.

To reset the E260, press and hold the "Power/Menu" button for about 15 seconds. The device will be forced to power down, during which the error will be cleared. You can restart the E260 as normal once the reset is complete.
Album Art Does Not Display
2. The E260 supports viewing album art on the display screen during the playing of a song. You may find that your album art is not showing up on the display when music is playing on the device. To fix this, make sure the associated album art file is in the same folder as the song being played. You will need to connect the E260 into your computer to move the album art files into the music folder.
Photos Aren't Full-Screen
3. Photos displayed on the E260 will not show up as full-screen shots if they are not cropped to the correct dimensions. The E260 software does not support stretching pictures to fit the full screen. To ensure your photographs will display on the full screen, crop the images to 128x64 in photo-editing software prior to transferring the image on the E260.
Unknown Artist or Album
4. The E260 displays information about each song using the ID3 tags associated with each track. ID3 tags hold information such as the artist name, album name, track number, year it was released and other information. If the E260 shows an artist or album as unknown, the information in the ID3 tag was not filled in. You can insert information into the ID3 tags from your computer.

To change the ID3 information, right-click on the music file and choose "Properties." Click on the "Summary" tab and choose "Advanced." The ID3 fields will display in the window. Insert any of the missing information and click "OK." When you upload the song onto your E260, the newly inserted information will show up in the display.

Hope it helped...

Try re-installing the drivers for the MP3 player FIRST then plug in the MP3 player! Also make sure you have the lates Windows media Player installed

Mine was a bit more FUBAR I guess. I have a Sansa e260. I had rockbox on it, went to switch back to the firmware. Uninstalled rockbox and on reboot... the e260 was refreshing the database and then came to a frozen green screen.

My e260 was already in MSC mode. I did the steps above but was still stuck.

The solution that worked was one posted by "Slaughter" on anythingbutipod.

The ultimate fix for all e2xx v1 problems - Format, enter recovery mode, downgrade firmware Link (you'll need to format the drive), reinstall newest firmware via newest Sansa Updater, reload tunes.

Go to Sandisk's website and download the Sansa Recovery Tool

Try this: disconnect the player from the computer, hold in the volume + button, and reconnect the player to the computer while holding the volume + button in. Keep holding the volume + button for an additional 5-50 seconds. Windows should eventually go into recovery mode and revive the player- it will pop up a window that says Found New Hardware Wizard.

I would recommend that you upgrade the firmware on the device..Once the firmware is update you shouldnt have any problems..To update the firmware follow the link below
http://www.sandisk.com/Retail/Default.aspx?CatID=1376
Please rate accordingly
Thank you
Computerrep

oh because the format of your music is not WMA, WAV, or MP3

You could reinstall the firmware (what makes the sansa work). Its pretty easy to do, no need of downloading/installig, its already all in the sansa. You just need a computer How do I restore the firmware Firstly, place the e260 in restore mode. To do this, follow these steps 1. Push the Hold button on top of the e260 to the right. 2. Hold in the record button 3. Press and release the Menu button 4. The device will now go into Restore Mode. If you have not already connected the USB cable to your PC, it will direct you to do so. 5. The root directory of the device will open up on the PC screen. Now drag and drop the two files Firmware into into the e260 root directory. You will find a copy of the two firmware files zipped up elsewhere on these forums 6. Push the Hold button on the e260 back to the left 7. Unplug the USB cable from the PC. The e260 will now reboot, writing the new firmware images to the correct location. 8. This process will have wiped all your music files. You will now need to re-synch.

I would like to offer this solution, but this solution is only meant for the "Standard" E200 players (there are 2 types of E200 players -- the Standard E200 and the "Rhapsody" players, indicated with an "r" after the E200 such as "E260r". I'm hoping you have the standard E260. Switch your Sansa E260 to its Recovery Mode: 1. Make sure the player is powered off 2. Enable the "Hold" switch (located on the top of the player). You would know it's enabled when you see the "orange-colored" surface 3. Press the "Record" button. Make sure you keep it pressed while pressing on the "Menu" button. 4. keep your fingers pressed on these 2 buttons until the E260 LCD screen displays "Welcome to Recovery Mode" 5. Connect your E260 to your computer. (Just a reminder: The minimum Operating System requirements for a Sansa E200 player is Windows XP and above) 6. Double-click on "My Computer" and you would see your Sansa E260 appear as a "16 MB" drive. Note: If you do not see that "16 MB" drive/partition, please repeat steps 1-6. Next, Apply the firmware for the E260 (your player should be connected to your PC at this time): Step 1: Use this link to download the firmware for your Sansa E260 (for better results, please save this file on your "Desktop": http://www.sandisk.com/Assets/File/Downloads/firmware/e200fw01.00.12.exe Step 2: Double left-click on the downloaded file, and follow the on-screen prompts. The file will automatically re-flash your player and format it as well, thereby clearing all possible file/system corruptions that may have occurred which caused the "Load Main Image Failed" notification in the first place. Step 3: When the process is complete, unplug your E260 from your computer, and please make sure you disable the "Hold" switch Step 4: Power up your E260 and 90-99% of the time, it would boot up successfully. Step 5: Enjoy using your Sansa E260, just like I do. (I love this player)

Hi. Your Sansa E260 might be encountering some system errors and would need a Firmware re-flash by setting it to its recovery mode. Try this: RECOVERY MODE Switch your Sansa E260 to its Recovery Mode: 1. Make sure the player is powered off 2. Enable the "Hold" switch (located on the top of the player). You would know it's enabled when you see the "orange-colored" surface 3. Press the "Record" button. Make sure you keep it pressed while pressing on the "Menu" button. 4. keep your fingers pressed on these 2 buttons until the E260 LCD screen displays "Welcome to Recovery Mode" 5. Connect your E260 to your computer. (Just a reminder: The minimum Operating System requirements for a Sansa E200 player is Windows XP and above) 6. Double-click on "My Computer" and you would see your Sansa E260 appear as a "16 MB" drive. Note: If you do not see that "16 MB" drive/partition, please repeat steps 1-6. Next, Apply the firmware for the E260 (your player should be connected to your PC at this time): Step 1: Use this link to download the firmware for your Sansa E260 (for better results, please save this file on your "Desktop": http://www.sandisk.com/Assets/File/Downl... Step 2: Double left-click on the downloaded file, and follow the on-screen prompts. The file will automatically re-flash your player and format it as well, thereby clearing all possible file/system corruptions that may have occurred which caused the player to keep resetting. Step 3: When the process is complete, unplug your E260 from your computer, and please make sure you disable the "Hold" switch Step 4: Power up your E260 and 90-99% of the time, it would boot up successfully. If not, try to repeat steps 1-4 again. I hope this helps. The E260 is a great player.