20 Most Recent Olympus VN-3100PC Digital Voice Recorder Questions & Answers

I had the same problem with my Olympus VN-5000. I found a solution, which appears to reformat the memory. Try to press the STOP and DISP/MENU buttons at the same time for about 2 seconds, and then the display should show "FOR". It will supposedly erase the whole memory, but will at least make the device usable again. I hope this solution works for your model!

I had a similar sounding problem my Olympus VN-5000. I would turn it on, it would show "CHK" for a few seconds, and then "ERR." This persisted despite fresh batteries. The "ERR" message reportedly means a memory error. I found a solution, which appears to reformat the memory. Try to press the STOP and DISP/MENU buttons at the same time for about 2 seconds, and then the display should show "FOR". It will supposedly erase the whole memory, but will at least make the device usable again! I hope this solution works for your model...

I bout the Olympus ws-21os that supports mac but it only supports wma so I had to buy easy wma that converts wma to aiff, wav,m4a or mp3 for $10.00

With this particular model of recorder that functionality is not possible as when the recorder is connected to the computer it is not a USB Mass Storage Device. It will only files to be downloaded to the computer not uploaded back.

here you are. http://www.olympusamerica.com/files/oima_cckb/VN-4100_VN-4100PC_VN-3100_VN-3100PC_VN-2100_VN-2100PC_VN-1100_VN-1100PC_Instructions_EN.pdf

I fought with this machine for more than 9 months. And after playing with it today FINALLY got it working.

This is what I did:

Unscrew the faceplate. (Three screws. One is under the batteries).

Put the batteries back on.

Have the HOLD button on the normal position (down)

Press and hold the MENU/FOLDER button together with the STOP button

Press and hold the MENU/FOLDER button together with the DISPLAY button

You will see a GREEN light, then a RED light then a "FOR" message will appear

Press the DISPLAY button and after a few moments it will reset and ask you to enter the time.

GOOD LUCK. Let me know if it works for you.

HAVE A NICE DAY.

Sorry for a late reply but chances are high to recover your deleted files.

First things first: DO NOT take any more videos or audio with the recorder that you want to recover files from in case you may quite possibly ruin your chances of voice memo file recovery.

Then connect your device to a PC, and have a try of Photo Recovery (also recover audio, voice memos, video files etc), a data recovery program which is good at recovering media files lost. If you are Mac OS X users, turn to Data Recovery for Mac.

Lastly, I hope you good luck. Again you should remember - the more you use your recorder, the less likely you may be able to recover the deleted files back! So STOP using the device ASAP. Regards