I know the Rio Chiba is not a high-end mp3 player, but I was recently given one, a hand-me-down from an acquaintance who recently upgraded to a fancy video iPod. It’s a tiny little thing, black with a red button, runs on one AAA battery, apparently holds 256 MB. It will be perfect for taking to the gym, if I can ever get it to work.
HOWEVER, he said HE got it used originally too, and he didn’t have a manual, or a CD with drivers, or anything, just the Rio unit itself. I went to their website and I’ve been trying to download stuff just so I can get my computer to recognize the darn thing, and haven’t had any luck so far. I think I installed Rio Music Manager, but I still can’t get the drivers for the Rio itself. I’m running Windows ME (go ahead and laugh!), and it says I may already have the drivers, but I sure can’t find them anywhere. Meanwhile, I have the unit hooked up via a USB cable, and it can’t be detected or anything. If anyone has experience with this, or can help talk me through the setup, I’d be in your debt.
I hope this works for you. I had a Rio Forge briefly (lost on first flight I took it on) that was great: small size, long battery life, durable, easy to use controls. Keep an eye out for cheap SD cards: that 256 Meg disappears quickly!
Thank you very much! That site seems like a great Rio resource. However, I followed their instructions and it still won’t recognize the damn thing. I registered and posted on their Chiba forum, updating it with everything I’ve done so far. I wish I knew what the hell I was doing wrong.
Look at your USB device manger chain and see if the install has been attempted before, but has a failed/improper driver install notice on the chain. If so delete device and reboot the machine and try re-install again with correct drivers.
If there is a memory card with the device try removing it and see if the card can be read by itself and is not corrupted. (Assuming you have a card reader)
If nothing else works try seeing if an XP machine will recognize the unit. That will narrow the problem somewhat. Also make sure the battery is super fresh.
After much grunting and cursing, I finally got my computer to acknowledge the Chiba. Astro, your advice totally worked! Tomorrow I’ll deal with getting it loaded up with music. Thank you both very much!
I don’t know if this will help you, but maybe it will help others. I’ve dealt with 2 MP3 players. One was an MPIO that I got open box, and the other was some type tied in with Napster that I got free with my DSL service. The MPIO works just like a USB memory stick; you just plug it in and drag and drop mp3 files onto it. (however, I have no idea how to put them in any particular order.)
The other one is so difficult to use that I almost threw it through the window. You apparently HAVE to use Windows Media player and go through all kinds of steps of making a playlist, synching, etc. The only way that I could ever get any songs on it was to put in a music CD, rip the songs with WMP, and do all of the other steps. I can’t stand this thing. I already had given the MPIO to my sister-in-law (who actually runs, and therefore uses it), which is probably for the best, since there’s no way she could figure this other one out.
The songs will be recorded to the flash card in the same order they are dropped in, when you use this method. I frequently use my MP3 player for audiobooks, when the tracks must be in the correct order, and it’s a real pain to have to add each track individually to make sure they are in the correct order. (Selecting several files then copying and pasting them doesn’t seem to work all of the time.)
WMP just wants to you think it’s difficult. In fact, all you really have to do is open the Sync window, make sure that WMP sees the player (or the flash card), then drag and drop the files from a folder on your computer to set up the sync list. You can then arrange the tracks in a specific order (if you wish) before clicking the Sync button. To me, this is much easier than copying one track at a time to the player.
I have the Chiba as well. It’s a great little cheap MP3 player.
I should tell you, though, that you won’t be able to use Rio Music Manager with MP3s without subscribing to their service. On the other hand, you don’t NEED to use the Music Manager at all. You can just drag and drop as if the Chiba were an external drive.
I haven’t been able to figure this out yet. I use Windows Explorer for almost everything on my computer, but the Chiba doesn’t show up on there as a drive or a folder, the way my D:\ drive does for a CD, or my E:\ drive, a Compact Flash card reader connected via USB, does for my camera’s memory card.
I downloaded Rio Music Manager, but I’ve heard it’s a pain, and I’d much rather do something easy with dragging and dropping. Can I use Windows Explorer, or would it require Windows Media Player?