So I have this Archos Jukebox Studio 20. I haven’t even come close to filling it up, but I have ripped all of my CD’s onto it.
Problem is, it doesn’t turn on anymore. Even when it’s plugged into the wall with the DC adapter. So I can’t play songs on it, of course…but I also can’t transfer the songs off onto my laptop for when I get a new MP3 player.
I assume that the batteries are crapped out, won’t hold a charge etc. But when I opened the thing (voiding the warrantee, which expired several years ago anyway) the rechargable batteries in there are 1.2V instead of the usual 1.5V AA. So I tried to put some AAs in there anyway, which didn’t work.
So my question is this. Is there any way I can get my files off of there? Does anyone have any other suggestions? I’d rather not buy a whole new set of batteries from Archos if I can help it. Especially since I’m not sure that’s the problem.
Sounds like the unit is dead. NiCd and NiMH batteries both have about a 1.2 V open circuit voltage, and in most cases can be used interchangeably with alkaline 1.5 V cells. Assuming the batteries were placed with proper polarity and there was good contact with no evidence of corrosion, I don’t think that the batteries are the problem.
I’m not positive but I think the Archos 20 uses a standard 2.5-inch notebook hard drive. If so, you can buy an adapter to put it into a desktop computer or connect to a USB port of any computer.
Of course it’s possible that it’s the hard drive itself that died, in which case you’re out of luck…
As QED said if the unit isn’t working with replacement batteries it may be dead.
You could pull the drive and use an inexpensive 2.5" to 3.5" drive interface adapter ( 10 dollars or so) to transfer the drive contents to your PC assuming the PC will read the Archos method of drive formatting.
Done a little more testing, maybe this will help with those who know stuff…
When the unit is plugged into the wall and into the laptop via USB, it will try to turn on and spin up (the display reads USB Active) but it never makes a connection to the computer. However when I power the unit down, or unplug the USB it makes WinXP crash.
With the AAs in, it will power up, but it just flashes something like “Jukebox loading” or something and does nothing else.
Here are your two main scenarios based on your info
1: Working Archos electronics, but drive is dead. You’re probably SOL re being able to retrieve your mp3’s, but the upside is that you might get the unit back up with a new 2.5 notebook drive (fairly cheap on ebay)
2: Archos Electronics dead, but drive is good . You can get an inexpensive 2.5" to 3.5" drive interface adapter and hook the 2.5" Archos notebook style drive up to your PC as another hard drive and pull the MP3’s off.
sounds like the electronics are dead if the drive spins up.
Personally, I’d say screw it to the 2.5 -> 3.5 adapter. Instead i’d buy a cheap 2.5 usb 2.0 enclosure and make a portable harddrive out of the 2.5 notebook hard drive. The enclosures run from 15-30 dollars depending. Very inexpensive, very portable, and very useful (at least to me).