I got a 10GB player off of eBay, cost me an arm and a leg, but that's besides the point. Still can't quite believe it, but that's besides the point too.

Anyway, I live in Germany and I'm having the player shipped to a friend of my wife's in Florida. I'll have the player remain at her house since I'm moving to the U.S. in the summer anyway. Getting it over here would cost too much with customs and shipping.

I would like to have the player checked though to make sure everything is complete and working alright and none of the cables and sleds are missing or broken.

Could someone list the things necessary for a basic functional check of the hardware? I'm thinking of plugging the power in, hooking the RCA cables up to the stereo (not phono, right?) and pushing some button(s) to make the demo song play. See, I don't even know the button interface, so it would be nice if the description could be detailed enough for someone who has never seen or worked the device.

Is it actually possible to check everything that way except for the connection to the computer?

Georg

That's a pretty good basis for a start, except that it doesn't come with a demo song.

If the player is a brand new one just being scalped on e-bay, you should make sure that this list is present. Note that some were shipped without an AC adapter. If so, don't panic, just contact support and they will take care of you. Assuming that the scalper didn't open the box and mess with the player, I think support will continue to honor the player's warranty. (Although I'm not sure what their policy is on that.)

Some players won't boot or will only boot intermittently. This is most likely a problem with the hard drive cable and you shouldn't worry if that happens. Details here.

Otherwise, anything else that might be wrong with the player can be handled by support.

Thanks for your answer.

Thought I read here that there was a demo song on the unit, perhaps I confused it with another device (ipod?) .

So, there's no way of checking the player functioning right out of the box?

I don't think I can expect to have her install the software, rip a song and synchronise it with the player. Guess I'll have to wait six months until I get there.

Georg

No demo tune on the iPod, either.

the could just install the software from the cd included and download a song off mp3.com to try it that might be a little easier

Couldn't she just connect up power and make sure it boots? I did that with my backup I bought, just made sure it would boot to the part where it says "End of Playlist" I know this isn't testing the drive to any great extent but at least it shows the drive is found.

I would think that would be good enough be the message sounded like he wanted to try and play something on it to test it so...

Sure she could do that, but even if it froze at the boot-up logo screen, there is (a) nothing to worry about even in that case, and (b) nothing he could do about it anyway until he got it back to Germany and could contact support about the problem.

Long ago, the Mark 1 units were loaded with Anezal by Strange Angel. There was talk of loading the Mark 2 units with some demo songs, but this never occured. The closest thing that happened was some of the units that went to Car Toys as demos were loaded with songs. Of course my local store says they had to load theirs anyhow, so who knows.

(b) nothing he could do about it anyway until he got it back to Germany and could contact support about the problem.

Well, I wouldn't go back to Germany. I will move to the U.S. in summer to stay there, to live there, to work there. It's called immigration (or emigration, depending on your point of view) ;-). So, for a warranty claim I would have to ship the player over the big pond to the UK.

Say, do they do all servicing in the UK only, even a hard drive upgrade?

Georg

Couldn't she just connect up power and make sure it boots? I did that with my backup I bought, just made sure it would boot to the part where it says "End of Playlist" I know this isn't testing the drive to any great extent but at least it shows the drive is found.

So, is this ("End of Playlist") what one gets to see after the boot process is finished on a factory sent unit?

That'll have to do then, I guess.

So, did I get this right (from the FAQ) that the player does not come with an RCA cable?

Georg

So, did I get this right (from the FAQ) that the player does not come with an RCA cable?

Correct.