--- In archosjukebox6000@yahoogroups.com, "Ralf Jung" <rajung@...> wrote:
>
> Hello everybody,
>
> I am new here, and in the search for help. I have a Archos Jukebox
Recorder 20 GB, and so far it was working fine. However, the battery
seemed to get lower recently, and now I can not even turn the box on
at all. I assume the problem is the power supply. It does not turn on
even if I connect it to the plug in charger. Perhaps the batterie is
totally gone?
>
> I also tried to connect it via USB to the computer, but again it
does not turn on. My main problem now is how I can at least access and
recover my data. I used the box more as a harddrive than a mp3 player.
So there are several important data on the box, including pictures and
short videos from the last 3 years with our little kids, which are
important memories for our family.
>
> We appreciate any comments and help from you experts out there.
>
> Thank you so much,
> Ronia
>
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>

Since you seem to be in Germany, I'll assume you have a regulated
switching power supply with your JB. These are the ones that do not
have heavy transformers in them and are rated to run from a wide
variety of voltages: from 100-240 Volts for example.

Although very nice when they work, these things do wear out after many
hours of use. They will tend to be the worse when they are cold, and
work better when warmed up.

I don't remember all these old models anymore. Did your recorder-20
use 4 AA batteries or does it have the Li-Ion battery pack? The older
4-AA models will run from a wide variety of voltages from about
8-volts all the way past 15-volts! As in the USA the unregulated
supplies we got actually would put put over 15 volts when not under
load. I think there was a series-II recorder or something like that
which used a 5 volt supply and the Li-Ion battery pack. I don't know
much about those because I never owned one, but I remember a common
problem of the battery contacts not making good contact with the
recorder at times. You might check this out to see if this is your
problem. In any case, see if you can substitute a different power
supply, the tip is + on the plugs on both models, and at least on the
older 4-AA types, it burns up a regulator on the inside if your get
this wrong! So be careful. I'm currently running my JB from a power
supply from an old wireless phone.

Another thing to try is to remove the battery pack so the power supply
isn't trying to charge the batteries at the same time as powering the JB.

Worst case, you can take the JB apart and remove the standard laptop
hard drive and connect it to and adapter so you can plug it into your
computer to transfer the files from it. I have a nice cheap IDE to
USB adapter for this, I also have an adapter the adapts it up to a
full sized hard drive. Either way will work.

Good Luck