iPod Classic white screen

A few weeks ago I turned on my iPod Classic 160gb and all I saw was a white screen. This is a common problem, I believe. The usual solutions are resetting the device and restoring it to factory settings. Neither one worked. Curiously, the iPod still played music. Someone suggested that running down the battery could fix the problem. Well, that's not so easy. Even after the device no longer had the juice to play anything, it remained responsive. Finally, I made appointment at the Genius Bar. After looking at my iPod and determining that there was no water damage, they told me that they will replace it. In a couple of days they called and said that the replacement has arrived. The key thing here was making sure that you have registered your iPod with the correct purchase date. This indicated when the warranty started. Interesting, nobody ever checked if I had a receit from Costco where the device was purchased.

Loading mp3's onto sansa fuze

I gotta admit, as much as I dislike iTunes for its sluggishness and lack of control, it is the most reliable way of loading mp3 onto a player I have seen so far. It is only too bad that iTunes cannot be used with other devices. I have been thus far unable to find a good way of putting mp3 files onto Sansa players. Rhapsody used to crash all the time, the Yahoo player crashed as well plus had some quirky behaviors when using it with Sansa e280. At some point I discovered that unlike the iPods, Sansa players allow one to copy mp3 files straight into its folders. The problem is that as a result the device sometimes would freeze. When I was loading music onto a couple of new Fuzes that I got as gifts I decided against installing the new software that came with the devices and loaded the files manually, so to speak, by copying them through Windows Explorer. The results so far were just fine. Maybe things have improved? I much prefer bypassing silly software solutions if files can be copied directly.

Philips HTS3544 power problem

Problem
I have heard before that Philips HTS3544 can experience some sort of power problem, but I was yet to encounter it. So, it happened! Came home from a brief trip and the unit would not turn on. The red indicator was red, but the receiver was not responsive to either the power button or the remote. Two factors may have contributed to this:

• There was a power outage the day before I left. I did not turn on the HTS3544 since.
• I turned off the entire array of electronics with a master switch, so the unit did not have power for three days.

Solution
I unplugged the home theater for about 5 seconds, waited for the red light to go off, and then plugged it back in. It worked just fine. I assume that a bunch of settings were lost, but at least I can watch DVD again!

Can't listen to AM radio on my Philips HTS3544!

That's right. AM radio stations disappeared. I cannot tune in to a single one now. I don't understand how this can happen. I believe, the antenna for AM reception is inside the unit. Maybe, using an external antenna would help. FM reception still works just fine. I am quite puzzled. Naturally, once you can no longer to listen to AM radio, AM radio is precisely what you want to listen to all day long. It's just human nature! Frustrating.

A problem with Philips HTS3544

As I watched "The Tudors" last night on DVD, I was wondering why on earth they decided to shoot Episode VIII in full screen format, as opposed to wide 16:9. Turns out, the settings on my Philips HTS3544 became reset for no good reason. I had to change the setting for the output TV from 4:3 to 16:9. I only got around to changing a few other settings that I had previously customized. At least I did not have to worry about surround sound speaker placement with speakers mysteriously jumping from place to place. But my volume settings for each channel became reset as well. Sure hope it does not happen again!