Archos AV 500 series 25.2 Charging and Power issues , 25.4 File issues, corrupted data, formatting, and partitioning , 25.3 AV 500 locks up (freezes operation) or Stops , 25.4 File issues, corrupted data, formatting, and partitioning

Problem: (Hard Drive mode) What do I do if I try to disconnect via the green arrow but keep getting “The device

‘Generic Volume’ cannot be stopped now. Try stopping the device again later.”

Answer: Shut off any program that might be accessing data on the AV 500, including Windows® Explorer. If this

does not work, shut down all programs, wait 20 seconds, then try the green arrow one or two times again. If this

does not work, you can shut off your AV 500 with the Stop/Esc button and then unplug it.

25.2 Charging and Power issues

You do not need to fully discharge the batteries before recharging them.

Problem: A full battery charge does not last as long as the speciﬁ cations suggest.

Answer: The speciﬁ cations are under the condition that the screen backlight goes off after 30 seconds (for

music) and the user does not access the machine, it just sits and plays. If you get signiﬁ cantly less time from a

full charge, call our technical support hot-line.

25.3 AV 500 locks up (freezes operation) or Stops

Problem: The AV 500 locks-up. None of the buttons work.

Solution: If the ‘ Lock buttons ’ is set, none of the buttons respond. Hold down the unlock action button for three

seconds to turn off the ‘ Lock buttons ’ function. A freeze up could also be caused by electrostatic phenomena.

That is, static electricity has temporarily knocked out the AV 500. Hold down on the STOP/OFF button for 15

seconds and the AV 500 will shut off. Restart it normally now.

25.4 File issues, corrupted data, formatting, and partitioning

Problem: I want to clean up my AV 500’s hard drive, but Windows® will not let me use the standard hard drive

cleaning tools.

Answer: This is because Windows® sees your AV 500 as a Windows Device and not a hard drive (USB Port

is set to Windows Device in Setup > System ). Do not change back to hard drive and run a defragmenter

program. This will give unexpected results.

Problem: On the AV 500, I ﬁ nd new ﬁ le names and folder names that I never created and/or they have strange

gibberish names.

Answer: (Hard drive mode) Most likely, the AV 500’s ﬁ le allocation table (FAT) has been corrupted. This could

have been due to the AV 500 shutting down (due to low battery power) while reading or writing to your computer

via the USB connection. To ﬁ x a corrupted FAT problem, you should use the Error Checking utility or the Check

Disk utility explained at the end of this section. Attention: Windows and Macintosh often write extra ﬁ les to the

hard drive such as ﬁ nder.def or System volume info . These are normal and will not harm the AV 500.

Problem: Can I defragment the AV 500’s hard drive?

Answer: (Windows Device Mode) The AV 500 maintains an optimized ﬁ le system and does not need to be

defragmented. Defragmenting will cause unexpected problems.

Problem: I want to reformat the AV 500’s hard drive.

Answer: You can do this, but it will erase ALL of the data on your AV 500. Sometimes this may be necessary

if your FAT (File Allocation Table) becomes so corrupted that nothing seems to ﬁ x your ﬁ le problems. First, as

explained below, you should run ScanDisk or the DOS chkdsk (Check Disk) program to try to ﬁ x your problem.

If this doesn’t ﬁ x your problem and you are sure you must reformat the AV 500 hard drive, then go to the screen

Settings > System and press and hold the DOWN action button for three seconds. A button “Format HD” will

appear. Use this button to format the AV 500’s hard drive. Remember, doing this will erase all the data on the AV

500’s hard drive!!!

Windows® ME Running Scan-Disk (Error Checking) – HARD DRIVE mode only

• Quit all running applications.

• Properly connect the AV 500 to your computer as explained in the chapter Connecting/disconnecting the AV

500 to/from your PC .

• Make sure external AC adapter is powering the AV 500.

• Right click on the AV 500 hard drive in Windows® Explorer and select Properties.

• Select the Tools option and run the Error checking program.

• Make sure you check the box to automatically ﬁ x errors .