Yesterday I tried my first iRiver CD/MP3 player, the new IMP-50 model. Yes it’s bottom-of-the-line, but I think feature for feature it still blows away most of the portable CD/MP3 player competition, (including my excellent ’02-vintage Panasonic SL-MP35). And since I only paid $US39.00 for it on Amazon, with free shipping and a ten-dollar rebate to boot, I was feeling pretty pleased with myself as I unpacked it and put it through its paces. Let's see what 29 bucks buys...

Well, it was exactly what I wanted: quick and responsive when I jumped between different cuts in different folders, and within a folder none of those annoying 3-second head-seek “gaps” between the song files. For two hours I was happy – it worked perfectly, and my MP3s sounded great. Then in my enthusiasm I decided to upgrade the firmware. Hey why not?

So I download upgrades V1.10 and V1.30, and installed 1.10 first. I followed the instructions PRECISELY. When the player powered off, I replaced the data disk with a commercial audio CD. But when I pushed Play, there came this horrible clicking/grinding noise out of the unit’s bottom, and the player went into seek mode for a couple of minutes before deciding it was empty and displaying NO DISK. Oops. I rebooted it and tried again, and this time it took about 1:30 to recognize the audio CD and begin playing. Plus that loud clicking/grinding noise. I figured there must be something *really* wrong with the upgrade file, so I logged on, downloaded another, and performed the upgrade routine all over again. No improvement. Well screw V1.10! I performed the V1.30 upgrade (after numerous NO DISK failures) but afterwards nothing changed. Still the loud clicking and the 1-in-10 disk recognition ratio.

Aw crap; I figured I’d have to return it to Amazon. But since it started acting wacky right after the firmware upgrade, I thought to first try the user forums at iRiver for some explanation and/or remedies. Their knowledgebase was no help, except to state that you can’t revert an iRiver unit to it’s factory-shipped OS. I was pretty pissed I tell you, and when it started clicking again around the 87th time I pushed the Play button, I slammed it against my leg in frustration.

The clicking stopped for a moment, then started up again. I slapped it against my thigh again. This time it stopped clicking and read the disk inside, almost apologetically. Now wait a minute… I reloaded the thing, started it up, and whenever it clicked I shook it -- hard. The clicking stopped-started-stopped. The disk played. Repeat procedure: powerOn, click, shake, quiet, play. It worked every time. And it took less and less time to come around, too. Then finally it began to start up perfectly: no more clicks; quick search; reliable seek. Good little player, just like when I first unwrapped it. And so it has remained so far.

OK, what the hell is going on here? Anybody?

If the good old "hit it till it works" actually fixed it, I would bet a large sum of money that it's a hardware issue, and the firmware thing was a coincidence. Try cleaning the laser and track that the laser is in. If it starts acting up again, I'd return it if I were you.

Well, one would think it was a hardware issue all right, and I do. But could it be somehow related to the firmware? Could, for instance, the sensitivity parameters of the laser be altered, so that in effect the player was finding it more difficult to read discs?

(Oh what the heck; I think I'm gonna exchange it anyway...)

Thanks