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Sansa Express: So You Want To Update Your Firmware?

You come home excited about your new Sansa Express MP3 Player. You plug it into the computer hoping to transfer some of your favourite songs in. Here's you will encounter, which unless you are on Windows Vista, your very 1st problem.


The Sansa Express can't seem to install itself after Windows detects it. An error with the driver causes the player not to be installed and as such, you won't be transferring files anytime soon. But hey, this is a USB drive too right? You should be able to find a solution by searching online forums to detect the player as a mass storage device and start getting the files to transfer.


That is one workaround solution for the less fussy owners. But you still can't update your firmware this way. You bought this to work as flawlessly as it should and why would you settle for less. The problem with the installation earlier on was due to Windows XP's inability to read the driver INF files instructions after you have installed Windows Media Player 10.


But a simple download from the Microsoft Website will take this problem away. After you downloaded and installed the driver, you'll need to right-click on 'My Computer', go to 'System Properties', then click on 'Hardware' tab followed by 'Device Manager'.


In 'Device Manager', you will need to uninstall the Sansa Express first. This is because you need the system to detect the player as a new hardware when you plug it in again after you have installed the User-Mode Driver Framework.


Once plugged in, it will automatically install. Update your firmware, enjoy your music!

-EDIT-
For some time already Microsoft had decided to remove this driver for mass download for reasons that i don't know. However, I can tell you that you will need a file called umdf.exe to be downloaded. I'm not sure where you can find this anymore as a search i tried didn't turn up any viable results as well. If you do find a link, pls post in comment for others to solve the irritating problem as well. Thanks!

-SECOND EDIT-
I seem to have found it. If you download WMP11 and do a WINRAR extract to a folder, there's a umdf.exe in there. You should just use this umdf.exe and install the framework for your device to work properly. Kindly leave me some comments so i know that it still works. Thank you.

Sansa Express 1 GB Review

Having owned the player for a little more than 4 months, I can only have better than average views on this handy little player.

First the good stuff. The Sansa Express is a very very handy player that easily fits into any pocket without creating a bulge and has a 4 lined display in two colours, orange and blue that actually looks quite good.

Song navigation isn't too hard once you understand how the buttons work, but apparently my firmware version 01.00.16P2 does have some problems with song navigation and song selection.
For eg. when navigating to the songs list while a song is playing sometimes cause the player to reboot and it keeps happening when the action is repeated once it starts. Another problem is selection of songs sometimes fail because the player can't find the file, but if you try accessing it in a different way by going selecting the song thru album selection, it plays.

So while these problems do cause it to be rated a little less lower than it should, the player is still worth the buy as it has micro SD expansion card for more songs anytime you want.

Overall, the Sansa Express is a solid player with good enough functions but with a few shortfalls in the firmware. But those are problems that can be solved with future firmware updates and since it doesn't always affect my listening experience, I would still recommend it as a buy.