- Joined
- Sep 27, 2023
This might be a bit of a longshot, but I asked around 4chan and gotten mixed responses. Feedback would be appreciated, especially from people who have experience working with those old MP3 players:
I got a hand-me-down MP3 player as a birthday present a while back, but didn't pay it much attention until recently. It's a Walkman NWD-B103 model from about 2006, plays music and lets me record audio too. Very small and handy device, still works and got a shit ton of old music I would like to transfer on my computer if nothing else. Problem starts when I try to plug it into my Computer.
Here are some links for reference before I continue:
First things first, due to how outdated the software on the device is, it seems that no OS past Vista is able to read it, unfortunately I am well past that and run a more modern Windows OS. My computer doesn't read the MP3 player and reads it as "unknown device, descriptor request failed" and sometimes shortly after it detects it disconnects the device. Uninstalling the device from control panel/hardware manager and restarting the computer does nothing, Windows cannot detect driver updates automatically and ironically enough, despite one of those links offering a software update(from 1.1 on my device to the latest 1.3) I cannot install it since the software that updates the MP3 player cannot detect my Walkman either. There is another piece of software that supposedly makes transferring software both ways easier, I assume it's some sort of a UI interface, but again it does not work unless the computer detects the device being plugged in.
So you see, it's a bit of a catch 22, I can't update the device or do anything with the data on the MP3 player until the software has been updated but I cannot update the software until the computer detects the device. The other alternative is that the computer is simply too new to read the device and is confused by it, I had a similar experience with a Windows 7 laptop a friend owns, but sadly I do not know anyone who still runs Vista or older, for whom the MP3 player should theoretically work.
I have a few avenues on how I can go about this, I've been thinking of firing up a virtual machine with Windows XP to see if it would read the stick, that would confirm if the issue is with the software my computer runs on or the MP3 player itself. Alternatively, 4chan suggested running Linux, but that's their go-to suggestion for anyone who runs windows, apparently Linux has a better USB detecting software and could help me out. Another option is that the USB stick part of the MP3 player is simply malfunctioning due to old age, that certainly has to be factored in but I doubt it considering that my machine was able to detect it and that attempts to run the damn thing were made by my uncle as far back as 2020 and 2021(confirmed by looking into the properties and boot up history). Either way, if there is someone who knows their way around old tech in my area, it would definitely be an option as well.
I want to hear what people here think, with how big the Kiwi community is I assume somebody here has to have some experience with old MP3 players like this. I would definitely love to get this thing working, a thumbstick sized MP3 player with a GB of space and a recording player is a dream come true. I don't want to use the smart phone as an MP3 player wherever I go and want to listen to music, I have in fact refused to use my phone as such(which did, admittedly made me appreciate nature more), so this would be a nice little utility, plus keeping old technology alive is always cool. The device is fully working right now, except I can't get the computer to recognize it when plugged in(again, unknown device and descriptor request failed). Considering the rather decent state of an old piece of hardware like this, I want to take stock and consider my options before I take any avenue of action, not like the thing is scrap and the only thing I can do is throw it away or spend money trying to rebuild it, problem either lies in software or maybe a repair job on the MP3 player's USB jack at worst.
I got a hand-me-down MP3 player as a birthday present a while back, but didn't pay it much attention until recently. It's a Walkman NWD-B103 model from about 2006, plays music and lets me record audio too. Very small and handy device, still works and got a shit ton of old music I would like to transfer on my computer if nothing else. Problem starts when I try to plug it into my Computer.
Here are some links for reference before I continue:
First things first, due to how outdated the software on the device is, it seems that no OS past Vista is able to read it, unfortunately I am well past that and run a more modern Windows OS. My computer doesn't read the MP3 player and reads it as "unknown device, descriptor request failed" and sometimes shortly after it detects it disconnects the device. Uninstalling the device from control panel/hardware manager and restarting the computer does nothing, Windows cannot detect driver updates automatically and ironically enough, despite one of those links offering a software update(from 1.1 on my device to the latest 1.3) I cannot install it since the software that updates the MP3 player cannot detect my Walkman either. There is another piece of software that supposedly makes transferring software both ways easier, I assume it's some sort of a UI interface, but again it does not work unless the computer detects the device being plugged in.
So you see, it's a bit of a catch 22, I can't update the device or do anything with the data on the MP3 player until the software has been updated but I cannot update the software until the computer detects the device. The other alternative is that the computer is simply too new to read the device and is confused by it, I had a similar experience with a Windows 7 laptop a friend owns, but sadly I do not know anyone who still runs Vista or older, for whom the MP3 player should theoretically work.
I have a few avenues on how I can go about this, I've been thinking of firing up a virtual machine with Windows XP to see if it would read the stick, that would confirm if the issue is with the software my computer runs on or the MP3 player itself. Alternatively, 4chan suggested running Linux, but that's their go-to suggestion for anyone who runs windows, apparently Linux has a better USB detecting software and could help me out. Another option is that the USB stick part of the MP3 player is simply malfunctioning due to old age, that certainly has to be factored in but I doubt it considering that my machine was able to detect it and that attempts to run the damn thing were made by my uncle as far back as 2020 and 2021(confirmed by looking into the properties and boot up history). Either way, if there is someone who knows their way around old tech in my area, it would definitely be an option as well.
I want to hear what people here think, with how big the Kiwi community is I assume somebody here has to have some experience with old MP3 players like this. I would definitely love to get this thing working, a thumbstick sized MP3 player with a GB of space and a recording player is a dream come true. I don't want to use the smart phone as an MP3 player wherever I go and want to listen to music, I have in fact refused to use my phone as such(which did, admittedly made me appreciate nature more), so this would be a nice little utility, plus keeping old technology alive is always cool. The device is fully working right now, except I can't get the computer to recognize it when plugged in(again, unknown device and descriptor request failed). Considering the rather decent state of an old piece of hardware like this, I want to take stock and consider my options before I take any avenue of action, not like the thing is scrap and the only thing I can do is throw it away or spend money trying to rebuild it, problem either lies in software or maybe a repair job on the MP3 player's USB jack at worst.
