User's Manual
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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 Gmini
™
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 Gmini
™
500 with the Stop/Esc button and then unplug it.
19.2 Charging and Power issues
19.2 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.
19.3 Gmini
19.3 Gmini
™
™
500 locks up (freezes operation) or Stops
500 locks up (freezes operation) or Stops
Problem: The Gmini
™
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 Gmini
™
500. Hold down on the STOP/OFF button for 15
seconds and the Gmini
™
500 will shut off. Restart it normally now.
19.4 File issues, corrupted data, formatting, and partitioning
19.4 File issues, corrupted data, formatting, and partitioning
Problem: I want to clean up my Gmini
™
500’s hard drive, but Windows
®
will not let me use the standard hard
drive cleaning tools.
Answer: This is because Windows
®
sees your Gmini
™
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.
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Problem: On the Gmini
™
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 Gmini
™
500’s fi le allocation table (FAT) has been corrupted. This
could have been due to the Gmini
™
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 Gmini
™
500.
Problem: Can I defragment the Gmini
™
500’s hard drive?
Answer: (Windows Device Mode) The Gmini
™
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 Gmini
™
500’s hard drive.
Answer: You can do this, but it will erase ALL of the data on your Gmini
™
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 Gmini
™
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 Gmini
™
500’s hard drive. Remember, doing this will erase all the data
on the Gmini
™
500’s hard drive!!!
Windows
®
ME Running Scan-Disk (Error Checking) – HARD DRIVE mode only
• Quit all running applications.
• Properly connect the Gmini
™
500 to your computer as explained in the chapter Connecting/disconnecting
the Gmini
™
500 to/from your PC .
• Make sure external AC adapter is powering the Gmini
™
500.
• Right click on the Gmini
™
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 .