Rio 64 MB Backpack

Add more listening time to your Rio digital audio player with the Rio 64 MB Backpack. This memory module snaps onto your Rio. It adds an extra two hours of playback time in the WMA audio format and about 60 minutes in the MP3 format. The Backpack comes with rechargeable battery and power adapter for recharging. It works with both the Rio 600 and Rio 800 digital audio players.

Rio's backpacks are upgradable to current and future memory standards. The backpack runs up to 10 hours on a fully charged NiMH battery (internal). It comes with a one-year warranty.

1 Big Problems
Oh, great. I get my Rio 600 / 32mb and add this 64mb backpack and now after 3 weeks the thing "quits working". Now I've had this player for over a year and it has been very good. Yes I've updated the software (1.55) and tried all the other tricks listed on the web... No go.... Now I read were I'm not the only person to run into this problem....

2 Won't ship to England?
Great. So it's offered at $$$ but "can't be shipped outside the US". Is this bloody-mindedness or down to the fact that the charger would launch itself into space with our UK 230 volt supply voltage? (Who cares - I can buy a cheap charger here).

My alternative is to buy a "Backpack" from Amazon UK. But wait - it's only a 32Mb unit and the cost is *twice* that of the 64Mb unit!

Nah. I think I'll just buy a cheap Taiwanese MP3 player and trash this American junk. That seems to be the way the world is going.

3 Less than fair
Apparently, Sonicblue discontinued making this backpack for some time because it had a lot of problems-- the many serious issues were supposedly fixed.

Calibration worked easy. The only problem was the supposed 'charging lamp' didnt go on, which created a lot of confusion.

After calibration and testing, I had the battery drained and charged it up (because I thought the lamp didnt turn on because the battery was full)--It didnt go on. Battery level is entirely innacurate, and the mandatory rechargable battery doesnt last nearly as long as the ones I used before.

The only positive thing is that it works

With its bad history, my suggestion would be to buy a player from a reliable brand or one with better reviews.

4 Unbelievably bad history
I had the older 64 meg backpack. It worked very poorly with my RIO 800, but worked fine with my Rio 600. So I gave the 800 to a kid who didn't mind charging it immediately before every use.

I have two Rio 600's for audible.com. If it weren't for audible.com books compatiability I'd use only my Nomad IIC.

I bought one of the new 64 meg backpacks for my other rio 600. It worked great for about a week and then it died in mid sentence. Now the charger won't even turn its red light on.

But my older backpack still works fine on a 600 and with the new charger that came with the newer backpack.

The two backpacks (old and new) have different part numers, old one ending in dash 001 and the new one in dash 010. So there's some attempt at product improvement on the part of Sonic Blue, but they never let us know what they are doing.

I've had three different chargers. The first one didn't have the spur on the plug. Apparently people were plugging it into the earphone jack and zapping their Rios so Sonic Blue traded it for a new one with a spur to keep it out of the earphone jack. The dash 010 model came with a different "switching" charger. Not much explanation as to what was wrong with the old one.

This is 2002. Sonic Blue should get something like this right the first time. These things are too expensive to keep jerking the consumer around.

5 Works well and easy to setup!
I just recently purchased one of these. I'm not sure why these other people were having problems but I had absolutely no troubles setting this up. The battery lasts about 10 hours. Maybe calibration is the key. Make sure to upgrade the firmware on your Rio player (takes about 5 minutes).

6 A Piece of [junk]
Followed directions to calibrate battery. After about 1 hour of use it turned on and off repeatedly and then off completely. Connected it to the charger and the LED continually lit saying that the battery is charged. Disconnected it with the battery reading at 96 % level. After about a few minutes of listening to a book, it did the same thing. Piece of junk. Plan to return it.

7 Don't know how this worked...
...because the Rio 800 that I bought to use this with was defective....not a good overall product...fair warning.

8 Follow the directions
I have purchased two of the 64 MB Backpacks and have had no difficulty. (Shop carefully for price - ...) You MUST follow the directions for calibrating the battery, however. In one case, I replaced the Varga battery that came with the unit with a different brand of NiMH rechargeable for much better performance. You CAN use an Alkaline battery, but only if you are very careful. The battery compartment is not well-built and not made for changing batteries. It was designed for rechargeables. My batteries will go for about 10 hours between charges. Be advised, however, that NiMH batteries lose their charge gradually even if not used so it's a good idea to recharge regularly. I suspect the reviewer above did not calibrate the battery correctly or had a bad battery.

9 piece of junk
The backpack immediately made my player repeatedly turn off after about 90 seconds. If that wasn't bad enough, as incredible as it may seem, the backpack does not work with disposable AA batteries! You would have to take a handy but annoying recharger with you on any prolonged trip. I am returning it ... Let the buyer beware.