I cant get the player to show up in windows media player. i try to refresh it but nothing happens. what do i do?

This happens often with Sansa Media Players, your best bet is to delete all your songs off the device, then re-add them again. But this time have your device on hold, which is having the switch at the top of the device pushed to the right side. This will make sure nothing happens while the device is syncing.

If you are using Windows XP: verify the following operating system requirements are met. - Windows XP SP2 or higher - Windows Media Player 10 or higher
Download and install the latest Windows Media Player if it's not installed.
If you are using Windows Vista: If the player is seen in My Computer when using MTP mode, but not showing in Windows Media Player. - Download the hotfix from http://support.microsoft.com/kb/939211. - Run the hotfix.
Refresh the driverd
1 - Connect the Sansa player to the PC The screen on your player should turn on, show 'Connected' and indicate the battery charging or full. - If the player does not turn on try other USB ports or on another computer if one is readily available. Ensure you are connecting directly to the computer USB port and not to a USB hub. - If there is nothing showing on the screen and the player does show up in as a storage device in an explorer window, then the screen is just not working.
If you receive the error "USB Device Not Recognized" on the computer, the player is most likely failed. Additional troubleshooting is unlikely to correct the problem.

Don't transfer playlists - only transfer individual songs

http://www.anythingbutipod.com/forum/showthread.php?t=15424

Check this thread out it may help ya.

I think I have a solution. First you turn on the MP3 Player and then go to the menu. Go down to settings. Then, go to USB. Go down to "MSC" and hit the middle button. It should take you back to the settings menu. That means you successfully changed that setting. Now plug the MP3 Player back into the computer and open up "My Computer." It should show up. I hope this helps!

I had the same problem, all you have to do is first turn on the Mp3.Then go to settings. Then go down to USB mode. It will probably say, auto detect.But instead scroll down to MSC. If that doesn't work try MTP.

go on sandisk and do the updates

and changes the format of the hard drive

"Refresh database" is a normal message that you will get everytime you unplug the Sansa from the computer - don't worry about that aspect.

If the songs that you have transferred have DRM encryption on them, they may not play right (or at all) on the Sansa.

If you have Windows Media Player 11, I would get the firmware update from the Sansa website AND format the Sansa inside Windows Media Player:
for the firmware,
for the format, http://www.sandisk.com/Retail/DriverDownloads.aspx
Erases Everything: Connect your Sansa player to the computer and open Windows Media Player. Click on the Sync tab. Pull down the drop down menu underneath the Sync tab by moving your cursor over the Sync tab and left clicking on the little black arrow underneath the Sync tab. Highlight "Sansa 1GB" (wording may vary slightly), and then select "Format." - this should erase everything and get your player functioning normally.

-Tha Mp3 Doctor

have you tried syncing your MP3 player through windows media player? plug in your mp3 player then open windows media player, on the top right there is tab says sync. click on refresh devices and your mp3 player should show up on the right window pane in windows media player. From there you can drag all your music onto it and press sync!
Hope this works

Dan

Make sure you have media player 11
If you can, the best test is to try your player with another PC, to see if you still have the problem. This localises whether the problem is with the PC (most likely the USB) or the player. See the link below (search on "connection problems") for a lot more troubleshooting on this.
Download recovery tool off creative's website.
go to my computer > click on hardware tab >
click on device manager button > in the is next screen on the bottom should have>>universal serial bus controllers
(write these down just in case it cant find them)
right click on them and uninstall
reboot let windows reinstall them
Also told Microsoft hotfix causes this problem try uninstalling the last hotfix
If that doesn't fix it try the USB cable