My MP3 player broke :**:

I bought an Archos 20GB player about two years ago and I loved it - I have very wide ranging tastes in music so being able to carry so much music with me was great. I thought it was a great little machine until three weeks ago.

I was on a train up to London and it just suddenly stopped working. I tried everything and nothing worked so I phoned up Archos. they said to send it to them for repair which I did. I waited ages and eventually they came back with a repair cost. The hard drive had failed and the cost to repair it was £105.

Now I kind of think this is a bit steep as it only costs £135 to buy a new one. I paid £180 for it less than two years ago which means it has cost me £90 a year!! I'm not going to give them the money for the repair and I can't afford to buy a new one - even if I could I'm not sure I'd want to buy another Archos anyway. A google search shows that they are prone to HDD failures so again if this is a common fault why should I have to pay so much.

Anyway with the trip to Oz coming up I don't want to be without one so yesterday I bought a cheap and chearful 2GB from Dixons (sorry Currys.Online) for £25. It's ok and will do for now but there is a fundamental difference between it and my old one. The old one allowed you to play albums the new one only lets you plays tracks (as far as I can see) which is not the way I usually listen to music.

Oh well beggars can't be chosers as my Granny used to say!!