We got our DD a Disney Mix Stick for Christmas, and it stopped working in January. It won’t play anything and won’t charge up. Depending on different situations of trying to charge it, the lights indicating charging act differently.
For one, it has an orangish-yellow light which is not described at all in the pamphlet that goes with the Mix Stick. When putting the Mix Stick on the Jam Stand, which we got to go with the Mix Stick, sometimes in the charging situation it lights up the yellowish color in blinking on and off, going solid, then on and off, then totally off. Other times it does nothing. Sometimes in the middle of the on and off cycles it goes solid green for second or two, then back to blinking the standard orange-yellow, which is only “standard” because it’s the main color it does now, and isn’t supposed to do.
If I connect the Mix Stick to my USB ports on my desktop computer it flashes that orange-yellow color, the blinking on and off of it, then usually goes solid and stays that way, sometimes it just stops totally. In any case, it’s not recognized by my computer. I mean, sometimes it’s not showing up as anything on the computer but the light is blinking or solid, so is getting power from the USB port. Most of the time I get a “hardware found” message and then an “Unknown Device” message and blah, blah, blah.
I installed the Win98 drivers in desperation and there is a firmaware utility updater, but that can’t find the Mix Stick connected, even when it is connected as an “Unknown Device”. If the Mix Stick is connected while the “on” button position is in use, nothing lights up or acts connected to the computer. It only seems to recognize something if it’s “off” which is the charge position.
On my DH’s laptop it rarely recongized the device at all, sometimes an “unknown device” message pops up, but never does it light the Mix Stick charge light the ‘standard’ orange-yellow which I get on my desktop, even with the USB ports there turned on at all time in their settings.
So once I turned my computer off and USB powered things continue getting power … so I when I did it this time, the Mix Stick started to blink red and green, as it SUPPOSED to do when charging up. So I left my computer off that afternoon for over four hours. When I started up the computer later, the Mix Stick condition was just the same as before, unrecognized as a Mix Stick and not recognized as anything but Unknown Device and not as anything findable by the Firmware Updater and never as a removable drive or anything, and had no power at all when “turned to the ON position”.
So after I fooled around with that all for over a week, hubby called the support number and got return authorization for repair, and they’ll either repair it or send us a new one, so they say. I hope they do. It turns out it was a seasonable item. We got it at Target and they put all that stuff on clearance right after Christmas. It was an item that was hard to get, we saw it and waited to long to get it, and DH had to call around to find a store with any at all, and had to drive many miles to get it. Just for it to work for about a month, but not quite, and then just seemingly die.
It went out via FedEx yesterday and I’ll report back on the findings, later, when we know more.
I’ve searched online for other people writing about troubles with their Disney Mix Sticks, but I’ve not turned up even one person or site talking about real trouble, like ours or anything else. I’m bored right now, so this is a topic to get me going, and so I’m writing this. If you have a Mix Stick in your household and have had trouble with it, please feel free to comment below, vent if you wish, and if you have helpful info please share it. 
I’ve searched for:
Disney Mix Stick broken
Disney Mix Stick trouble
Disney Mix Stick troubleshooting
Disney Mix Stick won’t charge
and multiple combinations of the above ideas and others. I just turned up review after review of the initial market introduction of the Disney Mix Sticks.
Ours, btw, is the Forever a Princess model, the PRN one.
The Only Writer on this blog, the only decent recent picture of just me, from AUG 1994 in the Smokies. Note
86 Comments
We are having the same problem. Did you get a new one?
It’s not a nice thing, but the only way to say it is “nice to know that we aren’t alone in this!”
We haven’t heard from *whomever* it is that we sent it to. DH needs to find the paper he wrote the tracking number on, for the package we sent them, to verify who signed for it, etc.
I’ll keep this thread updated as to status about the Disney Mix Stick, if they fix it or give us a new one, turn around time, blah, blah, blah.
Same exact problems. My daughter received a Mix Stick as a Christmas present from a relative, so I figured I would try to fix it first. At least I know that I should just go ahead and try the support number. Thanks!
My DH has talked to Support at least twice since we know they recieved the package we FedEx’d them. Last we heard they had gotten it but hadn’t checked it into Support … they had also said “Two weeks turn around” and weren’t clear as to whether that meant “two weeks from check-in” or “two weeks from recieving it” but in any case the last call they said “you’ll have something by next Friday …” which was meant to be the one that is still upcoming, next week.
All that to say though, they have no clue what’s what since they haven’t even LOOKED at it yet. I’m wondering if the whole Mix Stick thing is a defective problem they hadn’t forseen, so how will they deal with this.
We got one for our daughter since it was just what she could use, with the Jam Stand, easy to keep powered up for use there or away, and she could listen good enough in her room from the Jam Stand, or use headphones.
So it goes that if this doesn’t work out, the Jam Stand is a glorified lighting-speaker of low uselessness due to it being just good enough for little ones and not worth it if it doesn’t help power up the music as it was supposed to do with the Mix Stick.
Take all the money we put into it and I couldn’t have gotten another MP3 Player that would have worked out to charge up so easy and work for a little girl so nicely. But it does come back to bite me that the Mix Stick did work at first, then showed itself as problematic and died to being able to make music but acted as if it might charge up, but never could. So it made itself the biggest STRESS of the New Year and I don’t know if I will trust a new one sent to us, or a fixed one either.
I had looked online so many times for others having these problems and found no one writing about it. So now two others have commented here that they have the same problem. How many others are there?
I’ll continue to update here as needed. If y’all out there find this post and have a similar story, of a Mix Stick not working, please leave a comment about it. You do have to leave an email address to comment here, but I do not spam you, and spammers can NOT get your address from this site. So feel comfy to leave a comment please. It’s worth seeing how many of us there are out there.
DH talked to the Support Center again this morning. Last time he talked to them was a week ago on Tuesday, February 21, 2006.
They said today that a “replacement” was sent via “regular mail” on February 22, 2006.
DH didn’t question them as to what they sent.
The facility is in S. FL. so we hope to get it today, since it didn’t come yesterday. If it was sent first class it should be here today, given a Wednesday mailing probably could mean they didn’t get it out into the U.S. mail system until late and therefore count it as Thursday that it was mailed, that means: Thurs, Fri, Sat, Mon, that is already a bit long of a mailing time from there to us. So I’ll give them just Fri, Sat, Mon, and it should be here today, they didn’t get it out as soon as they said. All conjecture, it sure hasn’t arrived yet, we only have the word of a phone call connection to the Support Center about this, that something was sent via U.S. regular mail on the 22nd.
It’s pretty funny since on the phone call from the 21st they hadn’t “checked it in” yet. They also said it would take time to determine what to do with it, fix it or send another … and so I say they didn’t do what they said, it’s not likely, at least. :rolleyes:
I’ll update here when we get it as to what it is, how it was sent, if it works, etc.
No Mix Stick arrived.
DH just called them this afternoon, again. They said there was “mass confusion” there. Oh boy, that’s not a good thing to hear, though it’s 3rd party, I must find out if they said that for sure, or if Dh said it to them, or what.
In any case it’s the fact that nothing was sent to us. Our Mix Stick is on a Tech’s Desk and the Manager is saying that Fri or Mon they will know and get something sent, and he also said that the Tech would call him … he said he put the our folder on his desk … but whether or not the contact info is on there to call us, we do not know, but they didn’t clarify and so it’s a waiting game to see if THIS is true or not, that it’s on someones desk and that we will hear from them soon-ish.
We went though something with Compaq very similar a few years ago, when my then laptop died in warranty, HP had just merged with them and it was H$ll getting answers and every time we called someone told a different story to us about our computer and what was going on. It wasn’t fun and never resolved right. The store that we bought it from listened to our problem and had us just forget the Compaq and pick out any other in it’s place, for no charge if equal or less.
That isn’t going to happen in THIS case, as this is a special thing we got and it’s not a store that will or could do anything helpful for us. I’m really pookied about this, and I sure hope we get something back that looks new and works new and keeps working. I am still hoping but not feeling as if anytime soon anything will really show up.
It’ll be interesting if someone does call us tomorrow (Fri) or, if not, then on Monday. As always, I will report back here anything about this that I learn.
It’s Monday, and that’s the final day of the “promised call back” which never happened. Suffice it to say that Dh called them just a bit ago, not expecting them to call in the last few hours of business since they had Friday and all day today to do it.
To be clear, it’s Memorex that made the Mix Sticks for Disney and it is also Memorex that are the Support for the Mix Sticks, so they are the ones working on any warranty things, of course.
This afternoon they said, when Dh called them, that a replacement would be sent out tomorrow, and it’d go out Fed Ex, and Dh ask them to get him the tracking number and they said “We will call you on Thursday with it” and that wasn’t what Dh wanted to hear, and basically it all came down to the run around-ish-ness again, and who knows if they will call with any news, or be-able to give us a tracking number at all, or before the package gets to us least wise.
What is the warranty on a replacement then? I don’t know that Dh asked them, but I do want to know and will write about it here later, when I know. I am still not comfy with the Mix Stick and having faith that it’ll work for a year or even 6 months now. Why would a new or fixed one work any better than the One Month Old Lived/Died Mix Stick that we got for Christmas?
The package was sent out on Tuesday, March 7th, and on Wednesday someone called with the tracking number, or perhaps it was Tuesday, I’m not one-hundred percent sure, in any case it doesn’t matter, here is the thing:
Fedex has it as being first picked up from Weston, FL on the 7th. Going to Fort Lauderdale, FL on the 8th. Leaving Fort Lauderdale, FL on the 8th. Arriving in Orlando, FL on the 9th, and leaving Orlando, FL on the 9th. It’s estamatid to arrive to us on the 10th, good luck on that one. We shall see if it comes out to be true. It’ll have to book up to Atl. that’s for sure. It was sent “Ground-Domestic” so it’s no priorety to FexEx. It’ll be an afternoon delivery tomorrow, most likey, or Monday sometime. Things usually come through Atl. before going out to another “city” and THEN getting on an ‘out for delivery’ truck.
We’ve been waiting so long now for a fix or new Mix Stick and the waiting for the delivery now is hard to handle. I want it here to see what it does, and how it lasts or doesn’t. Anyhow, by the time it’s all figured out the DD will be too old for it and want an Ipod
Just kidding. She is 7 and too young to get old enough.
Even I don’t have an Ipod. I really would like one, but do not want to use ITunes … so … I have a WMP type one.
The package arrived this morning. Inside the well stuffaged-with-protection-stuff box was a NEW Mix Stick, same color as I sent in for warranty, in the hard plastic, without the cardboard container as in the store … but it was new with all of things as when we got it from the store, just to be clear.
So I had opened the package and put the Mix Stick on a USB slot on the desktop computer, made sure it was “OFF” first, and yes, it flashed as it should, red and green. I went to check on it a little bit ago and couldn’t really see it right, it is at the back of the computer … which sits on a shelf of a desk below level … ugh. I know I have meant to get the cases USB connections in the front connected, but I haven’t. So I took off the Mix Stick and put it on the Jam Stand, where I could visually watch it. It’s flashing red and green for sure now. It needs awhile to charge up, and I hope it really will.
I know it didn’t seem that the first one we had “worked well” at first. Maybe I didn’t understand how it worked, after charging it firstly, then getting music on it … but I will say I DO know (now) how it works from every senario (except how to charge it with the plug-in conventional accessory, and that’s just not a good thing to say since I am Tech Savy, it’s a complicated simplistic little piece of hardware, this Mix Stick.
Paperwork that came with the package was only a basic print-out with that number of the model and the date and our name and address and upper-left corner it says “Customer Service, Invoice-Repair“, and then also contains what is our “ticket number”.
No Warranty info, as to what our “warranty” is for this replacement. Good or Bad, don’t know. I’ll go with “same as having a new one” and fight for it if need be.
I’m having the same problem with my daughters mix stick. We have also loss the paper work that came with the mix stick. Would you be able to email me the phone number for tech support. thank you
Our mix stick isn’t working either. Much as you described, the thing glows orange all the time.
We purchased the same model for our daughter for Christmas 2006 and we have the same problems. Sounds like we would have been much better off with an Ipod shuffle, when you consider the money we wasted on the stick, music cards, and the jam stand. Too bad Disney and Target won’t recognize the problem and pull this product off the shelf.
We are having the exact same problem! Bought for Christmas and it has stopped working in the last 2 weeks. Emailed support yesterday and still waiting to hear back. Jamstand is not working right either. Sometimes it will play when charging, but most of the time not. Co-worker also bought mixstick and jamstand and her jam stand is not working right or lighting right either!!! We have the Raven mixstick model.
Same thing here! I bought one for my daughter for Christmas this year, along with the Jam Stand. They both quit working in late January and I can’t find the paperwork or the CS number. If anyone has it, please post. Thanks!
I am not having that problem, but can’t find the support number. Could you email it to me? I have lost the CD that came with it and would like to try putting music on it the way you’re supposed to.
Thanks
The cs number is 954-660-7100 or you can go to disneyelectronics.com or memorexelectronics.com for faq info. Right now I am waiting to hear back from cs on my above mix stick problem. So far I am not impressed with their service.
I am having a similar problem with my daughter’s Mix Stick
The USB/computer function works fine, and it seems to charge OK, but when I turn it on, and press play… the light is supposed to glow orange for a few seconds, then turn to green as it starts playing.
The only problem is it never turns green, never starts playing. It just sits there with its stupid orange light mocking me. It used to work fine, and it will *randomly* get past the orange stage and actually start playing, but not often.
The “troubleshooting” page in the manual consisted of the helpful advice to turn it off and back on. Yeah, OK, tried that… Surprisingly, didn’t help.
The manual further directs you to disneyelectronics.com for a possible firmware update, but of course there’s no firmware update to be found (or even a section where it should be).
FYI, the manual (in case you lost yours) can be found here: http://disney.memorexelectronics.com/downloads/dda8040-eng-8-25-05.pdf
Also, FYI, I get the problem whether I have a 1GB SD card installed, a Disney mix card installed, or no memory card installed and just using the built-in 128MB memory. It does seem like it might randomly play more often with the built-in or Disney memory card, not sure though.
One thing I couldn’t determine is whether the 1GB card was causing a problem. The manual says it takes up to 512MB cards, but another online reference says 1GB, so I’m not sure what the max size really is. In any event, I have *sometimes* gotten the stupid thing to play off of the 1GB card.
Oh, one other FYI, we also have the Jam Stand, and it took me a while to figure this out: you have to turn the volume up ALL THE WAY on the Mix Stick when you plug it into the Jam Stand, then use the Jam Stand volume know to control the volume.
The first few times we used the Jam Stand, the Mix Stick volume was turned down fairly low… when we plugged it in, it didn’t appear to work (no volume, no blinking lights). By accident, I cranked the Mix Stick volume to max and everything suddenly started working.
Update: I called Memorex tech support line at 954-660-7026 (option 2, option 6).
After explaining the problem, they said I needed to fax a letter stating I had gotten the Mix Stick as a Christmas gift, no longer had the receipt, and fax it to 954-660-7180.
This was kind of bizarre misunderstanding: I had told him I got the Mix Stick as Christmas gift for my daughter, somehow he translated that into “I *received* it as a gift”, no sure where the “have no receipt” came into play, since I never mentioned that, and I actually might have the receipt.
In any event, I’m supposed to fax the letter, and then call Customer Service *back* in 5-7 days, and they will give me info on how to return the item for warranty repair/replace, which will take 2 to 3 weeks. Ugh.
Update: Gave up, and purchased an Apple iPod Shuffle for DD.
I still intend on calling Disney, since they are obviously a very brand-conscious company, and I think they need to be aware that they are putting their name on some pretty shoddy merchandise that has some worse-than-shoddy customer service.
Plus, note to self: never buy Memorex electronics again!
We also have a defective Disney Mix Stick. It stopped working shortly after the 3 month warranty –guess the company itself didn’t have much confidence in this item to only give it a 90-day warranty! By the looks of the comments I see here I am convinced this is not an isolated problem. I am sure there are many others out there that simply never took the time to seek a solution. This is ridiculous! I’m sure the company has received many complaints from those who did try to seek a solution. Why hasn’t this product been recalled?! Thanks to all who posted info here on this site. However, I have no desire in obtaining a replacement. I will definitely be requesting a refund. All the money put into accessories and not to mention the time spent in putting the songs on the item. What a waste! Worst of all is the heart-break and disappointment of my daughter from losing her most prized Christmas gift.
I too am making note to self: Never buy Memorex Electronics (memcorp) again! Oh yeah.
p.s.-spread the word!
Found this site: http://www.anythingbutipod.com/archives/2005/12/close-look-at-the-disney-mix-stick.php
At the above site I found more info/feedback from others regarding issues with the Disney Mix Stick
If anyone has heard of MemCorp officially recognizing this issue please post it here. I haven’t found anything, only an issue from the past RE a bad battery problem with a Disney DVD player (fire hazzard). I guess because no-one is caused physical harm by this Mix Stick problem, they will just keep sweeping it under a rug.
Wow! I can’t believe that there are so many other people having the same problem that I am!
I also bought my daughter a Mix Stick for Christmas 2006 (the chrome one). It worked great until a couple of days ago when my daughter tried to turn it on and only got the horrid orange light. She tried to recharge it thinking the battery was low or dead, and when that didn’t work, she came to me with it.
After reading everyone’s comments about Memorex customer service, I really don’t know what good it would do for me to call them. It sounds like everyone is getting the run-around and frankly, I could do without that added stress. I’m glad I found this site so I know to avoid the frustration of dealing with Memorex and instead just chalk it up to a lesson learned: don’t buy Memorex products.
Good grief. I am amazed as well as to the mass amount of us with these problems. I too have been searching for hours trying to figure out what to do. Disneyelectronics.com is a waste because it forwards you to disneyshopping.com and they assure me that they can’t help me and that disneyelectronics.com is where I need to go. Duh! Did that. Anyway, I agree that the hassle doesn’t seem worth it but can’t really afford to WASTE $40 and merely move on either. We had ours for 1 month exactly and it pulls the flashing orange light business. YIKES! If anyone has more recent updated info please advise.
My daughter’s Mix Stick started this last night. At first I thought it was yet another Windows Vista issue, but after trying it on 2 other XP computers, I realized that this is another defective unit. If I had know this product was made by Memorex, I wouldn’t have purchased it for her. Since we’re past the 90 day warranty, this obviously isn’t going to be fixed.
Had all the same problems with the Disney mix stick we bought on Apr. 11, 2007. Computer wouldn’t recognize it. disneyelectronics.com brought me right to disneyshopping.com After going through all the hoops finally playdigitalblue.com helped us and our daughter is currently listening to her favorite music on her mix stick. Apparently they are purchasing rights from memorex electronics. Thank You to the tech man that helped us through the installation process at digital blue! You rock!
Call 1-888-800-0502
We did go through all the hoops to send our daughter’s mixstick back and we did receive a replacement. So far it’s working, but for how long? One funny note: It was packaged to look new, but when we went to load her music onto it, we found 1 song on it – a very old, Whitney Houston song! We cracked up – I know they “recondition” mixsticks and can send you one of those, but wouldn’t they/shouldn’t they erase any playlists on them?!
We have the same problem, and ironically enough the mix stick was one of our daughters christmas gifts. What a waste! I wonder if the defect has something to do with the amount of songs on the mix stick. K’s mixstick worked fine when it only had 15 songs. Now that it is half loaded it worked for two days and stopped. Now that I know it is a common problem I will try and call to see what they say.
Bought as a present for my daughter – same problems.
Bought last Christmas, WAS great for a while, now having exactly the same problems as everyone else on here.
Okay, I got one off ebay for what I thought was a real bargain. For 29 bucks I got the Forever a princess 128 MB model with a clip and carrying case plus the wall charger. Got it in the mail soon after and I charged it and followed the instructions to the letter and the mix clip card refused to play! I tried two sets of earphones and nothing! I can’t even plug it into my mac without a USB extension cord which should have been included in the original packaging. While I’m waiting for the darn thing in the mail, I plugged it into my other mac and it refused to recognize the thing although it charged in the port. What gives with these things? I emailed the seller and although they’ve agreed to help me with this issue, I’m afraid I might have to spring for a new one so I can have something to give to my niece for Christmas! In the meantime I’m fretting that I got jipped and that it’s broken. I’m so depressed. Shouldn’t it play the clip card regardless whether or not I can plug it into my mac?
Same problem as everyone else. 90 day warranty is up so I’m SOL. Nice job Memorex & Disney!
Could anyone tell me if they need the memory card to play? My daughter and son both got one for Christmas and they charge but I get no sound. Am I missing something?
Daughter got one TODAY from Santa Claus. Won’t even charge. No lights at all. She asked all afternoon when she could listen to her music…
My daughter got one today as well. It’s been charging for 8 hours and continues to blink from red to green. I’ve downloaded songs and I cannot hear the songs nor even get it to stay on. Piece of junk.
Holy smokes! I can’t believe that 90% of us are having the same issue. My 6 year old just got this today from Santa. I loaded about 25 songs on it, charged it up while downloading music, and he listened to it for a few hours. I went to plug it into my USB port overnight to recharge and it’s blinking that yellow/orange light and my USB says it has an unknown device.
I’m ticked now!!!
Similar problems here. Ours died right on Christmas Day. Of course not before we bought another one for our younger daughter. My advice would be to skip this product and find a simple cheap mp3 player that is not a glorified toy.
To Ami, new ones come with internal memory so you can download to the player with the plug-in. You can also buy “mix-chips” which are cards with pre-loaded music.
Same problem here! My daughter received a Hannah Montana Mix Stix for Christmas. We charged it but get no sound! The lights start flashing but once again no sound…. What should I do? Help!
Daughter got one for Christmas. Worked great, easy to get music onto. Now,1 day later, the light turns orange then red and never turns green. It won’t play. I talked to cs and was told to reformat it. I did but same problem…no music. Not with downloads or with the mix clip. cs says I need to fax receipt which I don’t have! My daughter LOVED this thing for the 1 day she got to use it. SAD, SAD, SAD!!!!
AMI, you don’t need a memory card. Have you downloaded music using Windows Media Player? I was surprised how easy it was. I put in a favorite CD and hit Rip. Then I drug the songs over to the right side of the screen into the Mix Stick. Next hit sync and the music SHOULD be on there. Turn it on then hit the middle button on the stick. (Sorry, I’m not looking at it so I don’t know what it says on the button.) Good luck!!!!!!!!!
I was helping my nephew charge his and same thing you all said. Disney really put a piece of junk out there this time. It never charged after having on the computer 4 hours. My nephew is mad at Santa now for bringing him a broken mp3 player.Thanks alot Disney.
We got our daughter one for Christmas also. We charged it overnight, downloaded songs onto it the next day. No sound, no music, just an orange light. We even formatted it in addition to everything else it said to do in the troubleshooting section of the info packet. Absolutely nothing works. Our daughter is very upset, it was one of only two things that she actually asked Santa for this year. So sad!
Alyssa, me to! I got my daughter a Hannah 1 for X,as, and I downloaded music, charged it, everything. computer says music is on the stic, but Nothing plays! Got new ear phones, and nothing. I repeated this about 20 plus times, and no music! oh this sucks! My daughters major present and she cant even use it yet…………
We bought our 7 yr old daughter one for Christmas. Brought it in to me today to charge it. Computer dosent even know its there. No lights nothing. Not sure what to do. We bought it from Dell so hopefull it wont be a huge struggle to get a refund and just buy her a nice one that dosent have all the complications…Thanks Disney for the junk!!!
Well, I’m a bit frustrated. i’ve been trying for two days to get my sons ‘Pirates of the caribbean’ mix stick up and running. It seems to charge fine, red to green blinking lights then solid green when charged. I can also remove and add music at will. probelm is that the stupid thing just never turns on. flip the on/off button back and forth and nothing. no lights, nothing! The face on my son was priceless when he received this present, his face was also saddening when I told him it doesn’t work. I should have spent the same money on an off brand mp3 player, which i have for my self. my mp3 player has always worked, came with more internal memory and cost about the same.
this sucks!
My daughter wanted to charge her Mix Stick today and both of our computer would not read it. We’ve had it since October 2006 and have never had a problem with it. Now it’s just stopped working! It is a Cheetah Girl model and we had Sabrina Bryan autogragh it a few months ago, so it is definitely a cherished item for my daughter! But, now I don’t know what we are going to do since it does not charge and is not recognizable by our computers. The Disneyelectronics.com site is worthless – there is nothing that addresses troubleshooting. And, the manual isn’t helpful either. I’ve uninstalled and reinstalled the drivers and nothing works! What a disappointment. I sent an email to digitalblue.com – I’m crossing my fingers that they respond and that we get this item working. Can anyone help??? We’re desperate.
Dom,
You need to do more than flip the on off switch to turn the unit on. Turn the switch to on and them press and hold down the center button. It will be orange and them will turn to green. Also If you have pulled the SD card in and out of the unit that can also be causing trouble. Take that card out and turn unit on wait for the music to start playing and them you can put that SD card back in.
Renea,
You need to take that SD card that came with the unit out. Turn the mix Stick on and La La you will have music. Once the music starts playing you can them put the SD card back in. I just figured this one out today trying to help a girlfriend out with hers.
To all of you having problems hearing the music. You need to take the SD card out of the slot. There is a blank one that comes with it. Once out turn the mix Stick on and you should have music. After the music starts to play you can them put the SD card back in. There should have been a single sheet of paper with this information on it when you got. I hope this helps all of you with the no music problem.
I completely hate this product. My youngest sister’s birthday is coming up – I’m putting music on it and charging it for her so she can listen right away. I tried using iTunes – nothing works there. With my iPod Nano I have no problems. So I used Windows Media Player (which I use RARELY, if at all.) Says there is music on there. I’m charging it now…when we unplugged it it wasn’t all the way charged but we couldn’t play anything. Absolute piece of **** as far as i’m concerned…I so prefer the iPods. The only problems I ever had with my iPod was rare freezing which is easy to fix, and this freezing thing where I didn’t eject it right – easy to avoid.
I tried what Linda suggested and mine is now working fine. Thanks Linda!!
I’ve tried what Linda suggested and IT STILL DOESN”T WORK. This is a real piece of junk! No help from any of the Disney sites or via the phone. I have decided that spending money on any more Disney electronics is just throwing money away!
linda,
I can not figure it out it is really bugging me I am really mad it only worked for about 2 hours then it wouldn’t turn on
thanks,
margot
Add my name to this list of people having bad experiences with this product. Worked for a few months, then simply stopped working for no apparent reason. DO NOT BUY ONE, they are pure junk.
Our Mix Stick has worked fine (knocking on wood) but I have another problem.
When I bought it for my daughter, I also bought her a pre-recorded Disney Mix card. When I plug the device into my USB drives (XP & VISTA), I can see two removable drives, E: & F:. F: has the pre-recorded tunes. Not long after we got it, I loaded some other tunes onto the MIX STICK. You can listen to them but for the life of me, I can’t see them on any list!. They are not listed on the F: pre-recorded and the E: drive says that it is not formatted – do I wish to format…I’ve always said no.
I know that these “extra” songs are probably stored on Mix Stick’s memory but why CAN’T I see this memory?! I’d like to load some more to it…I know that there must be room!
We are having the same problem. Went to http://www.disneyelectronics.com, they sent us to digiblue for help, TOTAL WASTE OF TIME!!! They will do nothing to help you if it is past the 90 days. I guess they make them last the 90 and then tuff luck for you. No one will help to fix the problem. Ours was only a few days past the 90 days. Don’t buy the Disney Mix Stick. It doesn’t last lone. They take your money and run. I would have expected better from Disney! Spend the extra money and get something from someone else. I won’t make this mistake again!
I am the owner of this blog.
I wrote this blog post over two years ago now. My daughter’s Mix Stick was purchased in December 2005 … for Christmas, and was replaced in March 2006 under warranty.
The Mix Stick we have was made before DigitalBlue took over, it’s the one made by Memorex.
It has worked to play music loaded on the actual stick, but will not play any SD card I’ve put into it, not having bought anything pre-loaded for Mix Sticks, just using cards I already had for other reasons and had re-formatted to use in the Mix Stick. I hadn’t tried an SD card in it before the warranty was done and over with, but that part doesn’t bother us, it does load a decent enough amount of music on it’s internal memory to suffice for our daughter.
As for how it does work, it can be troublesome when it needs charged, and that seems to just be because my daughter lets it wear out entirely before telling me it needs charged.
I put it on the desktop or laptop (usb) to charge and if it blinks red and green it charges fine right away. If it doesn’t do that, ’cause it’s too low or dead, it will blink red and orange. It takes different amounts of time, short or long, for it to charge from the red/orange status. I have found it doesn’t seem to charge fully if left alone. I just let it go for awhile, then take it off the computer usb and turn the switch on then off on the Mix Stick. Then I plug it into the usb again and see if it will charge with red/green flashing light status. If it does, good. If not, still red/orange, then I let it go a bit and try again.
Most of the time it will eventually charge if not sooner than later. Sometimes it may take longer than overnight before I can get it to go to “red/green” status.
My daughter doesn’t use her Mix Stick a lot anymore. She used to mostly use it with the Jam Stand (listen aloud) we bought for her with it originally. That Jam Stand died sometime last year. She charged it with the Jam Stand usually back then, but has only had the availability of the computer for charging it since the Jam Stand quit working.
It’s an alright thing, works alright for it’s 512mb internal rechargeable self that has no lcd display to know what song is playing or to tell you the power is low and should be recharged. An alright thing for youngsters, if you know how to keep it charged for them as their parent, but fully expect to get them something else when they are older.
To recap then, our original Mix Stick (made by Memorex)bought in 12/05 didn’t work right, so we returned it 2/06 and they sent us a new one 3/06 and that one has worked OK, though the SD slot doesn’t recognize any SD cards I’ve tried, but the computer recognizes the SD as a removeable drive … fwiw. It charged usually fine with the Jam Stand, but then the Jam Stand died last year (sometime in 2007) and the Mix Stick works OK otherwise, but has trouble charging at times. It’s not used a whole lot since the Jam Stand died, but it is used, and is nearly 2 years old, heavily used for more than a year.
Yes, the mix sticks are, in a word, JUNK. I just bought a sansa clip to replace this worthless Tinkerbell mix stick for my 7 y/o. Sometimes the thing worked fine, other times, nothing. It goes dead without warning, then it takes about 8hrs to recharge it, doesn’t hold a charge, etc. Much of the same troubles as posted above by others. I am trying to rip the mix clips to windows media to burn them to the new player. Is this possible? Any how-to’s are appreciated!
hey at least you know your mix stick doesnt work, i cant even get the damn program to install correctly!!
Hi, Just back from a week in New York and purchased the Disney mix Stick for my 11 year old as a surprise – the real surprise was that it doesn’t work – and after reading all the previous comments I feel completely conned by Disney. It won’t be worth my while to send it back for a refund from here in Ireland so I’m going to put it down to stupidity on my part for buying what I wrongly assumed was a gift from a reputable company. What I also find very hard to believe is that Disney are unaware of the major flaw with this product that they are continuing to sell to unsuspecting consumers.
I’ve had the same charging problems and problems turning the unit on. The product is a little finicky, and the instructions don’t help that much. Here are some tips:
- When charging, make sure your computer doesn’t go into standby mode. I think on my laptop, the power management disables the USB ports when the computer is inactive for a while.
- Make sure you know which way is on and off on the power switch. It seems trivial, but there is no label on the stick, so unless you commit it to memory, you won’t know if it’s on or off.
- After turning it on, push the center button (play button) and wait for the orange light to turn on. After a short delay, it should turn green and start playing. You may need to press the play/pause button again once or twice to make it play.
I have a technical background, so I will tinker with these things to ‘figure’ them out, but this is a Disney product made for kids and parents expecting it to work simply right out of the box. Disney should rethink how they support this product…
I have talked to the technical support team after reformating the first drive letter (E) in my case with (F) being the music, it plays the songs and all works fine.
yeah i have a forever a princess one as well. we got it a couple years ago and it started acting up about a month ago. never had any problems with it, and then it stopped wanting to show up on my desktop and i’ve have to take it out and put it back in a few times for it to show as on the computer. i dont know if its charging but i’ve left it charging in hopes that it would work again. when i first got it, it could hold about 3CD’s worth of music, then it just stoped holding so much, a few weeks ago it wouldnt hold more then two songs, it would play them find, but wouldnt hold anything more. i charged it and charged it hoping it would work better, but it didnt help. i took it to the person in my school that works on computers, he cleaned and cleared it out to ‘like brandnew’ i put all my music i wanted on it and it held the music fine. but it still wont play. i charged it overnight and such, put the headphones on turn the thing on, and all it will do is blink the yellowish orage color non stop.
We’ve had one for nearly 2 years and it has always worked great. As with any product, if you sell a million you’ll have a few thousand bad ones. Good luck to those of you with issues!
NO SOUND, very frustrating, do not buy this product
Got one a few days ago at Tuesday Mornoing store for 14.00 .. Seems to be some confusion on here it seems as to the yellow light.
It’s red when it’s dead, yellow when it’s low or starting up.
Yellow is standby( think the windows hourglass).
Green running.
I have talked online to several people who turn it on and get upset there is no light lit. They think it’s not working.
Hit the play button and it comes on.
One other tip.
Take out the fake memory card in the memory card slot. If it gets pushed in it will override the memory built in and do nothing.
The stick will be attempting to read piece of plastic, not the sticks memory.
Just tried to charge my sons Disney MP3 player- NOTHING! I will try to return to Target tomorrow and buy another player for him to use. I wish I’d seen these reviews before purchasing.
Our Mix Stick is stuck in the locked position and we can’t get it off. Any suggestions?
I had issues with my son’s mix stick. The Red(ish) light would come on, but it wouldn’t go green like it should, and after that, it wouldn’t turn back off until I connected and removed it from my computer.
When I had it connected to the computer, it would just sit there and flash Red then green repeatedly.
I noticed that it adds to removable drives under My Computer. One for it’s on board memory, and one for it’s SD card interface.
I connected the stick to my computer, thinking that I could re-format the drive to freshin it up. The format failed with the message “Track 0 bad, disk unusable.”
Crap I thought, figuring I would have to try and work with support to get a replacement. Out of desparation, I tried going to the F: drive from the Command prompt (which was the drive for my onboard memory) and low and behold, all of the media was there and accessible. Tried launching Disneys little music upload utility, and it started recognizing it.
One thing I noticed to, look in Window’s Plug and play devices. Check the box to “Display Device Components”. I had played around with it quite abit, and it started mis-detecting my drive as a generic drive. I had to fiddle with removing, stoping and reloading drivers to get it back to it’s original “DB MIX STICK…”
Flashing “Red and Green” means it’s charging correctly …
To charge you turn the mix stick “off”. then connect it to a usb port of your computer. It should start flashing red and green within a short time. Sometimes it might not, and I have found that letting it do what it wants for awhile, flash red and orange, you can then disconnect it, turn it on and then off again, then reconnect and get it to charge with that correct “red and green” flashing indication.
There might be different ways that individuals use to figure this stuff out, this is just one idea from my dealings with my daughters Mix Stick.
Sometimes the Mix Stick will seemingly finish charging, but won’t “play” for my daughter. With this I initially was concerned, but learned I just need to have patience and put it back on the computer to charge again. After a cycle or two it will usually play.
My daughter has used her mix stick since receiving it [early 2006] and it still works, but she now has a new player, one with real music-ability and charging it is straightforward, it’s a real player with more capabilities and visually appealing, since she’s a bit older now. A Sansa Fuze. Music, video, audiobooks, fm radio.
I have been looking everywhere for a place to complain myself. Like others, the unit won’t charge, blinks colors that mean nothing or just won’t play. My son got this from Santa and within 1 week the power switch broke off in my hand. He was so upset he began to use a paperclip to move the switch up and down so he could still play with it. Guess what – that little piece of cheap plastic also broke so within 2 weeks the unit is completly worthless. Does anyone still happen to have the customer service number? I did send Disney an email but have heard nothing yet. Please help my heartbroken child!!
Wow, not looking like a very good device. surprised they still sell them… after 3 years of many people having the same problems. I too have the orange yellow light. Can do all I need to with putting music on it and charging. My problem is it never goes green to work. I have tried about everything I can think of. The big problem now is that the paperwork says it only works with media player 10 not 9 nor 11, but non of the operating systems will allow you to run version 10. –Go Figure
Lesson learned: Never through away paper work, you never know when it is going to be needed! Here is the customer support: 888-800-0502
Quite frustrating unit…Would not recommend for any use but data (if that)
My mixstick won’t play either. Pretty much a piece of junk.
I have had problems with the High School musical Mix Stick that i got for my daughter for christmas. We FINALLY were able to charge it and add music, but the music clip of the Jonas Brothers i bought her for it won’t play. I have followed all the instructions and even downloaded a better manual from the net. But still no luck. What am I missing????
My son has had the Pirates of The Caribbean mix stick for a few years with no problems at all! Having great luck with his we recently purchased the Forever A Princess version for our daughter for a vacation NEXT WEEK. We’ve had the stick less than a week so far. The music we downloaded plays great, but filled up the memory quickly so we purchased a Hannah Montana Mix Clip. Won’t play. When the card is in and we push play the red light starts blinking and the unit eventually starts playing the songs on memory. It actually works GREAT with the little fake plastic card! At $15 a card, thats more than a little disappointing for a new unit! We’re grateful we haven’t had the other problems (yet!). Seems the “girl” versions of these seem to be having more problems than the others!?! I guess we’ll continue to use the unit as long as we can…maybe another couple weeks from the sounds of it! Purchased NEW IN PACKAGE on ebay, and I see that the warranty is through MEMCORP dated 2005…looks like I got an old version of the unit. Fantastic!
I threw out all the packaging since we’d had such great luck with the Pirates stick!
We purchased a Disney Mix Stick v2 for our daughter in January 2009 as a birthday present. For the last two months she has been enjoying the mix clip that we gave her with it. We had no issues until last week.
Last week we used Windows Media Player to add songs to the onboard memory and it has not worked ever since.
Tonight I called the Digital Blue Customer Service folks and they said this is a common problem. If you go to their website (http://digiblue.com/customer-service/faqs/09.html) they have an FAQ about this topic.
The basic problem is that Windows Media Player adds the full file structure to the device, yet the device cannot read it. To fix the problem you have to re-format the device (very easy, but takes a few minutes) and then when you go to synch the next time you have to tell Windows Media Player not to “create folder heirarchy on device”. This will solve the problem and your player should work fine.
Our device is nearly done formatting. I’ll post another update if this doesn’t solve our problem.
The re-format process went off smoothly and it was easy to synch the device without creating the folder heirarchy. Our device is loading songs now and our problem should be fixed.
If you are having a problem with turning on the mix stick you should get a needle or pin and stick it in the little hole that says reset.DO NOT try to stick it in the light that is suppose to blink red or green.You have to wait a while.
i try and charge my mixstick and it doesnt work.also i turn it on and the light is orange not green it was orange for a little whilebut then i just turned it on i am a little girl and i need to listen to music
My daughter just handed me her High School Disney stick for re-charging. I remember the pain I experienced the last time I did this. This thread shows that I was not alone.
It seems that unplugging it, turning it on/off and replugging it in get me the green/red blinking which, I remember, means it’s charging.
Any idea how long it takes to charge?
I had the same problem that it was blinking orange, off and on, and would not charge. All I did was bring up Windows Media Player and then plugged it back in. That worked and now all is good. Hope that helps someone.
Hi All,
I too was having trouble getting my computer to recognize our mix stick. After HOURS of trying to figure it out, I found a blog which suggested resetting it. There is a very small hole under the volume conrol…. if you stick a needle or pin in there, the mix stick restarts. I tried it, and what do you know it worked and was immediately recognized by my computer. Good luck.
My mom bought me a Mix Stick for Christmas, Pirates of the Caribbean and I just recently got around to setting it up.First I had issues with the fact that on the packaging it said it was compatible with Windows Vista only to read on the booklet that it was somehow NOT compatible. So then I got around to downloading the Windows Media 10 update only to realize that that version is only available for Windows XP and that Update 11 is for Vista. After updating I was sure that my many errors were over, yet then I had to erase all of Media Player’s files in order for it to allow me to add music. I waited all day after getting the MP3 player synced, but it has yet to have charged.
I might call customer support this week if I can’t fix it since the help site doesn’t even exist anymore.
I hope everything works out for all owners of the ever frustrating Disney MixStick.
i am having the same problem now as well i got it for my daughter for christmas and all of a sudden its febuary and it doesnt work its doing the same blinking oarnge yellow light
if you find anyway to fix it please let me know
the new mix sticks have a reset button but the one i have does not have a display so i cant find a reset button
I bought the mixstick for my daughter 2 years ago. We’ve NEVER had a problem with it. Keep in mind I purchased this for a 3 y/o, she is now 5. Her taste in music has changed so I told her I’d update the music on it for her. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that I cannot get my computer to recognize it now. It will charge, but I can not update the music. Her mix stick is one of the long ones without a display, there is no reset button and Vista found the drivers for it, but I cannot find the installation hardware or instructions. If anyone knows where to find replacements of these maybe it will resolve my situation. At this point I’m not willing to purchase another one of these or any other mp3 player for a 5 y/o. I got a really good deal on hers (I paid less than $20 for it because it was mismarked on a shelf) and I don’t think she’s responsible for a more expensive item. If anyone can help me that would be great!
ok im a kid and i got mines in 2007 it didnt work from the beggining so i let it alone until i found it again and when i tried it woked fine for like 6 whole months so i bought jam stand thing then it stopped working i think its the jam stand
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