Just resurrected my old RD2840 for my daughter and came across all the old threads when looking for a replacement battery (this one's a few years old and only runs for about 6 hours now). Thought it would be handy to summarise and save folk searching through them all for answers to the common problems.
Battery - 3.7V 1600 mAh Li-Po, RCA # 355690 can be replaced by a 1st generation Ipod battery, available now & again on eBay. Don't use a universal charger/too high a voltage setting, the battery will fail if you over-charge/reverse polarity. Don't leave the unit on charge all the time, this can cause it to lock up (as can most things with these tempermental units). Keep a paper clip handy to do the resets!
HD file corruption - remember if you have to wipe the HD you must configure as FAT (FAT16), either using an older Windows OS like ME or using DOS commands. Then load the latest systems files from RCA straight off their website. If the unit still doesn't come back to life, find the latest drivers for your particular OS or you'll end up with problems.
File handling - Use MusicMatch if you want to line up the file names properly, or just use windows explorer and use the 'profile device contents' option of the Lyra every time you want to reset the menu.
Its true I did a search on 1st generation ipod battery on ebay and found one $11.00 shipped. You will have to solder the battery in but it will work. I haven't seen a full batt. indicator on my Lyra in years. You will also have to buy the special torx screwdriver with the dimple. This helped me I hope it helps someone else.
Hello, My \Lyra_sys\config.exe is missing, when i turn on the lyra without it being plugged in to the computer it says it is missing the config.exe file, then when I try to update it it says i need \Lyra_sys\config.exe. Is there anyway i could be sent that file or something, it is completely missing from my lyra and I don't know how that happened.
The file is not missing, it's just corrupted (a common problem with these MP3 players). Unfortunately the only way I know round this is to reformat the Lyra's HDD in FAT16 (FAT) format. You can do this with any PC. Then get the latest system files from Lyra's website and install them.
The good news is that I've only had to do this once with my Lyra, but then stopped using it when I got my daughter an iPod and myself a Toshiba Gigabeat.