Sony admits to Connect problems

Following a spate of phone calls and some messageboard angst, Sony has issued a statement for Walkman owners admitting to Connect problems, and offering some solutions.

The notice on Sony’s website admits to widespread Connect problems for the NW-A100, A3000 and A608 players, including glacially slow performance and installation difficulties.

It’s not the best timing for the new limited edition Franz Ferdinand version of the A100 (above) recently launched in Japan, which costs 33,000 Yen (£161) but will only have a stock of 100 units.  

Essentially Sony has advised that if the troubleshooting tips, which include re-installing the software and resetting the hard drive, don’t work you should revert back to the old Sony SonicStage software.  

That’s not a complete disaster – there’s not a huge amount of difference between SonicStage and Connect save a few features – but Sony is concerned enough to be working on new versions of both, to be released ‘in the near future’.

A Sony spokesperson also told us today that they are waiting to hear from Japan about the updates and other possible fixes. We’ll keep you bang up to date – in the meantime you can access the notice here or call Sony’s freephone helpline on 0800 169 5263.