Today, it freezed on me when I turned it on and pressed Music. It stopped at the Music Library screen; screen touches did not respond, nor back button; could not turn off even the power button was pressed to the left position for more than 20 seconds; connecting to PC through USB, PC found unknown USB device, Explorer did not display the Archos disk; screen kept on and did not auto turn off even a 30s off time has been set. No response, nada.
Anyway, after 4 hours (it had 2 power bars when froze), screen turned off by itself. I connected it to PC by USB. It worked again. Nothing it its contents lost.
Theory? The cause could be battery. When turned on, it was cold, in -2C outside for about 10min; the battery voltage could be low and caused the freeze. Supporting evidence, last time it stopped responding when it turned off due to zero battery. After charging for about 1/2 hour or more, it started to work.
Lessen: Be patient next time your unit stops working. Let the battery run out completely, recharge an hour. It could be new again (keep the figure crossed if you want to
).