Your batteries are not
dead! Batteries seem to
recover a little bit of their
power if you don't
use them for a
while. When the battery powering my
Diamond Rio 500 gives out, I
save it, as later on I can get another 30 minutes or so out of it. Batteries are
expensive, so this is a good idea.
I also take dead
batteries from people's
CD Players. The
mp3 player, having no
motor or
laser, can work for an hour or so off of these.