Full User Manual
ARCHOS Gmini™ 200 series
MP3 & WMA Player / Audio Recorder / Photo Wallet / USB 2.0 Hard Disk
Please see our web site for the most recent manual and software updates for your Gmini™200.
Full User Manual Version 1.21
1
6   Using MusicMatch™ 
6.1 Installing MusicMatch™ 
6.2 Creating MP3 files from your Audio CDs 
6.3 Getting purchased MP3 files to your Gmini 
6.4 The ARCLibrary and MusicMatch™ Playlists 
6.4.1 ARCLibrary Updating 
6.4.2 Creating and Using Playlists with MusicMatch™ 
7   Using iTunes® 4 with your Gmini  
8  Updating your Gmini Operating System (OS) software  
8.1.1 Downloading the .AOS file 
8.1.2 Read the History Text File 
8.1.3 Copy to Gmini Root Directory  
9   Troubleshooting 
9.1 USB Connection issues 
9.2 File issues, corrupted data, formatting, and partitioning 
9.2.1 Windows® 98SE & ME Running Scan-Disk (Error Checking) 
9.2.2 Windows® XP & 2000 Running Check Disk Utility (ChkDsk) 
10 Technical Specifications  
11 Technical Support 
Table of Contents
1   Ports, Buttons and Connections 
2   First Time Usage 
2.1 Plugging in the AC Adapter 
2.2 Turning on the Gmini  
2.3 Changing the user interface language 
2.4 Shutting off the Gmini and Battery saving features 
2.5 Caring for the Gmini  
3   User Interface Overview 
3.1 Main Menu 
3.2 Familiarizing yourself with the interface 
3.2.1 Main menu 
3.2.2 Browser 
3.2.3 Settings screen 
3.2.4 Contextual Menus 
3.2.5 Message boxes 
3.2.6 Using the Virtual Keyboard 
3.2.7 Locking the Gmini Buttons 
4   Using the Gmini 200 
4.1 Playing music 
4.1.1 Selecting a song 
4.1.2 Playing a song 
4.1.3 Using Playlists 
4.1.4 What is an .m3u file? 
4.2 Changing the Gmini Settings 
4.2.1 Changing the Sound Settings 
4.2.2 Changing the PlayMode Settings 
4.2.3 Setting the Clock 
4.2.4 Changing the Power Settings 
4.2.5 Changing the Recording Settings 
4.2.6 Changing the System Settings 
4.3 Using the Browser 
4.3.1 Inside the MUSIC Folder 
4.3.2 Navigating the Directory Structure 
4.3.3 File and Folder Operations in Browser Mode 
4.4 Recording MP3 Music 
4.4.1 Microphone Recording 
4.4.2 Line-In Recording 
4.5 Using the photo wallet 
4.5.1 Using the photo browser 
4.5.2 Copying Files from a CompactFlash™ Card  
4.5.3 Displaying Photos on the Gmini 
5   Connecting the Gmini to your Computer 
5.1 Making the USB Connection 
5.1.1 Windows® ME/2000/XP and Macintosh® 9.2 or 10.2.4 and better 
5.1.2 Windows® 98SE 
5.2 Using the Gmini as an external drive 
5.3 Disconnecting the Gmini from your Computer 
5.3.1 Windows® 
5.3.2 Macintosh® 
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Ports, Buttons and Connections
 appears in top left of screen, a menu is  
A  Power button - Hold down for a few seconds and the Gmini will start up.
B  Contextual Menu - When the menu icon 
  available. 
C  Move Left - also decreases recording gain 
D  Move Up - also, increases playing volume
E  Move Right - also increases recording gain 
F  Play/Pause/Enter - Play current item, pause, play again. Enter value.
G  Stop/Esc button - Stop playing current fi le or escape from current screen. 
H  Move Down - also decreases playing volume
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A  Built-in microphone
B  Multi-connect Adapter Plug - allows for Line-In and Line-Out connections
C  Headphone Multi-connect jack - To connect headphones, FM remote control, or  
  adapter plug. 
D  Photo Wallet Port (CompactFlash™ type I & II)
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First Time Usage
Please understand that this device has a CPU, hard drive, and 
Operating System (OS) and thus it is more like a computer than 
a CD player, cassette player, or radio. If you are not familiar 
with using a computer, it would be particularly useful to read 
through this detailed User Manual.
2.1  Plugging in the AC Adapter
Before using your Gmini 200 for the fi rst time, completely charge the internal batteries.
•  Use  ONLY  the  included  ARCHOS  charger/adapter.  The  ARCHOS  charger/ 
adapter has a special USB tip which you will plug into the USB port. Charging will 
start automatically when it is plugged in.
The batteries are fully charged when the full battery icon appears.
• 
Empty battery: The battery 
is uncharged. It must be 
charged.
Animated battery: The 
battery is currently being 
charged.
Full battery: The battery is 
completely charged and 
the AC adapter can by 
unplugged.
•  After the fi rst initial full charge, you may use the Gmini while the AC adapter is 
plugged in.
2.2  Turning on the Gmini 
•  Hold down the POWER button until the screen comes on, then let off.
• 
• 
If your Gmini is charging, click the PLAY button to turn it on.
If the Gmini shows an empty battery icon or if the Gmini displays nothing at all, 
you will have to plug in the Archos adapter/charger to make sure the batteries 
get charged. 
2.3  Changing the user interface language
English is selected as the default language for your Gmini user interface. You can choose 
another language as explained in chapter 4.2.6.
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A  Mini USB 2.0 port (USB 1.1 compatible)
B  USB Power Adapter
C  Power – To power the unit and charge the internal batteries with the AC adapter. 
 
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2.4  Shutting off the Gmini and Battery saving features
• 
• 
To shut off the unit, press and hold the POWER button for 3 seconds.
If left idle, the screen’s blue backlight will shut off after 20 seconds in order to 
save battery power. After 30 seconds, the screen display will shut off, also to 
save energy. Finally, the Gmini will shut itself off completely after 3 minutes if 
left idle and no music is playing. You can change these settings under [Setup   
Power]. 
2.5  Caring for the Gmini 
The Gmini is an electronic product that needs to be treated with care. 
•  Do not subject it to shock. You may however go jogging with it or do sports.
•  Do not subject it to heat. Keep it ventilated. Be careful that the surface it is on, is 
a fl at clear surface. Placing the Gmini on a pillow, blanket, carpet, or wrapped 
up to protect it will restrict the necessary ventilation that it needs. This increase in 
operating temperature may cause damage to the device.
•  Keep the Gmini away from water and excessively humid areas.
•  Keep the Gmini away from high electromagnetic fi elds.
•  Keep it plugged into the Archos AC adapter/charger when it is connected to 
your computer.
 
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User Interface Overview
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3.1  Main Menu
Once the Gmini has been turned on, the following screen is displayed. This is the main 
menu screen from which you can select the main functions. 
•  Music: browse through your music fi les or use the ARCLibrary 
music selection system.
•  Browser: browse through and manage all the fi les on your 
Gmini.
•  Photo: display photos (JPEG) and view photo information.
•  Recorder: record from any music source (Stereo, portable 
• 
players, etc.) or from the built-in microphone.
Setup:  set  the  parameters  of  your  Gmini  to  your  personal 
taste.
3.2  Familiarizing yourself with the interface
3.2.1 Main menu
Each icon corresponds to a mode. Use the LEFT, RIGHT, UP and 
DOWN buttons to navigate from one icon to another. Press OK to 
select the icon and start the action. Press Esc to exit.
3.2.2 Browser
Use the UP and DOWN keys to highlight the item of your choice. 
If you keep pressing UP or DOWN, the list will scroll for you to see 
the other items. The vertical black indicator on the right shows 
your relative position in the entire list. 
Press  OK  to  start  the  action  corresponding  to  the  highlighted 
item.
 
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3.2.3 Settings screen
3.2.5 Message boxes
Selectable  items:  use  the  LEFT  and  RIGHT  keys  to  change  the 
parameter  value.  The  new  value  is  immediately  taken  into 
account  so  there  is  no  need  to  press  OK.  Click  on  ESC  when 
done.
From time to time a message box is displayed on the screen. This 
may be a warning or an error message, or a question to confi rm 
an action.
Message boxes may have up to 3 buttons (for instance yes, no 
and cancel). If there is more than one button use the left and 
right keys to highlight the button you want. In all cases press OK 
to validate your choice which will then exit the message box.
Check  boxes:  each  checkbox  corresponds  to  a  different 
parameter value but only one parameter can be selected at a 
time. Use the UP and DOWN keys to highlight an item and then 
press OK to validate it. Click on ESC when done.
3.2.6 Using the Virtual Keyboard
It  is  recommended  that  you  create  folders  and  rename  fi les  or  folders  from  your 
computer when it is connected to the Gmini. The computer keyboard is easier to use. 
Often times, however, you are not near your computer and you would like to enter the 
text directly with the Gmini. For this, you will use the virtual keyboard. You will be taken to 
this screen when you rename a fi le or folder or when you name a recording.
Actions: in the settings screens you sometimes need to perform 
some actions. Actions are shown enclosed with [ ]. Press OK to 
start the action.
3.2.4 Contextual Menus
Contextual Menu
Current text being typed
Cursor
Toggle between uppercase and 
lowercase characters*
Back Space* 
Clear the entire line*
Enter*
When the menu icon 
 is present on the top-left corner of the 
screen you can press the MENU button to display a popup menu 
with actions related to the current mode. Pressing MENU again 
or ESC closes it. 
Use the UP and DOWN keys to highlight the action you want to 
start and then press OK to validate it.
* these items can also be found in the contextual menu
You will use the LEFT, RIGHT, UP and DOWN buttons to move around the keyboard. Click on OK/PLAY to enter the 
character that is highlighted. Once satisfi ed with your text entry, click on the MENU button and select Enter. 
Tip: use the ESC key to cancel any changes you made and exit the virtual keyboard.
3.2.7 Locking the Gmini Buttons
You can prevent the Gmini from executing unintended functions 
by locking the buttons. To lock the buttons, hold down on the 
MENU key until the “lock” icon appears in the top-left corner of 
the screen. Now all buttons except the MENU key are disabled. 
To unlock the buttons hold down again on the Menu key until the 
“lock” icon disappears.
 
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Using the Gmini 200
4
4.1  Playing music
4.1.1 Selecting a song
There are two ways to access your music. You can either access 
your  songs  by  browsing  through  the  folders,  where  you  keep 
your music fi les, or you can choose from Artist, Album, Genre, 
or Song. 
Browsing through the folders
Click  the  OK/PLAY  button  on  the  highlighted  “Browse  hard 
drive”. You will be sent directly to the Music folder of your Gmini. 
This is a fi ltered access to browse the hard disk. Here you can 
look at all your music fi les and the folders on your Gmini’s hard 
drive as if you were browsing fi les with a computer. You will only 
see audio fi les types that are playable on the Gmini (MP3, WMA, 
WAV). To select a fi le you can use the UP and DOWN keys to 
move  upwards  or  downwards  and  OK  to  enter  a  highlighted 
subfolder. See chapter 4.3 for more information about using the 
Browser.
Using the ARCLibrary System
You can search your music by artist, album, song name, genre. 
Use the UP/DOWN buttons to scroll to your selection and then 
click  on  OK.  Once  one  of  these  is  chosen,  you  will  see  an 
alphabetical list. You can now choose the Album, Artist, or song 
Title (depending which search type you started) that you desire. If 
you add music to your Gmini, you will need to use MusicMatch™ 
to update the ARCLibrary in order for it to take into account the 
newly acquired music. See section 6.4.1 for details.
4.1.2 Playing a song
When you get to your desired song, click on PLAY/OK. If you hear nothing at fi rst, make 
sure you have adjusted the volume control on the headphone cord. 
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        Menu available   Status: Paused     Play Mode: One Directory     Play Order    Volume     
Artist* or parent folder                   
Song title* or file name                    
Album* or current folder                                  
File format and recording 
information
Time of Day
Battery level
Right and Left VU Meters
Song elapsed time       Song time remaining          Song Length
*If the MP3 fi le contains these ID3 tag data
Play Status
  Stopped
  Playing a track
  Current track is paused
  Recording a track
Play Order
(no 
icon)
Play once
  Shuffl e (Random) track selection
  Repeat playing 
Play Mode
   Playlist: Gmini is currently playing from a Playlist 
  Folder: Play all tracks in the current directory
  All: Play all tracks on Gmini
  Single: Play a single track then stop
  Queue: User can queue the next track to be played 
  Scan: Gmini plays fi rst 15 seconds of each track 
Playback contextual menu
• 
Setup:  displays  the  setup  screen  (same  as  selecting  the 
Setup icon in the main menu)
Edit Playlist: enters the playlist editor (see below for how to 
use playlists).
• 
•  Browser: allows to browse through your fi les while playing.
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4.1.3 Using Playlists
A Playlist is a list of songs that the Gmini will automatically play one after the other. The 
Gmini can handle one Playlist at a time. You can create new Playlists, add or delete 
songs from a Playlist, or Save a Playlist as a fi le (fi le type .m3u) to be used another time. 
There is no limit to the number of Playlists you can save on the Gmini hard drive.
Playing a Playlist 
There are two ways to play a Playlist.
1) Press the RIGHT key to go into the Playlist edition window. Then use the UP and DOWN 
keys to select which song you want to start with. 
2) In the Playlist window press MENU to display the contextual menu and select START 
PLAYLIST. The Gmini starts playing from the fi rst track of the playlist.
Creating a new Playlist 
To create a Playlist, press the RIGHT button while you are in the 
Music  browser.  A  second  panel  is  opened  on  the  right  side  to 
display  the  Playlist  contents  (shown  empty  in  the  picture).  You 
can  now  start  adding  songs  to  the  current  Playlist.  In  the  left 
window,  search  for  the  songs  you  would  like  to  add  to  your 
Playlist.  Once  the  song  is  highlighted,  click  on  the  OK/PLAY 
button  to  add  it  to  the  Playlist.  The  song  will  be  added  to  the 
Playlist and a small mark is placed next to the music note icon 
to indicate that it is now in the Playlist. Continue searching and 
adding songs in this manner until you are satisfi ed. You can jump 
back and forth anytime between the two windows by clicking the 
LEFT/RIGHT buttons. A Playlist can have a maximum of 1000 songs 
in it. We recommend that you save your Playlists to the Gmini hard 
drive (see below) to be used again later. You can also add all the 
music fi les of a complete folder in one operation by highlighting 
the desired folder, pressing MENU to display the contextual menu, and then selecting 
either ADD TO PLAYLIST or INSERT TO PLAYLIST. Watch which window you are in since the 
left window menu has different options than the right window menu.
Loading a Playlist
You  can  load  a  previously  saved  Playlist  or  add  the  fi les  it 
contains to the current Playlist. Use the music browser to select 
the Playlist of your choice (Playlists are indicated by a special list 
icon) and then press OK. If there were already some items in the 
Gmini Playlist, then the songs of the loaded Playlist will be added 
to  the  end  of  it.  You  can  then  check  or  modify  the  Playlist  as 
usual in the Playlist window.
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Playlist contextual menu description
• 
• 
Start Playlist: starts playing the fi rst track of the playlist.
Save Playlist: saves the current Playlist onto the hard drive 
so  that  it  can  be  reloaded  later.  It  will  be  saved  into  the 
directory  which  is  open  in  the  left  window.  You  should 
navigate  in  the  left  window  to  your  Playlist  folder  before 
saving.
•  Rename Playlist: changes the name of the current Playlist 
• 
with the virtual keyboard.
Shuffl e Playlist: randomly changes the order of the items in 
the current Playlist .
•  Clear Playlist: remove all tracks from the current Playlist.
•  Move  Track:  changes  the  position  of  the  current  track 
within the Playlist. The current track is then displayed with a 
double arrow icon. Use the UP and DOWN keys to move the 
selected track and press OK to validate the new position.
•  Delete  Track:  removes  the  highlighted  track  from  the 
playlist.
Important:  Once  you  save  a  Playlist  it  is  important  that  you  do  not  move  the  actual  MP3  fi les  as  the  Playlist 
searches in the original fi le location. If you need to move your MP3 fi les to a different folder, you’ll have to recreate 
your Playlists.
4.1.4 What is an .m3u fi le?
Example of the contents of the .m3u Playlist 
fi le ‘Jazz Music’
You can open a Playlist fi le (Playlistname.m3u) on 
your computer with a text editor such as Notepad 
or SimpleText (Macintosh®), and you will see that it is 
merely a list of fi les to be played along with the hard 
disk path to fi nd them. If you delete a Playlist from 
your Gmini, you are only deleting the list and not the 
music itself. Because a Playlist includes the path to 
the music fi le (as shown in the example Playlist fi le above), you have to remember that if 
you change the location of a music fi le, then the path to it in the Playlist will be incorrect, 
and the Gmini will not play the song (because it can’t fi nd it). Thus it is important to create 
a clean directory structure and not change where your fi les are located. Either that or just 
delete your Playlist and create a new one. 
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