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 Gmini™ XS202 
 Gmini™ XS202 
 MP3 & WMA Digital Music Player & USB 2.0 Hard Drive 
  
 
English user manual   
   Version 1.6 - Please see the Archos web site (WWW.ARCHOS.COM) for the most recent manual and software updates for your Gmini™. 
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     An introductory note from ARCHOS 
  
 Dear Customer, 
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 Archos thanks you for choosing our new ultra-small Gmini™ XS202. Check out our web site  www.archos.com  
to fi nd the available accessories for this product (car adapter, carrying cases, power adapter). Also, while at our 
web site, check for free downloads of updated and improved software for your device. 
 The principal function of the Gmini™ is, of course, to play music. Because it has a real hard disk inside of it, 
you can store thousands of songs. Using a standard audio cable, you can also play your music through a home 
entertainment  system. You  can  bring  your  entire  CD  collection  with  you  anywhere  and  play  it  over  anyone’s 
sound system. 
 Putting music onto your Gmini™ is as easy as ‘drag and drop’ for your unprotected music fi les. And for protected 
purchased music from PlaysForSure web sites, it is as easy as clicking the Sync button in Windows Media® 
Player 10. Plus, with its USB 2.0 high speed port, transfers are fi nished before you know it. The Gmini™ is also 
ID3 compatible. This means that the ARCLibrary will sort your music so that you can listen to it by artist, album, 
title, year, or genre. Click on Shuffl e, and listen to your music at random. 
 Finally, you can use the Gmini™ as a portable hard drive to store your important fi les. You can even use the 
Archos double-browser to rename, create, copy, move, and delete fi les and folders.  
 This manual gives you all the information you need to know on using your Gmini™. Read through it carefully, 
you just may fi nd out the Gmini™ includes some additional functionality that you didn’t expect. If you require 
extra assistance, you can always call our help line or e-mail support to get a friendly Archos agent to give you a 
hand. 
  
 Wishing you the best music listening experience, 
  
 The Archos Team 
    
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4  Putting Music onto your Gmini™ XS202 
Synchronizing Music from Windows Media® Player (WMP) to the Gmini™ XS202 
4.1.1  Synchronizing Music from Windows Media® Player (WMP) 9 to the Gmini™ XS202 
4.1.2  Synchronizing Music from Windows Media® Player (WMP) 10 to the Gmini™ XS202 
Transferring your CD collection to the Gmini™ XS202 
Installing Windows Media® Player (WMP) 9 
Installing Windows Media® Player (WMP) 10 
5  Playlists 
Creating a new Playlist  
Loading a Playlist 
Playing a Playlist  
Playlist Menu Options 
6  Settings 
Changing the Sound Settings 
Changing the PlayMode Settings 
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4
2.1 
2.2 
2.3 
2.4 
2.5 
3.1 
3.2 
3.3 
3.4 
3.5 
3.6 
3.7 
3.8 
4.1 
4.2 
4.3 
4.4 
5.1 
5.2 
5.3 
5.4 
6.1 
6.2 
7.1 
7.2 
7.3 
7.4 
9.1 
9.2 
9.3 
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CContents
ontents
1  Ports, Buttons, and Connections 
2  First Time Usage 
Charging the Battery 
Turning the Gmini™ XS202 ON and OFF 
Changing the Interface language 
Caring for the Gmini™  
Foreign Character Sets 
3  Playing Music 
Playing a Music File 
Play Screen and Button Control  
Playback Menu Items  
ARCLibrary Specifi cs 
ARCLibrary Updating 
Setting a Bookmark 
The Resume Function 
Locking the Gmini™ Buttons 
     6.3 
6.4 
6.5 
6.6 
Changing the time & date settings 
Changing the Display Settings 
Changing the Power Settings 
Changing the System Settings 
7  Using the Browser 
Inside the MUSIC Folder 
Navigating the Directory Structure 
File and Folder Operations in Browser Mode 
7.3.1  Contextual Menu on a File 
7.3.2  Contextual Menu on a Folder 
7.3.3  Contextual Menu while in the Double Browser 
Using the Virtual Keyboard 
8  Connecting the Gmini™ XS202 to a Stereo system 
9  Connecting the Gmini™ to your Computer 
Making the USB Connection 
Using the Gmini™ as an External Drive 
Disconnecting the Gmini™ from your Computer 
9.3.1  Windows®  
9.3.2  Macintosh®  
10  Using iTunes™ with your Gmini™ XS202 
11  Updating the Gmini™ XS202 Firmware 
11.1 
11.2 
Download the Update_GminiXS202.AOS fi le 
Copy to Gmini™ root and Update 
12  Troubleshooting 
12.1  USB Connection issues 
12.2 
File issues, corrupted data, formatting, and partitioning. 
12.2.1  Windows® ME Running Scan-Disk (Error Checking) 
12.2.2  Windows® XP & 2000 Running Check Disk Utility (ChkDsk) 
13  Technical Specifi cations 
14  Technical Support 
15  Legal and Safety Notices 
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5
 Ports, Buttons, and Connections 
 1 1 Ports, Buttons, and Connections 
 
A  Headphone jack 
 B  Power On indicator   
 C  Hard Disk activity indicator  
   D  Battery charger indicator 
 E  Stop/Escape/Off 
       F  Navigation Joystick & Play/Enter button (Press down) 
 G  On/Menu 
 H  USB 2.0 port (USB 1.1 compatible) to connect to computer 
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Power Connector (Use only the supplied Archos charger) 
  
  
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 First Time Usage 
     2 2 First Time Usage 
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 2.1  Charging the Battery 
 2.1  Charging the Battery 
 Before using your Gmini XS202 for the fi rst time, completely charge the battery for three hours. 
 •   Connect the Gmini™ XS202 to the provided charger/adapter and a wall outlet. The blue CHG indicator lights 
up to indicate that the external adapter is connected. The battery will charge automatically when it is plugged 
in. The battery is fully charged when the full battery icon appears.
 •   After the fi rst initial full charge, you may use the Gmini while the AC adapter is plugged in.
    
  
  
  
  Animated battery:  
 
  The battery is currently being charged. 
  
 
 
 
Full battery:  
The battery is fully charged.  
    
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2.2  Turning the Gmini™ XS202 ON and OFF 
2.2  Turning the Gmini™ XS202 ON and OFF 
 •  Press and hold the ON/Menu button until the screen comes on. 
 •  The Gmini will automatically shut off after a given amount of time if no buttons are pressed. To conserve battery 
energy, the backlight will automatically shut off. You can change these parameters in  Setup > Power . 
 •  Press and hold the Stop/off button until the Gmini shuts off. 
 2.3  Changing the Interface language 
 2.3  Changing the Interface language 
 •  English is selected as the default language for your Gmini user interface. You can choose another language by 
going to  Setup > Display . 
 2.4  Caring for the Gmini™  
 2.4  Caring for the Gmini™  
 The Gmini is an electronic product that needs to be treated with care.  
 •  Do not subject it to unnecessary shock or vibration. You may however go jogging with it or do sports. 
 •  Do not subject it to heat. Keep it ventilated (especially when connected to a computer).  
 •  Keep the Gmini away from water and excessively humid areas. 
 •  Keep the Gmini away from high electromagnetic fi elds. 
 2.5  Foreign Character Sets 
 2.5  Foreign Character Sets 
 You have the possibility to display your fi le names, folder names, and MP3 ID3 tags in various character sets 
(ex: Korean, Japanese, Simplifi ed Chinese, etc.). You can fi nd the language fi les  CodePage_name.4fz  in the font 
folder under /Data on the Gmini XS202 hard disk or on the Archos website under the heading Software.  
 If, for example, you would like to have the Japanese language display, you would copy the fi le  Cp932.4fz  into 
the folder /system on the Gmini XS202. Shut down and restart the Gmini XS202. File names, folder names, 
and ID3 tags written using the Microsoft® codepage for the language will now be displayed in that character set. 
Only one.4fz fi le can be used at a time, thus you should only put one.4fz fi le into the /system folder. When an.4fz 
language fi le is used, the interface language will be set to English. 
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 Playing Music 
      33 Playing Music 
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 Once the Gmini has been turned on, the following screen is displayed. You can select 
the major functions from this main menu. 
 •   Music : Browse through the folder  Music  or use the  ARCLibrary  music selection 
system. 
 •   Browser : Browse through and manage all of the other fi les on your Gmini. 
 •   Resume : Resume playing from the last place you stopped. 
 •   Setup : Set the parameters of your Gmini to your personal taste. 
  
 3.1  Playing a Music File 
 3.1  Playing a Music File 
 By clicking on the Music icon in the main menu screen, you will enter into a ‘music only’ 
mode. File types other than WMA, WAV, and MP3 that may be in those folders will be 
fi ltered from view. 
 There are two ways to access your music, by selecting  Browse hard disk  or by searching 
the songs’ tag information,  Artist, Album, title, etc . In the case of Browse hard drive, 
you will be sent directly to the  Music  folder of your Gmini. 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 in a 
computer. The other way is to browse your music by tag information, artist, album, song 
name, year, or genre. The  Unknown  category indicates that the fi le has no tag data.  
 To select a music fi le, push the navigation joystick to move upwards or downwards and press it down to enter a 
highlighted subfolder or tag category. Click ENTER to play the highlighted song. Use LEFT to leave a folder and 
go back to the previous level.  
    
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   3.2  Play Screen and Button Control  
   3.2  Play Screen and Button Control  
  
File format and recording information 
 (1)  Menu available  
 (2)  Artist* or parent folder 
 (3)  Song title* or fi le name  
 (4)  Album* or current folder  
 (5) 
 (6)  Status: playing 
 (7)  Play Mode: Folder 
 (8)  Play Order: Repeat 
 (9)  Volume (0-99) 
 (10)  Battery level 
 (11)  Real time clock 
 (12)  Song elapsed time  
 (13)  Song time remaining  
 (14)   Song length 
 *If the fi le contains these tag data 
  
  
       
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Increase the volume   
 Click once:  Play the next song in the folder or playlist. 
 Hold:  Fast forward through the song. 
 
    A    Play/pause/resume song 
 B 
 C 
  
 D  Decrease the Volume 
 E 
 Click  once:   Play  the  previous  song  in  the  folder  or  playlist 
(during fi rst 5 seconds of song) otherwise go to the beginning of 
the song. 
 Hold:  Fast reverse through the song.   
  
 F  Stop Song 
  
  Play Status  
  Play Status  
 Stopped 
 
 
 
 
 Play Order  
 Play Order  
(no icon)  
Play once 
 
 
 
 
Shuffl e (Random) track selection  
Repeat playing 
 Playing a track 
 Current track is paused  
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 C  C 
 B  B 
 A  A 
 D  DD
 E  E 
 F  F 
  
 The top status bar indicates the status and play settings that you have given. See the Settings chapter for a 
description of the Playmode options. 
  
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 3.3  Playback Menu Items  
 3.3  Playback Menu Items  
 C 
 When  the  menu  icon  appears,  you  have  certain  options.  During  song 
playback, press the MENU button for the following options. 
 •   Setup:  Enters the  Setup  screen (same as selecting the Setup icon in 
the main menu) which allows you access to parameters such as bass 
and treble. 
 •   Info:  Show fi le information such as the fi le name, number of kilobytes of hard 
drive space used, date created, fi le format, etc. 
 •   ARCLibrary:  Allows you to browse through your ARCLibrary while listening to the 
current song. 
 •   Edit Playlist:  Enters the playlist editor (see below how to use Playlists). 
 •   Set Bookmark:  Set a bookmark at the current position within the audio fi le. See  
the  Bookmark  section below. 
 3.4  ARCLibrary Specifi cs 
 3.4  ARCLibrary Specifi cs 
 The ARCLibrary is a system for choosing your music by its characteristics. It can be 
turned On or Off in the settings from  Setup > Playmode . As shown in this screen 
capture  here,  you  can  select  your  music  by Artist, Album,  Song  Title,  Genre,  or 
Year. MP3 and WMA music fi les have internal data tags to hold information about 
the song. For MP3 fi les, these are known as ID3 tags. Not all MP3 fi les have all 
this information fi lled in. If you purchase a song from a music download service, 
the song will have this information. If you have an MP3 or WMA fi le without this tag 
information, then you can add or change it by going to the properties of the fi le in 
Windows® Explorer. Once you update the ARCLibrary, you will have access to all 
newly copied music via the ARCLibrary. The ARCLibrary indexes all the music and 
playlists that it fi nds in the folders  Music  and  Playlists  by using the tag information 
in each song. Thus, you should never delete the folders  Music  or  Playlists . If a 
song does not have tags, it will be put into the category   . 
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     3.5  ARCLibrary Updating 
 3.5  ARCLibrary Updating 
 If you paste unprotected audio fi les from your computer to the Gmini, they go directly to the Gmini hard disk 
without the ARCLibrary knowing about the new song. This is why the ARCLibrary is updated when you disconnect 
your Gmini from the computer. Alternatively, you can set up the ARCLibrary to update only when you choose, by 
setting it to “On”, not “automatic”. You can fi nd the information on how to do this in the section  Playmode  in the 
 Settings  chapter. You will then have to go to the  Setup > Playmode  screen, highlight [Update ARCLibrary] and 
press ENTER. A message screen will appear indicating that it is updating the ARCLibrary contents. 
 3.6  Setting a Bookmark 
 3.6  Setting a Bookmark 
 If you are listening to a song, or perhaps a long recording, and would like to place a bookmark in it in order 
to pick up from this point at another time, you can use the Bookmark function. While listening to the audio 
recording, simply click on the MENU button, then choose  Set Bookmark . This will set a bookmark in the 
audio fi le at the current position. You can only set one bookmark per fi le. When you look at the fi le in your 
browser, it will have a small mark on its icon indicating that this fi le has a bookmark set within it. You can have 
a maximum of 16 fi les bookmarked. Setting more bookmarks will erase existing bookmarks, starting with the 
oldest. The next time you play the audio fi le, you will be presented with two options: 
  
  Resume:   Start playing from the bookmarked position. 
  Ignore:    Keep the bookmark but start playing from the very beginning. 
 To clear a bookmark from a fi le, highlight the fi le and use the MENU button, then choose  clear bookmark .  
 3.7  The Resume Function 
 3.7  The Resume Function 
 When you turn on your Gmini you will sometimes notice that the icon which is highlighted on the main 
screen is not the  Browser  but rather the  Resume  icon. This icon is highlighted when the Gmini XS202 
can resume the last played audio fi le. 
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 3.8  Locking the Gmini™ Buttons 
 3.8  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 button until the 
“lock” icon appears in the top-left corner of the screen. Now the buttons are 
disabled, but you can still use the navigation joystick to change the volume. 
To unlock the buttons hold down again on the Menu button until the “lock” 
icon disappears.  
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 Putting Music onto your Gmini™ XS202 
     4 4 Putting Music onto your Gmini™ XS202 
 Your Archos™ product is a certifi ed PlaysForSure™ digital device which means that wherever 
you fi nd music for sale on the Internet with the PlaysForSure™ symbol, you can be certain that 
they will ‘Play for sure’ on your Gmini XS202. Please note that the Gmini XS202 does not currently 
support subscription services. Check the Archos website to see if there is update software that 
will provide for recognition of these services on your device. For additional information on ‘Play 
for sure’ and download services, check out the web site  www.playsforsure.com . 
 The Gmini XS202 is designed to work seamlessly with Windows Media® Player (WMP) versions 9 and 10. The 
Windows Media® Player software is used to download digital media content from the Internet to your computer 
and organize it. You will also use it to synchronize (copy) the contents of your Windows Media® Player media 
library to your Archos™ device.  
 4.1  Synchronizing Music from Windows Media®® Player (WMP) to the Gmini™ XS202 
 4.1  Synchronizing Music from Windows Media
 Player (WMP) to the Gmini™ XS202 
 Windows Media® Player (WMP) allows you to synchronize music between your computer and Gmini XS202: That 
means, it will add music fi les to your Gmini XS202 so that you have the same digital media on your Gmini as you 
have in your Windows Media® Player library. The synchronization is one way, that is to say, copying music fi les 
from your computer to your Gmini, but it will not copy fi les from your Gmini to your computer. You can choose to 
sync only certain songs or to sync your entire library.  
 4.1.1  Synchronizing Music from Windows Media® Player (WMP) 9 to the Gmini™ XS202 
 Access the Copy tab in WMP 9. On the left hand side, you should see music fi les from your 
music  library  (saved  on  your  computer)  and  on  the  right,  the  fi les  and  folder  on  your  Gmini 
XS202. Check the fi les you want to copy to the Gmini. Make sure you have selected the folder 
on the Gmini into which you want to copy your music. In the top right corner of WMP, you will 
fi nd the Copy button which starts the synchronization process. 
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 4.1.2  Synchronizing Music from Windows Media® Player (WMP) 10 to the Gmini™ XS202 
 Access the  Synchronise  tab in WMP 10. If this is the fi rst time you are using this 
option,  WMP  will  offer  to  set  up  automatic  synchronisation  of  your  music  fi les.  If 
this  box  is  checked,  every  time  you  connect  your  Gmini  to  your  computer,  WMP 
will automatically start up and check to see whether any of the music fi les on the 
computer have not yet been copied to the Gmini. These fi les will then be copied to 
your computer. If you choose to manually synchronise your fi les, you can always set 
up automatic synchronization by clicking the  Set up sync  button. 
 On the left hand side, you should see music fi les from your music library (saved on 
your computer) and on the right, the fi les and folder on your Gmini XS202. Check the fi les you want to copy to 
the Gmini. Make sure you have selected the folder on the Gmini into which you want to copy your music. On the 
tool bar, you will fi nd the  Start Sync  button which starts the synchronization process.  
 Attention: Files deleted from the WMP music library will also be deleted from the Gmini. 
 4.2  Transferring your CD collection to the Gmini™ XS202 
 4.2  Transferring your CD collection to the Gmini™ XS202 
 The process of transferring music from a CD into fi les for your Gmini XS202 is known 
as ‘ripping’. It is actually a transcoding process, taking the CDA (CD Audio) format and 
converting it to WMA or MP3 format which the Gmini can read. There are many music 
ripping programs on the market, but ARCHOS recommends that you use Windows 
Media® Player to rip your music. In fact, when you place a music CD in your computer, 
Windows®  will  ask  you  if  you  would  like  to  rip  it.  Depending  on  the  power  of  your 
computer, to rip a 60 minute CD, it will take anywhere from 10 minutes to 60 minutes. 
Once  this  is  done,  the  album  will  become  part  of  your  music  library.  Connect  your 
Gmini to your computer with the supplied USB cable. Now, you go to the  Sync  tab 
and tell Windows Media® Player to synchronize that album to your Gmini. It will then 
transfer that album to your Gmini. 
 Note:  Some  music  CDs  have  a  special  copy  protection  system  that  will  not  allow 
Windows Media® Player to make music fi les from them. 
  
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     4.3 
Installing Windows Media®® Player (WMP) 9 
Installing Windows Media
 Player (WMP) 9 
 4.3 
 If you have Windows®, ME, and 2000, you should use Windows Media® Player 9. The easiest way to install this 
software is to visit the Microsoft® Website and download the very latest version, or install the version found on 
the Gmini XS202 itself.  
Installing Windows Media®® Player (WMP) 10 
Installing Windows Media
 Player (WMP) 10 
 4.4 
 4.4 
 You must be running Windows® XP (Service Pack 1 or higher) in order to install Windows Media® Player 10. 
Please visit Microsoft’s PlaysForSure website ( www.playsForSure.com ) and download the very latest version 
of Windows Media® Player 10. 
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