Why cant the Format (FAT32 or FAT)be completed?

My Acousticsolutions mp3 player(model 513/3831) started playing the songs in a jerky broken up way.I looked online and found this wonderful site with advice on how to ment it. I tried to format it as described both FAT32 and FAT but after ages the message "unable to complete format" came up. Now I don't know what to do.Is there a solution for this problem or should I just trash the unit?The light comes on,it goes into the shuffle and record sections and even shows that there are no files on it.I would really appreciate some help.