Dead MP3 pla

I have a Creative Zen Xtra 30GB. Or had. It spontaneously died last weekend. I had it in my big satchel (it's cushioned in there) and I went to plug it in and it was stuck in recovery mode. I tried to reinstall the firmware (failure) to format the disk (harddisk problem), reboot, etc., but kept getting harddisk problem.
It's possible it got left on with an earplug in, so didn't shut itself off? Not likely, but possible.
I also noticed that my cord to recharge the battery has some exposed wire at the juncture, so isn't reliable now (and is possibly a hazard). But it was at least half-charged when it died.
I bought it only a year and a half ago, so it's outside the warranty period. I'm assuming it will be prohibiti'vely expensi've to repair it.
Is this normal? I thought these gadgets had a longer shelf life than this. And is there anything I can do with this, other than just go get a new one? (And maybe I should get something other than a Creative this time......)

I believe on that player the firmware is on the dri've, so you're going to have to reload it. You said it was one of the original Xtras, so I'm guessing you have the original non-playsforsure firmware? If so, when you go to install the firmware on your new dri've, install the non-playsforsure firmware from this website. When you upgrade to PlaysForSure, it has to upgrade the bootloader, which is the code that first starts up the player and tells it to begin loading the firmware from the hard dri've. A firmware update that updates the bootloader failing is MUCH more likely to turn a player into a brick because that bootloader can be corrupted, and then the player can no longer boot up at all. So, stick with the PDE/non-P4S firmware if that's what you got, but if you already had P4S, I'd stick with it, just so you don't mess with the bootloader. That's the safest way to go about it.
DaleMessage Edited by Dale-CL on 2-29-2006 04:49 PM

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Resurecting dead MP3 pla

My Zen Micro died after i dropped it accidentally.
It hangs up during start up and just keeps showing "Creative". I can't even turn it of, i have to remove battery. None of the recovery tools works and it wont connect to PC ether.
Any advice to fix it's

I believe on that player the firmware is on the dri've, so you're going to have to reload it. You said it was one of the original Xtras, so I'm guessing you have the original non-playsforsure firmware? If so, when you go to install the firmware on your new dri've, install the non-playsforsure firmware from this website. When you upgrade to PlaysForSure, it has to upgrade the bootloader, which is the code that first starts up the player and tells it to begin loading the firmware from the hard dri've. A firmware update that updates the bootloader failing is MUCH more likely to turn a player into a brick because that bootloader can be corrupted, and then the player can no longer boot up at all. So, stick with the PDE/non-P4S firmware if that's what you got, but if you already had P4S, I'd stick with it, just so you don't mess with the bootloader. That's the safest way to go about it.
DaleMessage Edited by Dale-CL on 2-29-2006 04:49 PM

Zen Micro battery won't charge, can't turn on MP3 pla

Hey guys,
I;ve bought a Creative Zen Micro 5GB, 3 weeks ago and it was working GREAT...until now. I was using it one night until the battery completely drained off and the Zen Micro turned off by itself. The icon "LOW BATTERY" flashed for a few seconds and the unit basically shuts down.
I tried to plug-in the USB 2.0 cable provided by Creative into a PC USB 2.0 port
. the MP3 player wouldn't start up. The blue light glowed, followed up by the intro 'Creative' screen and then it died off. That happens everytime i plugged the unit into a USB port.
2. On the upper right screen on the unit, it showed that power is supplied by the USB port (battery + electric symbol flashing), but the battery wouldn't charge up and I can't turn it on either
My questions are:
a) Since the battery is dead flat, wont the unit still run/function normally if its plugged to a PC USB2.0 port?
b) Why does my Zen Micro die off a few seconds after it's been plugged on to USB?
c) Can't the PC USB power supply charge up my MP3 player battlery?
Please help,
Cheers.
JJ

I'm having the same problem, but in my case i didn't run out of battery, i used it last friday and it showed it had one bar left of battery, this morning (monday) i wanted to use it and it wouldnt turn on. I came to my office where i have my usb cable and plugged it in. and it shows like its chargin but it wont charge and wont turn on.
I will try woith the AC adaptor when i get home. But it looks weird... anybody else had/has the same problem and fixed it's?
I need help, this is the second Zen micro i have, the first one came defecti've so i returned it.

FIXED - I Guess I Have To Buy Another Mp3 Pla

I have a Vision M 30gb player and for the last couple of months it has been acting up. From freezes to crashes. I probably know what is wrong with it now, but I want to confirm it for real. My VM will not respond at all. I tried to charge it via USB. All I get is a rapidly blinking blue light at the top. Close to two beats a second. I guessing that its burnt out and I have to get another mp3 player, more than likely not a Zen. If anyone think its more to it than that please feel free to express your opinion. Oh yea I had this player for seven months and I don't feel like wasting $25 for something I already know. Besides Creative already has $300 when I purchase it.
-Thanks
Since I figured that my Zen was dead as a doorknob I preyed it open to see inside. My first suspicions were the battery. So I started to pull it out when sparks started to shoot out I was like "WTF, I thought it was dead" and next thing I know the player is coming on and working like the first day I brought it. So I advise no one to try this at home unless they know what they are doing (I sure didn't) I'm just glad its fixed and I would like to thank anyone who helped out. So Thank You very much!!
-shiniloverMessage Edited by shinilover on 05-23-200702:03 PM

If its still under waranty you should get in touch with creativre ASAP, or you coiuld check to see if your covered form the retailer where you bought it from.
In the UK theres a law called the sale of goods act, which holds the retailer responsable for selling faulty goods, and faulty goods can be taken back to the retailer, for a re-fund/reapaiur/replacement by the retialer.

A few quick questions about my new MP3 pla

Ok, I like to get to know anything I buy so I decided to come here and ask, I hope you dont mind answering (My MP3 player is the MuVo c00):
) In the instruction manual it says that play WMA file reduce the battery life of your player. Since converting them reduces the size by a fair bit I was wondering if the reduced battery life was worth it and how much it reduces the battery life.
2) When is a good time to replace the bettery in my player? Should I wait for it to completly die or what because I dont want to go replacing batteries 3 quarters full.
3) Is there any sound or quality differences between MP3 format and WMA?
4) Is the program that came with the player the best thing to add music with or would buying something else do the trick or even just copy and paste?
5) Finally, how do you attach the neck strap? I dont see any place where it could go unless you have to attach it with the arm band on it.
Thanks for your help and I might have some more question but untill further notice this is all I have and again thaks for your time.

. You have to bear in mind this is for an equivalent MP3 e.g. a 28 kbit/s encoded WMA is going to use more power than a 28 kbit/s MP3. Normally WMAs are encoded at a lower rate anyway, hence will use less power. There are many factors that affect battery usage.
2. Wait for it to go flat.
3. Complex answer. In general WMA is used when you want more space and aren't so worried about quality, at the 64 - 28 kbit/s range. MP3s (using the LAME encoder) are better at the higher bit-rates of 92 kbit/s. The bottom line is try a few different bit-rates for both MP3 and WMA, take a listen, and decide for yourself.
4. With the MuVo it's very easy, just use Windows Explorer to copy files. I wouldn't buy any other software, unless you find something you really like to create MP3/WMA files.
5. Not sure on this one...

Some WMA files returning "invalid file" error when I try to transfer them to my MP3 pla

Hello! I'm having a new problem with my Zen Micro this week. I have been using Walmart.com's music download service for a year or so now and have never had a problem with their files. All of a sudden this week, 2/3rds of the files I have downloaded will not transfer to my MP3 player. When I try to import them, the Zen Micro returns an error saying they are "invalid" files. Some files transfer fine -- others give me this error. I talked to Walmart about this and they said it's a problem with my MP3 player. Does anybody know what might be causing this? Should I be trying an upgrade to my Media Explorer program, or something like that?
Thanks for any advice you can offer (and yes, I know Walmart is run by *******s, but at least they don't make me download a huge application before I can buy online music from them!).
--Meg

I had similar problems with downloads before I upgraded to PlaysForSure. Even though in theory you don't need PlaysForSure for pay as you go downloads, in practice the complex rights built into the music mean that it is the only guarantee that downloaded music will play for sure and correctly on your player. I would recommend upgrading to PlaysForSure firmware from the 'downloads' section of this website (you need windows xp service pack 2 and windows media player 0 first). Make sure you back up your music if possible first as all content will be erased when you upgrade firmware. You will then need to download the software suite for PlaysForSure zen micros to get MediaSource and MediaExplorer.
Message Edited by joshua32 on 04-27-2006 05:28 PM

Firmware for Creative Zen 20 GB mp3 pla

Hi,was wondering if anyone can help me,my mp3 zen 20gb?player after few years of use now starts up and says firmware problem after trying to rebuild library, i have got it into recovery mode,and downloaded the firmware from asia creative website, however when try to start the application, it asks what language,i have chose like 4 different languages,but everytime,nothing happens after click language,just goes off and back to desktop, when click alt cntrl delete,says program not responding,and i have to reset PC. Does anyone know where can get orignal firmware,or the new firmware that actually works for zen 20gb?cheers for help

I AM COMMANDO :robothappy:Hi,was wondering if anyone can help me,my mp3 zen 20gb?player after few years of use now starts up and says firmware problem after trying to rebuild library, i have got it into recovery mode,and downloaded the firmware from asia creative website, however when try to start the application, it asks what language,i have chose like 4 different languages,but everytime,nothing happens after click language,just goes off and back to desktop, when click alt cntrl delete,says program not responding,and i have to reset PC. Does anyone know where can get orignal firmware,or the new firmware that actually works for zen 20gb?cheers for help

Transferring Songs from Computer to MP3 Pla

I bought a creative zen sleek photo last July and it always takes me awhile to put new songs on it as I have to drag and drop or to rip a CD. So I was wondering if creative had anything like itunes where you could have all of your music on your computer on a program and then to update your mp3 player you could eaily plug it into the computer and then quickly update it. Any help would be greatly appreciated!Thanks!!

How are you putting songs on it at the moment? Which application are you using? The player comes with MediaSource which is an application you can use to transfer content to the player, if you have a large amount of music it'll just queue them for transfer and go through the list. If you have ripped a CD, then you can save it on your harddri've so you don't have to rip it again in future.
Cat

Your perfect mp3 pla

I have yet to find it and I don't think I ever will.
At least 20 hours battery life per charge.
Completely customizable. Backlighting color changer of the new Neeon. Themes.
The Zen Micro case, but much stronger.
40gb.
Shows up as a hard dri've when connected to a computer.
Set the clock as a screensaver or placed in a corner of the screen.
Games.
Viewable text documents.
FM tuner.
Integrated voice recorder.
Manage files on the go.
All of the EAX presets my Audigy card has.
8 band or higher equalizer.
Ability to retrieve photos directly from a camera.
OR all the above with these changes
Full color screen with photo and video viewing. Themes.
WiFi.
I can think of many more outlandish things, but I'll stay in the bounds of what can be done. I'm quite sure the above can be made.
The rest is up to you.
What would your perfect Mp3 player be like?

900gb HDD</LI>
Plays back MP3 incl. pro, WMA incl. lossless, ACC, OGG, plus stuff that'll come out next year</LI>
Plays back MPEGs in progressi've-scan</LI>
Color 3D holographic screen (at least 7 lines of text)</LI>
EAX, THX, Dolby Digital</LI>
3 year battery life (cold fusion)</LI>
WiFi, bluetooth, Firefox preinstalled</LI>
Solitaire, hearts and hell, why not, backgammon</LI>
Has Outlook installed and has voice-recognition appointment setting</LI>
$.99</LI>
About four inches long, half an inch wide, cylindrical and hollowed out in the middle so instead of carrying it in my pocket I can just fit it right on one of my fingers.. (figure it out)</LI>

Looking for a new MP3 Pla

I have a Zen Xtra 40 Gig, curently I only use about .2GB for my music part of it has a old copy of my data dri've. In a month my mother is going away for a few months for cancer treatment I told her should could have my player since she has like 00-200 CDs. If I add her mp3 files to mine I'm looking at near 4-5GB. So I'm thinking of getting a Zen Touch or Zen Micro.
The Zen Touch has a 24 hr battery life, 20 gig dri've however I'm concerned about the internal battery and the unstability of the player. I wish it could be picked up by windows as a Dri've. My brother as had one for a month and it's frozen on him a few times.
The Zen Micro has a 2 hr battery life but it is removeable. A little woried about the small battery size. It is a smaller dri've than the Zen Touch, but more room than I need for my MP3s.
I was wondering if anyone here would have any suggestions as to wich I should go for?

Greetings.
I would probably go for the Micro. Reasons? Well, firstly - it is a product that Creative still seem to think is important, the Touch does not seem to be as important for Creative, based on their amount of activity on the firmware-side and accessory-wise... If you want to have accessories, the Micro is definately the one to go for. A user-replaceable battery is a good thing (though the Touch battery is also replacable, albeit not user-replacable).
5GBs is not a lot, however...
Regards,
Mattias.

Help on recommending a Creative mp3 pla

Hello.
I don?t know too much about these things but I?m hoping someone would help. Thanks. =)
Basically I am after a Creative mp3 player that meets the following:
- Budget of spending ?75 (if slightly above may consider)
- FM radio and record radio
- Line in function (so for example if something was on MTV I could record music off it via a jack going from the TV headphone socket directly to the mp3 player)
- lit up LCD display
- 40gb space
- purely for music storage and playback, not bothered about video playback or anything else just music. Added bonus if it includes that anyhow =P
- Plays wide range of music formats such as wav, ogg, asf etc
- fast music transfer (most likely usb2.0)
The above features is the main important things that need including and ALL of them. I?m trying not to go off topic on Creative products but what I have my eyes on right now is the MPIO HD300 for around ?70, although I?ve not heard entirely positi've customer feedbacks about them?.. Still the MPIO HD300 sounds very good as it has the functions I am looking for and slightly more. But if there?s something better in the Creative department within my spending I?ll be sure to go for that!
I could just cut that babble and say I need someone to recommend me a Creative player that?s better than or along the same lines as the MPIO HD300 (40gb) and within ?75.
See I could just buy that MPIOHD300 as it has everything I need, but I need to buy it as a gift for someone and they are asking for a Creative player bah! Why can't buying stuff be simple argghhhh.
Please help me out people. Sorry for the babbling, need to make sure I get it right.
THANKS! =)

Vision M looks VERRRY nice, unfortunately it hasn't got what I want from what I've read such as 'line in' (or does it's?), doesn't support as many audio formats.
Just minor issues but I do need them to be included.
30gb would have been ok if it had the required features I was after. I was just watching the flash demo of the vision M. Just out of curiosity can you record as much radio as you want from it until the memory is full? Or are you limited to a certain amount of time you can record from radio?
Also I wonder why a lot of mp3 players don't have the 'line-in' function. I'm sure just about everyone would make use of it. It just doesn't seem to be a standard feature which is a bit crazy.
Zen V Plus would have just about been ok but it's limited to 4gb in space. I had a look this morning through the products doesn't look like any other Creative players fit the match.
Looks like the gift won't be a Creative.
Ahhhh well. I'll have to see what other brand players are knocking about. I'm assuming I can't get help on that here but that's cool.
Thanks for helping =)

I am not able to format my creative Muvo V100 model mp3 pla

Hi
I am not able to format my Creative Muvo V00 model Mp3 player.As i connect it to pc to format it is showing the icon but when i right click on that icon to get the format option it is not responding?me.More i tried in windows explorer also there also it is not responding to my instructions.So please suggest me which?antivirus will resolve my problem.
Even i dont know how to upload my firmware..Can u suggest the site where that firmware will be available for me in free of cost. I need help please call me 996957368

rusaus: I'm guessing there aren't a lot of MuVo? owners here. You could try the manual (which you can download here I think), or ask the same question over at JumpingCholla's Usenet server which definitely has some MuVo? owners.

Unrecognized mp3 pla

Hello, this is the first time on the board and I have a very taxking problem. To start I am running windows xp svc pak3. 3.2mhz 2.5gb of memory, 300gm hard dri've with 65% free and a second hd of 250gb. I have plenty of speed and memory.
I have a Creative ZEN Xtra, NOMAD Jukebox 40gb mp3 player.
Everything started when I tried to syncronize my mp3 player with my (NEW) computer. I forgot to put the Jukebox program on the computer. Then could not find the original disk. I went online and downloaded the updated firmware and software, then connected the mp3 player to the computer. Windows xp recognized the mp3 player but the Creative Organizer did not detect the mp3 player.
I tried following instructions to upgrade the firmware, which I believe I did ok, but Creative software still did not recognize the mp3 player.
Then I screwed up! The only window I had on the mp3 player was the "Rescue Mode" so I tried (one at a time) the different options. . Clean up, 2. Format All, 3. Reload OS and 4. Reboot. So the music is gone (I have it on the computer though) and no matter what I do I can not get the Creative Program to detect the mp3 player. When I connect it to the computer, windows recognizes it and wants to know if I want to syncronize.
When I turn the MP3 player on (not connected to the computer) I get on screen that goes away to fast for me to read it, and then goes to the Rescue Mode window. When I connect it to the computer? the Rescue Mode window changes to an icon indicating that there is data being passed between the mp3 player and the computer.
Another bit on info, Creative tech support has been trying to help, by haveing me? download firmware and mp3 recovery tools, but unless the mp3 recovery tool program can recognized my mp3 player it is no use.
Now does anyone have any ideas, and does anyone know of a reputable repair shop for this mp3 player (preferably in the Dallas/Ft Worth TX area).
Thanks
Richard

You have used the player on this computer before? When did you install service pak3. I believe that may be your problem? Check to see if WINDOWS MEDIA PLAYER is installed on the new one. If you have access to a different computer running Xp Service Pak2 it will be easier to remedy the problem. What firmware was on the player prior to the problem & are you SURE you got the correct driver from the website as it is not as easy as going to the page & finding your player. (Down in the bottom right of the page for your player there is a box that says Manual Selection with 3 drop boxes ) you choose you O.S 2)Language 3)all or firmware ,drivers ,app. then Submit. If you didn't go through those steps before downloading you Don't have all you needed.)http://forums.creative.com/creativel...id=6893#M28836Just so you know the new service pack is diffently an issue read this thread in order for you to updater the firmware one ket thing is you need service pack2 and the driver and had you EVER updated the firmware prior or was it the original.

I really need help with my creative MuVo N200 mp3 pla

i got my MuVo N200 mp3 player for chirtmas of last year, and it stopped working in 3 months. it used to shut off every few minutes and the mic doesnt work any more and i cant record music from the radio. right now it doesnt even work for a minute, it shuts off as soon as i try and turn it on. i emailed creative when it first started happening and they sent me a email saying what to do on there website, something about downloading something. i tryed it and it didnt work, im not sure if i didnt do it right. And right now i have no idea what to do. and creative won't help me unless i pay them money to fix it for me which im not about to do. has anyone have the same problem with the MuVo N200 mp3 player? what am i suppose to do to fix it's I still have there email telling me what to do, but i just dont get how to do it and if it will work. It only worked for me 3 months, and now im mad and thinking about buying a new one thats not from creative but i really want to try fixing it again to see if it will work. please help me.

Good question, unfortunately I have absolutely no idea. Reflashing/-formatting generally takes care of the usual cases of wonkyness this player develops, and there isn't anything more drastic you as a user could do.
Do you have a directory named "Recorded Tracks" on your player? Should be created automatically, but if it isn't you could try creating it manually...

Problem transferring files from PC to MP3 pla

I recently have had problems transferring music from my computer to my Zen Touch.
I am using firmware version .0.03 Zen Touch and version 2.02.05 of Creative MediaSource Organizer. I have been able to transfer files perfectly fine for years up until a few days ago. When attempting to transfer an album, I get the following two error messages:
"Error: unable to download file. This file format is invalid."
"Error: There is not enough disk space at the destination for this
transfer."
The first error baffles me. Every file is in mp3 format and plays fine on my computer. I have no explanation as to why I am getting this error except that my Zen Touch is dieing. :-(
I have figured out the reason for the second error but I have absolutely no clue why it happens. When transferring the mp3s, the album folder grows to a ridiculous size. A 90 MB folder got changed to 9.23 GB!!!! Half of the songs on the album became -2 GBs each while the other half remained normal and completely unchanged. The songs that were greatly increased in file size still played fine on my PC however there would be 000s of minutes of static following the song.
The music already on my mp3 player still plays fine. The only problems I have been having is with the transferring of new music to the player.
So, I'm hoping someone has experienced this issue and has been able to fix it.
Thanks.

Can anyone help me with this or should I just give up on my Zen Touch?

Dead MP3 pla

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