My Zen Micro story: Busted Headphone Jack, Need Adv

First of all, I'd like to apologize beforehand for posting a topic on the headphone jack problem. I've been visiting these forums for almost two months and by now you're all probably tired of hearing about the Zen Micro's headphone jack, yada yada yada. But with that over, here's the story of my Zen Micro experience.
I got it about two months ago from Fry's Electronics. Silver 5 GB, not bad. I was really happy using it until I stumbled upon this discussion board and realized the extent of this headphone jack problem. So being the dumb "who-needs-tech-support" kinda guy I am, I opened up my Zen on the third day of having it, breaking the warranty seal in the process (big mistake). I 'fixed' the headphone jack problem by sticking a little piece of folded up paper in the metal plate holding down the jack, hoping that by doing it early the problem would never come up.
Well, two months go by and by now I've opened it again a few times just for fun, and to 'check' on the headphone jack to see if my fix did any good. Well, three days ago, I decided to open it up again and document the steps with pictures. Everything went fine, though I lost one of the two top screws in the top that you must unscrew before opening the player. Oh well, no biggie, I thought, I could always get some more at the Home Depot or something.
So that night I plug in my headphones to listen to music, and to my utter horror, the sound only comes out of one side of the headphones. I'm not sure if this is because of ) the missing screw, 2) something I did wrong while taking it apart, or 3) just the problem finally randomly surfacing like in most cases. This is when I tell myself, "Crap, you really did it now. There goes $200." I frantically open it up again and stick another piece of paper between the plate and the jack and screw that plate in really, really, tightly. I am a little relieved to find that the sound is back in both sides, though if I push hard on the headphone connector a certain way the sound will disappear in the right side.
After thinking about it, I decided that the only way to go was to get a replacement. I had read a tutorial on how to fix the headphone jack problem using epoxy and paper, only to have the maker of that tutorial report that the headphone jack problem had happened anyway (a month later). He also mentioned that even with a busted warranty, he had managed to get a replacement Zen Micro free of charge. This gave me hope.
At any rate, I fired off an RMA request on Creative's site just to see what they would say. I admitted that the warranty seal was busted. They emailed back an obviously pre-written response that gave me vague instructions on how to ship my Zen for a replacement. My questions are the following:
) What are the implications of my broken warranty? Is there any way I can receive a replacement without buying a whole new one? I really like my Zen Micro, as I'm sure many of you do too.
2) Have any of you guys had a similar experience with RMAing? How does the whole thing work?
3) The only person I have ever heard of with a Zen Micro lasting more than 6 months without the headphone jack problem coming up is Jeremy, one of the moderators here. The jack problem IS a general design flaw, isn't it's What should I say if Creative blames the headphone jack problem on 'abuse' or something like that? Should I let them charge me for fixing it, etc.
Thank you all, so much. I know that was a lot to read, but I have been so happy with my Zen Micro up until this point that I really want this to end well. You guys have been a great help to me these last two months already. I appreciate it a lot. -Willy CMessage Edited by beefqube on 0-22-2005 08:22 AM

Did you find out how much it would cost because of the void warranty?
If you do want to lie to them, you are on your own in this issue.
You can do what one guy suggested on buying a new micro and returning your old one. Which is wrong ethically and morally.
If you have experience in soldering or know someone that can do so might be helpful. There should be some threads about soldering it back to normal.
Well if this my situations I really don't know what to do. Since if I do send it to Creative and that my warranty is still in effet, I still have to pay $25 and my own shipping/handling charges. It would only be replaced and I don't believe they actually repair it. That $25 goes to labor cost, which is something I don't understand when they give you a replacement, where is the labor in that?
But if I did lose my warranty and Creative won't take it or would charge me more than $25+. Then I would solder them myself. I just need to find out where to begin. Maybe I should find broken headphone jack Micros on ebay and see if I could fix them.

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Can any of you tell me how I could possibly fix it myself (I take full responsibility if anything breaks)?Message Edited by mark_s on -0-2005 2:05 AM

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Message Edited by kemar_frankson on <SPAN class=date_text>-04-2005 <SPAN class=time_text>04:4 AM
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CHO53N,
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My Zen Micro story: Busted Headphone Jack, Need Adv

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