Opinion of ur zen micro experience........

i havent even recieved my micro and i've been havin second thoughts on my buy......im not sure if i wanna even try it in hopes of reselling it and just gettin a ipod mini.......i dont want to have to troubleshoot a brand new mp3 player just to get it to work right and deal with the hassle of customer service and possible exchange (deli'vers, etc) .......can i get some opinions on how u like ur micro......i should get in within a day or too and ill decide then.......

I've owned both and I can honestly say the Micro is far superior in every way. Don't take anything you read here to heart. It's a support forum and only people with problems come here. There were millions of these things sold in the last 4 months and a few dozen posts hardly meets criteria in my mind to bail on the Micro even before you've recieved it. I will on my fourth Micro and I keep coming back. It really is the best sub 20 gig microdri've player out there. Packs a ton of features, music, sound into such a small and attracti've package. It helps that the battery is replacable so you can enjoy music for a long time to come. Apple has a very interesting product with the iPod but it's getting stale. It honestly is not up to snuff in almost every department ( Aside from style and perhaps usability)
Gi've it a chance.

Similar Messages

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.

Who does not loose battery power when zen micro is o

I bought my zen micro only 2 days ago and it looses battery power when I turned it off. I just want to know if there are people that are not experiencing this problem. The reason I want to know this is becuase if a lot of people are not experiencing this problem then I could return it and get a new one.

You can search the forum instead of posting.
Just dl the new firmware, that should fix it, also Catherina-CL posted this , which could be helpful,
Catherina-CL wrote:
Hi Everyone,
It has been reported by some of our customers that they have experienced reduced battery life after charging their Zen Micro. Our product development team has researched these reports and determined that the users may have experienced this after they plugged their Zen Micro into the AC adaptor that was already inserted into a wall socket with the AC power on. While this is not the conventional way to plug in a player for charging, we wanted to ensure our customers did not experience this problem, so we have developed a solution to address this which simply involves upgrading the Zen Micro's firmware. To update your Zen Micro just download the firmware update ( ZenMicro_PCFW_US__0_03_PDE.exe) to your computer and run it with your Zen Micro attached to your computer.....if you need assistance in doing this please contact our product support team and they will be happy to assist you. This new firmware also includes an enhancement to improve touch sensitivity, we recommend that all of our customers download this firmware update to enhance their Zen Micro experience.
You can download the file under Support > Download Drivers, then enter that filename under the Search By Filename option.
Cat
Forum Administrator
Creative Labs

Experience w/ Zen Micro 6GB MP3 Pla

The 6GB version of Zen Micro has been out... If you have purchased one, can you please provide me your experience with the new player? I am interesting on whether Creative has fixed some known issues with the 5GB player such as head phone jack.. Also, is there any difference between 6GB and 5GB?

I just received the 6 Gb Zen Micro 3 days ago from Creative. It fired up with no problems, and connected as expected with the pc running XP SP2. The Creative software for the computer looks like a mess, Windows Media player 0 is much more intuiti've and works well with the Zen. So far so good. Synching with Outlook is the next challenge.
Lack of accessories is my only sore point. No belt clip is a problem for the gym. Right now the Zen is jammed in an IPod neoprene jacket with a circular cutout that my daughter decided wasn't cool enough for her. Maybe I'll resort to making a case from an Altoids tin like I saw in another forum.
Greg.
PS: If ordering from creative, tell them to put some packing between the Zen box and the shipping box. Mine was rattlling around in a box that was about "x 4".
Message Edited by Gdoke on 04-2-2005 0:8 AM

Zen Micro Charging Opinion!

whats better for charging the zen micro: usb cord or power adapter

I have an interesting situation with my 5GB Zen Micro. If I charge it using the wall charger I get the pulsing light and it charges fine, but the backlite stays on and never turns off, even after a full charge. If I charge it via the computer I get no backlite and it charges with the pulsing light and then turns off when fully charged. I was wondering if anybody else has seen this situation. I am using the 2.20 software.
Phil

Help with my Bran-New Creative Zen Micro Photo. [Questi

If you don't want to see the backing of my whole story skip to the bold print at the bottom!I also want you to know I read the FAQs and searched through some topics like this, but haven't found any asking my question.First of all, I'm new to the forum, but I've been researching Creative's Zen for a long time now. I kept observing each one closely before I purchased a product. I then saw the Zen Micro Photo come out. This one won my attention. I loved this, I quickly searched for reviews and went for the buy for Christmas. I told my dad about it and he was "iffy" on the price, but it was better then the iPod in my opinion.Christmas day came and I opened it. Right away I checked everything out I knew a lot about the menu already and all, but not really how to control it. I checked to make sure everything worked. All systems were go. After listening to the defaults (which I loved) I went to go install the software. I already had Media Player 0 and Adobe, oh and I didn't want the freakin AOL toolbar! Lol, so I installed everything else. It took forever, but I hooked it up and I installed the drivers, but as soon as I plug in the USB connector I see: "A HIGH-SPEED USB device has been plugged into a LOW SPEED USB port.After that, I switched USB ports, btu I got same message. I hit the X and then tried to charge. I got the Lightening Bolt, but no dimming of lights. I found out that this computer is not letting me install any service packs, I'm confused about that.My question:Is there anyway I can charge this mp3 player and download music onto my Zen Micro Photo without Service Pack ? Or did I just pay $250 for a really cool glowing mp3 player to be used as a paperweight? (I love this Zen and I ran the battery dead hoping that would make the charging easier).Help?
My Specifications:
My Mp3 Player: Zen Micro Photo (Black)What I tried: Switching USB ports and re-installing Service Pack Software: Not sure how to determine firmware without installing something. I'm on a XP Professional and I'm using the Creative Media Source and Creative Media Toolbox

Thank you DM for responding. I am expecting problems, but it still won't allow me to charge the Zen Micro Photo or even use the Creative Media Source. I can't upload any songs or any contacts on it. I haven't uploaded anything yet, but it's not reading the USB device. When I run Creative Zen Micro Photo Media Explorer I get this message at the top of the screen: "The device is not connected. Please connect your Zen MicroPhoto to the computer. I can't organize anything or add songs... so it just makes all the programs I downloaded useless and my Creative product unusuable.ONe thing it does do though... whenever I plug in my Zen MIcroPhoto to the USB it turns it on and glows, but only shows my battery at the top with one red line and the green lightening bolt filling the battery up.After leaving it like this for two hours the green moves, but the red bar stays the same size.

Zen Micro:The Full Story - Working ? Broken ? Happy or Sa

Ok i realise that there are a lot of people having problems with their Micro's so lets see how this all equates shall we ? I suggest we :
. How many Micros have you had so far?
2. Are you happy with your current Zen Micro?
3. Please list all problems you have had (either hardware/software) with any of your Micros.
4. If your Micro needed returning, what did you do?
5. If you have had a problem tell us the experience you have had from Creative Support (good or bad)
I will try to keep a tally of the amounts (i know this wont be a true figure .. but it might give us all an idea of the scale of the problems)
 I'll start .....
. 2
2. Yes ....very happy with my current Micro no probs as yet .
3. Problems with back button and sensitivity on my first Micro
4. Sent back to Amazon within the 30 days period... they sent me a new one so i wasn?t without my micro at all.
5. Not used creative support as yet so can't comment.
Ok best of luck for those with problems.


. How many Micros have you had so far? One, six weeks so far
2. Are you happy with your current Zen Micro? yes very
3. Please list all problems you have had (either hardware/software) with any of your Micros. Some lockups due to DRM issues with specific songs. easily fixed. Windows wouldn't recognise it one day after an XP update, but fiddling with the system fixed this too.
4. If your Micro needed returning, what did you do?
5. If you have had a problem tell us the experience you have had from Creative Support (good or bad)
Message Edited by mlo on 03-5-2005 07:47 PM

My Zen Micro is a dead BR

My zen micro is about 4 months old and has developed the common headphone jack problem experience by every zen micro owner..well..eventually. That was one problem I could handle by just turning the headphone jack a certain way. Now, however, my micro is dead. It had frozen while it was connected to my computer. I disconnected it and tried to restart it and it went as far as the Creative logo. I proceded to going into recovery mode and attempted to format the hard dri've, which decided to freeze on me also while it was formating. I then restarted it again in recovery mode and tried to reset the firmware, which worked fine, however, when i tried to put the new firmware onto the micro the computer said it had failed. I disconnected the micro and turned it off intending to do a simple restart, however, it has not turned back on since. My zen doesn't light up or turn on when i plug it in to the computer or the wall charger, i've tried several times to go into recovery mode again but it does not turn on. I have tried every possible way to turn it back on but it just sits there..useless..like a brick..
I've read countless other posts about people having the same problem but I haven't found a fix yet. Has anyone found out exactly what is happening? What can I do to fix it's
ANY feedback would be incredible help
Thanks

ok this has happened to me a couple of times. the only thing i've noticed that is consistent is it happens when the battery gets very low...say after 2 hours of running time (ha! when I think back to the 9- hours running time they told it would have when they sold me on this over the ipod)
anyway...when it happened before i have had some luck by taking the battery out holding the power button to the on position and reinserting the battery. it's very important to get the charge strong on the battery..
we'll see if it works this time. i'm here today for the same reason as everyone else... I think I'm at 4 months..

My computer is unable to recognise Zen Micro as a dev

My PC adruptly fail to recognise my Zen Micro whenever I tried plugging into the USB port, I tried changing to other USB ports on my PC but still the problem persist. Tried restarting the PC and stuff... doesn't help.
I can't even upgrade to a newer firmware as the PC can't even recognise my device. Also tried reinstalling the driver, however it doesn't seems to help.
I believe the problem crop up after my sister tried downloading her zen micro with a new firmware, however this doesn't make sense as the program only update the firmware on her zen micro and should not change the PC configuration, my drivers or other stuff...
This is killing me as I cannot upload new songs to my player, anyone that know how to resolve the problem, please advise...
Thank you for your time and effort.
Regards
Ivan

It could be any number of things... There was a post earlier that mentioned "hanging" when connected to the pc... the resolution was to change the USB card... there are some USB connectivity issues... but you said that the problem stemmed from when you changed the firmware, or rather from when your sister changed the firmware for her zen micro to playforsure which usually requires you to change the creative media explorer for the micro to be recognized by the new software... The easiest way to try and resolve this, if your player was connecting fine before, is to do a system restore... that way in theory, all the programs that you have installed that could cause compatibility problems will be rolled back, at least that's what they say it does, but in my experience it's a hit and miss thing. So the thing that you should try is a system restore. Your computer should have set a restore point from when you installed the creative media explorer software, as it usually sets a restore point every time that you install a new program. So, I guess I would recommend that you go into system restore, which I believe is in the programs/accessories/system menu... and then restore your system to a point earlier than when you installed the creative media explorer software... If your player worked before, then in theory, it should work again once you make that change. Then your sister can try and reinstall the new firmware, and hopefully you can find a method by which you can both install it at the same time... I don't know how you would do this... but it's just my best guess at an informed response... better ideas will probably follow.

How do I update my Zen Micro's firmwa

I just get my micro today and I want to know how do I update his firmware. Can anyone help me?

Gop to the Creative download page and follow teh instructions.
http://www.creative.com/support/
Firmware
Title Date
. Creative Zen Micro Firmware .02.05 (2.0 MB) Mar 05 Download Now
This web release enables you to upgrade the firmware for your , 4, 5 or 6GB Creative Zen Micro player. You can upgrade from Creative Zen Micro firmware .0.03 or earlier, or Zen Micro PlaysForSure? firmware 2.00.2 or later. After upgrading, you cannot go back to a pre..... Hide Details
Filename: ZenMicro_PCFW_LB__02_05_PDE.exe
Creative Zen Micro Firmware .02.05
ZENM-FWPDE-2-LB
This web release enables you to upgrade the firmware for your , 4, 5 or 6GB Creative Zen Micro player.
You can upgrade from Creative Zen Micro firmware .0.03 or earlier, or Zen Micro PlaysForSure? firmware 2.00.2 or later. After upgrading, you cannot go back to a previous Creative Zen Micro firmware version.
It has been reported by some of our customers that they have experienced reduced battery life after charging their Zen Micro. Our product development team has researched these reports and determined that the users may have experienced this after they plugged their Zen Micro into the AC adapter that was already inserted into a wall socket with the AC power on.
While this is not the conventional way to plug in a player for charging, we wanted to ensure that our customers did not experience this problem, so we have developed a solution to address this, which simply involves upgrading the Zen Micro's firmware.
If you need assistance in doing this, please contact our customer support team and they will be happy to assist you.
Important: If you are upgrading from PlaysForSure firmware, be sure to back up all the audio and data files on your Zen Micro before installing this firmware update as all content will be lost when you install the new firmware. After installing the new firmware, use Creative MediaSource? to restore audio and/or data files to your player.
Enhancements
Improves the look of the volume control bar
Improves the appearance of the Lock icon
Adds a 4GB option in Removable Disk Mode (for 5 or 6GB players only)
Fixes
Prevents battery drain when the player is charged with an AC adapter already plugged into a li've power outlet
Restores proper functionality after disconnecting the power adaptor or transferring content using Zen Media Explorer
Redirects playback properly when skipping to the beginning of a WMA track
Requirements
Microsoft? Windows? XP, Windows 2000, Windows Millennium Edition or Windows 98 Second Edition
USB port (2.0 or .)
Creative Zen Micro
Note
To install the new firmware in your Zen Micro
Download ZenMicro_PCFW_LB__02_05_PDE.exe.
Connect your player to your computer.
Double-click (filename).
Choose your language.
Click the Upgrade button and follow the instructions that appear.
To check your player's firmware version, see your Zen Micro User's Guide.

Official Zen Micro Case. Any Go

Hi, I have just received zen micro number 4 from the Creative RMA department after a string of problems?with dead players and headphone jack?issues.
?I wondered whether I should get the official zen micro case. Has anyone got good experience with this case? I want to keep my headphones plugged in but store it in the case at the same time. Will this be possible? I have a cheap silcone skin case at the moment but maybe wanted something a little more sturdy for my rucksack.
thanks

Thank you Alicia. Geez, I can't really understand why people are making protecti've cases that don't protect the most scratch prone surface of the Micro....
I think I'll end up buying a silicone case and one of those screen protecti've films designed for PDAs and cell phones. Too bad there's nothing better around.

Zen Micro Charg

I just read the following article in the knowledge base:
"It has been reported by some of our customers that they have experienced reduced battery life after charging their Zen Micro. Our product development team has researched these reports and determined that the users may have experienced this after they plugged their Zen Micro into the AC adapter that was already inserted into a wall socket with the AC power on."
This is what has happened to me. What you experience if you use this method is the player never gives you an indication that it's fully charged (no A/C plug symbol ever appears). Eventually you get fed up after leaving the player on charge for well in excess of 4 hours and unplug the thing.
So a firmware upgrade has been released to correct this, which I will duly install. The question is: has the battery been damaged by charging via this incorrect method i.e. will the battery now "remember" the incomplete charge and fail to charge beyond this point?
Cheers

Lithium Ion has no memory effect and is very resilient to these things, so I doubt you've caused any major problem (or even a minor one).

Zen Micro: Bricked or just lame, you dec

Hi all,
I have a zen micro which i flashed to the old .0 non MTP firmware to have support with winamp. Anyway i decided i wanted MTP support so i tried to flash it and it got stuck on a stage "Please reboot device". I decided to switch it off myself by removing battery and it went on but i felt like it wasnt set up properly.
Anyway i went on to boot into the bootloader and select reload firmware however it went for like second then stopped and said load new firmware.
I plugged it into my PC and both of the creative apps say :Your Player is not connected, please connect ur player.
So i rolled back to wmp0 and no result, it stilll comes up as a MTP device. I think im boned.
Suggestions?
Thanks
Julius

Can you mention if you're charging through the AC adaptor (on a wall plug) or through USB from a computer? AC adaptor is better (faster).
What you're describing (totally drained in one night, after switching off with or 2 bars on battery indicator) is at the least unusual, and may indicate malfunction.
Now, if you have some time left before the deadline until which you can exchange in the store, then I suggest you just test this some more. Then you can make an informed decision.
Charge the battery fully (at least 4 hours on AC adaptor). Afterwards, start playing random songs (preferably MP3 constant bitrate 28 kbps) continuously. See if you get ? 2 hours playing time. (without EX, without Smart Volume, without fast forward, ... ). That'll tell you how the battery performs on playing.
Then for the apparent draining, you'll have to just collect some more experience.
It may be that the battery indicator is just not calibrated correctly yet, because it's the first days of use. For calibrating, it's good to FULLY discharge and recharge the battery. On normal use, a Lithium-Ion battery will li've longer when recharged often (so not fully discharged at every use). But for battery indicator calibration, you want to discharge the battery fully let's say once per month or so. (see www.batteryuni'versity.com)
good luck.

Zen micro - takes so long to play the next s

Hello,
I just got a Zen Micro and I am thinking of returning it tomorrow because it takes so long to play one song, then skip to another. I press forward song or backward, or I jump to another album and press to play another song and sometimes I have to wait up to 0 seconds until the next songs starts to play - very annoying. Often I wait at last 5 seconds. Do you experience this? Can anything be done? This is not acceptable.
Thanks, Holden

I am the one who started this thread and have some information about why I was experiencing this problem.
A friend of mine who turned me on to the Zen Micro never experienced the problem I was experiencing - waiting too long to skip from one song to another. He suggested that my Micro might be defecti've. So I returned it and got another one.
I returned it, went home and updated the firmware and again loaded it with tons of songs using Napster-to-go. Nothing changed - it still would sometimes take several seconds to jump from one song to another (****it would play straight through play lists and albums without a hitch though).
I decided to keep the Micro because it is such a cool device and appeals to me much more than the iPod.
Glad I did. Last night I started ripping my CD collection and put it on to the Micro. I listened to some of the songs and noticed I could jump around from track to track without any delay.
I only experience the delay using the Napster-to-go service. I guess there's some small piece of code in the PlaysForSure update that checks to see if the tracks are legal or not. That's my guess.
The Micro is amazing - sounds amazing, looks amazing, the navigation is amazing. And it works with Napster-to-go perfectly (well except for the short delay that I've described).
Thanks to everyone for your comments.
Holden, NYC

[Zen Micro] [Firmware] Wish to improve the ergonom

Hi.
I bought a Zen Micro, and in my opinion it sounds great...except its ergonomics, which could be easily improved.
Touchpad is pleasant to browse in the menus fastly, but it's often hard to select just the next or previous item : why couldn't we use the ">>|" and "|<<" buttons in addition of the touchpad ?</LI>
The fact that "OK" button and scrolling use the same area may produce frequent error during browsing : why couldn't we disable this "OK" button, and use in replacement an other button (for example ">/||") ?</LI>
Obviously it implies that these buttons couldn't be used for playing commands in the menus - except playing menu obviously -, but I would prefer a precis and pleasant browsing...
Best Regards.

i tried on different usb ports, but im gonna see if i can get some other similar usb cables and try those. i really hope it's the usb cable, i dont want to return this and get another one...

Opinion of ur zen micro experience........

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