Zen 8GB seems d

I can't turn on my ZEN, it'sdoesn't react anymore. Reset, hard reset also doesn't work. But it's not dead completely, as lcd screen blinks when plugged to a pc. However, the blue light under the switch doesn't work, and lcd keeps blinking for hours when connected. Is there a solution I feel hopeless :/
Sorry for my bad english, i'm not a nati've speaker.
Regards.

How can you tell if your Zen is defecti've/faulty?
. A "white screen" shows up on the Zen LCD.
2. You cannot force the Zen into the special "Recovery Mode" menu screen.
3. The Zen refuses to "take a charge"? (To charge up the internal Lithium-Ion Polymer battery)
4. The Zen LCD is cracked or distorted due to dropping or handling abuse.
Contact Creative if any of the above faults occur - the Zen is bad and nothing you can do will fix it!

Similar Messages

New Zen 8GB crashed during firmware update; now I can't get it to reboot or connect to a compu

I went and exchanged my "problematic white screen" ZEN 8GB for a new one this evening. When I came home, I attached the new unit to my computer and started to perform the required firmware upgrades. The upgrades downloaded fine, but after the installation started, they seemed to freeze. I waited for an hour before I did anything, but finally had to assume that the update had malfunctioned and would never finish on its own. At that point I clicked "cancel" in the window monitoring the upgrade installation, and thought I could just start the process anew. Unfortunately, my computer no longer recognizes the ZEN when it's plugged into a USB port.
I rebooted my computer, just in case that was the problem, but it still can't find the ZEN when searching for devices to AutoUpdate. As for the Zen itself, I can turn it on and off, but the screen remains black (i.e., no info on screen). If I reset it, the screen flashes the word "Creative" only. If I try to do a Recovery, I can't get any text to appear on the screen. I can't even reformat the ZEN via my computer because they're no longer speaking. I assume that the interrupted firmware installation caused this problem, and that the ZEN just doesn't have enough of an operating system installed to work properly. Is there any fix for this that I can tackle myself Or, is it back to the store to return this one, too I have noticed a lot of white screen flashings as I've been working with the new ZEN, so perhaps this just wasn't meant to be. Any words of advice are certainly appreciated, however.

Same happened to me and I only had the thing a few hours. I may leave it connected overnight to see if the battery needs charging but if nothing happens it's going back. I've tried plenty of suggestions. The Creative screen flashes on when I plug it in but then just sits there. Reseting does nothing and how can you do anything to it if it's not recognised by the PC. Vista did see it before the update attempt. Wondered whether to throw XP back on.
Do I have to resort to the new ipod Nano
OK I've done it. Somewhere on this forum it said to disconnect the Zen from the PC.
Now at the same time, press and hold the play/pause button, put a pin into the reset button and hold down the on/off switch (yes all 3 in that order at the same time). Recovery mode came on and I tried to uninstall the firmware update from previously - it didn't do it but I updated the latest firmware again anyway and this time it worked. I guess the last attempt didn't take.
Message Edited by nimble on 2-06-200709:34 PM

Creative Zen 8GB Random Shuffle

Creative Zen 8GB Random Shufflej I have owned a Creative Zen V Plus 4GB for two years and have really enjoyed it. About a month ago, the screen started to fade out and is now totally black. I have researched this problem and have come to the realization that there is no way to fix the issue short of either shipping my player in for repairs or buying a new Zen V Plus. I have tried all the "fixes" I could find on here and other places. Nothing works and a lot of others seem to have the same issues with their players. The player still plays fine, but with no screen, it is very?tough to use correctly. I am willing to "start over" with a new player and am interested in the Creative Zen 8GB. The player looks real nice and has all the features I need. I read online that the Creative Zen 8GB DOES NOT have a random shuffle feature. I was just wondering if this is true? I love setting my player on random shuffle and letting it randomly choose the songs. If this is not a feature on the Zen, I guess I wouldn't be interested in buying one. Does anyone know if the Creative Zen 8GB has the random shuffle feature?

Yes it does. You would from the music menu scroll to DJ & choose random play all

Zen 8Gb freezing on res

I used ZenCast to get a bunch of podcasts from NPR and transferred them to my Zen 8Gb. These files when transferred show up under the Video menu after transfer. Whenever the unit shuts down after I've paused it (either idle timeout or deliberate shutdown), when I try to resume that file the unit freezes. This happens every time without fail.
Has anyone else been experiencing this? Or have I just been stuck with a defecti've unit's It was upgraded to the latest firmware (.03.04 or whatever it was). I'm expecting it's a software issue, personally, but if so someone else will have run into the same problem.

Well, after some fiddling with different setups I found a solution to the podcast freezing problem on my Zen. Just for the record I'm using the latest version of ZenCast organizer Suite ( v2.00.4). I noticed that if I manually dragged and dropped the?podcast .mp3 file into the music directory on the?Zen it worked fine. Shut down the unit, fire it up again and it worked without a hitch. if the same file is dragged to the Zencast directory it can't be seen by the Zen at all. It seems only files that have a .avi or .wmv extension appear in that display. My?mp3 podcasts were all being given a .avi extension. To fix the problem, I connected?the Zen to the PC and started up?the ZenCast Organizer software. Select Transfer and a pop-up menu of all?the podcasts transfer options appear. Deselect the Audio Conversion option towards the bottom of pop-up. As per the comments this will then place the podcasts in the music menu item on your Zen. I've tried a dozen different podcasts and they work fine. This solves the freezing problem,?but then?leaves the podcasts stuck amongst all the music. I'd rather have them separate in the Zencasts directory, or (even better) a dedicated podcasts directory. Did Creative intend podcasts to be stored in the Music menu?To me it still looks like an issue/fault if you can't resume playing your .mp3 podcasts in the Zencast directory that the creative ZenCast software transferred them to. Anyone else had any luck?

ZEN 8GB - Not recognized in Windows Vista 32 Home Prem

My ZEN 8GB but it doesn't seem to work with Windows Vista 32 Home Premium.When I?connect it'sto?USB Vista says: "New hardware detected, installing?device driver".When looking at the status?(after a while) I get the message:?"Installing MTP-device failed".Finished!I installed the latest soft- and firmware but nothing.Are there more people with the same problem?Or anybody with a sollution?

I found a kind of solution.On the Creative website (> downloads > left side) you can find the MP3 Recovery tool.After running this tool (and a second firmware update) my?ZEN was recognized by Vista.Problem solved!?

ZEN 8GB connects to PC, but browsing it and transferring music doesn't w

I have a weird problem that started when my laptop began messing up some time ago. When I connect my ZEN 8GB, everything seems normal; computer recognises it and the "AutoPlay" box appears. However, when I press "Organize media files in this device", the ZEN media explorer turn up but the "Convert videos" is greyed out and when pressing "Browse media", the window where contents are supposed to be, is empty. And yes, there is lots of (working) stuff on my ZEN. It doesn't even work syncing with WMP or Winamp. I have tried to uninstall drivers, Creative software and reinstalling everything, but nothing changes. I even formatted my PC and reinstalled Windows Vista, re-installing Creatives software before anything else, and still nothing works. The only thing that works is connecting to the PC using "Removable Disk"-mode in the Memory Card menu and adding files to the memory card. Anyone know what's up with this?

Nevermind, problem resolved by running Clean Up during Recovery Mode. Apparently some files were conflicting with the usability.

New Zen 8gb - best case/sk

Just wondered what everyone has to protect the new Zen 8gb? Is the leather case rather bulky and cumbersome or is it okay? Would a screen protector and the silicone skin with wire management be better (and how does the wire management thing work anyway - is the case in 2 parts and if so how do they both stay on?).
Lastly, where is the cheapest place to buy the perfect case/skin?Thanks in advance for any advice.

I have the silicone (rubber) case with screen protectors. The cace seems to offer a good level of protection. Hopefully will help it bounce if/when I drop it. The case is made of 2 pieces of rubber. is a case for the player and the second (for wire management)part is connected to the back of the case by a plastic disc with two plastic pins coneecting them together. The headphones wrap around thes pins between the 2 pieces of case. I'm very pleased with the case although it does add considerable size to the player but is very useful. I'm also from the UK and paid ?6.95 for it and ?4 for a pack of 3 screen protectors. All in all a bargain I think.
Hope this helps

New ZEN(8GB) showing FIRMWARE PROBLEM after first connection to

New ZEN(8GB) showing FIRMWARE PROBLEM after first connection to PC?I havn't even use it?Can someone help me ?Message Edited by chrisstrong on 0-07-200707:50 AM

tell me about it. I've rebooted it then left it for a few minutes. after that it seems to start. I also used another usb cable which seems to have helped (weird i know!)

Connecting Zen 8GB for the first t

Hello All,
I've just gotten my brand new Zen 8GB. However, it doesn't seem to want to connect to the computer! I've installed the software just like in the Quick Start manual, then connected the player, but nothing happens. I suspect there are 2 causes for this:
1) The player isn't charged, and the computer won't read it. However, the player won't charge if I plug it into a wall outlet, and the computer recognizes that something is installed because....
2) The computer adds the Zen as a Human Interface Device, not an External Storage or Media Device or even Other. This has happened on 2 different computers, both with and without the software installed. Both computers are running WinXP SP2.
I've emailed back and forth with support, and they suggested I get a replacement from Amazon. However, I want this thing working now! :-P
Any help will be greatly appreciated!
Thanks!
darthbith

If you cannot turn on the Zen without any connection to the PC then most likely the battery is flat. For the computer to recognize the Zen, it needs to have some charge. So what you can do is to plug the Zen to the PC and let it charge for at least 4 hours. Ensure that the PC does not have any energy saving features turned on during that time. Alternati'vely, if you have an external charger, you can do likewise.
With the older firmware, I find that the Zen do hang after being charged externally and the unit does not respond. If that is the case, use a safety pin and poke that little hold at the (narrow) base of the player until you hear a click. Do not poke the Mic. Then try turning on the unit again.

Zen 8GB - Videos Free

Hi everyone ,
Well, I've just got my Creative Zen 8GB player. It seems everything is running great, but, with videos. I convert my videos with Creative's Video Converter that came with the player. It seems that somehow the videos play fine. But throughout watching the videos, they will freeze. It seems they'll freeze at the same spot of them. I have to press the "Back" button then click to watch the video again. My player will go back a few seconds before the freeze. Then, it's all hope that it plays the freezing part and continues on with the video. I sure hope it's a converting problem. If so, could someone please tell me the best converter to use for the Zen? Mostly one that'll let me convert music and video. ? Thanks in advance!

Hi,
Why don't you give the free program BADAK a try for converting your videos? It has a preset for the ZEN that works really well and converts videos very fast. You can find details on my earlier posts in this forum. Be sure you download also the codecs. I use my ZENs mainly for videos and have never had any problem with freezing. I gave up using the Creative program for converting as it is very slow.

Creative Zen 8gb Blacko

My creative?zen 8Gb mp3 player abruptly shut down leaving a black screen but the power on, and has continued to do so for nearly a month now, I have Formated my player with no results, it would appear the machine has powered down but the battery light is still on, how can I stop this spiratic "blackout" behaviour, when trying to email for warranty service i was lead into a loop on numerous occasions and am unable to email customer support, any help would be greatly appreciated, I would rather not be forced to buy a new Mp3 player when mine is supposed to be under warrenty, but rest assured if I have to resort to paying for a new one, it will not be a creative product should this complete lack of respect for customer satisfaction continue.

Hi,
I've had my Zen 8GB for just one week and the blackout problem is rampant! I had a GB Zen Nano that I LOVED but wanted larger amount for more songs.
I paperclip reset this thing almost 4 or 5 times a day. I've run the Recovery tool, got no error messages, reloaded most of my songs and rebuilt my Playlists...and again, I'm needing the paperclip. This is getting frustrating and as others have posted, trying the "Contact Support" puts you thru an endless loop back to the "We may already have a solution to your problem"
I don't know what else to do and I'm getting really frustrated by this thing and having to go thru all of these resets, recoveries and reloads -- after only owning the thing ONE WEEK!
Please help me!
Thanks

Creative Zen 8Gb-Unknown Device!

Creative Zen 8Gb-Unknown Device!? Player: Creative Zen 8gb
Firmware Version: .20.02e
OS: Win XP with Service Pack 3 (Unknown Origin)
Windows Media Player: Version .0.572.545
Motherboard: ASUS P5Q PRO
My problem is that when I connect the player to my computer it is recognized as a Unknown Device and listed as Unknown Device in the Uni'versal Serial Bus Controller of Device Manager.
There is no yellow triangle, there is no section for Portable Devices. It simply registers as Unknown Device.
There is no apparent way to synch with the device. It does not show up in Creative Media Explorer, Windows Explorer or Windows Media Player.
The Original Creative CD installation package does not detect it.
The newest Creative XP installation package from official website does not detect it.
The newest Creative firmware installation package from official website does not detect it.
I have tried several USB slots from front and back (am using back mostly) and short black USB cable (0s long) as well as another USB cable. All USB ports are 2.0.
The player charges normally when connected to the computer and works perfectly for listening to music etc.
Help please! Im poor as hell and will go insane without this player :/

When I connect the Zen, that is where the change happens in the Device Manager trees. It is not recognised as Creative Zen, Portable Device or even a device with a yellow exclamation triangle.
In other words, when I plug in the player, that is how it is represented in the Device Manager trees. As an Unknown Device in the USB controller section.
For your information I have tried this player on 3 other systems.
Laptop A with Win XP/Service Pack 3/WMP
Laptop B with Win XP/Service Pack 3/WMP 0
Laptop C with Windows 7
RESULT IS ALWAYS SAME.
UNKNOWN DEVICE!
The player works fine in and of itself and charges normally when plugged.
Please confirm what are the system requirements for Firmware Version: .20.02e which is the currently installed version on my Creative Zen 8GB

Zen 8GB No Album Art Being Displayed. Please He

I ahve a Zen 8GB player and for some reaosn after I did a system restore on my PC it won't synce up album art with my player. It is really annoying. I use WMP (latest update) (Zen is updated too). Please help me figure out what I can do to fix this. My msuic library si super neat anmd eveyrhitng has the proper album art and I want to see it on my Zen that I spent all my money on. I'm pretty good with a PC so don't be afraid to give me complicated addvice to fix this. Also, I am sorry but I refuse to use Media Monkey or Zen Organizer nothing is right in it for some reason, all my art is messed and it is just really complicated and I enjoy WMP. I didn notice that with MM and Zen Organzier it will display album art (half the time it is wrong or not there though...). Any hel[p is greatly appriciarted, thank you.
why doesnt this board have spell check?

Hi BrianHyde,
You might want to check this article from our knowledge base. It contains instructions on how to transfer album art with Windows Media Player.
Hope this hel
ps.

I've got a Zen 8gb, but probably going for an iPod because.

My Zen 8GB is my first mp3 player. This player is really something when it comes to watching videos and movies. I have no major complaints.... But searching the net and discovering more about ipod i finally quit the idea of buying the new Zen 32GB and going for an ipod classic 80GB. Probalby i'll give the Zen to my wife. The reasons that push me to that are: . In my opinion an ipod is more stylish than Zen. Zen is plastic while an ipod (6th generation) is metallic. 2. No card integration to the players library so far (and i don't know if it ever that happens). At least the moderators here in this forum should post something like "ok boys and girls, we are working on this, stay cool". No news about that. 3. When it comes to fast forwarding in a movie you can not see at wich point is the movie. No preview while fast forwarding while an ipod can do that. 4. The wheel button on the ipod is really something and much more handy than the cross-square button on Zen. 5. 80GB versus 32GB...big difference. I need more space...! 6. The price of an ipod classic 80GB is much lower than the 32GB Zen. I know (as a friend in here replied to me) that the flash memory Zen uses is of a better quality than the hard dri've of the ipod and i respect that...i really do...but i think i am sticking at the older technology. The only thing that for the moment i see as a minor concerning the ipod, is that you have to use itunes to do everything. For the moment, and not seeing that in act, that worries me a bit. Zen is purely drag and drop into the player...no worries! But i think i can manage that when i get the hung of it. I don't know if my thoughts are right or i've been brain washed by all that apple-propaganda. The thing is that apple's products are everywhere. Here in Greece you can find anything on apple's product but concerning Zen...we stuck on the 8GB version. No 6 or 32GB versions yet...! Why I think that this shows people's petition here in Greece and it's not satisfying. I heard that especially when it comes to player like Zen V Plus and Zen V (and that comes from a people that works in a store selling electronics and computers)... "people are bringing them like crazies back to as for refund or to give them a new one cause 50% of those players are faulty" Anyway...if someone has a different view on that matter i would be glad to hear it. I am not against Creative, i really do like the product but i just don't think it can reach the ipod classic.
Message Edited by sambora on 0-28-200803:59 PM
Message Edited by sambora on 0-28-200804:03 PM

---------------------------------------[color="#000099">6. The price of an ipod classic 80GB is much lower than the 32GB Zen. I know (as a friend in here replied to me) that the flash memory Zen uses is of a better quality than the hard dri've of the ipod and i respect that...i really do...but i think i am sticking at the older technology.[color="#000099">---------------------------------------[color="#000099">?[color="#000099">I would not dispute the fact that harddisk based players are cheaper than flash memory and it has nothing to do with flash memory being of better quality, it is just a different technology.
When Creative had their harddisk players they are cheaper than the flash memory versions but there are several limitations to harddisk based players.
Firstly, a harddisk has moving parts and a small size harddisk used by the MP3 players would inevitably be more sensiti've and face a higher probably of damage. It all depends on how you plan to use the player. If you are going to place the player on a table while you listen to it then the harddisk based players would work fine. However, if you plan to be on the move while listening to your music then this type of activity would increase the possibly of harddisk damage. Just jogging or cycling with your harddisk based MP3 players may be enough to damage the harddisk and render the player unusable. Dropping it would indeed be a big no-no. However if the player is flash memory based, you can shake it, drop it (within a reasonable distance) and so on would not damage the player. You may scratch the exterior but that pretty much all the damage you would cause.
Secondly, because a harddisk player has moving parts, it would inevitable draw more power and thus you will need a huge and powerful battery in order to provide sufficient power and thus the harddisk based players are bigger and bulkier. The flash memory does not use as much power and thus the battery used can be smaller. Besides flash memory are thin and thus you can get smaller and lighter players which can fit nicely in the pocket.
Thirdly, the harddisk typically would have a lower Meantime Before Failure compared to Flash memory and thus it would mean the flash memory based players would typically last a lot longer.
The harddisk manufacturers from what I read are scaling down on harddisk for mp3 players as the prices of flash memory comes down and rendering the cost benefits of the harddisk redundant.
?However, in the end, the choice is pretty much yours.
Message Edited by eddy2099 on 0-29-200807:50 PM

Creative Zen 8GB and Naps

My new Creative Zen 8GB isn't working with Napster - Napster is complaining about the firmware version. It came with .03, and I've updated it to the ..04 available on this site - no luck with either version. Is anyone using the new Zens with Napster, and if so what version firmware are you using? Also, is there any way to get older versions of the firmware?Thanks

I have begun to have a problem since going to firmware version 2. I have the 6 GB ZEN and it came with version 0. I should have just left well enough alone (you know, if it ain't broke, don't fix it!) since I wasn't having any problems that I was aware of. But since 'upgrading' to 2 I have noticed an issue where about once a week when I go to play my Napster-to-go songs it displays the message that there is no license to play the songs and that I need to sync my player with Napster, even though I'm nowhere near my monthly license renewal date. I connect the player to the PC with Napster running and Napster 'Checks' the status of the player but that alone does not renew the license and allow me to play my Napster-to-go songs on the ZEN. However, if I download even one new song to the player, then all is fine and I can play everything again. So it's not as bad as the problems above but still at least a little bit annoying. I'm placing the blame on Creative's firmware since I didn't have the problem before. If could roll back to version 0 I would. I'm not going to version 3 since there are a bunch of reported bugs. I'm assuming that Creative will eventually release a firmware that fixes this. I'm also assuming that is part of the reason that Creative pulled version 2 almost as soon as they rolled it out. I appreciate Creatives constant upgrading of the firmware to 'fix' issues but I wish they would give a little more detail as to what the newer versions do as well as to offer the older versions so we can roll back. Also, I think it would show great faith if Creative would post their findings of bugs in new firmware so we can know what to look for. I don't mind being a beta-tester for them but at least keep us in the loop! M.
Message Edited by methos979 on 2-07-20070:53 AM

Zen 8GB seems d

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