Zen Micro audio jack prob

Hello everyone, I brought my ZEN Micro early this year. Starting this couple weeks, the audio jack on the player is not connecting well. The music/sound won't play correctly unless keep moving around the audio plug. I did connect with different "working" headphones but still having the same problem. I assumed that the metal connectors inside the jack is loosed. Does anyone here has this issue before? and how did you get it fix? How much it is going to cost for getting it fix via Creative? Thanks!!

Very common problem, look around at the other postings, this has been dicussed. No worries though! Since you're 90 day parts and labor warantee is up you will need to pay for Creative to "fix" it. Actually they don't fix it, but they send you a new one with a re-inforced headphone jack. This happened to me and after I got my new one I haven't had any problems. Just send an e-mail to Creative explaining what happened and they will issue you an RMA # and how much it costs (that price is floating around this forum, you'll be able to find it if you look hard enough). Well, hope this helps!

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Zen Micro Audio Jack Probl

Second time it happens to me, the audio jack loosens itself and audio quality goes down the toilet and the sound starts to distort and stuff. on top of that the alarm function is screwed up. I have it set to off during the weekdna nd suddenly it turns on and blasts music from my speakers I always leave it connected it to at 6am in the morning, so I turn it ON and it doesn't ring the next day. I tried reloading the firmware, now it doesn't work at all. I treat my Zen real gently too, always make sure it's in it's hard cover case and that the earbuds are properly stored (for some reason the earbuds blew also although I never put it higher then vol. level 6) and I always update it. So now I'm thinking of trading it in for the Zen MicroPhoto since they're the same price (Pre-Ordered my Zen for Christmas last year and got it for 250$ with all the accessories and Xtra battery and all).
Suggestions? Comments?
BTW... What's the URL tags?
is it Bat ModMessage Edited by DarkLord7854 on 09-24-2005 07:03 AM

I have seen the audio jack on my Zen Xtra (took it all apart), and it's a real mess engineering-wise. The contacts are tiny, minimize contact with the plug, and are too easily warped or bent out of proper alignment. I doubt I could wire in a better unit owing to the extreme small space. The one good thing I can say is that the leads are gold-plated, and the unit is fairly robustly attached to the circuitboard.
Cleaning your plug carefully with an industry-recommended cleaning solution (like spraywash or super-wash) will improve your plug's connectivity. Wiping the plug with WD-40 or a similar chemical lubricant will improve connectivity (use sparingly... the creosote base hardens and turns to wax). A modified Q-tip can be used to remove residue from the inside of the jack, but BE CAREFUL! If you bend the leads you are SOL. Using earphones with a gold-plated plug will also improve the connection.
Many users regard the bent-style earphone plug to be the best design, but my own experience suggests this is different for each user. Try a straight and a bent-style plug and see which you prefer. Above all avoid putting unreasonable stress on the plug and jack.

Weird Zen Micro Heaphone Jack Prob

Hi,
I have owned my zen micro for over a year, and love it! Recently, the sound started spitting in and out, so i replaced my headphones. Unfortunately, that didn't work, but I realized that if I press firmly on the heaphone's wire, and wrap it around the corner right next to the headphone jack, the sound works ok, as long as i dont move the wire... I have had to get the headphone wire "into position" and then wrap the wire tightly around the micro, or just hold it awkwardly, to get decent sound.
The headphone jack itself seems to be loose. By holding the wire tightly and pulling towards the corner, I seem to be getting the jack back into position. My question is: How do I tighten the jack? I am not an internal tinkerer (i just wrap my headphone wires around it as a solution!), and I dont feel comfortable opening the micro up and trying to tighten it myself. Does anyone know of a way to get this problem fixed?
Thanks!
Mike

The infamous headphone jack problem is quite common with micros. Since creative is aware of this problem they might fix it for you even though you're probably past warranty. get in touch with customer support and see what they can do (mention that it is a common problem!).
If they're not willing to cooperate use the search function in this forum. I remember a guide to soldering the jack in place and one or two other methods.

Zen Micro Headphone jack prob

I would like creative to recognize the problem with the headphone jack, so any one with the faulty jack post here along with any other information you might have.

There have been mulitple threads discribing this problem. Do a search for "Micro Headphone Jack" to see what im talking about. I think they have acknowledged the problem, but im not sure. I do know that the mods are aware of the problem, and no doubt they know why all these players keep getting sent in.

Zen micro headphone jack fix for fr

i read somewhere in the forums that Creative can fix the headphone jack problem for free?
Do you need a warranty for them to do it for you? And are all the songs on the player deleted when they fix it's
I would try and fix my Zen Micro headphone jack myself, but I'm afraid I might do something wrong.

i recently got my micro replaced at best buy after it had the headphone jack issue, and my new one is having the same problem. I'm pretty sure best buy gyped me though because they gave me a micro that was sitting out on a table like it was used or something. Since this was within the last 3 months am i able to mail my micro in to creative to get one of the new, hopefully fixed, ones for free? It's soooo frustrating because i love the micro but the stupid head phone jack just makes me want to strangle it.

Zen micro headphone jack cheap

I started having intermittant problems with the zen micro headphone jack that has been well described. I found that if I held the headphone plug in a certain position that both channels worked well. I took a standard size staple and placed one prong of the staple in the thin space between the headphone jack and the body of the micro in a location where the headphone jack would be forced into the position where both stereo channels worked. I then broke the prong off by bending the staple back and forth and then pushed the sharp edge down with the end of a ballpoint pen. This made the headphone jack fit very snugly in the position where both channels worked when I plugged the headphone in. It solved the problem completely and is significantly cheaper than the $40.00 creative would want to fix the problem.

You could easily take it out with a pin or using another staple to catch the bottom of it. It really doesn' go in very far. Certainly would take it out if if can't fix the problem before sending it in. Its amazing that the staple diameter is exactly the size needed to keep the microphone jack tight in the case.

Zen micro headphone jack quick free

I started having intermittant problems with the zen micro headphone jack that has been well described. I found that if I held the headphone plug in a certain position that both channels worked well. I took a standard size staple and placed one prong of the staple in the thin space between the headphone jack and the body of the micro in a location where the headphone jack would be forced into the position where both stereo channels worked. I then broke the prong off by bending the staple back and forth and then pushed the sharp edge down with the end of a ballpoint pen. This made the headphone jack fit very snugly in the position where both channels worked when I plugged the headphone in. It solved the problem completely and is significantly cheaper than the $40.00 creative would want to fix the problem

:smileyvery-happy:That's pretty smart.

Zen Micro audio prob

My Zen Micro has poor sound quality, you can barely hear the vocals and everything else has a watery sound. I know its not the headphones because I checked them on my cd player and they worked just fine, and when I put in a different set of head phones into my Zen Micro it still had the audio problems. Has anyone else encountered these problems? If so, what is the problem and the best way to fix it's

I have the same problem and it seems to be caused by the headphone jack. If I adjust the headphone plug by turning it or holding it in the jack, I get normal sound. If the headphone plug shifts, I get the weird sound you're describing. It happens no matter which headphones or speakers I use, so I think I have confirmed it's the jack on the player itself.

Zen Micro Headphone Jack Poll/Co

THIS IS A MULTISELECTION POLL
-My Jack is fine
2-My Jack is/was broken
3-I know someone who has a micro and theirs is fine
4-I know someone who has a micro and their's is broken
There seems to be this "massi've" problem with the zen micro with the headphone jack breaking. Creative also had this problem with the Zen xtra, so to see if this is an epidemic or just a small problem vote either you have a broken jack or not. also please post a reply if you know someone who has this problem or if you know someone who doesn't. If you bought a refurb micro dont count yours because this could very well be the result of abuse from the other party.
Simply choose the number that corresponds to you and your zen micro.
PS. post where you bought your micro and when the jack broke if it ever did.
-My Jack is fine
2-My Jack is/was broken
3-I know someone who has a micro and theirs is fine
4-I know someone who has a micro and their's is broken
- As for me, I've had my Zen micro for 2 weeks, it was fine no problem, never had any problems with headphone jack. but i have had it only for 2 weeks, before i decided to return for a refund.

I was wondering why we really needed this thread .. i Think Creative and Us are pretty aware of the probs SOME people have been experiencing ...
Lets try to help each other not be whinging all the time if people have this prob its best to get an exchange .. whilst it is not ideal .. you expect teathing troubles and problems with some new items ... who hasn`t ever had something that needed to be sent back or exchanged ... Chill people Creative will see us all right.

Zen Micro audio Ja

I have purchased two Creative Lab MP3 players in the past two years and both of the audio jacks work intermittently. If you plug in the earphones and wiggle?the plug ?around, you get sound in both ears. Then you move and the sound cuts off. I thought I might just type in "Creative Lab Audio jacks" into a search engine and it led me to this sight and all the problems I have read about these audio jacks. I guess I paid about 60.00 for one and 90.00 bucks for the other. I guess they are not worth getting fixed and if I did what would keep them from breaking again. Its ashamed that Creative Labs would not have corrected this problem beacause the 00's of threads I read date back to 2004. Oh well, Li've and Learn....

Just took the Zen Micro apart. One of the legs on the audio jack is lifted. My soldering iron is too big to get in there. Will get the correct one soon. I cant believe Creative did not correct this years ago...

Zen Micro Car Connection Prob

Okay so i bought a cable for my Zen Micro 5gb Black, that is RCA audio to headphone jack. I have a pioneer headunit (aftermarket) which has the RCA audio jacks on the back. My problem is that when i plug this in and play my zm, it plays no matter what else is happening, with whatever else is on, like a cd and my zm or the radio and my zm. Plus i cant control volume through my headunit, only through the zm volume control. Anyone know of any simple and hopefully free ways to fix this? I dont have an aux. in, just the red and white RCA audio jacks. Id really like to be able to just have the zm play, and i control the volume and such through the head unit.
Thanks in advance,
Rug

The car stereo does have a "source" button which i use to switch back and forth from radio to cd and such. However, it doesnt find the RCA audio connection as a source, which is very strange. I took out the cd, and plugged the ZM into the RCA connection, and hit source and nothing happened. The other problem is i already have XM satillite radio with a rf modulator hooked up into the headunit so i cant use another modulator. The only soulution i can think of is to get some kinda RCA audio a-b switch and plug both the zm and the sattilite radio into its modulator. I dont know if anyone makes something like that though...thoughts?

Zen Micro headphone jack loosened resulting in poor earphone connect

I have had the 5g zen micro for 9 months now and love it. My battery play time has been tremendous, I migrated to the window media player and managing my music cannot be easier, I bought some high end earphones and the sound has been off the charts. But, recently, the headphone connection became loose and now my sound goes in and out, from right to left, sometimes muted or muffled...unless I hold the jack in place. It's become impossible to enjoy my music now.
I have sent a note to Creative customer service how I can get this fixed ASAP, as I don't want to be without my mp3 for an extended period of time. Has anyone had to deal with Creative on this? Do you have any suggestions?
I just bought another zen micro for a family member and now worried this may happen to them. I have not heard this problems from any of my friends that use the IPOD

Sounds like the common headphone jack problem. You need to contact support. iPods have the problem also, as do most (if not all) players. Whether the incidence is the same, who knows!

Zen Micro Headphone Jack problems-are the new ones

Gonna buy a Zen Micro Photo 8GB player-had one of the 5gb ones a year and a half ago and the headphone jack went on that-have the problems with the headphone jack been sorted out in the new ones?

I have not seen any reports of problems with the Zen MicroPhoto's headphone jack.
Cat

Zen Micro headphone jack horror stories, truth or scar

I've been looking for an Mp3 player for over 4 months(since January), and I have looked through many Micro-Hard Dri've and Flash Memory players, including: Dell Pocket DJ, iPod Mini, Rio Carbon, Creative Zen Micro, iPod Shuffle, Creative MuVo Micro N200, and Creative MuVo TX FM. I'm glad to say that I decided on the Zen Micro. I've had it for 4 days now(including today), and so far, it is working great, better than I had hoped. Everything is nice about it; the only that scares me is the problem that many people have with the Zen Micro, the headphone jack problem. I've heard numerous reports of people with a Zen Micro who complain that after about 2-5 months of usage, the headphone jack will break, and little or NO sound will come out of it. And they say that this is a problem that is meant to happen with all Zen Micros. Hmmm is this true? I hope this doesn't happen to me. Do you think that upgrading the firmware will help fix the problem(btw, I still use ..03....or something like that, I haven't updated it)?

thug_outlaw69 wrote:
Just don't use a straight angle headphone plug like the ones that came with the Zen Micro. Use one with a 90 degree angle.
That doesn't make any difference, reportedly... just prolonges the problem so it doesn't break until the warranty's over....

Zen Micro - Headphone Jack Metal Reinforcement Pl

On 3/4, Cirrus wrote in response to a REALLY long thread about the headphone jack problem with the Zen Micro that it:
".... supposedly has been fixed in the newer Zen Micros by adding a metal reinforcement plate to the headphone jack." This according to a customer service person (I believe).

Based on reviews and looking at my options, I would already own a ZM if it wasn't for this apparent design flaw with the jack. But, with this new information about a reinforcement plate, I am again interested.

Does anybody know if the new units are available?

If so, is there any way for me to know, by looking at the box or at the unit itself, if I am getting a reinforced ZM?

I will most likely buy in person at a retail store so that I can check out the player before I buy it.

Thanks.

Read this thread. http://forums.creative.com/creativel...essage.id=3807

Zen Micro audio jack prob

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