Screen Problems and the WSOD (White Screen of Death)

[Chisagi]

Has anyone got this problem after a drop?
I've never experienced the WSOD before and today my over enthusiastic dog jumped and made me drop the zen(I've dropped it before with no problems) and after that the screen has been white. I tried recovery mode but no dice and I left it off for a solid 2 hours and that didn't help either. It still plays songs with no problem and I can see it dim, I just can't see anything

[CrowdAds]

[BobbyRS]

Originally Posted by Chisagi

Has anyone got this problem after a drop?
I've never experienced the WSOD before and today my over enthusiastic dog jumped and made me drop the zen(I've dropped it before with no problems) and after that the screen has been white. I tried recovery mode but no dice and I left it off for a solid 2 hours and that didn't help either. It still plays songs with no problem and I can see it dim, I just can't see anything

Hello. It sounds as though you may have damaged the LCD or cause a connection problem due to the drop. If the screen is not cracked and if the Zen is still under warranty, you can try contacting Creative to see if they can repair under warranty (you can still contact Creative for repair if out of warranty, but for a fee).

[bodotdot]

I don't know what to do! I've had my Zen for a couple of years, and it's run perfectly. I left it overnight it a USB port to recharge, and this morning, it won't finish booting up! It flashes the "Creative" screen, it flashes the "Zen" screen, and then it freezes. The blue light on trhe switch stays lit and the screen is lit, but blank. I've tried pressing the "reset" button with a paperclip, which makes the blue light and the screen turn off, but when I try to turn it on again, the exact thing happens. This has never happened before--is there anything I can try?

[bodotdot]

Never mind--spoke too soon...read the post about "Recovery" mode, did a cleanup and everything's back to normal. Sorry!

[ventrible]

Hi folks,

i jus joined this forum becos i happen to see this White screen of death for ZEN. Frankly speaking yea, to alot ppl out there, think twice if you are getting creative ZEN be it 4gb or 32 gb haha. For those who possesses this player, dun "itchy hand" go update firmware. You will definitely get the white screen of death. Tested and proven.

i not sure any1 have found out a better solution but yea my way of solving this problem is:

when u see white screen appear upon booting up your player or your player brightness is "way" to high, dun panic... the way to resolve is to shut down and the moment u see your player turns blank, turn it on str8. It will solve the white screen problem. + dun tink of RMA-ing it (if warranty over or u DROPPED IT) , no use...


Sry but no offence to creative ><

Edited:
you dun haf to reload firmware or watsoever, my above stated steps will help ><

[whine-not]

Originally Posted by BobbyRS

May not be the WSOD, but it sounds like you do have a LCD issue.

I have a refurb 8G Zen purchased direct from Creative, and I've been on this delightful forum for three of the seven days of ownership. I must say, this is a pleasantly mature group here, hard to find in forums of today.
OK, to the brass tacks. BobbyRS has remained diligent and tenacious about the WSOD issue, I had to join to toss my pennies in, lest the rubber room might collect a fine moderator.
The whole issue with the WSOD is circuitry in its base form. Transistors switch on and off, resistors dampen current and capacitors gulp and dispose of surges as required to satisfy needs. Then there are inductors, potentiometors, IC timers and so on, to regulate and refine the circuit to perform the tasks properly. Years ago, these were separate components, easily bench tested and repaired by replacement.
Todays circuits are combined and miniturized to surface mount technology. I have the hot air machines to service this technology but the part numbers are obscured or not even there! Couple this with sourcing import craftsmen who produce the circuit boards, with absolutely no idea of potential values and substituting, to the best of their limited knowledge, a part they have on hand.
This is where "Bad Batch" arrives. It is also where Firmware resides.
Designers will see where the issue is, say the impedence to Q5 (transistor) is 5Khz but the display module requires 17Khz or better, the firmware pushes that. The problem now is how much can that circuit take before failing completely?
Sadly, this will be a recurring issue until companies, once again, build in house.
So, the final judgement is with BobbyRS. Send it back, perhaps American companies will decide to give the R&D back into their own house.

[Siebenstein]

I have owned my Zen (16GB) for about a year and a half now, with lots and lots of bugs and problems. However, I was confident of not having a defective unit because I never experienced the WSOD. Until Sunday. The warranty has expired, all I can do now is waiting for the damned thing to die on me. Just when I thought I was golden concerning the device to completely fail, I had to learn how horrible the quality of Creative devices is. I liked my Zen Touch back in the day, even with all the crashes that frustrated me, and I even thought my Zen, for all its faults, was a decent device. Sorry for spamming this thread with yet another WSOD-story, but I just want to go on record that I will never buy a Creative product again.

[GrumpyZenOwner]

My 4gb player has gone all WSOD on me, and it's out of warranty... I could still use it as a blind shuffle if I could get it back into the right mode, but I've been trying to get it back to the main menu & through to the music for ages And can't seem to manage it...

Can anyone tell me where 'Music' is on the main menu, and what the options within there are? Does the main menu scroll through continuously? Or can I go to the top & then count down again?

I'm really f#cked off about this I have to say - it's obviously a common problem, and the only thing I got from Creative's "Support" was that if it's out of warranty then I should just buy a new one. Well, if they think I'm ever buying another Creative product they are DREAMING!

</rant> If anyone can help I'd really appreciate it

[DeeWhy2099]

This issue is clearly a VERY common problem with this player. Mine went to WSOD mode about a year after I got it. Creative tech support have been no help at all.

I was ready to chuck it out, but thought I'd take it apart to see what was inside before throwing it in the bin.

Using the disassembly instruction I found on the vid on this site I took it apart. Not surprising to me when I looked at the areas where the ground strips connected to the metal internal cover, held in place by the tiny screws, I discovered that all the connection points had noticeable corrosion on them I cleaned them all with alcohol then gave the circuit board area around where the screws secure the board to the metal cover a bit of a roughing up with a tiny screwdriver and voila! When I put it back together it's working again! Albeit, I now can't adjust the brightness for some reason. But at least it works again. SO, it's not to do with a faulty screen nor edge connectors or anything else--it was a bad contact from the circuit board to the case. At least in my case anyway.

If only I could work out how to get the brightness adjust to work again. Again, Creative were no help. Said run the Recovery Tool (no change) and Reset (again, no change), reinstall Firmware (no change)

So, if anyone knows how to get the brightness control to work again after disassembly please reply.

Thanks.

[Alexander K. Allen]

Originally Posted by whine-not

Sadly, this will be a recurring issue until companies, once again, build in house.

That might be true indeed, but also quite often the quality of the components, soldering and connectors is pretty low...so basically those companies (whether it's in house or not) just try to minimize the costs at all cost, even if buying good quality components and connectors wouldn't be that much expensive...

So basically nowadays we create short lived things, while our grandparents created stuff that would survive them...

And yup, I too have that annoying blank screen (among with other firmware issues).

[DeeWhy2099]

Amazing that there are 13 pages of posts on this subject, going back to 2007 and yet there still appears to be no summary solution to it, nor any significant attempt by Creative to deal with it.

From everything I've read and all my experiences, I'm inclined to suspect there's a software bug behind this SDOD fault that continues to recur, yet, it seems when all else fails to restore the screen to working, if I disassemble it, wiggle the cables around a bit, charge it for half a day and then turn it on, it comes back to life again, with the exception of the brightness control. In normal operation, when it indicates 100% brightness, it's actually operating at 10% brightness, however, as soon as you plug it into a USB cable to the computer the brightness immediately jumps to normal 100%

Shame on you Creative for not taking any responsibility for this issue. It seems incredibly common in all the Zen players, but the only response I get from them when I ring the helpdesk is something like "it's broken. we can't fix it. it's out of warranty. buy another one."

And there's NOTHING substantive in their "knowledge base" that attempts to help owners deal with it. Sadly, that means no more Creative products for me. I can deal with things breaking, but if a manufacturer doesn't give a damn about helping customers, that really puts me off.