Zen not responding at all!

[sarasherra]

Hello. The last time i used my Zen was yesterday, a little after midnight. I noticed the battery was only half empty when i switched it off, but when i wanted to use it again this morning it won't switch on: the screen's not working, the blue light doesn't work, and neither does the reset button.
At first i thought maybe i was mistaken and that the battery needed to be charged, but when i connected it to the laptop, it wouldn't turn on, it wouldn't charge, and it wasn't even recognized by the computer, nothing happened, as if it were dead...
Would someone please help me? I would be really grateful.

[WalkGood]

I would try a AC wall charger as it sometimes revives players, also have you tried the creative Player Recovery Tool? http://www.creative.com/products/mp3...ol/welcome.asp. That's all I can offer, only creatiive I have is the stone and it's been long dead due to battery.

[sarasherra]

thank you for replying. I don't have an ac charger, i lost it a long time ago, never thought of getting a new one since i managed pretty well with the usb, and i did download the recovery tool, but the it didn't do me any good as it won't even recognize it, the player is dead...

[WalkGood]

See if any of your friends have a AC wall USB chager, it's worth the try to see if it can revive it, if not you could always sell it for parts on ebay and good excuse to upgrade, good luck.

[coachop94]

Since you have no wall charger connect player to computer,leave connected for at least 2hrs. Then while still connected push the reset. May need to do several times to get the player to start charging.

[Dave_C]

From the excellent FAQ:
I haven't powered on my Zen for a long time or I have let the battery drain completely and now it isn't turning back on. What should I do?

Your best bet is to try and leave the Zen plugged into the computer for a while (up to a couple days) to see if it begins charging again. If you have a compatible AC adapter, use it instead.

Why does it take so long to charge or begin charging again and why does using an AC adapter better?

1. The device is pulling a low current (100mA) from the USB connection due to the possibility that enumeration has not taken place (driver installed/loaded) or an error has occurred in the process. To verify, check Device Manager to ensure that the driver is listed without any error. Once the driver loads without error, the device can then be allowed to pull the higher charge current (500mA) from USB resulting in a faster charge time as opposed to be connected and charging at only 100mA the entire time.

2. Since the battery may be severely discharged, the low voltage protection circuit may have been activated, preventing any charge from taking place. When this happens, it could be of some time before the protection circuit begins allowing a charge. I have seen as long as a few days go by connected before the battery begins holding a charge again. Lithium-ion batteries these days contain a "wake-up" feature in which the protection circuit will not allow any draw in current until the battery has been "activated" with a brief charge. This is where using an AC adapter comes into play. If you use an AC adapter that can output a higher current than a powered off device connected to the USB port (only getting up to 100mA), then many times you can trigger this "wake-up" to take place sooner and trigger charging again.

Dave

[areteus]

I am trying this fix too and I hope that it works. If not, are there any other options I could consider?

And, if it turned out that the player is completely dead, is it possible to remove the memory from it (complete with data intact) and transfer the data either to a new player (by inserting the memory directly) or to a computer for transfer to a new player?

I ask because the player crashed out like this not long after the computer on which the back up of all the tracks on it also crashed. Some of these tracks I have no means of replacing...

Thanks in advance for any help.

[areteus]

Just want to say that you guys are all geniuses! I am impressed by the advice given here. The AC charge worked perfectly and my MP3 player is back in action and, even if it goes down again and I can't get it back this time, I have managed to get a back up of the files made so thank you all very much!