Latest Zen Firmware: 1.21.03

[mattcro]

I have the Zen 16GB, nearly full of music and video, with firmware 1.21.01e and it starts up (from fully off) in under 18secs. It "snoozes" for 2hrs after you switch it off, then switches off totally. If you switch on during snooze, it's ready to play in about 3 secs.

There's no mention of improved startup time with the newest firmware, and I doubt it would make much difference if any.

Maybe doing a cleanup (hold play/pause while switching on, and select clean up from menu) will help...

[CrowdAds]

[Nicole]

I have the new firmware on my 32GB, and I haven't noticed any difference in start-up time. I just tested mine on startup from dead sleep and got 13 seconds... 30 seconds, if not an exaggeration, doesn't sound right. I know it always *seems* to take *forever* so 13 seconds surprised me!

Either way, capacity of the player doesn't seem to affect startup time.

I did realize the other day I haven't had to reset the Zen once since updating the firmware. It might be coincidence, but I'm guessing something minor got incidentally fixed that has improved stability.

[freddybob]

Thanks mattro, I just timed mine and it took a full 40 seconds to start up. What software do you use to add songs to your player?

(As you said, from 'snooze' it only takes 2 or 3 seconds.)

[mattcro]

My timings (18secs and 3secs) are from sliding the Zen's power switch to the Zen being ready to play (Now playing screen appears, or the menu appears). The number of files on the Zen doesn't seem to make any difference.

I generally just drag and drop in Windows Explorer using the integrated Zen Media Explorer (Zen appears as a sort of device/folder under My Computer). I don't use any media manager to sync files/playlists.

I've just updated my firmware to 1.21.03 (non-e US version) and there's no change in startup times (same music/files as before).

[swedboy]

How do you actually get the firmware to download? My laptop tells me there is an update available but it doesn't seem to do anything. I have a Creative zen 8GB with 1.120.02_0.03.01 Firmware

[mattcro]

There are instructions for updating the firmware on the webpage linked to in the first post of this thread. You have to download the firmware installer from Creative and run it after connecting your Zen to the PC.

[freddybob]

Originally Posted by freddybob

I just timed mine and it took a full 40 seconds to start up

Solved the problem.

I use Ubuntu and had been adding music to my player with Amarok 1.4. For some reason Amarok had been dropping hundreds of .alb files in the root of the player.

I formatted the player and switched to using Banshee to add music. All the files are now within the Music folder on the player and it takes only 17 seconds to start up cold. Also the album art is much bigger than before (looks great).

[sunset_vista]

Ok having a huge problem now!

My zen was't being recognised by the computer, so i deleted the software off my computer - tried to re-install it off the website but it refuses to install as it say's my player is not connected (when it is in the computer)..

So I just reloaded my firmware.. thinking this might have been the problem. Tried to install the new firmware upgrade and it's saying the player isn't connected again!

I know I'm doing something wrong but am at loss on how to fix this anyone know how?