creative mp3 player

upmeath

I have a Creative Zen Xtra 30Gb mp3 player, and accidentally dropped it (while in its carry-case) on Saturday evening. Since then, the player won't work. I thought it would be a little more hardy than that. Anyway, Rescue mode appears after about a minute of grunting by the player upon powering it on, and I'm offered four options: Reboot (starts grunting all over again), Reset OS, Format all (Not an option, I'm not losing 5000 tracks!!!) and clean-up. I can hear something loose inside the player if I tilt it to and fro, is something simply loose or is the player broken, all data gone, etc...
Help, please!

Gryzor

its just a hard drive with a fancy cover....can't really be dropping hard drives, they don't like that

there are places you can send dead or corrupt drives to recover the data...expensive business though...if you've no backup of the contents you could be a bit screwed methinks

u don't have anything to lose by opening it up and having a look...

it's dead i'm afraid, same thing happened to me. Is it under a year old and bought in ireland? -
Yes = Free fixing, just ring up Creative (Based in Blanchardstown) and give them all the details, it happens all the time, you got to be really careful with them.
No = You're in the same boat i was in when i dropped mine, it's gonna cost you in the region of €180 to get it fixed, so it's basically a write-off.

DON'T OPEN IT

if it's less than a year old, otherwise you lose the warranty!

if it's older, go for it.

Gryzor

Gryzor wrote:

u don't have anything to lose by opening it up and having a look...

except your warranty...sry didn't think of that.. :rolleyes:

anyway thought the warranty would be out the window if it was dropped??

no, accidental damage is covered, i went through this all last year and piat €180 to get mine fixed, i'd only paid €250 for it brand new from America 15 weeks before, the Warranty was only 3 months cause it was from America.

upmeath

Gryzor wrote:

there are places you can send dead or corrupt drives to recover the data...expensive business though...

can u name any such places, because a lot of the stuff on it is rare stuff im never gonna get again. and re: the whole "hard drive with a fancy cover" thing, did you see Q's attempts to demolish an ipod a few issues back? if creative really want to compete with apple they should start worrying more about the physical flaws of their product, i cant believe one drop in 6 months can actually do that. Q submerged an ipod in a ken, sat on it, stood on it, dropped it from a height, set it on fire, and all that happened was the plastic dial frazzled a bit.

Gryzor

upmeath wrote:

can u name any such places, because a lot of the stuff on it is rare stuff im never gonna get again. and re: the whole "hard drive with a fancy cover" thing, did you see Q's attempts to demolish an ipod a few issues back? if creative really want to compete with apple they should start worrying more about the physical flaws of their product, i cant believe one drop in 6 months can actually do that. Q submerged an ipod in a ken, sat on it, stood on it, dropped it from a height, set it on fire, and all that happened was the plastic dial frazzled a bit.

all i was saying was hard drives ain't made to be dropped....anyway...a quick google found these...

Linkage

more

hope it works out for u..

youcancallmeal

Yup had the same problem with my zen xtra and just got it replaced cos i was in warranty. Anyway www.nomadness.net is an excellent site for toubleshooting. This is what they said about fooked hard drives:

If the player makes a repeated ticking sound and shows no sign of life other than the EAX screen, it's safe to assume the disk is busted. This usually happens when the player is dropped while the disk is in motion. 2.5" hard disks such as the ones the Zen uses are pretty safe to bump around when they're not moving, but while operating their resistance to shock damage decreases greatly. Applying shock to one will likely cause the heads to crash into the platters, thereby destroying data and head positioning tracks. This problem can not be repaired (read: the music/data is gone). All you can do is send it to Creative to have it replaced, or if your warranty has expired replace the hard disk yourself.

This next bit i found quite interesting, i tried it cos i had nothing to lose and was getting it replaced anyway but it didnt work in the end.

It seems there is a rescue procedure for an apparently hopeless drive. Turn on your Zen, and give it a good whack. I'm serious!
There is a phenomenon called "stiction" which sometimes causes two stationary, very flat surfaces (such as the platters of a hard disk and its heads) to stick together on their own accord. This can lock the heads on the surface of the disk. Giving a whack to the player as it tries to spin up the drive can un-stick the heads and restore it to functionality. Bear in mind, though, that the head(s) sticking to the platter and the violent way of unsticking them can damage the platters' surface and destroy data.
Whether this happens or not depends entirely on your luck (or lack thereof). If you restore your zen like this but then start experiencing file corruption, it's a safe bet your disk hasn't come out unharmed, and you may have to replace it shortly.
It seems, however, that most times it does come out unharmed.

upmeath

thanks i'll investigate it

upmeath

thanks, i'll get practicing my stiction so. are we talking a thump, a drop similar to the one that caused the problem?

upmeath

"youcancallme>al", i owe you one. i owe you 5000 tracks man! thank you!!!
STICTION - it's a new religion. OBEY IT!

Creamy Goodness

upmeath wrote:

"youcancallme>al", i owe you one. i owe you 5000 tracks man! thank you!!!
STICTION - it's a new religion. OBEY IT!

it work?

upmeath

damn right it did. i switched it on, it started the old grunting game again, i gave the back panel two claps of a fist, no action, then i gave the opposite corner to the one it fell on a swift knuckle and hey! back in business. i owe you all one, it was destined for recycling, thanks!

Stephen

If you have further problems you should be okay anyway - Creative's warranties on Zen players are usually 2 years. I just RMA'd my sister's 20 GB Zen bought in 2003 last week (She dropped it whilst playing - same symptoms you had), got a shiny new replacement delivered this morning - sadly its not a new model

Naturally, you don't tell them that you dropped it while it was on
It had no external signs of damage at all really.

Swifty

They're awful pieces of hardware altogether, they're so delicate if they're dropped any distance longer than a few centimetres onto a hard surface you're pretty screwed. Does anyone elses cover just snap off every time you put it down onto a table? Always happens mine it's some pain.. the only solution is to leave the carry case on. The headphone jack on mine just conked out all of a sudden, was only playing sound out of one ear on any set of headphones I stuck in the jack. Luckily I only got mine last march so I'm still under guarantee, the shop sent it back to Creative a month ago I'm still waiting for a replacement.

Stephen

Odd, they should be very fast. I guess you're better off dealing directly with creative.
I posted the zen to them on Friday last week. Got the replacement herethis morning.

upmeath

a few centimetres? mine fell out of a hoodie pocket almost 5 feet when i was out on my bike, didnt notice anything because it wasnt on, it's fine now. pissed me off so much when it wasnt though!

Swifty

Yeah a few centimetres is a bit of an exaggeration

Was that without the carry case on upmeath? If so you were well lucky!

Matt Simis

upmeath wrote:

can u name any such places, because a lot of the stuff on it is rare stuff im never gonna get again. and re: the whole "hard drive with a fancy cover" thing, did you see Q's attempts to demolish an ipod a few issues back? if creative really want to compete with apple they should start worrying more about the physical flaws of their product, i cant believe one drop in 6 months can actually do that. Q submerged an ipod in a ken, sat on it, stood on it, dropped it from a height, set it on fire, and all that happened was the plastic dial frazzled a bit.

What or who is Q? From reading your post one would think iPods are indestructable.. not quite the impression you get from reading other forums however.


Matt

upmeath

no it was in the case, but by curse, the exposed top end of the player actually made contact with the ground, don't ask me how but it did.
so are all players as susceptible to damage when playing as creatives? i've talked to ipod, iriver and archos owners and they've dropped their players for me, i think my moneys safe with apple once i get this crap backed up!

Matt Simis

upmeath wrote:

no it was in the case, but by curse, the exposed top end of the player actually made contact with the ground, don't ask me how but it did.
so are all players as susceptible to damage when playing as creatives? i've talked to ipod, iriver and archos owners and they've dropped their players for me, i think my moneys safe with apple once i get this crap backed up!

Take away the hype and at the end of the day, as someone else said, they are all harddrives in nice packaging. None of them are designed to impact with hard surfaces.

Also, your unit was the older generation from Creative, there is newer units out now. If you want to have "shock proof" player you are better off with a flash player or perhaps a microdrive unit.


Matt

upmeath

you're right but i couldnt stand the notion of not having whatever song i like at my fingertips, i dont know how people do it. its a small compromise when stiction exists, i guess

youcancallmeal

upmeath wrote:

"youcancallme>al", i owe you one. i owe you 5000 tracks man! thank you!!!
STICTION - it's a new religion. OBEY IT!

Glad to be of service, now get it backed up quicksmart

upmeath

im in the process, thanks again