Creative Zen Vision:M firmware problem

[hibby]

Well, I've just tried uploading the latest version of the firmware for my Creative Zen Vision:M, and now have a non-functional device.

First of all, the software that should have done the updating complained that it couldn't find the device, even though it was connected.

Could this be due to me running Windows Media Player 11 Beta, rather than WMP 10?

Stupidly, I then went into the recovery mode of the mp3 player to try and force it to update the firmware. Which meant I deleted the firmware from the player without then being able to upload the new firmware. I could possibly get back to the old firmware, if Creative were still hosting it on their site!

So if anyone happens to know where I can get hold of the old firmware, please let me know. Otherwise, I'm waiting for Creative's tech support to get back to me.

[rrennie]

help. same problem! what did you do?

[hibby]

It turned out that it was in fact the beta version of WMP 11 causing the problem, and no amount of rollbacks on my computer could get rid of it (serves me right for deleting the backups created during the installation just to save a bit of space).

I solved this one by borrowing another computer with WMP 10 on it and using that to update, but a non-beta WMP 11 should work now it's out.

However, if you haven't been playing about with the firmware like I had, there is another reason behind a firmware not found message. If the hard drive comes loose inside from repeated knocks/drops then it resorts to recovery mode. If you couldn't tell, I had this one happen to me as well. I solved this by taking the thing apart (voiding any warranty I had on the thing ) and reseating the hard drive cable. If you think this is the case, and you're brave enough to try it, the guide to taking the thing apart can be found here.