Creative Zen becomes Unresponsive

[Basilas]

A few days ago while transferring music to my first generation zen (2gb), I noticed it was taking awfully long so I pulled the player while it had the transfer symbol. I know they tell you not to do it, but I have done many times with my m visions and the other zen with no problem. The player then got frozen so I took a paper clip and reset it. The problem is once I hit the reset button, it just turned off and hasn't turned back on since. I have plugged it to two different USB ports and there's no blue light. Any help on this would be much appreciated.

[Kickapoo]

I always pull the thing out when the docking sign is there and I never had any problems with it. But this sounds really bad. You can try to reset that and see if that can solve the issue for you. If the lights are not even working then I guess there is no way for the battery to drain either or to charge afterwards. I think this is something to email to support, maybe request an RMA. Good luck with it.

[Actionguy]

You can try to plugging it back in and unplugging it really quickly in rapid style succession while taking a paper clip and cycling the reset button and on/off slider. I had to do this like 15 or more times. You have nothing to lose here so it might take 30 or more tries. I know this is almost impossible to pull off with only two hands, trust me, I used my feet to hold the player while I did this...but I was able to shock my seemingly dead and totally comatose player out of it when I did this. I was able to get the pulsating blue light of hope but a totally black screen. If you get the blue light of hope then leave the thing charging for 12-24 hours.

[Coolestman]

I have had similar problems a couple of times with my Zen MX (1 year old), where the player has turned itself off midway through playing a track and then will not turn on when I press the on/off button. Most recently I was considering trying the idea listed here of repeatedly pressing the reset button, on/off button, and disconnecting/reconnecting the charger simultaneously, but decided to build up to that: I tried plugging the player in to a wall charger and then pressing and holding the reset button. On releasing the reset button the player came back to life. I haven't yet had need to try it again, so don't know if this reliably works or if I was just lucky, but I would recommend trying this (with a USB charger if you don't have a wall one) before the more extreme idea suggested earlier.

[Anywhere]

Your technique seems more refined and plausible than mine and I would suggest others try your method first. Others are done out of desperation and frustration. But it seemed to yield positive results so I only brain dumped what I did to get it working. The thing is, it happens so rarely that you cannot repeat the technique to actually figure out what exactly the process is you're doing that worked in the first place. So I think you're on to something. Anyhow, thanks for posting your results. I am sure it will help others some day.

[Jerry]

I think it may be dead and so you are getting no blue light. You can try to test that on some different computers and see if this device may work quicker. This is the most basic thing that you need to try in the cases like this. Once you are clear that problem resides on which side then you will be able to get the answer more easily. So try it and post back with the result that you get.