Creative Zen Xtra Firmware Failure/Reload OS- Heres how to fix it

I know you all must be excited about reading the word Fix. Well here is a simple guide how to get the "refresh button" again in the firmware update software. Given that it has reached this point, he tried and failed to load the firmware 2.10.3.0 creative because it’s irritating. Well, I have more bad news for you. The only way a player is going to work now is that you retry the firmware of shit and I hope it will work once. So have it ready on your desktop. Remember that you cannot return to the old firmware.
Things requirements:
First there should be Windows Service Pack 2.
Second there must be Windows Media Player 10, which should be fully updated (If it’s not please do it first)

Now you have to go to Device Manager, while the player is connected to your PC and found that the PPM (usually all the way into the bottom of the list.) Highlight the file and update your drivers (requires Internet connection).
After doing that, you have to delete all USB drivers. It is not in bad shape, but is the only way shit creative software and the player to reconnect.
Now, when finished go to the firmware update and the update button must be turned on again. And I hope that this time of renovation works. If it is not. Well repeat the steps again.
Note: Make sure the battery is fully charged, plug into an outlet not do the trick. If the battery is low, the firmware says it will not proceed because of the battery. Another idiot creative programming.

When I tried to update the driver, I got the message that it didn't update because the driver couldn't be found. I am going crazy trying to fix this, I have a message into support from Saturday, I haven't heard back from them. From all the posts I've seen, this must be a common problem. I certainly hope they are working on this!

I got it to work. I was going to give it one last try before giving up, and I couldn't believe it when I connected the player and the actual name of the device popped up! I got the firmware loaded, but I am waiting until tomorrow to try to load my music, because if I have problems doing that, I will probably have a cardiac! Thank so much for the fix, you have made my day!

On your desktop.

• Right click My Computer.
• Click on Hardware Tab
• Click Device Manager
• Click Universal Serial Bus Controllers +
• Right Click each of them and Click Uninstall
• Restart your computer (press Windows button and use keyboard and select Shutdown)
• Windows will automatically re-install USB drivers. Make sure Nomad Is not Connected
• Go Back to Device Manager, and plug in your Nomad. Window will detect it and place it under MTP Devices.
• Creative Mediasource will not detect it.
• Right Click MTP device and chose Update Driver.

Now go to the firmware upgrade software you downloaded. Must be the latest version, the play for sure version? Click the upgrade button. To use media source, you have to download the playforsure plug in for Play for sure firmware. Without it, you can only use window media player 10. If you dont have window media player 10, you have to download it.

Well this got me further than before. The upgrade box is not grayed out, and said I already had version 2.10.3, do I wish to carry on, I did and the upgrade bar went to the end and then said upgrade failed. Tried a few times but the same result. Also tried the old firmware version, but the upgrade button was grayed out. Is anyone having any kind of idea on this?

I had the same problem that hundreds had, upgrading the firmware. After trying by myself, I sent the unit to Creative, they wanted to charge me, and I refused. Why should I pay for a problem with their software update? They sent me back the unit as it was, unusable after trying to perform the upgrade, can't get out the rescue mode. The drivers are in place, windows place the unit as a 20 mb storage device in the windows explorer, but it is not recognized by the firmware update software, or Windows media or any other programs. As the unit was working very well before attempting to perform the update, and I see all the people that tried the upgrade with the same issue, how is it that Creative doesn't release a solution? Are they expecting for any of us to go a buy another Creative product? I am going directly to Apple now. If someone found a solution that works, please let me know.

In another forum, someone noted that the problem with no upgrade button seems to happen with users that have WMP11. The computer I tried to do the upgrade from had WMP11. I had another machine that had a fresh install of Windows. I hadn't even tried to start WMP9/10. I plugged in the Zen Xtra and it detected the unit as an MTP device. At the bottom of the device manager though, it said Zen Jukebox. I selected it and then chose "Update Driver," and let it update over the internet automatically. After that, (no reboot), I tried the Play4Sure firmware update (same one that killed it) and the upgrade button was available. I clicked on it and it said that was the firmware version that was already on the device. I selected to update it anyway, and the progress bar moved, the Zen unit rebooted twice, and the firmware said it was successfully upgraded. Unit works fine now.

What a total waste of time! This is clearly a problem with Creative's dire update. I can confirm that with Windows Media Player 11 the update button was not visible. I switched to a computer using WMP10 and performed the device driver upgrade as recommended (across the Internet). Then I tried the firmware upgrade again. This time it worked! Said it already contained the right firmware, but upgraded anyway. After that it was recognized by WM11 no problem. This is a known bug and there is a known fix. Creative are ethically wrong to make everyone jump through hoops for their mistakes. Last time I buy Creative with support like this.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Abenaki

In another forum, someone noted that the problem with no upgrade button seems to happen with users that have WMP11. The computer I tried to do the upgrade from had WMP11. I had another machine that had a fresh install of Windows. I hadn't even tried to start WMP9/10. I plugged in the Zen Xtra and it detected the unit as an MTP device. At the bottom of the device manager though, it said Zen Jukebox. I selected it and then chose "Update Driver," and let it update over the internet automatically. After that, (no reboot), I tried the Play4Sure firmware update (same one that killed it) and the upgrade button was available. I clicked on it and it said that was the firmware version that was already on the device. I selected to update it anyway, and the progress bar moved, the Zen unit rebooted twice, and the firmware said it was successfully upgraded. Unit works fine now.

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I've tried everything out there short of putting in a new hard drive (seriously, I am really angered by this). Which version of windows did you use as your fresh install? XP, XP SP2 or SP3 or Vista or.... and did you have any of the drivers installed?

because I had this thing working with Windows 7 and for some reason I thought if i could use my old computer that I installed the firmware on it before i could revert back to the old firmware. long story short, i wish i would have just left it alone, but, tis my nature

Nevermind. I got it to work, finally.

Just in case anybody else finds this I'll just post what I did, which is very close to what has already been posted, i don't know why it took so long to work for me.


i rebooted whenever the computer asked me to.
i also did not touch any Creative software or drivers.


I had an old laptop not in use anymore, so I formatted the hard drive on the laptop and put Windows XP, the original, on there

then, i downloaded XP SP2 and installed that

then, i downloaded Windows Media Player 10, and installed that

**I had to then update to Windows Media Player 11

I then uninstalled Windows Media Player 11

Then Uninstalled Windows Media Player 11 Runtime

I had then downloaded the Plays for sure firmware and left that on the desktop, unopened, since that's what I had on my Zen Xtra before

it was recognized as a MTP device and in Device Manager came up as a Portable Device

I then right clicked on the device (Zen Xtra) and updated drivers

Then under Universal Serial Bus controllers (still in Device Manager) I uninstalled each device

then rebooted and waited for everything to be re-recognized, always selecting "take no action" when xp wanted to know what to do with the Zen Xtra

During this entire time i had the Zen Xtra plugged in and fully charged.

I then just opened the plays for sure firmware that i had on the desktop and the upgrade was available.... finally

it said i had the firmware on and if i wanted to install it, of course i said yes, and it installed.


hope anybody who finds this who has as much trouble as i had will find this helpful.

After downloading the Firmware, I plugged in my Zen Xtra... just in case that wasn't obvious