Problem seeing Creative Zen Vision M mp3 player with Vista

[inyathi]

Hi,

I've just bought a new pc with Vista Home Premium and am now trying to install all my existing software and hardware. When I connect my Creative Zen Vision M mp3 player it appears on the list in Device Manager and if I click it, it says it is working properly. It is also shown when I click computer, however when I try to use Creative Media Explorer it says no player is connected please connect Zen Vision M. Likewise if I try using Media Player or Real Player I have the same problem. I have installed the latest software from the Creative website and contacted Creative support who tell me to install the latest software but this has no effect. So if the problem is with Vista and not with the Creative software can anyone suggest a solution. My player and software worked fine with XP and the player is working when not connected to the new pc. Any help would be appreciated

Thank you

[Coops]

Can you tell us exactly what files and version you downloaded.

[inyathi]

This is what I have downloaded from the Creative website as instructed by someone from Creative suport.

Creative Media Explorer 6.21.10 Software Pack for ZEN Vision:M (30GB and 60GB) (26.80 MB)

Creative PlaysForSure Devices Plugin 5.00.36 for Creative MediaSource 5 Player/Organizer (27.90 MB)

Creative MediaSource Player/Organizer 5.10.38 (39.77 MB)

These updates have made no difference. Media Explorer will not open properly when the player is connected if I try to close it, it says Media Player is not responding, until I unplug the player and then it returns to normal except it won't function without a player connected.

If you can help that would be great, Creative seem to only respond in the middle of the night.

Thanks

[Coops]

Can you try the following

Can you select the Media Explorer application with a single click. Then right click and select "Run As Administrator"

Please can you tell us if the software now runs correctly??

[inyathi]

Thanks have just done that but still no change, Media Explorer still says no player is connected

[Coops]

I am a little unsure as to why this product won't work. If all the required devices have been installed in the device manager and creative say this is the software to use then there should be no problem.

Can you make sure that all device have been installed in device manager and there are no unknown items. Some devices may install more than one item in the device manager which is certainly true of USB devices, there might be 2 or three things that install just for the one device and all need to be installed for the item to work so although you can see one for the creative zen please make sure there is nothing lingering that has not been installed that might be stopping the software from talking to the player.

I am not sure about creative Zen but my MP3 player shows up in My Computer as a device and i can browse it like a drive which obviously shows me the PC can talk to the player. If the Zen does this if you know does it show up when connected??

[inyathi]

I can't see any unknown items in device manager. When I click computer the Zen Vision M icon appears twice one under Other labled Creative Zen Vision M series Media Explorer and another under portable devices labled with my name. It will show me the amount of free space on the device but I cannot seem to browse it it starts searching but doesn't get anywhere. On advice from Creative I have carried out a clean boot unistalled and then reinstalled the new software that should make it work with Vista but still no change

Since I bought my player a year ago, I have not updated the firmware could this be a problem? The only update available from Creative at present is for XP only and not Vista and my XP pc is dead so I would have to borrow someone elses to do the update.

Also do you think it matters that I am trying to connect the player to an entirely new pc or could it be designed to work on only one to prevent people sharing music I'm told this is the case with ipods.

Any more thoughts? Thanks

[Coops]

No i cannot see switching it between PC's as a problem. That should be ok.

As for Firmware, yes it might fox the problem but without knowing exactly what that firmware addresses i cannot say for certain.

[inyathi]

Hi,

I have just spent a quite a long time trying to reinstall Windows XP on to an old hard drive to get my old XP computer going. I managed to get it to work and was then able to update the firmware on my player, problem solved I hoped, ha ha!!. Now when I connect my player to Vista I get a message saying that a USB device is malfunctioning and I should try reconnecting it or if that fails replace the device. Then the player freezes and has to be reset, it still seems to work ok when it is not connected but as soon as I connect it crashes/freezes. Device manager still says it is working properly but the Creative software still says it's not connected.

I believe I have tried just about everything but if you can think of anything else that would be great

Thanks for your help

[inyathi]

Hi again

Just to check that the firmware update hadn't messed things up I switched my ressurected XP pc back on, connected the player and it worked fine and I successfully ripped 4 cds on to it. Creative say they cannot help me further unless I send them the player, but as it only malfunctions when it's connected to my Vista pc and otherwise works normally I am reluctant to return it.

I've tried connecting the player to different USB ports and that doesn't seem to make any difference. So I think I am going to give up trying to fix this problem and just use my XP pc for ripping music etc at least until the pc crashes again, it may not be convenient but it works.

Thanks for all your help

[DerrickR]

I have upgraded to vista ultimate my computer sees my zen M 30gb but my creative media does not. i have done all the upgrades for it and still it does not detect it,Creative player still says it is not connected do you have anymore information as to how i get it working.

[Coops]

What creative software and version are you refering to????

[inyathi]

Hi,

I eventually found a solution to my problem some time ago, but at the time I was consulting so many different forums that I forgot to post an update on this one. So here is my solution, back-up your player and then format it.

I connected my player to my old XP pc and then copied the contents of my Zen on to an external hard drive, I then connected the hard drive to my new Vista pc and copied the contents on to the pc. With the contents of my Zen now safely backed up on to both my external hard drive and my Vista pc I formatted the player. To do this you have to switch the player on while pressing reset at the same time (using a paperclip or a pin) the player should then switch on in recovery mode. You can then simply select format all from the menu. After I 'd formatted my Zen, I connected it to my Vista pc and for the first time Creative Media Explorer found it, I then used WMP11 to sync my music etc back on to my zen. This worked like a charm and I have been happily using my Zen with my Vista pc ever since without any problems at all. I hope this helps

[jorgon]

I had the same problem and my solution turned out to upgrade from Windows Media Player 10 to Windows Media Player 11. It seems that the Zen software might rely on WMP11 or use some of its components. An alternative explanation could be that there was a driver in WMP11 without which my Zen was not being detected.