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"Died on me after a month"
2.0 starson by wdfadudePros: Feature-packed; small and sleak; great price
Cons: After a month of working perfectly, it simply shut down and stopped working; no video compression
Summary: After using a few larger, hard drive-based mp3 players (iPods, Creative Jukebox Zen Xtra, Toshiba Gigabeat), I figured it was time to get a small, flash-based model that could fit and go anywhere. I did my research on what would be the best all-around flash player that would give me the most bang for the buck, and decided to buy the Creative Zen V Plus. I fell in love with it instantly. Great features, terrific design...a solid 9.5 on a 10 scale. The only gripes would be that there is no avi video compression on it (even a few-minute vid clip is over 100 MB) and no Windows 2000 support.
Earlier today, in the middle of a battery charge, the Zen V died on me. I got nothing but a black screen, and no response from the buttons. I scoured the internet - including the Creative site - to see if anyone else has had similar problems. It seems like dozens out of hundreds of Zen V Plus owners have had numerous freeze-ups or even a dead player even after only having it a short time. I tried every trick in the book to revive it - pushed the reset button numerous times; tried holding the on/off slider for extended periods of time; tried pressing various combinations of buttons; tried restarting my Zen sofwtare on my PC; rebooted my PC; reinstalled my Zen sofwtare; all to no avail. All I have is a dead piece of plastic.
I'm very disappointed. I'm torn between returning it to the store and either getting a new Zen V Plus or trying my luck with another mp3 player. Given the number of times this has happened to others (just look at the Creative forums), I say with a heavy heart that I'm leaning towards the later choice. Creative had a winner on it's hands; but due to freeze-ups/dying players, it looks like a lemon. It's only because (when it was working) it may have been the best overall player on the market that I give it a rating of 4. Otherwise, it deserves a 1 simply for reliability. Purchase this at your own risk.
- 6 replies to this review
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The same thing happened to me,but I went to Creative.com and e-mailed them.I found out that this happens a lot,and they told me to reset my firmware with a program they gave me.I hooked up my Zen V Plus,the black screen came up with an error message as it does when it is messed up,and I clicked fix Firmware (or something that resembles the lines of that).I immediately saw my Zen flash and something pop up saying erasing firmware and then reinstalling firmware. THIS WAS AFTER 3 YEARS THAT I HAD EVEN 1 ISSUE WITH I. 5 months went by, and then my Zen acted up again. This time, it was due to accidentally plugging my Zen in the wrong slot(I have certain slots for my devices:it saves time since the device is already accustomed to that slot and will load faster),so I quickly removed it and plugged it in another slot.NOTE: NEVER EVER EVER DO THIS:IT CAUSES YOUR ZEN TO CRASH.So I reinstalled firmware again, and played a song. It crashed xD. In all this is a good player, it just crashes a lot!
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My Zen V Plus froze exactly the same way a few days ago. I sent it back to Creative for RMA. In another 20 days or so, I hope to get it replaced.
The player (as long as it works) beats iPod with its simple PC connectivity, interface, and brilliant earphones. -
There isn't an MP3 player out there that doesn't have some duds. Rating a product low because yours broke is unfair. Did you replace it? How was their customer service? Your review is useless. This player is one of the most popular products out there and the vast majority of users are very happy with it.
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If this was under a month, not just "after a month" then you can take it back, I believe, to the place you bought it. If it was just over a month, surly the manufacturer's warranty applies. Your scathing review loses some punch when you've only had one and it died very near the lemon law limit. I would be very interested in hearing how their customer service was in this matter and if you got a replacement that likewise failed.
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My experience was similar. A friend bought it while in the USA earlier this month and back in Ireland I opened the original packaging yesterday, copied some music to the player, listened to it for 1 hour and today while attempting to add more music, it DIED. <br>Reset does not have any effect and now I'm stranded.<br><br>Rating 5 for potential<br>Rating 0 for reliability!
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The Zen V Plus has a 1 year warranty on it. So unless you beat it up or dropped it in water, you don't need to buy a new one. Some people...
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