I have a Creative Jukebox Zen Xtra that doesn't recognize its battery.

August 23, 2004 12:56 PM

MP3 Player Question: I have a Creative Jukebox Zen Xtra that doesn't seem to be recognizing that there's a battery there. [More Inside]

I got the player for Christmas last year, so it's not that old. The same problem happened in February, and at that time a firmware upgrade got me up and running. Now, when I try to install the latest firmware, it tells me to make sure the battery is in place, and then proceed. But, it doesn't recognize that there's a battery there. Isn't that fun? So right now I have a portable mp3 player that only works plugged in. Creative's unhelpful support suggested a) cleaning the contacts (didn't help), and b) purchasing a new $50 battery. I'm pretty sure there's nothing wrong with the battery since the same thing happened in Feb. And why would the battery need to be installed to upgrade firmware anyway? Any and all help and advice is appreciated, even if it's for dealing with Creative now that this puppy's out of warranty.

posted by ferociouskitty to technology (8 comments total)

Oh yeah - pressing reset does diddly squat.
posted by ferociouskitty at 1:03 PM on August 23, 2004

Have you tried searching the zen forums at nomadness.net? They were pretty handy when I was having all kinds of playback errors.
posted by amarynth at 1:44 PM on August 23, 2004

Bless you, dear amarynth. I found a solution. A weird-ass solution, but it's now charging.

(If anyone's interested, I quickly plugged and unplugged the adaptor at the wall a few times to "kick-start" it. I have no idea why it worked, just that it did.)
posted by ferociouskitty at 1:58 PM on August 23, 2004

Glad I could help!
posted by amarynth at 3:32 PM on August 23, 2004

while on the xtra tip, can anyone vouch for notmad over the xtra's bundled Explorer-based browser?
posted by nautone at 3:12 AM on August 24, 2004

nautone--i can't vouch for it, but i'm intrigued by the notmad. if you try it, or hear anything about it, please follow up. i have a bunch of stuff in my nomad zen xtra with screwed up tags and i have been completely unsuccessful in fixing any of it. i'd like to have it fixed, but don't care enough to fight with it.

(otherwise, i <3 my nomad!)
posted by crush-onastick at 8:08 AM on August 24, 2004

I have Notmad and I've found it to be a huge improvement over Creative's software. I love that I can drag and drop files from iTunes and have them added to my xtra.

They have a free trial version, but it doesn't have all the features.
posted by amarynth at 8:41 AM on August 24, 2004

My name is Dan, and I approve of this NotMad message.
posted by Danelope at 10:44 PM on August 25, 2004