After owning about 18Mths. My Zen Micro Photo is Freezing and is not recognized by my computer. I have tried everything
I have read about resetting , reinstalling firmware ect. Nothing has worked. Can not updat firmware because it is frozen and not recognized.. I have heard that the Hard drive is probably shot.. This player set most of the time, I am so upset .. I thought I bought the best product acording to all the reviews I read before I bought ! Now a $230 paperweight..
Any thoughts or sollutions?
Larry larrygguard-web@yahoo.com

Larry Geroge, July 2007

mine too!

quaid, August 2009

I have two of these players that are now paperweights. I've tried everything to get them to work. After rolling back to Media Player 10 the computer recognizes them but only as an MTP player and then even that doesn't work if I try to actually link to it. I tried flashing the new firmware but all I managed to do was delete the existing firmware and then the computer wouldn't recognize the player to let me flash the new firmware. Creative have really screwed this up. It's a shame because I love these players when they work but from day one I've had issues with the plug n play features.

Derek, April 2009

as far as i know, was in my case, the problem with being recognized has to do with windows media player 11 runtime..uninstall that and you'll be good.

the issue i'm having with mine is that now it freezes up whenever i try to put new music on it. still, it's lasted longer than my ipod did. and when i get a new mp3 player, it'll be a creative.

maika., May 2008

Mine broke down in about 6 months. I couldn't return it to the store I bought it at and for some reason I didn't send it to Creative. Anyway, the user before me suggested leaving it for a bit. I did, for about 4 months, but still the formating doesn't work. Point is, this player was a waste of money and it boils my blood because I don't have the cash to buy a replacement.

Natalia M, February 2008

My Microphoto froze, and I could do nothing. If i tried to format the disk, it would just say 'formatting' and stay like that for 3 days +. So I gave up and left it in the bathroom for a month or so. I tried again later and it formatted in about 40 seconds! This may seem ridiculous, but try leaving it for a bit.

Ed, February 2008

guys, i know it may seem silly, but it worked for me.


try and go to the settings menu on the player and press reset settings, it resets the player settings to when you bought it. it did the trick for me, i thought id wasted my money on nothing but a paperweight( and whht a good one it was!)

now it works fine and i can play that funky music again!!!

Wozza, January 2008

Hey I want to join too. My player froze on the 'hardware problem' screen and the computer won't recognize it. I've only had it about a year and a half. I can't find any answers online other than to call Customer Support and pay them to tell you if there may be a fix. I think I'm going with an ipod this time around. So much for the reviews being best. They're the whole reason I went with Creative when everyone else was going for the ipod.

Alexis, December 2007

yeah we probably can form a club...mine packed up after about a year, bought a replacemnet ipod, but lost it while on holiday, and just seeing the broken creative after that is driving me nuts

Lekan, October 2007

Can i join mine stuffed up three months ago. the firmware is corrupt and i can not find a way to fix it.

brad, September 2007

Mine just did the same damn thing. Looks like we can start a club now. Maybe that's why I-pod is popular, I sure did dig this player though. Darn!!

Ange, August 2007

I wish I had an answer...then maybe I could abandon the expensive paperweight club. I've only had my player since Christmas and it stopped being recognized about two months ago. I've been scouring the world for answers to no avail ever since. *sigh*

Jaedyn, July 2007