Creative Vision: M Won't Power Up

I had a similar problem with my Zen Vision: M. I had let it sit for awhile and the battery lost all power. It wouldn't charge or connect to the computer. After fighting with customer support for a long time they agreed to have it shipped in for service.

I also was not able to find my receipt to send them. But I bought it at Circuit City and they are able to pull up any receipt for any purchase made with them. I suppose you could always try to try that with the retailer you purchased the device from.

Before you go to all that trouble though try these steps:

1. Connect the device to the wall charger.
2. Hold the power switch to ON.
3. Put a paper clip into the reset hole.
4. Continue holding the power switch on until the Creative logo appears.
5. Select Format All from the Recovery Mode menu. (Note: THIS WILL ERASE ALL DATA FROM YOUR DEVICE! - but it's better than buying a new device)
6. When the reformatting is done, select Reboot from the Recovery Mode menu.

Let me know what the results are from this.

Here is the solution!

I bought mine and ran into the same problem. If you did not purchase the wall charger no problem. just find another gadget with a 5v output and plug it into your zen. the charging lights will imediately come on and your screen will power up.

Next go to the creative website and download the latest firmware update for your zen. mine came with 1.4x and i found 1.6x on creative's site.

Then run the firmware application while your zen is connected to the usb cable (i assume you did not plug the usb cable in) make sure the charger is pluged in as well so that you have power (very important) it will ask if you are sure about u[grading becuase the power may be low. ignore this and continue. after the upgrade is completed all you need to do is plug the usb cable in and it will continue to charge.

Had the same problem. Wouldn't charge with the Mains adapter or the USB. The blue light kept flashing. SO I reconnected to the mains charger and held the on button to On for about 30 seconds and behold the charger logo appeared and is now charging. I had not used the device in months.

I haven't used mine is 8 months and when I went to charge it nothing worked. If I plugged it in all it would show was that I had it plugged in but wouldn't charge. The reset is covered by the connection cable. I took a small paper clip and bent it and then held the connection cable on to reset it. I can happily say it worked and it is now charging! Thanks guys for all your help. TS

I had this problem also, guys. If your battery is too low, you can't dock it, and if you can't dock it, you can't charge it properly. Fantastic logic, Creative. Before I ran into this issue, I knew my battery was low. I started it up and it hung on the Zen screen, great. I discarded the error as an effect of the battery. What I did to eventually get it to charge, is just plug it in with the flashy blue light, leave it for a couple hours, and check on it. There should be a black screen with a charging icon in the top-right. If there isn't, unplug it for a few minutes, then plug it back in and check on it in a couple hours. Just keep repeating this process, it eventually worked for me.

My problem now is that it still won't start. I do disk cleanup in the BIOs but it no longer takes 5 minutes, more like 5 hours. I left it overnight (left plugged in to charge after/while cleanup was in progress) and in the morning, no visible success. Anyone have any idea?

I had the same problem. You need a more different USB Cord (not the one that came with it). Using the different USB cord plug it in to a REGULAR DESKTOP COMPUTER.

It wouldn't charge with my brand new laptop (maybe the USB ports aren't as powerful?).... anyway I plugged it in to a desktop with a more powerful cord (not the one that came with it.. just another regular one) and it charged up fine!!! SUCCESS!!!! SCORE!!!!

Another solution

We have sold Zen Vison M for a While and I Have foud 3 reasons for no turn on.
1 Hard disc problem
2 Firmware problem
3 Battery too low

1 HD damage could be done when you drop the Zen and you hear noises inside, some times the display just shows the Creative logo and no more.
2 the display just show the Creative logo, no noieses inside, you can tray to put in Recovery mode as metioned in the other solution and then erase firmware then reload firmware, this firmware can be donwloaded form creative page,http://us.creative.com/support/downloads/download.asp?MainCategory=213&nRegionFK=&nCountryFK=&nLanguageFK=&sOSName=Windows+XP&region=1&Product_Name=ZEN+Vision%3AM+30GB&Product_ID=16002&modelnumber=&driverlang=1033&OS=10&drivertype=0&x=30&y=12

3 The battery too low and cant be recharged normaly, but the unit turn on and the display imidiatly says that you are conected to a power supply but but no Battery icon flashing

To solve this you have to dissamble the zen vision M then apply 3.7 V with an external regulated power supply to the battery (ther is a pad for the + and the chassis for -)for a few seconds then try to conect the Zen charger to make sure is chargin now, if is chargin you can assamble again quickly and put to charge

Just charge it up as you usually do. I found that after 5-10 mins of just the blue light flicking on and off it switched back on with the message rebuilding and after that it charged up as usual.

I'm having a bigger problem in that I followed the initial steps but somehow the firmware was accidentally deleted and now I can't upgrade it

had the flashing blue light at the top just happen to me as im sitting in the computer cluster at notre dame...read this and just took a staple to push the reset button...problem solved

i too had not used it in about a months

I lost my charger and the hood, i havent used it for months too. my question is if the ipods charger is the same one as the Zen's so i can use it for charging. another question(if the ipods charger is the same as the Zens) i put the ipods charger into the Zen and nothing is happening, not even a blue light. And when i connect the zen with a usb cable to my macbook the computer shuts down the hood the usb is on because it is drawing too much power. please anyone help meeeeee!

I had a similar problem, when i tried to charge my Creative Zen it would only display the "Shutting Down" info on screen (and no battery charging icon), when i tried to shut it off completley it froze on me and no buttons would work. I used a paper clip as said in previous comments and it worked a treat, and also did not delete any of my music!!

creative Vison M series Zen 60gb mp3 player display is disply the screen properly some lines are disply on the screen. please send the soultion urgently. waitinig ur reply

with regards
ajit

yeah same for mine im going to try buying a new sinc cable .. where shall i buy it from ?

My player is totally dead and I cant try the solution to plug into the wall as the cable to connect it covers the reset button!

Here is another solution.

Purchase another sync cable. The cable that came with the Vision M did not properly charge the battery, but when I plugged the Vision into the alternative cable it fired up right away.