Zen Sleek Photo 20 g

Ha, I think I know how to fix this. I've brought five units back from the dead this way.

The key to making the computer recognize the player is to uninstall all traces of Windows Media Player version 11 from your computer programs. The creative software and WMP11 are not simultaneously compatible. Use the uninstall function in your compuer's "control panel". Don't worry, it's easy and free to put them back on form the internet. If you don't know how to do this, ask a moderately savvy computer user to show you how. Then restart the computer, attach the Sleek, and reload the firmware from Creative's support site.

Use this link if you have the sleek, not the sleek photo:
http://support.creative.com/Products/ProductDetails.aspx?catID=213&subCatID=214&prodID=14259&prodName=Zen%20Sleek%20Photo&subCatName=ZEN&CatName=MP3+Players

and this one if you have the sleek photo:
http://support.creative.com/Products/ProductDetails.aspx?catID=213&subCatID=214&prodID=14259&prodName=Zen%20Sleek%20Photo&subCatName=ZEN&CatName=MP3+Players

Unfortunately your music is gone so I hope yu had back-up files. Good luck.

I am also facing the same problem try unistalling WMP11 and then connect it if it works then do reply me on [email protected]

The recovery tool mentioned above is not designed for the sleek photo. You need to download the firmware for the sleek photo from creative's site. Now we need to get your player recognized to get the firmware loaded. If you have Windows Media Player 11, it needs to be removed. Also remove WMP runtime. After that, restart the pc and your player should be recognized. You can then double click on the firmware program to run it. It might say something like, this firmaware is already installed...do you want to reload it? Click yes to reload.

I had the same problem with my sleek photo. Once I got rid of WMP and the runtime everything worked like a charm.

I got my Creative Zen Sleek Photo from a friend and everything I did wouldn't let Windows recognize it, but then I got it to work almost magically.

1. Make sure you have the proper drivers installed for it that come with the CD. If you don't have the CD, you can download the ISO here.
http://wp.randyr.net/windows-xp/creative-zen-sleek-photo.html

2. Reboot. When it comes back up, plug the cable into your computer, then into your Sleek. The software should sync up. For some reason, my Zen wasn't being recognized from the usb port on my computer tower, but I plugged it into my monitor's USB port and then it worked. Try that, if none of that works, then it may be a problem with your computer not knowing which driver to assign to your Zen, and if so, try the steps below.

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1. Plug your Sleek to your computer.
2. Open up Windows' Device manager (right-click on "My Computer" and select "Properties". Go to the "Hardware" tab, then click "Device Manager").
3. Locate the entry for "Creative Zen Sleek" in your device list. It should appear either under "Sound, video, and game controllers" or under "USB Devices". Once you locate the entry, uninstall it.
4. Unplug your Sleek and wait a few seconds.
5. Plug your Sleek back in and allow the "new Hardware Wizard" to identify and install the drivers for it.

I have the sleek photo and mine bugged out. It would go to the splash screen and then go blank and just sit there. Nothing would respond. I tried reset, reboot and other things too. My pc also would not recognize the player. To make a long story short, I tried other suggestions I found on the web. They didn't work and my player would now only go to a garbled splash screen and go right to the recovery screen.


I had the new firmware, but I couldn't use it because the pc wouldn't detect the goofy player. Then I ran across a site that mentioned that Windows Media Player can cause player recognition problems. I removed both WMP (mine was 11) and WMP runtime using the add/remove programs option on the control panel. I restarted the pc and BAM! the player was now recognized. I ran the new firmware application and the player works fine now. The key for me was getting rid of WMP and the WMP runtime.

I have the sleek photo and mine bugged out yesterday. It would go to the splash screen and then go blank and just sit there. Nothing would respond. I tried reset, reboot and other things too. My pc also would not recognize the player. To make a long story short, I tried other suggestions I found on the web. They didn't work and my player would now only go to a garbled splash screen and go right to the recovery screen.


I had the new firmware, but I couldn't use it because the pc wouldn't detect the goofy player. Then I ran across a site that mentioned that Windows Media Player can cause player recognition problems. I removed both WMP (mine was 11) and WMP runtime using the add/remove programs option on the control panel. I restarted the pc and BAM! the player was now recognized. I ran the new firmware application and the player works fine now. The key for me was getting rid of WMP and the WMP runtime.

This is what I found. Windows Media Player 11 messes it up. All you have to do is uninstall anything Windows Media Player 11 and then run the firmware upgrader. It's some sort of but. You can reinstall WMP when your done installing the firmware. I found it on the creative forum.

hard drive sounds bad. has it been dropped?
try to do a cleanup

1. Detach the Zen player from your PC , and ensure that the Zen Sleek is turned off.

2. Connect the power supply to the player.
3. Hold down the Play/Pause button while inserting a paper clip into the Reset hole
underneath your player, beside the data/power connector. Keep on holding the
Play/Pause button while you release the Reset button. The Rescue Mode screen will
then appear.
4. After the recovery mode has started, release the Play/Pause button

It will display the following options.
Clean Up Scans the player and removes invalid links from its music library.
Does not affect music files themselves.
Format (All) Caution! Erases all content!
Save a copy of your player's content before formatting.
Reload OS/ Firmware Caution! Erases your player's firmware.
DO NOT select the Reload Firmware option unless you have access to a PC and you have downloaded the necessary firmware to install.
Reboot Reboots the device.

try the Reload Firmware option from the Recovery Mode menu? It makes a huge difference!

Seeing as how you can access Recovery Mode, can perform its disk operations, and seeing as how your computer does recognize it, it seems there's a good chance it's simply firmware corruption causing your problem.

wont respond to anything, try this, plug it in to the computer, hold the power switch in the on position, THEN trigger the reset button, worked like a charm for mine, I had thought it a lost cause."try the Reload Firmware option from the Recovery Mode menu? It makes a huge difference!

Seeing as how you can access Recovery Mode, can perform its disk operations, and seeing as how your computer does recognize it, it seems there's a good chance it's simply firmware corruption causing your problem.