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Creative Zen Vision W Teardown

John P.

By

Zen W Ready for DisassemblyAfter my previous review of the Zen Vision W I had a reader Ask the Man the following question:

Hi,

I just got myself a Zen W last X-mas. I think it’s fantastic as well. I bought the 30gb instead of the 60gb thinking I could probably upgrade the hard drive to a higher capacity eventually.

Do you think it’s possible or know what kind of hard disk format they have in those machines?

Thanks One Man!

No, thank YOU for the question! As far as the answer is concerned, there’s only one way to find out… crack that puppy open!

Disassembly

What you will need to open the device:

  • A Jeweler’s Phillips head screwdriver (you know… the really tiny ones).
  • The smallest tweezers you can find (the screws are really small)
  • Nerves of steel and hands like a surgeon (OK, maybe not those two)

What I discovered:

Travelstar C4K60The Creative Zen W utilizes a 1.8″ hard drive with the following specs:

  • The drive, made by Hitachi, is a 3.3 v, 1.8″ Travelstar C4K60 Slim.
  • The 30 GB drive is 5mm thick, the 60 GB drive is 8mm thick.
  • These drives use the ATA-7 interface and a Zero Insertion Force socket. ZIF is a rare interface used only on devices like this, so it’s difficult to work with.
  • The data buffer is 2MB, it spins at 4200 RPM and has average latency of 7.1 ms.
  • If you need a replacement or an upgrade you can search Froogle.
  • If you’ve got a 30 GB model you might consider upgrading to the 60GB Hitachi, or you might wait as this 100GB Toshiba should start production in Jan 2007.
  • If you’ve got the 60 GB version, there is no good upgrade path yet.

How to get at the Hard Drive

Step 1) Remove the battery.

Deep ScrewsStep 2) There are 6 screws that need to be removed underneath the battery. One is behind a tamper-resistant sticker which, if removed will void your warranty.

Removing LabelIn order not to void my own warranty for the purposes of this exploratory surgery I simply used a very sharp pocket knife to gently pry up the sticker so it would be replaceable.

CF SlotStep 3) Remove the Compact Flash slot screws.

Step 4) Gently pry the back cover off the device. This is the tricky part since you don’t want to break anything. Take your time!

ClipI discovered that the best way seems to be to start on the end with the compact flash slot and begin by squeezing the top of the device together a little to try to release the little plastic hook on the inside. Hopefully the image will make clear what you are trying to get at.

Prying OpenAfter releasing that hook there will be enough room to use a pocket knife or some other thin flat piece of metal to slip between the cracks and gently leverage the rest of the device apart.

HD Cover OffStep 5) Loosen (or remove) the four screws holding the hard drive cover on, then remove the cover.

HDStep 6) In order to remove the hard drive, peel back the tape covering the ZIF socket and gently unplug it.

Step 7) Take a beer break and admire what you’ve already accomplished!

Optional

Now that you’ve got it disassembled you can learn How to Upgrade to a Larger Drive.

Comments

  1. have upgraded to a 60gb har drive but it is 3mm to big and i can not get it to close properly?????
    did you have the same problem when you did this to youe zen??
    look forward to your reply
    many thanks

  2. HEY yo like a few comments here, I dropped my zen vision w, and it goes to recovery mode, however i am travelling at the moment and cant format and lose the music i have received while in south america. can anyone suggest a way to get the data off the hard drive so i can reformat and download new firmware?

    MANY THANKS

    Leo Murray

  3. This happened to me too last night! I don’t know what to do. Now I downloaded the firmware and hopefully it will work. I have a 60GB memory and it’s almost FULL. I can’t risk losing all my movies and music cause I don’t have any back ups! Please help…

  4. Hi,

    I’m running into problem disassembling my Zen W 30G. Two of the little screws seem to be stuck. I don’t want to keep trying to aviod stripping the screwhead any further than it has.

    Any suggestions?

    Thanks.

  5. i have a creatiive zen vision m it got tottaly out of charge when i was usin it now wen i plug it into tje laptop only the blue light flashes and nothing happens PLEASEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE HEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEELP!!!!!!!!!!! AS FAST AS POSSIBLE

  6. Hi,

    I need help in unplugging the zif socket from the harddisk. Thank you.

    Rgds,
    Mike

  7. I have a Creative Zen Vision 30 gb when i plug it into the PC it power swhich flashes blue rapidly when i unplug it and try to open blue light flashes again but nothing happens i tried the recovery mode but noting happened. what should i do next? Sincerely

    Ömer KAYA

  8. Hi, i neeed help :D

    i got a creative zen, 30 gig..
    i can’t start it, or doing it on, reset won’t help to..
    if i plug it on my usb into my computer, there’s a small blue light,

    but nothing responds, and it stays on black screen..

    im hopeless, hope you can hellp me.. :'(

  9. hi i have a 30gb zen w and the hard disk broke so im planning to get the toshiba 120gb 1.8″ zif hard drive, i wonder if its gonna fit my zen w because the 30gb hard drive is .5mm thick and the 120gb is .8mm thick. is there anyway i could fit that?

  10. hello there, its written in your post that there is still no upgrade path for the 60g version. do you have one now? i have a 60g version and it stopped working, hard disk problem. can the 100g toshiba fit in the 60g player? thanks.

  11. My zen vision no longer will connect to my computer, when i plug it in to the usb port it just turns it on. It wont even charge it that way anymore

    My computer wont recognise it. HELP?????

  12. hi …same problem i m facing with my zen w..don’t know what to do. if you have any sollution .mail me on my id.

  13. i had the same problem like this i did as u suggested booting and reloading firmware it reloads it then restarts but nothing still happen my zen got spiked i think by a massive electrical power surge from a amps i plugged into it so u know what the possible problem could be the only thing on it when i let it start up straight is a plain “litten” screen with nothing on it

  14. Hi,
    I loaded the newest firmware on my zen vision 60 gig and I didn’t have my music backed up and now I have nothing on my player. Is there any way to recover the data? I still have all the songs, but I had gone it and put all the music into genres and spent a long time making sure everything was labeled correctly and now I am back to square one. Thanks!!!

  15. Hi .i have a same promblem with m zen vision w… don’t know what to do. it only show blue light inside power button but did not start.reply me as soon as posible.thanx in advance.

  16. WTF>>> Can’t used Advanced info/browsing from SD card!?!?!?

    Browsing and playing from your memory card

    1. In the main menu, select Memory Card.
    2. Select Browse.
    3. Select a file or folder to begin browsing, OR press to play files automatically.

    Note

    * As the SD card is accessed as a removable drive, advanced features of the player such as; playlists, searching by artist, album, etc., will not be available. If you would like to use the advanced features of your player, you will need to use your PC to transfer the SD content to your player’s internal memory.

  17. Hi this is kinda weird !! my little brother sticked a Nokia charger inside the headset port (since he assumed that it fits there :\) so i had 2 ICs burned inside !! right behind the port (yellow colored) so i had them changed i started my zen !! it worked very well ! i entered the recovery mode (by using the battery thing) formated the hard drive and it formated verywell then erased the old firmware and connected the zen to my pc the upgraded the firmware and the zen rebooted after finish !! but the peoblem is i see the “Creative” logo and the “ZEN” logo when it start my zen but then i see NOTHING only a black screen

    what do you think the problem is ?! please help

  18. hi there…
    have a problem with my friends creative zen vision w…the player doesnt not start..only showz the blue light next to the power. went to repair it and they told me that the ic had burned i.e, the power ..my friend had put wrong voltage charger which caused the problem..so would like to know what is part no for the ic of the zen vision w as without it i cannot get it repaired..pls help me urgently as i have been searching a solution for this problem…thanks and awaiting ur reply soon!

  19. I dropped mine…

    Now when I turn it on it comes up with Recovery Mode and it says Clean Up, Format All, Reload Firmware or Reboot.
    I made it reboot but it changed nothing. And I tried clean up and it said scanning disk…and nothing happened…it stayed that way for 12 hours til i turned it off again.
    I tried the others but it says Harddisk problem! and can’t do them
    HELPPP also I’ve lost the disk =[

  20. Hi. I just bought the Creative Zen Vision W 60 GB version. Will I be able to install a Toshiba 100 GB harddrive on the 60 GB version ?

  21. I have a 30 gb Zen W and wanted to know if there is anyway to move the music folder to a computer. My hard drive in my computer crashed with all of my music so I am trying to see if I can restore some of that music by moving the music from my zen to the computer. Any help would be greatly appreciated. thanks!

  22. you should boot it into recovery mode by taking out the battery, hold the power switch and put the battery back in while holding the power switch. format all, and then reload firmware. please note you will lose all of your music stored on your zen so you will have to sync it back with your computer once you reload the firmware

  23. Hello.

    I need help. Serious help.
    I accidentally dropped my Zen Vision W, and now it only show the Creative title, no animation of a pool or whatsoever, and it quickly shows me a lit black screen. I’ve tried rebooting it, up to no avail, since it only drains the battery and takes a a long while; I’ve tried to reload the firmware after downloading this program from creative’s website, and it didn’t do anything much, since i hadta reboot but it still won’t get fixed. Also, is it possible for me to fix it by myself? Please, please, pleaaaase help me. I love my Zen to pieces and i think it really would just end in pieces if I don’t get it fixed. :(

    Thank you so much. Hoping for an answer.

  24. does 8gb creative zen work with real player??? i cant find the answer anywere so i thought i would try this. i am thinkin about getting one as soon as possible so try to get back to me asap! Thanx

  26. ok well my zen creative vision W has a cracked screen. i cant see any of what should be there, i dont know if my warranty is up and i was wondering if there is a way to just replace the screen? if you know of anything plz let me know

  27. is there a way to take a FLV and convert it to MPEG or MPG or somehting on the like, so i can put it on my vision w? like when you use real player to download videos off googlevideo or youtube, its in FLV format, and they wont be read by my vision.

    will adobe flashw ork?

  28. Could anyone tell me what size screws are those at the bottom. My apparently were loose, b/c I never tried to take it apart. The little plastic piece fell off the bottom and I couldn’t find any screws that apparently fell out. Please help. I don’t want my Zen to just fall apart.

  29. i have a 60 gig, and iw as wondering if i could put the 100 gig into it? since it says “If you’ve got the 60 GB version, there is no good upgrade path yet.” or would it jsut not be worth it.

  30. First you need adobe flash. if you go to their website you should be able to download a 30 day fully functioning demo for free if you don’t already have it. then make a new flash document in flash, Then under File go to “import to library” navigate to your file and click OK. Now flash will want to convert it to a FLV, basically keep clicking next, you can choose a different skin or quality setting if you like, click OK and it will convert it. Don’t forget to save.

  31. Convert Video to Flash, FLV

    I’ve got a Zen V w newly as a Xmas gift for my cusion. However, he is not right around me, and i just wanna show him the new one.I made a video with my camcoder, and want to show him through my blog as he is a regular to my blog.

    However, I can’t figure out the way how to convert the AVI to Flash video. I’ve looked up all the comments here in vain.

    Anybody has done that before, please let me know, and thanks in advance.

  32. To Olivia:
    find a website on google where it will show you how to yale your :m apart. remove the battery and let the zen dry for a day or so on a windowsill. put it back together and it should work

    general comment:
    I have a zen vision w and it is fantastic but i dropped it. the down button does not work normally so you have to push it on the left part of the down button hard. Great player though. im thinking of upping to 100gig

  33. hello, im looking for some help can anyone let me know where i can buy a new housing for a ceative zen vision m (30 gig one) as the one i have is quite scratched, your halp would be appreciated thanks

  34. The first thing I did was contact customer support via email as I could not find the phone number. They can be contacted here.http://us.creative.com/support/custsup/services.asp click “Free email support button” and after you get through everything about choosing your model etc. Send them a brief message saying what happened and what is wrong. Within a day or so you should get an email telling you who to contact and what phone number to call/ the address to ship to. Once in their wearhouse they tell you the price total they only give you an estimate before. At least that’s how it was with me. Pretty simple pretty quick.

  35. Hi there!
    Can anyone help me? I spilled tea on my creative Zen Vision:M Now it won’t respond to anything I do, as the connection port was damaged. It has some really important photos saved on the hard drive.

    Does anyone know a way of connecting the hard drive to a computer in order to retrieve the data? The drive is a Toshiba HDD1442CZX01.

    Thank you for any suggestions,
    Olivia

  36. well just as a dumb question how would i even contact creative? I’m having a problem with my zen in that the usb port seems to have been damaged. everything works fine except that i cant update any of my music or use the zen as a portable hard drive. this has me bummed out and well I’m pretty sure my warranty has run out… so i check the creative site and they want me to pay 12 dollars just to reach tech support -_-

    that hardly sounds like a good deal

  37. Hi, I accidently fell asleep well listening to my zen a while ago , (little more than a year ago) and I had completly smashed the screen. Of course this had bummed me out, I waited from the announced release date and pre-ordered and everything I even got my Zen 1 month before standard U.S. release date, I had one before CNET, and I had smashed it now after almost a year with it. So I frantically called creative to see if I could be covered by warranty. Alas my warranty was up. They told me , you can send it in on RMA though so we can fix it. So sadly I agreed. I sent it in , payed 20 dollars shipping. 1 week later I got a email back , it was going to cost 50 dollars to replace my screen, “only 50 dollars for the probably most expenisve part of this thing ? wow I guess I’ll pay”. Well 2 weeks later , after reading horror stories of creative not sending products back I got another email saying my zen was on the way , I payed for 2nd day air and they didn’t give me it, they neglected that part of my bill. I opened my package 1 week later, and to my surprise I had not gotten my Zen back at all. To my surprise what they had done was actually sent me , A BRAND NEW ZEN, how awesome was that? and to top things off I had taken my battery off before shipping, AND THEY DIDN’T CARE. So now I had 1 brand new zen for 70 dollars, and an extra battery how sweet is that. And to top things off 2 days later I got a email telling me they refunded me my 14.68 for 2nd day air, I checked my card statement, sure enough they had. Moral of the story, don’t be afraid to send it in to creative, you might even wind up better than what you started and to top things off the guy on the phone when I called to ask about my RMA offered to sell me the official carrying case for 50% off the website price. I’m not sure if it was just me being nice and not trying to be forefull with them about me braking it, or what but they were sure helpfull don’t be afraid to ship it in to creative, you might just get a new Zen like I did. That one experince right there made me a creative customer for life there. Definetly try sending it to creative if you have a problem you don’t know how to fix. I did and look how it turned out for me.

  38. I got the Zen Vision W opened up now and about to put in the new 100 GB HD. Do I need to put back the 2 blue covers on the HD or can i leave that out ???

  39. This happens to me once. It’s quite tricky though, but worth the try. To fix it,
    1.boot it up
    2.when the zen logo appeared, press the back button repeatedly until it goes to the ‘now playing’ screen. This had to be done quickly, just when the zen become responsive after the boot until the song is automatically played.
    3.If it works, the ‘now playing’ screen will just shows up for a few milisecond, and the screen goes back to the previous menu in the player.
    4.Then, quickly turn it off.
    5.All the steps must done in quick succession, if it works, the next time you boot it up, it will go to the main menu.

  40. One thing I found out today, the wallpaper function even works for zoomed in pictures, meaning that while zooming in pictures that is too large for the screen itself, the current part of that picture can be turned to wallpaper, cool!. I’m stupid, I know.

  41. To Sarah:
    It sounds like the front cover control buttons are misaligned and possiblly/damaged. You’ll have to pop the front cover open and investigate. If you aren’t tech savy, find someone who is.
    For example:
    A couple of weeks ago salad dressing spilled all over my device (long story). I used the instructions above to get me halfway, and then I took my time and took the everything apart, and believe me the ‘guk’ was everywhere. I thought the device would never work. But I cleaned everything I could. Happy to say the device still works. There are some residual effects on the screen & the casing looks more worn due to the prying.

    Hope this helps
    -Octelnet

  43. Hey,
    I am freaking out because I dropped my Zen Vision W and now it is stuck on the song that was playing at the time of the accident. All the buttons seem to be unresponsive except for the power and volume buttons (the back button works if you press really hard). So, I can basically move back and forth from the song and the home menu. I’m not sure what to do, and I bought it on ebay so I think the warranty isn’t valid. I emailed Creative customer support and they said that I would need to send it in. Given that my warranty isnt valid, would trying to fix it myself or trying to get it fixed somewhere else a better decision? Has this happened to anyone else? if you know anything…that would be really great
    thanks!!!!

  45. hi, could some one please help me. iv got my zen w 30gb, but the problem im havein at the mo is that it wont let me put any .avi videos on to it. it keeps sayin that it isnt connected, or that it could have disconected. but wen the usb is in its charging. so i do not understand why it isn’t allowing me to put the files on. could some one plase help me??? thank you!!

  46. hey,

    i was hoping someone or anyone could help me.
    i recently bought a zen vision w off of ebay for 36 dollars. yes only $36! it works perfectly, but the catch is, the screen is very distressed. that is, it is cracked and damaged on one side. now, it still works, but i want to replace the screen of course. i don’t think i am covered by the creative warranty since i am a third pary purchaser, (bought from ebay) so i was wondering if anyone knows of a place where i can get the zen vision w repaired.

    now, i personally had a suggestion, maybe someone can tell me if it is theoretically possible or not. the zen vision w has the same size screen as the psp. could i just like buy or use a psp lcd screen as a replacement? now i know there are many other factors to consider, but i just thought i’d fling it out there.

    my main goal is to get this wonderful piece of hardware fixed.
    any help???

    it would be truly appreciated.

  47. octelnat,

    I use an OtterBox, model 2000. It’s a great fit and can be had from Amazon.com for about $20US. There’s just enough room that you can also get a pair of earbuds as well.

    Dan

  48. http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm/Bensussen-Mini-Folio-for-Nintendo-DS-Lite-06971780/sem/rpsm/oid/176947/catOid/-16485/rpem/ccd/productDetail.do

    This one’s in pink, but I bought one that’s all black. The device has fallen a few times, but when mine does, it’s zippered shut and has a little bit of protection (not much, but it’s better than nothing).

    It has a pouch on the back and on the inside which is good enough for carrying earbuds or even a credit card or cash (in case you’re going for a walk or something.

  51. I went down to Walmart and bought a black carrying case designed for a Nintendo DS. It’s black and has a clip on it. My Zen in held in there using industrial strength velcro (also on sale at Walmart).

    You can also use peel screen protectors that are for the PSP as the screen is the exact same size. Watch out for which one you buy. The one I settled on is the Pelican PSP protector. You can see what it looks like at:

    http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=7064874&st=psp+screen+protector&type=product&id=1108125529524

    It doesn’t have that annoying sticker-like problem that affects the picture too much. This is a really nice protector that only really costs about $6.

  52. Hi John P.

    Thanks for your advice, i’ve opened it up, and the connection point is broken off..the exconnection point is about 1 mm big…. :( i cant replace it by myself, but i’ll try to get it fixed at some place later on. I did remove the whole on/off button, and it does look ghetto, but at least i can still use it :)

    Thanks again!

  53. HL,

    I’m sorry to hear about your Zen accident. I know that is terrible. :-(

    The good news is that it is possible that the power button has kind of dislodged its self. When I opened the case I noticed that the button has two little prongs which go on either side of a switch. It is possible that they popped off of it when you dropped it. It’s also possible that it broke… but the only way you are going to find out is to open it up and take a look.

    If one of the prongs broke off of the button you could theoretically just remove the button and leave the little switch inside exposed. It’ll be quite ghetto, but you’d still be able to flip it on and off with a pen or something pointy.

    All I can say is break it open and take a look!

    John

  54. Hi guys,

    Today, on this terrible day, I dropped my beloved Creative Vision W… I could almost cry about it. But the main problem is that the on/off switch is loosse now. I dont even mind that much about the scratches. When i picked it up, the screen was frozen, and the buttons didnt work, maybe cause i put it on hold before it dropped.

    Then I just yanked out the batteries and i know i shouldn’t but there wasn’t anything else I could do. So i tried to open it up, but I don’t have the right tiny screwdrivers here with me. An attempt to this will come later.

    My question was then, since One Man opened up yours, is there like a spring or something which might got loose? So if I would open it up, could i fix it myself? I tried to look for a right angle in your pictures, i just couldn’t find any suitable perspectives. I’ve hooked it up to my pc, and the player says it’s still on hold, thank god it still works. But does this mean that it’s still fixable or not?

    Otherwise I’m just gonna take it to the pc shop down the street, cause in a week when i’m gonna travel by myself. Thank you for reading and hopefully someone could help me out soon :)

  56. For all of you that are still getting updates on these comments, I’ve just published a new article on how to actually complete the hard drive upgrade of the Zen Vision W. I successfully bumped mine up to a 100GB drive, so check it out.

    John

  57. I found a case that works great with the Zen W. It’s made by Otter Box. I got one from Amazon.com. The model is 2000. Fits great and if you’re careful I think you could even get a pair of the earbud earphones in as well.

    Dan

  59. Well I ma thinkin . . . if it plays in laptop . . . and using auto gk, only one that works, ahem… ??

    Any other suggestions on “how” to “process” . . . . using different programs, etc?

    Thanks

  61. Howdy, thought I was pretty quick on the upbeat, but alas, I’m @#$%@$#

    Have a Zen W, downloaded a movie to laptop using cladDVD.net 2.5.6, then use auto GK . . . WELL, plays nice on laptop, but when I transfer to W, video is cool, but NO audio . . . ????

    Where did I make a wrong turn?

    Thanks in advance for all help and consideration.

    Barry

  62. These rapidshare links are a pain in the ass. HOWEVER, I did collect them and transform them all into an ISO image for easy burning to a CD.

    I don’t have a way of mirroring for lots of people, so if anybody would like a copy of the ZVW CD, I would be happy to provide a link for you to download it from.

    Just email me @ onemansblog@hinespot.net.

  64. hi
    i have just received my zen vision w 60 g and its display got scratched the same day it arrived
    i wonder why creative didn”t install any type of decent display protection
    i am thinking now of buying a screen protector from http://pdascreenprotectors.com/
    the problem is that the casing around the lcd screen is very tight on the left border
    could you plz tell me how to disassembe the case plate facing the screen so that i can put the protector on it
    i read very good reviews on their screen protector, they even claim that steel wool can’t scratch it
    thx