Creative ZEN

[chrisjj]

Thanks to the incredible work here, I have upgraded two of my old 8gb Creative Zens to rockbox and am beyond happy with the results.

Do you have the problem that I found on every unit I tried? "about one in five RB start-ups fails with a BSoD requiring reset."

Since I had to dig around to put the procedure together, I thought I would reproduce exactly what I did to get mine working.  I am using Windows 7 64 bit, but I expect the procedure should be similar for other windows versions.

Thanks. Well Done!

[dodddummy]

I've installed Rockbox on a creative zen and it works well.  Thanks!  There are a couple of things that seem like minor bugs but I'm not sure where to post them.

1) When I connect to my computer via USB the screen says, "Discharging", but it's clearly charging.
2) 'Battery' keeps cycling between 83% and 96% when it's finished charging. What does this mean?
3) I'm not sure this is a bug but it's different behavior than my Sansa e280 v2.  But when I used headphones that also have mic, the volume is much lower when plugged in fully.  I have to unplug it a millimeter or 2 to get full volume.  As I said, the e280 doesn't have this issue.

I've been using Rockbox for ages and it's a great project. 

[pamaury]

Hi all,
I manage to reproduce the LCD problem on my ZEN X-Fi and traced it back to a hardware bug. I have implement a tentative workaround in
http://gerrit.rockbox.org/r/#/c/1428/
which completely solves the problem on my device. I'd like to get the feedback of more testers. Here are builds with the patch, note that you need to install a new bootloader because this is where the problem usually happens. As usual follow the instruction from https://www.rockbox.org/wiki/CreativeZENPort: download the firmware_zen_lcd.nk file and upload it using sendfirm.

• new bootloader: https://www.dropbox.com/s/7ebre030vx3qp1h/firmware_zen_lcd.nk?dl=0
• new build: https://www.dropbox.com/s/i04b1468tci9ju1/rockbox_zen_lcd.zip?dl=0

NOTE: for size reasons, the bootloader is singleboot (ie you can't boot the OF), this should not be a problem since you can't really dualboot unless you reformat anyway.

[chrisjj]

Hi all,
I manage to reproduce the LCD problem on my ZEN X-Fi and traced it back to a hardware bug. I have implement a tentative workaround in
http://gerrit.rockbox.org/r/#/c/1428/
which completely solves the problem on my device. I'd like to get the feedback of more testers. Here are builds with the patch, note that you need to install a new bootloader because this is where the problem usually happens. As usual follow the instruction from https://www.rockbox.org/wiki/CreativeZENPort: download the firmware_zen_lcd.nk file and upload it using sendfirm.

• new bootloader: https://www.dropbox.com/s/7ebre030vx3qp1h/firmware_zen_lcd.nk?dl=0
• new build: https://www.dropbox.com/s/i04b1468tci9ju1/rockbox_zen_lcd.zip?dl=0

Many thanks. Swift tests show success on one unit and fail on another. I'll do thorough tests on more units and report.

Notes for other testers:

* Not mentioned in the install instructions is that (ISTM) you need to launch Reload Firmware with USB unplugged, then when asked to start download, plug in USB.
* Firmware filename differs from the previous version.
* To rapidly cycle the boot sequence, hold down the power slider.

[RufusA]

Excellent work / effort Amaury - as ever!

I had a pre-owned Zen knocking round in a drawer (which I'd had to enlarge the reset hole to headphone size, due to the frequent LCD issues on boot); since installing this revised bootloader / rockbox it's not hung once out of 30 starts. Previously it was nearer a 50:50 failure rate.

So whatever you did, has worked for me!

Similar 100% success with my X-Fi, which was failing around 1 in 5 and again hasn't hung in 30 starts.

Many thanks for all your hard work and tenacity - Rufus.

[chrisjj]

Issue 3 - Options (menu) and My Shortcut buttons have no effect

I'm guessing this is a bug, since http://www.rockbox.org/wiki/CreativeZENPort "Keys 90%  Buttons are working but the driver could be smarter and save power." and http://git.rockbox.org/?p=rockbox.git;a=blob;f=apps/keymaps/keymap-zen.c;hb=HEAD says

As of this new build http://forums.rockbox.org/index.php/topic,13462.msg238539.html#msg238539 :

 * ZEN Options (menu) operates Rockbox context menu. Great!
 * ZEN My Shortcut button still does nothing AFAICS.

[chrisjj]

Hi all,
I manage to reproduce the LCD problem on my ZEN X-Fi and traced it back to a hardware bug. I have implement a tentative workaround in
http://gerrit.rockbox.org/r/#/c/1428/
which completely solves the problem on my device. I'd like to get the feedback of more testers. Here are builds with the patch, note that you need to install a new bootloader because this is where the problem usually happens. As usual follow the instruction from https://www.rockbox.org/wiki/CreativeZENPort: download the firmware_zen_lcd.nk file and upload it using sendfirm.

• new bootloader: https://www.dropbox.com/s/7ebre030vx3qp1h/firmware_zen_lcd.nk?dl=0
• new build: https://www.dropbox.com/s/i04b1468tci9ju1/rockbox_zen_lcd.zip?dl=0

I'm interpreting "the LCD problem" to refer to the two closely related problems I reported here:

"Issue 4 - Lock-up with black screen".

Description: Sometimes upon Rockbox program launch, the device goes unresponsive to buttons, showing a black screen.
[...]
* Also plugging/unplugging USB sometimes leads to the same locked-up state.

Testing the new version found BSoD on boot between 1 in 100 and never (depending on unit), and BSoD on USB plug/unplug never. Details below.

I think that puts Creative ZEN Rockbox firmly in business! A great achievement Amaury! Well done and many thanks.

Chris


TEST EQUIPMENT

Creative ZEN units that all work fine with the OF. Previously the 2014-07-20 version of Rockbox firmware and player (Boot version: V1Beta2_fbf8aa1) was tested on most of them and in all such cases but one, worked without major problem except this BSoD..


TEST SETUP

1 Using this method install:

• New bootloader: https://www.dropbox.com/s/7ebre030vx3qp1h/firmware_zen_lcd.nk?dl=0

45697a0bf-161212

• New build: https://www.dropbox.com/s/i04b1468tci9ju1/rockbox_zen_lcd.zip?dl=0

2 Copy an audio file to the device and play it (to avoid USB unplug causing "Error accessing playlist control file" and then *PANIC*)


TEST PROCEDURE for boot

I used a clip to hold down the power ("On/Off/Lock") button, and another to facilitate reset access.

1 Ensure the unit is fully charged
2 Ensure no connected charger (to evade the Rockbox check that mistakes the charger for a USB host) or USB to PC.
3 Power-on the device
4 In Settings, General Settings, Display, LCD Settings, Backlight, set On (to avoid any test non-fail halt causing a blank display)
5 In Settings, General Settings, Display, LCD Settings, Brightness, set 10 (to maximise charge life)
6 Attach the clip to hold down the power ("On/Off/Lock") button. The device boots and reaches the Rockbox menu, and then shuts-down and repeats. (Cycle duration is ~6s.)
7 After two hours (i.e. inside the charge life), verify that the device is still cycling through boot and main menu.

If this verification succeeded, the test result is Success, else it is Fail.

8 After a fail, to restart, release the power button (simply pressing reset fails), press reset, and then restore the clip holding down the power button.


TEST RESULTS for boot

* Unit P (2Gb): Success.

* Unit N (4Gb, suffering from a regular scatter of coloured dots on Rockbox, but not OF). Fail.

Fail is on first cycle, every time. Showing Data abort at 6002C7C0. After restoring the Creative firmware and the reinstalling Rockbox firmware, again fail, but showing Data abort at 6004c494.

* Unit L (8Gb): Fail. First 100 cycles usually succeed.

* Unit G (8Gb): Fail. First 100 cycles usually succeed.

* Unit T (16Gb): Fail. First 100 cycles usually succeed.

* Unit AC (32Gb): Success.


TEST PROCEDURE for USB

1 Power-on the device
2 Plug-in USB connected to PC
3 Verify the device display shows the USB plug picture
5 Unplug USB
6 Verify the device display shows main menu
7 Repeat from 2.


TEST RESULTS for USB

* Unit P (2Gb): Success.

* Unit AC (32Gb): Success.

[chrisjj]

On a new install of Rockbox zen_lcd on a Creative Zen:

1 Reset device
2 Plug-in USB and wait for device to say "Bootloader USB mode"
3 Unplug USB and wait for main menu
4 Plug-in USB and wait for device to show USB plug pic
5 Unplug USB and see "Error accessing playlist control file" pop-up
6 While pop-up shows, plug-in USB

Expected: Device shows main menu
Observed: Device hangs (EDIT: with LED lit), showing

*PANIC*
usb_storage_initconnection(): OOM
pc:6006CDC0 sp:600EC6B8
        A: 6006AF38
        A: 6006B50C
        A: 6004E43C
bt end

Workaround: First play a track!

[viggen66]

Pamaury,

Excellent work, never had a boot hang after your bootloader update, awesome accomplishment. 

[chrisjj]

never had a boot hang after your bootloader update

FTR, which .rockbox Version are you running?

[ch3mn3y]

I seem to not be able to flash any nk file. When sending firmware_zen_lcd.nk there is Error occured during sending!, and when trying to install older firmware_zen.nk, there is Error while opening firmware_zen.nk! + Error occured during sending!

I'm doing it on Win8.1, but I have done it before on the same machine, so not sure what's wrong?

[pamaury]

I seem to not be able to flash any nk file. When sending firmware_zen_lcd.nk there is Error occured during sending!, and when trying to install older firmware_zen.nk, there is Error while opening firmware_zen.nk! + Error occured during sending!

I'm doing it on Win8.1, but I have done it before on the same machine, so not sure what's wrong?

Maybe you forgot to erase the previous firmware ? As explained in https://www.rockbox.org/wiki/CreativeZEN, you need to power off the device, press the play button and power on (keep holding). You get the recovery menu, select "Reload firmware", then send the file.

[RufusLoacker]

I seem to not be able to flash any nk file. When sending firmware_zen_lcd.nk there is Error occured during sending!, and when trying to install older firmware_zen.nk, there is Error while opening firmware_zen.nk! + Error occured during sending!

I'm doing it on Win8.1, but I have done it before on the same machine, so not sure what's wrong?

Maybe you forgot to erase the previous firmware ? As explained in https://www.rockbox.org/wiki/CreativeZEN, you need to power off the device, press the play button and power on (keep holding). You get the recovery menu, select "Reload firmware", then send the file.

I'm having the same problem, and even the Creative firmware loader doesn't recognize the device as connected. TRied multiple combinations of erasing firmware/plugging it in, different usb ports...
I'm on Windows 10

 I fear I may have bricked it lol

[pamaury]

So, let me be more precise:

• can you access recovery menu (by holding play button on boot) ?
• did you select "Reload firmware" in it ?
• when you plug the device after that, does Windows detect a device ? (it does not necessarily appear as a drive)
• did you try to uninstall the device in windows device manager ?
• have you tried another usb cable ?

[RufusLoacker]

So, let me be more precise:

• can you access recovery menu (by holding play button on boot) ?
• did you select "Reload firmware" in it ?
• when you plug the device after that, does Windows detect a device ? (it does not necessarily appear as a drive)
• did you try to uninstall the device in windows device manager ?
• have you tried another usb cable ?

Unfortunately, yes to all, but to no avail.