I’m here to give you some advice.
If you’re ever in the market for an MP3 player, stay clear of the Creative ZEN V-PLUS model… Run like hell, go like “HOLY SHIT, IT’S A LION, GET IN THE CAR!!!!1one”
I’ve had the horror to own one of these pieces of shit and, surprisingly, at first I was actually enthusiastic about it. I mean it can do a lot of stuff like having playlists, having a radio module, a recording module and more. And they worked fine (notice the past tense).
It has no problem doing its tasks BUT.
Of all the things you ask of it, don’t ask it to connect to a computer. The damn thing wouldn’t stay connected for more than two seconds. At first I thought it was the computer, but other things work fine. I mean printers, cameras, PSP’s flash drives and others work fine in the same USB port, but this piece of plastic shit won’t. Fine. Google for some help. Apparently Windows is at fault. WINDOWS?!?!?!? How can a device NOT be compatible to fucking WINDOS XP?!?!? I had to dig my way through doubtful forums to get a fix. And finally I could get some MUSIC on the freggin bastard.
Worked fine for a while but then. While walking to school with it in my pocket it stopped playing halfway through Metallica’s “Harvester of Sorrow” where there is a slight pause for the ol’ dramatic effect. I thought “WHAT THE FUCK? The damn thing builds up tension in songs?” No… It does this annoying little thing that when it’s in LOCK mode, it freezes up halfway through a song. Why have a lock feature when it fucks up the playback ability? What if I keep my player in a goddamn backpack? Am I supposed to fiddle wit it every two minutes? Fuck that.
It is an inconvenience to keep it in my pocket without being locked. But the songs didn’t change accidentally, so it wasn’t SUCH a biggie.
And then the battery ran out.
OK… no problem, I’ll just recharge it!
Think again…
It wouldn’t charge through the USB port in my computer. All four of them. It would do the disconnecting gig again. Do I have to patch my fucking Windows every time I plug the little black crap in? Yes… Does it work every time? NO… I’m better of hoping to win the lottery. Jesus fucking Christ!
OK… so an external charger would work, right. Got a compatible one out, hooked it up and… Presto! It was charging! After a couple of hours I got back to it. And even though it appeared to be charging on it’s little display, when I unplugged it… *gasp* battery low. BATTERY LOW!!! BATTERY FUCKING LOW!!!!!! DIE IN A FUCKING FIRE YOU SATANIC CRAP!!!! Why the fuck won’t it load? Why GOD???
Work you tech muscle, reboot the computer a couple of times and get it to charge off USB. Right… I was now pissed but at least it was charging…
So after it got charged (timed it just right) I unplugged it and went off on a 5 hour train trip. After about two hours of playing time, I lifted it up the little table in the train. I browsed to a new playlist and selected it to play… Selected it to play! SELECTED A FUCKING PLAYLIST TO PLAY!!! GIVE ME MY FUCKING METALLICA BEFORE I GET UP AND KILL THE CRYING BABY AND THE BITCH THAT’S BEEN TALKING WITH HER MOTHER FOR THE LAST HALF HOUR ON LOUDSPEAKER ABOUT SOME RANDOM SHIT!!! Chill… chill….
Remember that it had a reset button on its side… Get out a mechanical pencil and hope that when I press the little button it won’t erase my beautiful music.
*click*
*Rebuilding Library*… Great… My music’s gon- oh look… it’s still there! Good boy! Good boy!
Listened for another hour and decided to change the playlist again. Browsed through the menu again and then, when I clicked the button to select, my screen went dark.
What the fuck? Why? *screen displaying nothing* *shake*… ‘the fuck?
I tried rebooting. Nothing… The damned thing still played music but the screen is dead.
After I got home, I decided to find out what had happened.
Teh internets told me that all these were common problems. That my screen had probably cracked (fact confirmed by a black blob that I see on the display. A sort of gloomy Gish of Death…)
So… This is my experience with this crap…
If it’s still working, it’s a great device. But be warned, when the shit hits the fan, it breaks down and it becomes useless…
After this experience I’m not going to touch Creative products even with a 20 foot pole. My last MP3 player which was a Made in China device, a no-name shit held up WAY longer that this branded turd.
The Creative ZEN V-PLUS broke down without me abusing it. I mean it’s display cracked from a mere transition from hot air to AC air (now that I think of it). If my PSP had done the same I would have burnt down all Sony’s facilities.
It was a disappointing price to quality ratio. But the hell… Creative just sold me to the competition (whichever that may be)
I’m stuck with a player that will only play one playlist, feature that can be done with a mere iPod shuffle. I think I’ll go for that next (whenever that will be)
So, in conclusion, if you want to buy a player, don’t even think of a Creative ZEN V-PLUS. If you already own one… You poor bastard…
Să vedem… 
