Eomer
08-16-2002, 04:00 PM
About two years ago I bought a 64 mb (32 internal, 32 smartdisk flash card) Nomad player, one of the original mp3 players. I loved it, the sound quality wasn't as good as a CD player, but it was nice and small, completely rechargeable, and easy to load music onto (although slow, as it used a printer port as its interface). I used it for jogging and other active things, cause obviously it doesn't skip.
I stopped using it last fall cause I didn't feel like running in the dead of winter, and haven't used it since. When I bought it I was using 98, I have since upgraded to XP. And joy of joys, the drivers and software that came with it don't work with XP, period. Basically, I now have a item that I bought for $150 CDN, that only plays the 6 Alien Ant Farm songs I loaded into it last fall (out of all the fucking music to have on it, why couldn't I have Tool or Led Zep or something).
Does anyone know of any places that have some user made programs that work with XP? Is there any hope for me? I have been talking with Creative, and they are essentially telling me too fucking bad for you.
My first letter to them:
"I have not attempted to use my Nomad player in the past six
months. When I originally purchased it, I was running my
computers on Windows 98. I recently upgraded to XP, and
decided to move some songs onto my player. I installed the
Nomad manager that came with the player on my computer,
chose to continue when Windows XP warned me about the
certification mumbo jumbo. But now when I start up the
Nomad manager, it is unable to connect to my player. It
says "Port Open Failure" and then goes to the information
screen.
Does the Nomad player not work with the Windows XP
operating system?"
Their reply:
"At this time we will not be releasing a Nomad Manager or drivers for Windows XP. For more information, you can check www.nomadworld.com or our news server at:
news://news.soundblaster.com
More information about the news server is available at:
http://www.americas.creative.com/support/news-server/
I have heard that there might be software available that will allow the Nomad to work under XP, but it would not be supported by Creative. You might be able to find more information on the newsgroups.
Larry
Creative Labs Technical Support "
My slightly unhappy reply:
"So essentially I am being told that my Nomad player is
now useless, due to Creative's unwillingness to
support their products?
How would I go about seeking a refund, or exchange for
a product that does work?"
Their reply:
"Marcel,
The only method for obtaining a refund is through the vendor (original place of purchase). We can only accept a returned unit if the product is possibly defective, in which case an RMA would be issued. The Creative Labs RMA (Return Merchandise Authorization) facility's responsibility is to test and repair/replace defective products once our technical support agents have determined the product to be defective via troubleshooting steps.
For example, if you purchase a Black & Decker blender from Sears, you could not return the blender to Black & Decker if it did not meet your expectations, unless the blender was defective, and the situation would continue with Black & Decker's return procedures, etc.
If the product was purchased directly from the Creative Labs' Customer Service department and you are within their refund/return warranty period, you can contact them via telephone at (800) 998-1000. Ensure to have your order number(s) and product serial number(s) in hand.
Michael"
Well, the place I bought it at went tits up about two weeks after I bought it, and even if they hadn't, I am sure they wouldn't take it back, and I wouldn't blame them. It's not their fault. But whatever. My latest reply:
"This is not a matter of the product not "meeting my
expectations". The product I purchased now no longer
has a large part of its functionality working, due to
Creative's unwillingness to release driver updates
for arguably the most popular and current operating
system.
My Nomad player essentially is now the equivalent of
one hour of music that I cannot change, edit, or
otherwise modify. While I agree the hardware itself
is not defective, the software is.
I will surely keep this in mind the next time I
stumble and consider purchasing any Creative product."
I stopped using it last fall cause I didn't feel like running in the dead of winter, and haven't used it since. When I bought it I was using 98, I have since upgraded to XP. And joy of joys, the drivers and software that came with it don't work with XP, period. Basically, I now have a item that I bought for $150 CDN, that only plays the 6 Alien Ant Farm songs I loaded into it last fall (out of all the fucking music to have on it, why couldn't I have Tool or Led Zep or something).
Does anyone know of any places that have some user made programs that work with XP? Is there any hope for me? I have been talking with Creative, and they are essentially telling me too fucking bad for you.
My first letter to them:
"I have not attempted to use my Nomad player in the past six
months. When I originally purchased it, I was running my
computers on Windows 98. I recently upgraded to XP, and
decided to move some songs onto my player. I installed the
Nomad manager that came with the player on my computer,
chose to continue when Windows XP warned me about the
certification mumbo jumbo. But now when I start up the
Nomad manager, it is unable to connect to my player. It
says "Port Open Failure" and then goes to the information
screen.
Does the Nomad player not work with the Windows XP
operating system?"
Their reply:
"At this time we will not be releasing a Nomad Manager or drivers for Windows XP. For more information, you can check www.nomadworld.com or our news server at:
news://news.soundblaster.com
More information about the news server is available at:
http://www.americas.creative.com/support/news-server/
I have heard that there might be software available that will allow the Nomad to work under XP, but it would not be supported by Creative. You might be able to find more information on the newsgroups.
Larry
Creative Labs Technical Support "
My slightly unhappy reply:
"So essentially I am being told that my Nomad player is
now useless, due to Creative's unwillingness to
support their products?
How would I go about seeking a refund, or exchange for
a product that does work?"
Their reply:
"Marcel,
The only method for obtaining a refund is through the vendor (original place of purchase). We can only accept a returned unit if the product is possibly defective, in which case an RMA would be issued. The Creative Labs RMA (Return Merchandise Authorization) facility's responsibility is to test and repair/replace defective products once our technical support agents have determined the product to be defective via troubleshooting steps.
For example, if you purchase a Black & Decker blender from Sears, you could not return the blender to Black & Decker if it did not meet your expectations, unless the blender was defective, and the situation would continue with Black & Decker's return procedures, etc.
If the product was purchased directly from the Creative Labs' Customer Service department and you are within their refund/return warranty period, you can contact them via telephone at (800) 998-1000. Ensure to have your order number(s) and product serial number(s) in hand.
Michael"
Well, the place I bought it at went tits up about two weeks after I bought it, and even if they hadn't, I am sure they wouldn't take it back, and I wouldn't blame them. It's not their fault. But whatever. My latest reply:
"This is not a matter of the product not "meeting my
expectations". The product I purchased now no longer
has a large part of its functionality working, due to
Creative's unwillingness to release driver updates
for arguably the most popular and current operating
system.
My Nomad player essentially is now the equivalent of
one hour of music that I cannot change, edit, or
otherwise modify. While I agree the hardware itself
is not defective, the software is.
I will surely keep this in mind the next time I
stumble and consider purchasing any Creative product."