Creative Labs' Nomad Jukebox Zen Xtra 40GB - Extra Storage

The Test

Our test bed was simply used to transfer files, nothing more and nothing less. Using lesser scaled system should yield similar results, so long as the system is capable of USB 2.0/1.1.

Windows XP Professional Test System
CPU(s):	Pentium 4 3.0C GHz
Motherboard(s):	MSI 875P Neo-FIS2R
Memory:	2GB Kingston HyperX PC4000
Hard Drive:	Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 120GB
CDROM:	Pioneer DVD(16X)/CD-ROM(40X)
Video Card(s):	ATI All-in-Wonder 9600 XT
Ethernet:	Onboard 3Com 10/100
Operating System:	Windows XP Professional SP1
Video Drivers:	ATI Catalyst 3.8

Battery charging specs of Creative's Jukebox Zen Xtra (no USB charging capability):

• DC power: full charge in 4 hours

For testing flash media, we used Kingston's six-in-one USB 2.0 hi-speed flash card reader/writer.

We should note that we encountered an interesting problem when we were testing our Nomad Jukebox Zen Xtra and Dell Digital Jukebox. By coincidence, we used our multimedia test bed to benchmark our MP3 players, which consists of an Asus P4R800-VM motherboard based on the 9100 IGP chipset. For whatever reason, the USB drivers seemed to have some sort of a conflict with the Jukebox series of Creative's MP3 players, which includes the Dell Digital Jukebox.

The problem occurred when we tried to transfer large amounts of MP3s or data files. For whatever reason, the MP3 players would lock up and crash after about the third file. Deleting large amounts of MP3s or data files weren't an issue, but adding them was. This seems to be the greatest problem of the problems out there, but the reasons behind it are various, according to the Creative's knowledge base web page. And another reason to add to the list may be compatible hardware.

Our MSI 875P Neo-FIS2R based test bed didn't have any issues; neither did our Centrino based laptops. We are not sure if this is a measure of Asus' engineering or ATI's, since we have not yet had the time to test out other 9100 IGP motherboards or check out SiS, VIA, or NVIDIA based systems. Either way, we know for sure that there is something definitely wrong with the P4R800-VM, despite our attempts at updating the BIOS and drivers. When we have more free time on our hands, we will look into it.