MP3 Player All Screwed Up-Can you help?

[Cheese32]

Hi! I have a Creative Zen Micro MP3 player. I loaded it onto my laptop when I first received it and it worked great-interfaced with the software-it was awesome. Then I did something terrible-I upgraded the firmware and software in order to use it with a free trial of Napster. Huge mistake. But anyway, I did not like the interface of the new firmware and software and attempted to return to the original version of both. Now my laptop will not recognize the device at all. The "found new hardware" wizard comes up and searches for the driver and cannot find the software. I have been able to get the MP3 player to work properly on my desktop computer though. This is where I was able to install the original software from the disk that came with the device. This is also where I was able to remove the upgraded firmware and install the old firmware. The device works perfectly on the desktop computer-has all the old firmware and software. So, why won't it work on my laptop. I tried uninstalling and reinstalling the software from the CD. Every time I do this it has a problem installing the drivers and stops. I have gotten numerous error messages. I have tried installing the software from the CD in safe mode. I have tried what Creative Labs suggested and uninstalled the USB Root hubs from the device manager, rebooting and letting the computer find them itself. This has created another problem-the computer doesn't find them itself, even when I try putting the XP CD in the drive! So, I've done a system restore to get my USB root hubs back (which by the way, work perfectly with any other USB device I try to use on my computer-mouse, camera, jump drive). So, why is it that the MP3 player works perfectly on the desktop, but won't be recognized on the laptop, which is where I want to use it? Is there any way to pinpoint the problem and avoid Dell's solution (reload Windows XP)?
Here are my laptop specifics and some of the error messages I've seen:
Dell Inspiron 5100
Pentium 4, 2.66 Ghz
512 MB RAM
Windows XP Home Edition Service Pack 2

Main error from Found New Hardware Wizard: Cannot Install this Hardware. There was a problem installing this hardware: USB Creative Zen Micro
An error occurred during the installation of the device. The data is invalid.

In device manager: This device is not configured correctly. (Code 1.)

When I tried installing the software in safe mode, I got this: "The file 'ctpdusb.sys' on Creative Jukebox Family Installation Disk #1 is needed." (This happened while the install disk is in the drive.)
Also in safe mode: Exception EFCreateError in module Intro.exe at 0000AD46. Cannot create file C:\DOCUME~1\ADMINI~1.LAP\LOCALS~1\Temp\welcome1.in i

One time while reinstalling the software I got "Setup NOMAD Jukebox 2, 3, Zen, ZenNX, Xtra, Zen Touch & Zen Micro Driver-An error occurred while setting up the driver."

Sorry for the horribly long post, but I've just been dealing with this for days and it's horribly frustrating that it works perfectly on one computer and the other one won't even recognize the thing. Please help! Thank you!

[jcnoernberg]

Do you have the software drivers for the player on each computer?

[Cheese32]

Yes. I loaded everything from the disk onto the desktop when I was trying to figure out if the device would work anywhere.

[Paul Komski]

Once the association between a usb device and its driver software gets corrupted it can be a major problem in getting back to square one. In other words, after the first firmware change, it looks as if the software tracking your drives got stuck with the change and you cant now get back to use or install the original software configuration nor uninstalle the changed configuration. I have been is such a situation and had to either restore an image of my original good system or reinstall afresh.

You could try a repair installation http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm if the Dell CD will allow this.