Apologies for the late response - I just came across this question via Google.
I've had the exact same problem, and after asking Creative discovered that it costs £80 for an out of warranty repair (considering the player was £130 when it was purchased, I thought this was a bit steep).
As a (seemingly obvious) side note, don't try and open it up for repair yourself. There are a lot of connectors which break easily, and take the best part of an hour to put back together again (and the the plastic will snap). I learnt the hard way...
Rob
June 2006