ArsTechnica says it seems to have affected all owners of the 30 gig model, and hit no matter what you were doing at the moment:
"i was on the computer my zune was hooked up charging all of the sudden it reset it self and froze on the zune loading logo screen !!!" said ISUZU RODEO on the Zune.net forums. "Same thing just happened to me!" replied momogirl. "Except mine wasn't hooked up to the computer, I was playing music and all of sudden the music stopped and it shut off. I turned the Zune back on and it loaded to 100% but then froze and none of the reset combinations are working."
Microsoft has been embarrassingly slow to respond to the story, but according to MSNBC they've now released the following statement:
“Customers with 30gb Zune devices may experience issues when booting their Zune hardware. We’re aware of the problem and are working to correct it. Sorry for the inconvenience, and thanks for your patience!”
We assume by "your patience" they mean "your many, many class action lawsuits."
We were going to make some pointless Skynet jokes, but the funny has already been exhaustively covered on Gizmodo's board as well as Zune's own forums (which are now offline for "maintenance"—maybe they were hosted on a Zune). We have a feeling that Shatner Zune pic, courtesy of Gizmodo reader Bill Bradski, is going to stick around for a while, though.
(Photo: Bill Bradski or Brasky, Gizmodo isn't sure) [Update: I didn't get that "Brasky" was an SNL reference, my apologies. - CW]
]]>My also generic 20 gig MP3/video/etc player for three years will join you. It was only 50 on an online special back when Circuit City had a future. Well, ok, they never did, but still.
]]>Plus, the Zune Pass is amazing. Download whatever I want for $15 a month? Done. Great system they have set up.
Too bad I cracked the screen on it :( Need to get that fixed...
]]>Huh ? I just loss my bragging rights of two years on my 80gig what am I going to do with a picture of a battery no two pictures of a battery ?
]]>Just because a EULA says something doesn't make it true.
I mean, if I were to say:
THIS POST MAY ONLY BE READ ON THURSDAYS WHILE SITTING NAKED IN A PUBLIC LIBRARY. VIOLATIORS ARE SUBJECT TO A $1000000000000 FINE.
Would I actually be able to fine you 1 trillion dollars for reading the post on a day other than Thursday, while wearing clothes, and not in a public library?
]]>Yes because Zune and ipod are the only options for players out there ... personally I prefer sandisk's players ... cheap and good sound quality.
]]>My guess, is that Microsoft used a component which the developers had not fun working with (probably very badly designed), and decided to scrap it on the new Zune.
]]>@P_Smith: I forgot to add, I would still rather buy another generic 1GB MP3 player of the same brand I have now. It works, it was cheap to buy, and the company lived up to the warranty.
]]>The "black zune of death", brought to you by the same crappy company that gave the world the "blue screen of death" and the "red ring of death".
As the Microshaft ad campaign says,"It's not a bug - it's a feature!"
]]>@ZukeZuke:
damnit, its "KHAN"! no one gets my name right!
@Impius: errr agrre with Molly St.Cyr
]]>@catastrophegirl: I award you many interwebz and T.a.R.D.i.S.(es?)
And I have to agree with catastrophegirl, one of my favorite comments as well.
]]>You may want to look on the "anythingbutipod" site, and see if they have the instructions on how to take your player appart. If it's not under warrenty anymore, your issue may be a very simple fix.
]]>@Meiran:
I agree. The Zen Micro and Zen Vision M are some of the best players out there. It's just too bad they are no longer in production. I can't wait to see what Creative comes out with next. They seem to be taking their sweet time.
There isn't a Zune or iPod out there that can match the ZVM in all around freedom of use, and sound.
]]>Point is, there's enough blame to go around. In the end, this is a minor thing. By the time they put out a firmware update it will fix itself. I'm sure they'll be putting out one to prevent this from happening the next time around.
I love my Zune120--it's, hands down, the best music discovery machine out there.
I also love my iPhone. It is the most beautiful portable computer currently available. It's like touching something out of a sci-fi flick.
Ummm...I don't know where this is going so I'll just say "Happy New Year!".
]]>It was probably an illegal copy of 2am.
I don't have a Zune, so I don't care about this issue. However, as a long time Mac user who used to put Apple on a pedestal and learned through two decades of product use that they are hardly the producer of high quality products that I'd had them cracked up to be, I'd be careful about hugging my hardware too hard. Eventually, you're in for some serious disappointment.
Mainly, I'm glad that there is competition in the market. Zunes are cheap because iPods are relatively expensive. They satisfy a lot of users who can't afford or don't want to fork over the money for an iPod and this is all to the good, even if there are occasional issues such as the one showcased in this post.
]]>@KillTheAcademy: Don't hook it up to a computer if you haven't downloaded the 3.0 firmware yet.
]]>Thanks for the hoot; my iPod is working perfectly, as it has for the last 4 (count them 1,2,3,4) years ...
Time to buy a new Zuni ... not such a good buy after all.
]]>It's a leap year bug, effecting both the central DRM server and the individual Zunes.
366 days this year.
So at 12:01 AM Redmond Time on the 366th day of 2008, everything fell apart at once.
]]>According to Microsoft, this is a bug in the code related to a leap year:
Apple is going to jump all over this, like fucking white on rice.
Although my iPod went through it's self destruct sequence after I had it for a year and 6 months.
]]>@Ninja007:
That's kind of what I was thinking.
]]>Puzzling enough, while many foresaw the Rise of the Machines, it was the unanticipated and equally rapid Fall of the Machines that left humankind scratching its collective heads at what the future might hold.
]]>@muddgirl: I've been using a 160 GB Archos that I got for Xmas '07. I love it.
As an aside, My understanding was that this issue onle affected Gen1 hardware that was running the most recent firmware. My roommate has a Gen2 that he has never updated, it when I called him at around noon PT today he tested it and it worked fine.
]]>A court should order Bill Gates to to a live feed of himself performing Bob Dylan songs until the Zune is fully operational.
]]>Because it's in the mail to RapidRepair for an unrelated problem (blank sceen), but that's beside the point.
]]>How else will they get people to replace their hardware as often as the iFolk?
]]>@Bevill:
It was a pretty obvious joke...
]]>I axidentaly fixed my zune by removing the battery. this reset the zune and it now the operates normally.
]]>Watson! Put down that Steampunk sex toy and come with me, man! The games afoot!
]]>say whatever you want to, but... my iPod actually WORKS right now..... I would say that that makes the iPod much better than the zune
]]>So the line was actually a comment on How Things Work in the consumer electronics market in the U.S. Class actions and their validity and effectiveness--well, that's a much bigger topic than could be packed into that line.
I think to mount an effective class action against Consumerist you'd need to prove that your interpretation of what was written is accurate; in this case, it is not. Also, you'd have to live in Imagination Land.
]]>:-)
]]>Being without my Zune at work on a busy day stinks. :(
]]>@narq: Love my Zen as well, hate that I often have to explain what and how awesome a Zen is to the iPod masses. Mine is tiny, has been beat to hell, and still runs perfectly!
]]>I assume so but i wonder if they will recall all the Zunes that are sitting on store shelves and haven't been sold yet. That would stink to buy a product and have to call tech support and/or do troubleshooting before ever using it. Most people will probably just pack it up and return it.
]]>Heh, as an iPod owner, I kind of went "HAAAA!" when I saw the headline, but the picture made me laugh even harder!
]]>I offered her my iPod Nano and she gave me the glare-o-death. She does love me though. Hehehe!
]]>I'm still enjoying my Z120. :)
]]>This Zune issue seems to have nothing to do with hardware. Since its based on firmware its got to be an error in the api that handles time and date functions. Simple fix I would assume...once you find the error.
]]>The Consumerist writing like a douchebag? Can I get in on a class action about that?
This would only be a class-action case if MS did something intentional, like purposely kill older Zunes to make you upgrade.
Firmware upgrades break things, and it doesn't always happen right away. DirecTV (or was it Dish?) did a bad update that locked up receivers. A recent OS X upgrade left quite a few Macbook Pros bricked. Apple fixed it quick enough.
]]>Just once -- once -- I'd like to see an article on something Microsoft related without HA HA ITS MICROSOFT IT SUX spewed in the comments.
I mean it's not like anything by Apple's ever broken.
More on the subject, it's unfortunate that this happened, and I would expect that it's related to the leap year or other odds and ends about this month.
To that end, I'm pretty sure that if you can dodge the iPissing contest on Gizmodo, there's a thread that details opening the thing up and doing something or other to reset it to a workable state.
]]>@muddgirl:
That's a poor joke then. When the author of the article doesn't bother to spend the 5 minutes it takes to find out what the real problem is nor provide the solution to the problem having other people then provide false information it's not funny.
]]>I like the leap-year theory... I guess we'll see what happens tomorrow.
]]>@ceriphim: I will out meta you with my meta-meta-bandwagon riding.
It says I should make some comment about some company that manufactures something, a distributor of said item where it's customers are the stores that sell the item to end users, and a hamburger.
I'm quite confused.
]]>/Mars Attacks!
]]>Could it be that an Apple fanboi working for Micro$oft slipped some code while developing the Zune to sabotage it?
*kidding, Apple fanbois won't do that, nor will they work for Micro$oft*
]]>http://www.ehow.com/how_4699603_reset-frozen-locked-up-zune.html
]]>Oh well, they will fix it.
]]>It updates automatically when you connect to your computer (or at least asks if you want to update), so most of them have the bad firmware.
It's going to be interesting to see how they fix this since you can't really push a firmware update to a locked up device.
]]>I have long despaired that there are only three options for mp3 players with large memory (Zen, Zune, and iPod). I hope that changes as flash memory becomes much cheaper.
]]>mine froze up last night too, and i just thought it was isolated to just this one. Ooooh, I threw a temper tantrum since it's the only thing that helps me sleep when my bf watches tv or plays games. Now I know i'm not the only one...and it's still frozen. And I like my zune, so I hope it'll start working soon.
]]>...
Oh dear, I've just announced I own a Zune. Should I take my family and I into hiding, now?
]]>First, lighten up.
Second, aren't you also on a bandwagon? The bandwagon of telling others on bandwagons not to be on bandwagons because it is lame to be a bandwagoneer? (Yep, that might have broken space time)
Third, lighten up it's New Year's Eve! Now if you will excuse me I have to figure out a way to un-freeze one of those five zunes.
]]>Did you read the Ars Technica article? It's firmware-dependent; if you have pre-3.0 firmware, you shouldn't be affected.
]]>This is completely false. It's a problem with how the device handles the extra day during a leap year.
]]>Glad I got Mr. Crabby an iPod Touch for xmas! (They're the similar, right?)
]]>This is due to a problem with the device and leap year. It's choking on day 366. There's directions on nearly all tech sites on how to perform a hard reset. Synch the device tomorrow and all should be well.
]]>@James Skahan: So what's the twist? That Bill Gates stole the design for the Zune from Apple in the late 90's, except Steve Jobs purposely put the plans out there for Bill to steal, and included this little hidden "design flaw" that will allow Apple to rise to World Domination by replacing people's defective Zune's with iPod's that contain subliminal messages to destroy all PC's?
I tell my wife all the time; I could totally write this crap.
]]>@Meiran: I always thought the phrase "Last night at X:XX AM" was an oxymoron, since technically anything past midnight *IS* morning.
Would you ever say "I woke up at 9:00AM last night" ?
Hey, bub! That flame thing? Yeah, that a _feature_! You think Apple is gonna care about de-icing your car locks or your cold little tootsies this time of year? Hell no. Let's see you dance that happy little iPod dance with hypothermia.
Regards,
Micr$oft
What a strange occurance. I'm really interested in hearing what caused this, although I'm not affected personally.
On a side note, after reading the Gizmodo comments, I am really thankful for the Comments Code here.
]]>Gizmodo is full of people who are experiencing this on models with the new firmware, but their non-updated ones are fine,
I have a 30GB Zune at home that I am curious to check on. It should have the latest firmware.
]]>It does!
]]>@James Skahan: or "Sounds like a M. Night Shymalan movie" more efficient way of saying the same thing
]]>But what will we listen to?
]]>@TheTick:
Hundreds out of over 2 million is a handful. Maybe we will see more as the day progresses, but I would be surprised if this affected more than few percent of Zune users, which is significantly less than "Every 30GB Zune in the world".
But then again, it's an opportunity to bash Microsoft, so it will likely get blown way out of proportion.
]]>Wow... nobody said that joke before. Here are some other gems you may not have heard:
The PS3 has no games!
The Wii is for kids only!
Apple products are for snobs and iClones!
Since when was being part of a bandwagon fun?
]]>As for the Zunes, this is Microsoft we're talking about. Owners should consider themselves lucky they just stopped working, rather than say, exploded into flames.
]]>@RTFA_SteveDave: It's a good thing I've already played through Fallout 3 so I know how to survive in a post-apocolyptic setting.
]]>@woogychuck: It's hardly a 'handful', as there have been hundreds of reports (a significant number when you consider the Zune market share).
]]>Must get to survival shelter!
]]>"Zunes all over the world foze up at around" What's a foze up?
J/K Chris
]]>My Zune and my wife's Zune are both fine. Called my friend and his is fine to. All of them are 30GB models. Sounds like the statement that all 30GB Zune's broke might be more like some 30GB Zune's broke.
But then again, making grand assumptions based on a handful of forums posts generally works out. Right?
]]>awesome pic. :)
]]>hmmm...havent listened to my zune in a couple of months. wonder what will happen when I turn it on?!?!
]]>a) most people feel the same way I do, which can be summed up in 2 words: "Ha Ha!"
b) everyone in posting in gawker.
Either way, I'm going to go listen to my totally generic mp3 player that has lasted for 2 years without incident even though I only paid $70 for it. Did I mention that I take it into the steam room with me?
]]>@weakdome: I should've read the linked story, apparently it's the "Z2k" bug.
But that still doesn't explain the conflicting lastnight/thismorning :)
]]>So by Zune's all over the world, you mean all 5 of them?
]]>Um... Samsung makes some spiffy mp3 players too, and I've never had an issue with mine...
]]>Was that 2AM last night, or 2AM this morning?
And, what is this, the y2k8/9 bug? Weird.
]]>And I thought the hardware was faulty from only a DRM perspective...
]]>