Every Zune 30GB in the world becomes a brick at the same time

rc28

I have a Zune 30Gb and when I turned it on this morning (it wasn't connected to a pc or charging dock) it only got to the zune logo with a full white loading bar underneath. It responds to nothing- hard or soft reset. I have let its battery go flat twice since then and tried charging but it just comes back to the same screen again.
I then googled it and found (in tons of forums) that every single Zune owner in the world is experiencing the same thing. It's bizarre. It would appear that its internal calendar wasn't programmed for a leap year so when it came to December 31st it got a sort of y2k bug! This is a serious cock-up by microsoft and I wonder how soon there will be a fix via software update?
http://gizmodo.com/5121311/reports-30gb-zunes-failing-everywhere-all-at-once?skyline=true&s=x#c
http://www.zuneboards.com/forums/gen-1/38114-zune-frozen.html
http://forums.zune.net/404251/ShowPost.aspx
The only temporary fix seems to be to open it up and remove battery but when you connect it to a pc it just gets frozen again.

Orion

rc28 wrote: »

It would appear that its internal calendar wasn't programmed for a leap year so when it came to December 31st it got a sort of y2k bug!

Strange alright but why fail on Dec 31st? If that was the problem it should have failed on 1 Jan or 29 Feb.

rc28

Macros42 wrote: »

Strange alright but why fail on Dec 31st? If that was the problem it should have failed on 1 Jan or 29 Feb.

I know, that's why it's even weirder but it seems to be the only plausible explantion-why all zunes at the same time? It has an internal calendar for DRM and maybe it got confused when looking ahead to 2009?? I know that sounds ridiculous! The other conspiracy is that a disgruntled ex-employee put the bad code into the last firmware update as it's apparently quite easy to do and it could be made to execute at a particular time. All of microsoft's call centres are probably overwhelmed now- a few(on the forums I've been reading) have run to be told that they are getting the same reports from loads of callers and are very busy.

Tom10

Well once again kudos to Microsoft, always one step behind themselves!!!

Fighting Irish

No

rc28 wrote: »

I have a Zune 30Gb and when I turned it on this morning (it wasn't connected to a pc or charging dock) it only got to the zune logo with a full white loading bar underneath. It responds to nothing- hard or soft reset. I have let its battery go flat twice since then and tried charging but it just comes back to the same screen again.
I then googled it and found (in tons of forums) that every single Zune owner in the world is experiencing the same thing. It's bizarre. It would appear that its internal calendar wasn't programmed for a leap year so when it came to December 31st it got a sort of y2k bug! This is a serious cock-up by microsoft and I wonder how soon there will be a fix via software update?
http://gizmodo.com/5121311/reports-30gb-zunes-failing-everywhere-all-at-once?skyline=true&s=x#c
http://www.zuneboards.com/forums/gen-1/38114-zune-frozen.html
http://forums.zune.net/404251/ShowPost.aspx
The only temporary fix seems to be to open it up and remove battery but when you connect it to a pc it just gets frozen again.

rc28

Fighting Irish wrote: »

No

Look at the title of this thread- Zune 30GB. I never said the zune 4gb, 16gb and 120 gb were affected. Not one person with a zune 30 gb has reported that their zune is ok.

pleasant Co.

This is quite weird...I'm sure it'll be sorted though.

Fighting Irish

rc28 wrote: »

Look at the title of this thread- Zune 30GB. I never said the zune 4gb, 16gb and 120 gb were affected. Not one person with a zune 30 gb has reported that their zune is ok.

Yes Zune 30gb, a pink one, or does the colour matter?

rc28

Fighting Irish wrote: »

Yes Zune 30gb, a pink one, or does the colour matter?

Really. When was the last time you updated the firmware or connected it to the zune software? A few have said it could be the latest firmware only but no one with older firware has confirmed that yet. If you have the latest then your situation is unique and you should report it one of the zune forums.

grimm2005

somthings up alright:

http://www.engadget.com/2008/12/31/30gb-zunes-mysteriously-begin-to-fail-at-12am-december-31st/

Fighting Irish

rc28 wrote: »

Really. When was the last time you updated the firmware or connected it to the zune software? A few have said it could be the latest firmware only but no one with older firware has confirmed that yet. If you have the latest then your situation is unique and you should report it one of the zune forums.

OK i'll do that straight away :pac:

Na this thing hasn't been updated in ages, i only bought it cos someone was selling it cheap. Zen Vision M all the way :cool:

Orion

stick it on adverts - mentioning that it's not updated - it'll be worth a fortune

rc28

Fighting Irish wrote: »

OK i'll do that straight away :pac:

Na this thing hasn't been updated in ages, i only bought it cos someone was selling it cheap. Zen Vision M all the way :cool:

Ok then it's definitely the new firware that's at fault. As the op said, sell it!

Ghost Train

Pretty funny for non zune owners

Will be interesting to see if microsoft are able to fix it or will everybody have to return their zunes to microsoft

pleasant Co.

eolhc wrote: »

Pretty funny for non zune owners

I don't own a Zune, and this is not funny at all.

Creamy Goodness

yeh i actually find this quite worrying, especially as a programmer that something so trivial as internal clock and date functionality can be programmed wrong in this day and age.

grimm2005

a microsoft representative posted this over on the Abi forums so at least they are aware of it!:

http://www.anythingbutipod.com/forum/showpost.php?p=314384&postcount=18

pleasant Co.

Not only are they aware of it but a fix is expected soon (no bad play on words from me): http://zuneinsider.com/archive/2008/12/31/30-gb-zune-issue-update.aspx

Ghost Train

reading a zune forum, it looks like the zunes started working again today

rc28

At noon GMT, all Zunes (including mine) came back to life....bizarre!