Microsoft's Zunes Crash En Masse
PrintRemember the scene in War of the Worlds where everyone's electronics inexplicably just stop working? It turned out to be an alien invasion intent on harvesting the human race that was causing all the ruckus. We're fairly confident there aren't any buried alien war machines in real life, so why then are hundreds of users suddenly complaining about failed Zune players?
According to Gizmodo, the failures are permeating all across the country starting at about midnight last night. Owners claiming to be affected by the as-yet unexplained glitch are reporting that their Zune players freeze while loading and become completely unresponsive, turning their music player into little more than a high tech paperweight.
With the New Year only a day away, users have begun referring to the failures as the Y2K9 bug. However, any relation to the calendar year would likely be coincidental given that the players started giving up the ghost a day before the new year rings in.
Seemingly ruling out the possibility of a widespread hoax, Microsoft has released a statement regarding the failures:
"We are aware that customers with the Zune 30GB are experiencing issues with their Zune device. We are actively working now to isolate the issue and develop a solution to address it. We will keep customers informed on next steps via the support page on zune.net (zune.net/support)."
Hit the jump and let us know if you've experienced the same issue.
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Wildebeast
January 05, 2009 at 4:26pm
Sorry for you Zune owners... if my Rio wasn't still going strong, I'd probably have gotten one of those.
Having watched the drama of MS refusing to acknowledge the 360 RR issue, I find this one sadly funny, though.
I take it as a major plus that there were no "Nuuuh-uuuh!" statements from Redmond...
avenger48
January 01, 2009 at 9:14pm
Xbox 360 has red rings of death, and now Zunes are dying. Has anything good come from microsoft's hardware devision, honestly?
piddler2
January 01, 2009 at 4:35pm
As Microsoft said, they started working again on 1 Jan 09. It was a leap year timing issue. They intend to release a firmware fix before 2012, the next leap year. No big deal. Mine went down but is back up running today.
Chocolate
December 31, 2008 at 10:54pm
Why is there a pic of the Zune 80? The only ones affected are the Zune 30's. I just went jogging with my Zune 80 and it worked great. Also, it will be fixed by tommorow so whats the big deal?
dankers
December 31, 2008 at 4:49pm
I bought a Zune last Christmas for myself and it never worked. Sure I could have taken it back and gotten a full refund or exchange or whatever but I would rather complain about it on the internet. I bought a Creative Zen and a Zen V Plus and couldn't be more satisfied with them.
avenger48
January 02, 2009 at 9:34pm
Have a creative zen 8GB, and couldn't be happier with the SQ and interface. Who needs Apple?
rt42
December 31, 2008 at 3:01pm
There is official word from the Zune People at http://forums.zune.net/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=408989 Apparently it is a clock issue with the leap year so they should be all set tomorrow.
winmaster
December 31, 2008 at 8:32pm
I don't have a Zune, but that sounds like a good explanation.
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The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.
Yamgo
December 31, 2008 at 2:48pm
This is horrible. I have an original 30GB that has always worked well. After reading this, I turned mine on after a few days of inactivity and it froze on load up. Pity.
shutout5591
December 31, 2008 at 2:33pm
Bricked here too. Hey, ill take 364 days of media player dominance (up urs steve jobs) and live with that 1 day of fail.
XSV DBLs
December 31, 2008 at 6:47pm
And I'll take an Ipod with working firmware anyday over a Zune with faulty firmware.
shellpc
January 01, 2009 at 1:47am
I'll take a Sandisk Sansa over Apple's DRM. Oh and it supports FLAC too.
Hambone
December 31, 2008 at 2:12pm
My 30GB Zune "bricked" this morning. Unscrewed the cover (warranty shmorranty), reseated the battery, and got it back up running. Still going strong 6 hours later.
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