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Microsoft's Zunes Crash En Masse

Posted 12/31/08 at 03:15:00 PM  by Paul Lilly

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Remember 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.

COMMENTS:15
TAGS: microsoft, mp3, Zune, consumer electronics, failures
COMMENTS
avatarSorry for you Zune owners...

Submitted by Wildebeast on Mon, 01/05/2009 - 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...

 

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avatarThis is actually pretty

Submitted by the_crowbar on Fri, 01/02/2009 - 1:08am

This is actually pretty funny.

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avatarThis is why you should never buy Microsoft hardware

Submitted by avenger48 on Thu, 01/01/2009 - 9:14pm

Xbox 360 has red rings of death, and now Zunes are dying.  Has anything good come from microsoft's hardware devision, honestly?

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avatarIt's all good now.

Submitted by piddler2 on Thu, 01/01/2009 - 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.

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avatarNot an issue

Submitted by GreenTurtle on Wed, 12/31/2008 - 10:58pm

I have two Zunes and have had no issues.

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avatarWhy is there a pic of the

Submitted by Chocolate on Wed, 12/31/2008 - 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?

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avatarZune<Zen

Submitted by dankers on Wed, 12/31/2008 - 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.

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avatarI agree

Submitted by avenger48 on Fri, 01/02/2009 - 9:34pm

Have a creative zen 8GB, and couldn't be happier with the SQ and interface.  Who needs Apple?

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avatarThere is official word from

Submitted by rt42 on Wed, 12/31/2008 - 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.

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avatarYup

Submitted by winmaster on Wed, 12/31/2008 - 8:32pm

I don't have a Zune, but that sounds like a good explanation. 

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.

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avatarHorrible

Submitted by Yamgo on Wed, 12/31/2008 - 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.

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avatarBricked here too. Hey, ill

Submitted by shutout5591 on Wed, 12/31/2008 - 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.

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avatarAnd I'll take an Ipod with

Submitted by XSV DBLs on Wed, 12/31/2008 - 6:47pm

And I'll take an Ipod with working firmware anyday over a Zune with faulty firmware.

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avatarI'll take a Sandisk Sansa

Submitted by shellpc on Thu, 01/01/2009 - 1:47am

I'll take a Sandisk Sansa over Apple's DRM. Oh and it supports FLAC too.

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avatarMy 30GB Zune "bricked" this

Submitted by Hambone on Wed, 12/31/2008 - 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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