It seems that a random bug is affecting a bunch, if not every, 30GB Zunes. Real early this morning, a bunch of Zune 30s just stopped working. No official word from Redmond on this one yet but we might have a gadget Y2K going on here. Fan boards and support forums all have the same mantra saying that at 2:00 AM this morning, the Zune 30s reset on their own and doesn’t fully reboot. We’re sure Microsoft will get flooded with angry Zune owners as soon as the phone lines open up for the last time in 2008. More as we get it.
Update 2: The solution is … kind of weak: let your Zune run out of battery and it’ll be fixed when you wake up tomorrow and charge it.
Zune.net, ZuneBoards, ZuneScene, Gizmodo
Update: Reddit adds:
Ouch, that’s got to hurt :)
Oops! What on earth could be the cause of that?!? Weird programming…?
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THERE IS A WAY TO FIX THIS!
Its not the most attractive fix, but it worked for me and for my mother’s model, so here goes:
Take apart the zune casing (if you dont know how, google it)
remove the battery’s connection ribbon for a few second, then reconnect.
Both zune 30s I have done this to have booted normally after this. It takes a few minutes and is relatively safe as far as taking apart a gadget goes. The most dangerous thing is removing the plastic piece that covers the screws on the bottom (it cracks easily) so don’t be too rough.
Good luck.
Even easier?
Don’t buy anything from Microsoft ( hardware or software ).
Thank you.
@Todd – Hey guys, don’t buy anything from Microsoft, because Apple/Linux/Fanboyware never have any problems ever. In fact, you’ll be so happy with your Apple/Linux/Fanboyware product that you’ll be unable the resist the urge to act like a douchebag on the TechCrunch comments whenever a competing product is mentioned.
My zune 120 is working great btw.
Welcome to the social!
That worked for me but it quit again after a few minutes. Didn’t work the second time.
Here’s an even easier way:
1. Take zune and throw it into recycling bin.
2. Goto apple store and buy iPod.
3. Rejoice.
How about this – if you don’t have anything more brilliant to say than “Microsoft Sucks” or “Buy an iPod”, then you STFU and let information that may actually be useful be exchanged here.
The reality is that whether hardware or software, Microsoft has been producing terrible products for years so the beat advice really is – don’t use them. Apple users have known this for a long time.
An I-pod? is that stupid thing with out radio?
And with that heavy and slow software ITUNES ….
i preffer a mp3 player from sony or creative
@Unity, I would just like to make a point that Itunes is wildly more efficient than the Zune platform, which eats ram like crazy. If you’re going to mention that you use a 3rd party manager for your Zune, then you have to consider the I-pod 3rd party managers, which are vast and numerous.
The unfortunate thing about Sony and Creative is that Sony’s Walkman products don’t exceed a menial 8 gigabytes. And Creative is either ridiculously outdated or ridiculously Expensive, because for the same price of an equivalent sized mp3 player to an ipod, you’re better off getting the ipod because you get a much better warrantee and more importantly, a broader range of possibilities with the hard drive.
Really, if you want to be totally critical, realize that everything sucks before you post it.
Right now a Sun Sparc user is laughing at you because your x86 architecture uses serialized processing
You would recycle!
Cool, this totally worked…sure my warranty is voided now, but I’d rather do that than know I have to listen to the radio in the car otherwise.
Thanks!
but how do u get the screws off it is soooo not workin for me
Nope, my 30 GB gen 1 Zune still works just fine! Ouch, I definitely feel bad for everyone who didn’t share my luck.
Are you running the latest fw? A friend of mine who didn’t update yet… his Zune is still working fine.
This is planned obsolesce at its best!
Jon
http://WoodMarvels.com – Create Unique Memories
30 GB que capacidade
Next time by a real player, buy an Ipod!
Right, because those have never had any issues. Ever.
Here here, ExtraMedium. Enough of the Anti-Zune hate speech…let’s just get the Zunes back online, so the adults can get back to listening to their music.
After having three iPods, all of which died on me a month after the warranty expired (unable to recharge – same problem every time) I went out and got a zune. Major, major improvement.
The Anti-Zune hate speech is just more dribble from Apple users who have nothing going on in their lives except for their blind worship to a company who could care less about them.
and i still have my 60GB ipod from 2005, still chugging along just fine, over 3 years later. the battery definitely doesn’t last AS LONG as it used to, but no rechargable battery stays 100% for ever… so, my experience is different from yours. all that shows is that anecdotal evidence is not really good for much.
MS, however, has a well documented poor track record for hardware lately – the Xbox RRoD problem comes to mind (thankfully my 360 hasnt RRoDed, whew!), so consumers have a right to be wary. Hopefully this Zune issue is not as bad as that one.
“All that shows is that anecdotal evidence is not really good for much.”
Oh yes, I agree. However, I think anecdotal evidence is infinitely more valuable than automagically saying that an iPod is always going to be better experience than a Zune every time just because it’s made by dudes wearing black knitted shirts.
My favorite iPod experience was the one time my iPod managed to break before the warranty expired (one of the platters broke) and I took it to the Apple store to get it fixed. The haughty-taughty guy in the turtleneck behind the ironic “Genius Bar” condescendingly told me that “he’d look into the problem” after I explained to him that the hard drive was broken. I came back a day later and he told me that there was nothing wrong with my iPod and handed it back to me, at which point I instructed him to “turn it on and put his ear up next to it,” at which points his “genius” kicked in and he said “aha! the platter is broken!” He then blamed the broken platter on the fact that I used my iPod on a Windows machine and grudgingly issued me a new one.
*LOL* Micro$oft is even late for the Y2K bug, hahaha :-D
Did anyone notice the URL for this post? =P
A lump of coal? Well, at least I didn’t get a Zune.
RT @joeschmitt
This is the stupidest article ever. There is no proof of anything this person wrote about. But as we can see all the MS haters are jumping on the bandwagon without question.
The URL says “ALL” the title says “WORLDWIDE” and the article says “A BUNCH”. This whole article should be throw in the trash can. Lets see some actual numbers on how many Zune 30s have failed.
YES WE MUST HAVE EXACT NUMBERS WITHOUT NUMBERS ALL IS IRRELEVANT PLEASE WON’T SOMEBODY THINK OF THE NUMBERS
Judging by what I’m seeing on various boards, I’d say this issue is real enough, and widespread.
Um…read it and weep:
http://www.zune.net/en-US/support/default.htm
Look to the right side. If the Zune support page put up a “yes, they’re broken, we know” message, then it’s not a small number of units. And from the numbers I’m seeing (including the one unit on my desk this second that looks like so many others), this is a huge, worldwide problem.
So, unless you have some more compelling “proof” than that, quiet down and stop using caps.
Mine froze up this morning when I turned it on.
Checked out the zune forums and found this thread with 1400+ posts from today…people whose zunes are frozen/not working.
http://forums.zune.net/0/1/403986/ShowPost.aspx#403986
Hoping for a solution soon!
“H” is a M$ employee… he’s really mad at us!
Um no, I’m just a realist. Read the article again an look for any facts. There are none. It’s all hearsay until some proof is given.
I don’t work for MS I don’t like MS but I’m not gonna fall in line and let someone just lie to help increase their viewership on a web “new” site. Use your own brains for once and stop letting others dictate what you think and feel. Once the mass Zune 30 failure is “news” on major sources then you can have your MS hanging parties until then wake up to the lack of facts in this article.
Oh yeah and I’m not mad at anyone, except maybe the author of this stupid article. Nah not even mad at them.
Ok, the proof is all of the people, like me, who have a Zune and turned it on this morning to find a nice big frozen screen. Is that proof enough for you? You’re an idiot for looking at this article and seeing everyone respond with “omg yeah me too!” and thinking that all of us are lying about weather or not our Zune works. And if you want to see some numbers why don’t you go door to door and get those numbers. I’d rather have Microsoft busy at work on how they’re going to fix the problem rather than have them count the number of people who are experiencing it. Numbers wont help us, answers will.
Here here.
FFS, are you calling your kitty?
It’s “hear, hear”. As in, “that dude speaks truth, you all should HEAR it.”
Mine stop working and so did my friends
THERE IS A WAY TO FIX THIS!
Buy an iPod
I have 3 of the 30 GB Zunes, and all locked up this morning. Obviously a firmware bug.
Yeah, all the Microsoft haters are going to jump on this bandwagon, but I don’t care. MS will take care of it. And to the person that said “planned obsolesce”, I’ll just point out that Microsoft has provided all of the new functionality to everyone who owns the original Zune. You’d be talking about the iPod, which gets outdated the moment you buy it ;-)
I love my Zune! After owning 4 iPods, I’ll never go back!
Darn, I though it was just me…I confirm to suffer from this as of last night.
I can’t imagine anyone would buy a Zune, when the iPod is so popular, and much nicer too.
By the way, how is it that the timestamps for this article are showing times in EST, yet with a PST label. Perhaps solar flareups are causing all technology to misbehave today.
Most tech news sites and blogs say that after the Zune 2.0 update, the Zune is just as good or maybe a bit better than the iPod(classic)…but MS is MS and they are a bit too late to break Apple’s hegemony.
As an individual and an iPod and Zune user I can say that I like the Zune a lot better than my iPod.
How about this – if you don’t have anything more brilliant to say than “Microsoft Sucks” or “Buy an iPod”, then you STFU and let information that may actually be useful be exchanged here.
Do You always repeat yourself?
Only to fools who don’t listen.
that’s not going to help them catch up to the Ipod……
Look, just posting “Microsoft sucks” or “buy and iPod” is really a waste of your time. If you’re really against zunes then why did you waste your time searching for this article so you could read it? I’m not pointing fingers at just you, but everyone in this thread who wastes time by posting it. I don’t care if you like Zune or iPod better, I want answers as to why my Zune, that cost me almost $300, has now decided to stop working. If you can answer that question then Please, I’m begging you, post that. But don’t repond to this article if you love iPod. If you love it so much then that’s great, dont’ buy a Zune. There are flaws in both products and there are perks to each product as well. We could sit and weigh out the pro and con list of each all damn year if we wanted but it’s not going to help the situation we’ve fallen into.
I love my ipod
I have a brown 30gb zune that I love. It was stuck on the loading screen this morning. My friend sent me this link as I was complaining about it.
My 30GB Brown Zune stuck is on the loading screen this morning as well. Nothing works.
Muahahaha Muahahahaha!
Time to take over the world Pinky.
M2Mz, you have my eternal love.
[comment by jackass redacted]
Even if this was a joke I really don’t find the humor in it. This is why racism is still around because people joke like that and someone gets offended. Please just try and keep these comments between the people you know will find humor in it. That way you don’t run the risk of hurting someone.
It wasn’t a JOKE, i can honestly say that everything bad on this earth is cause of them
Including the financial crisis coming from the USA and damaging the entire world’s perspective from growth? I bet you have an answer to that one too.
Bet you wish you bought an iPod now. :)
…not helping, and no, I don’t. iPod’s have their flaws just as much as Zune’s do.
Of course iPods have flaws – anything not made by God himself does.
But to say iPods have flaws “just as much” as Zunes is clearly wrong.
iPods generally just work as they’re supposed to, because they are made to Apple standards, which have customer satisfaction and repeat business very high on the priority list.
And guess what? Most people who buy Apple gear indeed DO tend to buy more Apple gear because it simply does what it’s supposed to for a long time. And that’s damned rare in modern technology.
Would you buy another Zune, now?
My Zune, with the latest firmware update, also failed this morning.
It actually happening
Up to this point, my Zune 30 has performed flawlessly. A firmware glitch? Probably on the last upgrade (some Zune code jockey probably got a WARN notice and decided to make life interesting for ol’ MS). Buy an iPod? Yeah … right …and I’ll pick up an old Volvo and a pair of Birkenstocks while I’m at it.
A minor bump, and I have to Sansa E280’s sitting in reserve :)
Lol mine failed also.. Thought i was lucky :/
Wow. Have been chatting with my friend since today noon (India time) getting his Zune to boot back up without success. Never realized that it was a worldwide problem!
Latest from the Zune website:
Status:
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!
The most amazing part of this post is that there is actually a “MASSE” of Zunes in the wild.
Well, time to buy a real MP3-Player -> http://www.apple.com/ipod
I love my Zune. I have 2 ipods that I do not use anymore since buying the Zune.
If you would like to critique it, I would suggest that you try it out first before blindly labeling it. I think you will find that after using the Zune Client that you cannot bare to look @ iTunes afterwards.
Can you all who are saying Microsoft sucks and stuff please STFU , STFU, STFU
Microsoft did not make the Orginal Zunes
Toshibia did so everything should be Toshibia sucks.
When the Zune 4, 8, 16, 80 or 120’s fail feel free to blame Microsoft.
Microsoft hardware products aren’t bad, some of them are pretty good.
This zune “event” must be a fabrication problem or firmware error, if is it, microsoft must solve the problem or they’ll lose a lot more clients.
My zune stopped working as well…….Please HELP ME!!!!!!!!!
My girlfriends’ zune (I won’t capitalize a microsoft product) doesn’t work. It turns on but just has the zune logo and NOTHING. I was reading the article above and she turned it on, then nothing. I guess it was a good thing that I bought her an iPod Nano for Christmas!
I’ve always had an ipod but switched over to Zune for the unlimited music and longer battery life. I don’t know if i’ll ever go back to ipod, the sound quality is much better on the Zune when connected to high quality speakers at home…
but unfortunately my 30g is having this problem, so i’m looking forward to a fix soon.
My ohter Zune (8GB Zune 2) is working fine.
WTF! Is this a Nazi website? I just said that i think the problem is from an Arab working in MS he was the one who did it!
…or unless the guy who deletes these comments is an Arab then i am not surprised
I’ve never owned a Zune. I have some questions:
1. Can you use a Zune to browse the web via a standard WiFi connection?
2. Can you install apps like games, facebook, twitter, etc on a Zune?
3. Can you send and receive emails with a Zune?
4. Can you stream YouTube videos with a Zune?
I’m not partial one way or the other. I’m just deciding which device to buy – iPod Touch or a Zune. My thoughts about the guy who keeps telling Apple fans to “STFU” are – why should fans of a product that competes with the product the above article is about “STFU”? As a consumer, I want all the opinions.
The Zune and Ipod Touch are not in the same category.
You could categorize the Ipod Touch as a PDA while the Zune would be with the Ipod Classic and Ipod Nanos
The Ipod touch is more of a multimedia device while the zune, ipod classic etc. are just a music and video player and nothing else.
The answers to your questions are no, no, no & no think of what an ipod classic can do you get a zune but it also has syncing via wifi, subscription and stuff like that.
Thanks for your opinion Que but after doing my research, I’ve decided that the iPod Touch and the Zune are in direct competition for my money in today’s marketplace. After spending some time researching both, my money is going to Apple. Not only does the subject of the above article not instill any confidence in the MS product line (firmware, software or hardware), but reviews seem to be resoundingly consistent for the most part – Apple’s product is superior in every way.
For those of you not aware of what the latest iPod can do, check out this video: http://www.apple.com/ipodtouch/guidedtour/tour/small.html
And here’s the rather underwhelming Zune website: http://www.zune.net/en-US/mp3players/default.htm
And to the “Apple people need to STFU” guy, this is a blog dedicated to informing consumers about facts and opinions. So why don’t you just start a blog and call it MS is better than Apple? Let’s face it, all products have flaws. I just think the uncountable Vista issues coupled with this Zune firmware issue (or whatever it is) are signs that MS is far less detail oriented when QAing their products before release than they should be. I’m not saying Apple is perfect. But I am saying “Thanks TechCrunch! I’m never going to buy a Zune.”
Happy new year everybody!
- I’m Just Sayin’
It really sounds to me like your mind was made up before you posted your first comment…
I think these comments are interesting, and well founded, however, the issue here is that the Zune is faulty.
(we have an ipod and a zune at home).
I’ve turned on the Zune just earlier and it’s true, it’s not booting. It’s stuck.
Apparently, Microsoft is now aware of the issue: “zune service status
Status:
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!”
http://www.zune.net/en-US/support/default.htm
I’m curious, eager and anxious to see what solution they give us, Zune owners.
My brown zune ain’t squirting anymore!
HAHAHAHA!
ughhh I’ve owned both a zune and an ipod nano. When my dad bought me my zune, I gave my ipod to my brother because I was so much more impressed with it than the ipod. I’ve never had any problem with my zune until now. I’ve read that many people are taking their zunes apart but I’d rather wait instead of taking a chance of breaking it or voiding my warranty. BTW how long are the zune warrantys?
Here is what they are saying about this problem
http://forums.zune.net/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=412486
So we all just have to wait until tomorrow.
At least I have my 1st gen ipod shuffle to fall back on for the day (rolls eyes).
Despite this happening to my 30, I would still buy another zune as I love the integrated radio which I use a lot.
Despite all negative comments, I’m actually quite impressed about how quickly Microsoft responded. It’s the 31st after all.
How many MS employees does it take to fix the Zune from crashing?
None – They declared the phrase “just wait it out” a standard.
I had a Zune then I threw it in the street and I got an Ipod
Zunes and iPods both suck. Get an Insignia