30 GB Zunes failing all over the place
The screams of anguish you might have heard today are the natural reaction of owners of 30 GB Zunes. They started bricking world-wide last night at midnight and nothing can bring them back. No word from Microsoft or anyone else what caused the 30 GB Zunes to all fail at once. Sounds like a massive DRM failure to me.
(via All About Microsoft)
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There’s a post up at Gizmodo that says you can do a ‘hard’ reset to bring it back. Requires cracking open the case though, assuming it actually works…
Mine committed Zuneicide this morning.
I don’t know that this has anything to do with DRM. I don’t have any DRMed files on my Zune. People are speculating that it may have something to do with the leap year.
Anyway. We shall see. I hope there’s a fix soon, that doesn’t require sending my Zune in for repair.
I can’t see this being related to DRM either. The devices don’t seem to complete their boot / startup, which should have nothing to do with DRM. I’m going with a leap year / date issue in the firmware. Ugh…
I hate DRM as much as the next guy but what has this got to do with it?
I’m also wondering if it’s a leap year thing (in the DRM code or something else). The fact that it was the rollover at midnight (to day 366 of 2008) seems suspect…
This sucks. Z2K9 for the loss.
Now my job really sucks
Oh SNAP!
Mine died too! I haven’t synced mine in a couple weeks so it has to be firmware/hardware related. This really stinks.
David
OK, heres the temporary fix that takes about 5 mins to do but is not for the faint at heart.
1. Remove the small black plastic bezel around your sync cable connector. Use a small screwdriver to carefully pry it up. Its only held in place with friction tabs.
2. Gently pry the top and bottom covers apart, starting at the bottom. There are no locking tabs at the bottom but there are some at the top, so start at the bottom.
3. locate teh two ribbon cables at the top of your zune. one on the left and the other on the right. Lift the gray locking tab carefully on the left cable first to release the cable. Repeat for the cable on the right. Wait a few seconds then carefully reconnect the cables. Small fingers or tweezers help.
4. Reconnect the two halves of your zune starting at the top and gently press it back together. Make sure you lign up the headphone jack with its hole.
5. replace the small screws and snap the black plastic bezel back into place.
5. turn your zune back on and smile!
David
for the brave, David’s instructions get it done. the gal that i gave my zune to has already gotten her’s up and running again doing this.
Be warned though. Just found out that the fix only works until you re-sync with your PC. Mines locked up again. So, since I have to go throughthe process again, I’m going to take some pics of the process and post them over at gottabemobile.com.
David
Oh goodie… some folks at Microsoft aren’t going to have a good new years eve party this year, I think ;)
Since this seems certainly to be a date issue, and not a year rollover since that’s a day away, at least here in the US, I still think it’s DRM related. I guarantee you the system is checking the date for DRM purposes every time you connect it to the network or the PC.
It has nothing to do with connecting it to a PC or network. These devices are not connected to anything.
At this point mine was running long enough that it killed its battery. Here’s to hoping these things revive themselves at midnight tonight, when we go back to day one (instead of 366).
Hang in there Zunies.
Well the good news is… my 120GB Zune received for Christmas is rocking and rolling! :)
The bad news is I gave my 30GB to my mother, and my step-dad and dad have 30GB’s too. Oops.
Hopefully Microsoft announces a solution quickly.
PS– Given the amount of support Microsoft has offered with firmware updates to the 30GB updates, if it really is solved as simply as waiting until tomorrow, I can’t say I’m unhappy with the Zune experience.
I doubt it is a DRM issue since all my music on mine is DRM free. Mine also has not been synced since firmware 3.0 was released.
Has to be a firmware issue. Problem is, how to sync and update a fix on a Zune that is locked up and will not sync?
David
Update from Microsoft on Zune.net indicating that indeed the issue should resolve itself on its own as the clock rolls over to the 1st… just let the battery drain out and then recharge and boot.
I can only assume they’ll address this in the next firmware update.
No, don’t do anything drastic! (I’ve got one too.)
There is supposed to be official word that the Zunes will start working again on Jan 1. Here’s more… http://www.zunethoughts.com/news/show/91962/zune-30s-will-de-brick-themselves-january-1st-2009.html
The “Official” Word from Microsoft is:
“Early this morning we were alerted by our customers that there was a widespread issue affecting our 2006 model Zune 30GB devices (a large number of which are still actively being used). The technical team jumped on the problem immediately and isolated the issue: a bug in the internal clock driver related to the way the device handles a leap year. The issue should be resolved over the next 24 hours as the time change moves to January 1, 2009. We expect the internal clock on the Zune 30GB devices will automatically reset tomorrow (noon, GMT). By tomorrow you should allow the battery to fully run out of power before the unit can restart successfully then simply ensure that your device is recharged, then turn it back on. If you’re a Zune Pass subscriber, you may need to sync your device with your PC to refresh the rights to the subscription content you have downloaded to your device.”
Yep, I got on too. I certainly am not ecstatic, but Im also a firm believer in “Xhit Happens” This was not a huge plan by Microsoft to make one last stab at making people upset before 2009 starts. Thankfully, listening to my ZUNE on New Years Eve was not my intended course of action. I have HDTV!!!
Too funny. I was wondering what was wrong with it. lol
Well, January 1 is here and mine is still dead…
My Zune is now a “Zero”.
Ugh!
David
tough break indeed. first the X-box meltdown and now the this. at least the Zune seems to be more fixable…