Z2K? Reports pour in of frozen Zune media players*

UPDATE: Many Zunes appear to be working now. Read the full story here.

 

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For many people who own the Zune digital media player, New Year's Eve is the day the music died.

Internet message boards are lighting up with reports that 30-gigabyte models of Microsoft's Zune digital media player froze up shortly after midnight today.

The players seem to be getting stuck with the Zune logo on the screen (see the photograph to the right uploaded to Flickr), and simple resets won't fix the problem.

Angry users are dubbing the problem "Z2K" and "Z2K9" -- plays on the much-feared Y2K glitch that never quite materialized at the turn of the millennium.

"We've been flooded with tips about users whose 30GB players started locking up at midnight last night, essentially bricking themselves without any help from their owners," Engadget reports.

According to Gizmodo:

The proximity of the events to the New Year, which inspired the Y2K9 moniker, provides little more than a colorful backdrop; it's unlikely that the switching of years in the Zune's internal calendar has anything to do with the failures (besides, it hasn't even happened yet).

If not for the uniform representation of events across the Internet, I'd be tempted to suspect this as a hoax, but it just doesn't look that way. The story, assuming the described problem is of the magnitude reported, will probably take a turn for the large when the majority of Zuners start waking up.

Responding to the situation, Microsoft issued this statement: "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."

The Redmond, Wash., company said that it has sold 3 million Zunes since ...

... they were introduced in November 2006, but that the problem affects only the unspecified number of models with 30 gigabytes of memory that were manufactured by Toshiba. Microsoft also sells five other models with 4, 8, 16, 80 and 120 gigabytes of memory.

The hardware glitch, also dubbed "the Zune Screen of Death" by some users, comes at an awkward time for Microsoft, which is rumored to be unveiling a Zune phone at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas next week, according to Richard Doherty, research director for the Envisioneering Group, a technology consulting firm. "Microsoft has been trying to keep up with Apple, and this is potentially very embarrassing for them," Doherty said.

The Zune seize-ups come on the heels of a hardware malfunction uncovered last year in Microsoft's Xbox 360 video game console that is estimated to have cost the company more than $1 billion to fix.

"From the Xbox 360 recall to the Zune surprise, Microsoft is learning that it's very difficult to be a hardware company," Doherty said.

Despite gaining just a fraction of the market share for portable digital music players, Zune has won over a loyal base of consumers, including Eddie Zapien, who woke up this morning to find his white Zune frozen.

"I'm more than a little upset," said the 25-year-old real estate broker in Salem, Ore., who keeps about 3,500 songs, 100 photos and four movies on his device. "It's indescribable. I love my Zune. I think it's the coolest thing I own. I wouldn't trade it for 50 iPods."

Zapien, who uses the player to play dance music in the car for his 4-year-old daughter while driving her to preschool, said the ride this morning was a lot less fun without their usual tunes. "My daughter was sad," he said. "She really missed it."

Has this happened to your Zune? Tell us your story in the comments below.

-- Alex Pham and Chris Gaither

UPDATE: Many Zunes appear to be working now. Read the full story here. This post also was updated earlier with Microsoft's response and comments from an analyst and a consumer.

Photo credit: yngrich via Flickr

Comments

[christian]

Mine did this. As did two of my friends. All we did to fix it was take it apart, unplug the battery for 10 seconds, plug it in, put it back together and it works fine now. i set the current time and have it syncing. Taking it apart and all is about a 3 or 4 min process.

[switchblade5984]

did your zune 30gb crash like ours did?

http://groups.myspace.com/zune30meltdown

join us

[Hard Rock]

My 8GB Zune froze up yesterday. Thought it was the battery, but once I hooked it up to the laptop it started charging,so I took it off right away and it was in fact already well charged. Fortunately, it's been working fine since then.

[Renee]

Yep, at 5:30 this morning, I went to play my music, and blam! Nothing but perpetual bootup mode. There are a lot of extremely angry people out there on the Zune forums, but they just need to be patient. I'm not happy about it, but Microsoft acknowledges the issue and is working on it.

[Racheal]

Mine froze and it's a 40GB, so it's not just the 30GB!

[Judith Giusto]

My Zune 30 GB was working fine yesterday. I put it away last night fully charged and turned it on this AM and it got as far as the open screen w/ the white Zune line and froze. Read a bunch of posts on how to get it started but nothing's happening.

[Connor Snyder]

My did this, and I do not feel comfortable removing the battery. Mircosoft better fix this, or I am gonna be, well, pretty pissed.

[Adam]

My wife's Zune (30gb) is frozen, she noticed when she first went to use it this morning.

[Johnathan Fii]

8:45 this morning, turned my Zune on to head up to work at JPL, and BAM! Zune frozen.... So not cool, but since there are this many people affected, I'm certain that they're going to do something. I just have to be patient.

I was getting ready to go jogging, powered on my zune and bam. I had to resort to using my wife's ipod. Yuck

[Jason]

My 30 G zune did the exact same thing this morning when i turned it on at the gym. Seems to be a problem with the firmware 3.0 not being able to cope with the leap year- today is day 366 of 2008. Microsoft is currently "working to resolve the situation" but I have a feeling either they are going to have to replace 1000's of zunes including mine or have a catacylsmic product recall on their hands. Time for an IPOD.

[Jason]

My 30 G zune did the exact same thing this morning when i turned it on at the gym. Seems to be a problem with the firmware 3.0 not being able to cope with the leap year- today is day 366 of 2008. Microsoft is currently "working to resolve the situation" but I have a feeling either they are going to have to replace 1000's of zunes including mine or have a catacylsmic product recall on their hands. Time for an IPOD.

[jukuren]

Buy an ipod

MIne is frozen :(

[Jay]

I checked my 80GB Zune after reading the article in the Times on line this morning, and sure enough, it froze up on the Zune screen during power up. The Zune software no longer recognizes the player when it's plugged into my computer.

[Rosalind]

i dunno why this is happening...usually i just put it on hold and then off hodl and it workds fine
but i have been doing almost all the combinations and NOTHING!

please fix it
i want to use my zune again
=/

[SmoothDragon]

My 30gb first gen Zune did this as well. Looks like I'll be heading out to pick up a Touch...

[Robert Laughing]

Hey! It's a Microsoft product....did you think you were buying an Apple EQUAL???

[Jason]

I suggest not trying to open the zune in any way. You will void the warranty if it still has one and Microsoft will not accept claims on zunes that have been opened or tampered with. Lets all be patient, trust me im just as mad as everyone else, i have a $ 250 paper weight sitting here too.

[Muse]

Same thing happened to mine too (30gb)... happy freaking new years :)

[Ahren]

I woke to the same fabulous issue on my 30GB. I just bought an 8 GB for my Aunt and it better not freeze up because I am giving it to her today!

I am so dissapointed with microsoft!

[Aaron]

Well.. I was just going to listen to my zune while playing a video game and this bar was just chillin on my screen. I sat their looking at it for a while and began to get upset and now i see all these forums up about it.. I hope they fix it soon or somebody will be buying me a Ipod >_<.

[MySiteComeTrue]

I am really angry. My zune froze up after charging it this morning with the same problem. I am not sure why. I know people are saying "Oh be patient microsoft is working on it" but still, if microsoft was doing it right it never would have happened. So we have a right to be angry.

[Jordan]

This can not be REAL!!!! Something told me to search "Zune stuck on Zune screen" and this is what I find out. I have not regretted buying a Zune until today. THIS IS WACK!

[jamiescale]

It has to do w/ the leap year issue. Ugh, Microsoft....just when you think they're past their shoddy programming (read: Vista, XP security holes etc..) this happens.

Off to iPod-world!