Zune 30 Failing EVERYWHERE, All At Once!

[Auzburner]

http://gizmodo.com/5121311/30gb-zunes-failing-everywhere-all-at-once

http://www.engadget.com/2008/12/31/30gb-zunes-mysteriously-begin-to-fail-at-12am-december-31st/

EDIT: http://news.cnet.com/8301-10805_3-10129977-75.html?tag=newsLatestHeadlinesArea.0
Another article.

EDIT: http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/12/31/zune.player.failures/index.html (Consultant)
Additional Article, Press is having a field day with this... Every source has to have their own take...

This is pretty intense, trying to figure out if it's a new years hoax already titled "Z2K", or for real.



EDIT
This is the solution:
http://forums.zune.net/412486/ShowPost.aspx
Official response for Zune 30 Freezing Issue (Zune 30gb stuck at reboot screen)
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.



Customers can continue to stay informed via the support page on zune.net (zune.net/support).



We know this has been a big inconvenience to our customers and we are sorry for that, and want to thank them for their patience.



Q: Why is this issue isolated to the Zune 30 device?

It is a bug in a driver for a part that is only used in the Zune 30 device.



Q: What fixes or patches are you putting in place to resolve this situation?

This situation should remedy itself over the next 24 hours as the time flips to January 1st.



Q: What’s the timeline on a fix?

The issue Zune 30GB customers are experiencing today will self resolve as time changes to January 1.



Q: Why did this occur at precisely 12:01 a.m. on December 31, 2008?

There is a bug in the internal clock driver causing the 30GB device to improperly handle the last day of a leap year.



Q: What is Zune doing to fix this issue?

The issue should resolve itself.



Q: Are you sure that this won’t happen to all 80, 120 or other flash devices?

This issue is related to a part that is only used in Zune 30 devices.



Q: How many 30GB Zune devices are affected?

All 30GB devices are potentially affected.



Q: Will you update the firmware before the next leap year (2012)?

Yes.

Matt Akers
Zune Product Team


Who would have guessed? It's to just wait!


http://gizmodo.com/5121618/how-to-revive-dead-zunes-30s
Quick Solution, Caution may void warranty...

[leekohler]

Doesn't look like a hoax. This is gonna look bad for Microsoft.

[mkrishnan]

Nice. Maybe the users weren't Social enough, and so their Zunes shut down to erm... encourage them?

[leekohler]

Nice. Maybe the users weren't Social enough, and so their Zunes shut down to erm... encourage them?

Like I said, this looks pretty bad, and looks to be for real. Why would so many Zune owners make this up?

[itcheroni]

Should only need a software update. If not... well, they knew what they were getting themselves into with a zune. :)

[mkrishnan]

Like I said, this looks pretty bad, and looks to be for real. Why would so many Zune owners make this up?

No, I don't particularly disbelieve it. Although I will make the alternate case that, as there are hardly any Zune users to begin with, the impact on MS might not be so bad. I can hardly imagine Zunes are being sold by word of mouth. Hardly anyone even knows one person with a Zune, let alone people who have Zunes who know people who also have Zunes.

[leekohler]

No, I don't particularly disbelieve it. Although I will make the alternate case that, as there are hardly any Zune users to begin with, the impact on MS might not be so bad. I can hardly imagine Zunes are being sold by word of mouth. Hardly anyone even knows one person with a Zune, let alone people who have Zunes who know people who also have Zunes.

Ha! True enough! Most of them are most likely total tech geeks anyway.

[Auzburner]

Yeah, it looks pretty bad. I'm surfing around the Zune support forum's and some of the Moderators and top Zune lovers are embarrassed about their beloved players failing. Zune Support Page (http://www.zunescene.mobi/forums/index.php?board=15.0) Apparently the hard reset fix that entails the user having to remove portions of the Zune's case, and voiding the warranty works for only a moment until the Zune realizes what the date is after being plugged in. Haha Wow. Link to Restart Fail (http://www.zunescene.mobi/forums/index.php?topic=43559.0)

[sushi]

Doesn't look like a hoax. This is gonna look bad for Microsoft.
Agree that it doesn't look like a hoax.

But why are they failing like this. Weird. Software issue?

Definitely does not bode well for Microsoft if true.

[Auzburner]

Agree that it doesn't look like a hoax.

But why are they failing like this. Weird. Software issue?

Definitely does not bode well for Microsoft if true.

According to the Zune support forum's, some users with multiple Zune 30's have different firmware versions on them. The current version is causing this issue, as one user explained his wife's Zune that sits around and still has the old firmware is perfectly fine...

[mkrishnan]

But why are they failing like this. Weird. Software issue?

Yeah, it seems almost certain that it's a software/firmware issue, especially based on Auzburner's comment.

So has anyone reported (credibly) that they have a Zune that "should" be affected but is not?

[sushi]

According to the Zune support forum's, some users with multiple Zune 30's have different firmware versions on them. The current version is causing this issue, as one user explained his wife's Zune that sits around and still has the old firmware is perfectly fine...
So it is a software issue, in this case Firmware.

Well at least that can be fixed relatively easily I would think.

[leekohler]

Well at least that can be fixed relatively easily I would think.

We ARE talking about Microsoft. ;)

[mkrishnan]

We ARE talking about Microsoft. ;)

I'm sure they'll release a Zune V1 SP1 (Beta) by weeks end. It will take up half the hard drive, render 1/3 of the songs unplayable, and remain in beta for six months while people debate over whether it is indeed worth upgrading to it. :D

[Auzburner]

It should only be a quick firmware update, but man - big mess up. It's upsetting users so much they are nearly throwing them away, that's about all they are worth ATM. I'm yet to find anyone with the latest firmware attesting they have a functioning Zune 30. It's quite entertaining reading their forums.

[iVoid]

Even Microsoft never expected Zune to last beyond 2008 so they put a self destruct function in.

:)

[davidwarren]

maybe it's the extra second today.

[JG271]

maybe it's the extra second today.

Its Y2k! Run!

...8 years later. :p

[Dagless]

Wow, that's quite odd. Why did they balls the Zune up so badly? In general.

[iJohnHenry]

Run, it's Y31,622,401K.

Extra second, PLUS extra day (Leap Year), which would be today. :p

[talkingfuture]

Wow thats scary. Can't think of any mass failures like this happening before.

[sushi]

We ARE talking about Microsoft. ;)
That's true! :)

I'm sure they'll release a Zune V1 SP1 (Beta) by weeks end. It will take up half the hard drive, render 1/3 of the songs unplayable, and remain in beta for six months while people debate over whether it is indeed worth upgrading to it. :D
Well said. Probably be SP2 by the time that it's stable. :p

It should only be a quick firmware update, but man - big mess up. It's upsetting users so much they are nearly throwing them away, that's about all they are worth ATM. I'm yet to find anyone with the latest firmware attesting they have a functioning Zune 30. It's quite entertaining reading their forums.
With devices like the Zune, iPod, iPhone and such, people want them to work worry free. This situation changes that for the Zune. Not a good sign.

[bacaramac]

Looks like iPod market share is going up. In other news, all 19 zune owners report issues with bricked zunes.

Does anyone know if this impacts the sweet brown model? :cool::rolleyes:

[tbealmear]

Yeah, it looks pretty bad. I'm surfing around the Zune support forum's and some of the Moderators and top Zune lovers are embarrassed about their beloved players failing. Zune Support Page (http://www.zunescene.mobi/forums/index.php?board=15.0) Apparently the hard reset fix that entails the user having to remove portions of the Zune's case, and voiding the warranty works for only a moment until the Zune realizes what the date is after being plugged in. Haha Wow. Link to Restart Fail (http://www.zunescene.mobi/forums/index.php?topic=43559.0)

Haha, that is and epic fail. Over at cnet, people are going crazy in their article.

[H$R]

Real sad that I don't know anybody who uses a Zune. It would just be the one moment to laught at them!

I haven't even seen one Zune in the wild since they we're launched..weird or is it just here in europe?

[davidwarren]

Real sad that I don't know anybody who uses a Zune. It would just be the one moment to laught at them!

I haven't even seen one Zune in the wild since they we're launched..weird or is it just here in europe?

I don't think I have ever seen one either...

[alexbates]

I wonder why this happened? cough Microsoft cough

For everyone who has a Zune, I would suggest buying an iPod next time.

Knowing Microsoft, they won't fond a solution for a couple of months.

Here's my prediction of what will happen after the Zune problem is fixed:
1. Microsoft decides to come out with the ZunePhone
2. Millions of people buy it
3. Microsoft screws up badly
4. Millions of people are angry
4. Millions of people move to an iPhone and Mac

[Luke1robb]

For every time someone with a Zune thought they were so cool and different for getting one, let this day be a lesson. Thank goodness for Apple's commitment to iPods.

[Auzburner]

Can anyone attest to this? If every Zune 30 cannot be recognized, how do they update? And if they attempt to reset the Zune by opening, it will void their warranty. How can someone with a warranted Zune fix this without sending it in? Found this by this poster:

[happydude]

the epic y2k9 zune failure the aztec calendar predicted is true!!! the world will surely end on 2012!!

[jellomizer]

It makes me wonder if Steve Balmer has one of those Zunes. What is a good chair company to invest in? :)

This could be a huge blow to the Zune business, defiantly in repeat customers. And new customers for a few months. If you device suddenly breaks with no way to fix it. Chances are you are not going to get a new version of the same thing. You might as well just go and get an iPod (or if you are anti-apple) some other MP3 Player.

[justflie]

...If every Zune 30 cannot be recognized, how do they update?...:

Exactly. The computers can't see the Zune anymore so they can't update it. In fact, more than a few users noticed that their Zune was acting up when they heard the "disconnected USB device" sound from their PC. If the PC can't see it, no magic update to fix everything. They're screeeeeeeeewed.

[fleshman03]

I've heard reports that the 21st century virus will by synchronized to detonate at the same time.

Meaning users install the malware. It spreads like wildfire since no one knows it's out there. At a specific date and time it's programed to go off and shut down the computer.

It really sounds like what is happening. 12:00am 12/31/08 - the date the Zune died.

Can anyone else think of a reason why Zunes across the world would die at a specific date and time? Maybe some malware was wrapped in the new software update or some MP3?

[92WardSenatorFE]

I've been waiting for something like this all year.

I've always saw the Zune as a joke since Microsoft released it. I infact know people that own this affected Zune and how they'd always brag about how the Zune is better than the iPod.. :rolleyes:

Since when has Microsoft made anything that just "works"?

[xUKHCx]

Exactly. The computers can't see the Zune anymore so they can't update it. In fact, more than a few users noticed that their Zune was acting up when they heard the "disconnected USB device" sound from their PC. If the PC can't see it, no magic update to fix everything. They're screeeeeeeeewed.

Microsoft will most likely have an extension or a repair/replace policy set up for those who can not update to fix the problem.

It is an interesting problem, I guess someone is going to get fired because of this. I wonder what the actual/official cause of this problem is?

[ArtOfWarfare]

lmao

I actually have multiple friends with Zunes.

They'd been trying to convince me into buying a Zune but I only had two defenses:
1.) About 20% of my music is locked by Apple. (I could get around that, but it's such a pain in the butt, I'd rather not have to.)
2.) The Zune is made by M$.

They were trying to argue with me:
1.) That's your fault for going with a company that will hold you down. You're just gonna have to cut your losses and move on... don't burry yourself deeper.
2.) That's just fanboyism speaking.

Hah. Now we've got proof that it isn't just fanboyism. It's the simple truth, M$ cuts corners and makes crappy imitation products.

If Apple made a games console I would buy it in a heartbeat. Meanwhile, I have a PS3 which beats the crap out of Xbox360.
So, got an Apple Pippin then?

...

Apple could try making an app store for Mac OS X... with the easy distribution for everyone and stuff... then maybe make a few gaming peripherals that connect to the computer via blue tooth (the Wiimote can already connect to bluetooth enabled macs if you use Darwiin remote,) I could see them turning the iMac into the gaming console that beats the Wii.

[Schtumple]

What is this, 1999?!

[Dmac77]

I can't wait to see what happens to the ZunePhone.

Don

[GimmeSlack12]

So this has effected what? Like 37 people? There aren't that many Zunes out there are there?

[Dmac77]

So this has effected what? Like 37 people? There aren't that many Zunes out there are there?

Thanks for making diet coke come out of my nose.

Don

[nagromme]

Y2K is happening 8 years late? That's about on schedule for Microsoft!

[GimmeSlack12]

Thanks for making diet coke come out of my nose.

Don

Anytime.

[Auzburner]

I've been laughing all day at this thing. It's hilarious to read on the Zune support site. This is a disaster. The amount of work that will need to go into this is tremendous. If something physically has to be reset in the Zune in order to get it fixed by a trained and authorized technician, it will take forever. This is an epic flaw. Others have been saying because of the leap year and such as well as the additional minute - it simply shut down the devise? Why would M$ change something only in the latest firmware to have caused only 30GB Zune's to fail simultaneously? Can't rule out the possibility of a virus or something, but it's tough to think nearly every Zune 30 owner would be effected?

[j5045096]

It's real. Screen capture from Zune website.

[tbealmear]

Real sad that I don't know anybody who uses a Zune. It would just be the one moment to laught at them!

I haven't even seen one Zune in the wild since they we're launched..weird or is it just here in europe?

I have seen one I think before. I would think that I would see a lot more considering I work for a 30k+ student university!!

[iJohnHenry]

Why would M$ change something only in the latest firmware to have caused only 30GB Zune's to fail simultaneously?

Doh .... crappy QC?? :(

[Auzburner]

It's real. Screen capture from Zune website.

Well, at least their acknowledging the problem publicly.

PS - Thanks Arn for linking this discussion to the Page 2 story :)!

[Fezzasus]

Most plausable reason i've read is that someone forgot it was a leap year

[ccoulson]

Easy fix here, guys. MS will launch a multi-hundred dollar marketing campaign using a comedian who hasn't been in the limelight for 10 years. Oh wait, they tried that already...

[JG271]

Most plausable reason i've read is that someone forgot it was a leap year

Could be. But it says the zunes aren't being recognised by windows... so the question is are they bricked forever?

[craigverse]

Omgomg, how much does that suck. :x
:confused:

Poor 30gb Zune owners. :eek:

[SLC Flyfishing]

No, I don't particularly disbelieve it. Although I will make the alternate case that, as there are hardly any Zune users to begin with, the impact on MS might not be so bad. I can hardly imagine Zunes are being sold by word of mouth. Hardly anyone even knows one person with a Zune, let alone people who have Zunes who know people who also have Zunes.

I know 5 or 6 folks who have Zunes, but you are right that none of them know each other. They do seem to like them well enough though.

SLC

[Lancetx]

I knew all of that "squirting" was going to catch up with them sooner or later....

Ah, I found a fitting term for it: BSOD = Brown Squirt of Death

[ProwlingTiger]

How typical, while most of the world avoids Y2K problems, leave it to Micro$oft to fall victim.

Glad I never considered buying a, what is it called again...oh a Zune.

[nick9191]

8 years late.

Microsoft never could ship anything on time :D

[bacaramac]

I knew this was missing from this thread. I finally found the right picture to speak a thousand words. Surprised no one has posted this pic yet.

[monke]

In one word: Ouch.

The Xbox 360's being called the 'cheap PS3' lately, now the Zune's could be called the 'cheap iPod'. Microsoft's rep is going down fast.

I could see them trying to cover up this news by releasing a new beta of Windows 7.

[ProwlingTiger]

Perhaps this is intentional. Microsoft never imagined that the Zune would last this long. So they placed an automatic kill switch for 2009 to deactivate their returns warehouse. They figured that if they had actually tricked any one into buying one that this kill switch would end their misery in 2009. Happy New Year!

Oh, how many Zunes are out there? 20? 50? The problem is not as widespread as the article would have you believe ;)

[Auzburner]

I know what this is! Microsoft programmers thought they would play a little publicity joke and at midnight tonight when all eyes are on the Zune problem, the Zune 30 will pop on at new years and play a celebration video! Yea Happy New Year! - From Microsoft! ;)

[edgew8]

truth in advertising

[92WardSenatorFE]

Apparently if you call Zune support...

"Thank you for calling, due to extreme weather conditions at this time, we are unable to take your call. Please try again later..."
http://www.zunescene.mobi/forums/index.php?topic=43550.216

Gotta love M$ support :D

[neiltc13]

Apparently if you call Zune support...


http://www.zunescene.mobi/forums/index.php?topic=43550.216

Gotta love M$ support :D

Why do people replace the "s" in Microsoft with $?

Has the company done anything to deserve this or is it just people being angered by a company being successful in achieving its duty to perform well for its shareholders?

[bacaramac]

Apparently if you call Zune support...


http://www.zunescene.mobi/forums/index.php?topic=43550.216

Gotta love M$ support :D

Really??? Are you serious??

Why do people replace the "s" in Microsoft with $?

Has the company done anything to deserve this or is it just people being angered by a company being successful in achieving its duty to perform well for its shareholders?

You do realize your on a Mac forum, so people are generally biased.

[TuffLuffJimmy]

Why do people replace the "s" in Microsoft with $?

I think it has to do with the anticompetitive nature of the company and all the illegal activities they embraced in order to get to the top.

[dmr727]

Has the company done anything to deserve this or is it just people being angered by a company being successful in achieving its duty to perform well for its shareholders?

We're not shareholders (most of us, anyway). So consumers tend to get upset when Microsoft spends more time catering to its shareholders than fixing its crappy products. :)

[iTzChasE]

lol M$

[P-Worm]

:D

Check out google's top searches today (http://www.google.com/trends/hottrends?sa=X)

Particularly numbers, 4, 11, 12, 13, 19, 29, 32, 35, 39, 40, 46, 48, 64, 69, 75, 79, 80, and 84.

P-Worm

[liquidtrend]

i wish i knew where my 30gb zune was.
i think it is somewhere under my bed.

[Auzburner]

:D

Check out google's top searches today (http://www.google.com/trends/hottrends?sa=X)

Particularly numbers, 4, 11, 12, 13, 19, 29, 32, 35, 39, 40, 46, 48, 64, 69, 75, 79, 80, and 84.

P-Worm

Now that's CRAZY! Great find. I think this will go down as one of the largest New Years blunders ever, although if it was an iPod it would be 100X worse because of the number of people effected, but still this is Billy Fuccillo Sized HUGE.;)

i wish i knew where my 30gb zune was.
i think it is somewhere under my bed.
Won't do you much good looking...

[DMann]

Y2K is happening 8 years late? That's about on schedule for Microsoft!

Y209K - Right on schedule!

[Geniusdog254]

Appears to be just Zune30, my Zune80 is just fine and have never had a problem with it. Sometimes I wish it had a phone so I could ditch my iPhone.
(I'll get flamed but it has great audio quality and more space and battery life than my iPhone)

[Much Ado]

This almost looks rehearsed.

[Demosthenes X]

Its Y2k! Run!

...8 years later. :p

Since when has Microsoft ever released anything on time? :D

[alexbates]

In one word: Ouch.

The Xbox 360's being called the 'cheap PS3' lately, now the Zune's could be called the 'cheap iPod'. Microsoft's rep is going down fast.

I could see them trying to cover up this news by releasing a new beta of Windows 7.

Thats what Microsoft does, puts other products down just to look goood.

If Microsoft says that the PS3 is cheap, I would highly disagree. I know a lot of people who have a 360 and the disc drive is broken. All new gaming systems besides the 360 now use the disc drive that doesn't have the tray. (just like Macs have been for years) The reason Microsoft had to lower the price of the 360 is because its so cheap.

[SLC Flyfishing]

I called my cousin, his Zune is locked and he's TORQUED! Funny enough, this weekend he asked me about buying a Macbook. I think this will probably put him over the edge!:D

SLC

[Auzburner]

This almost looks rehearsed.

I agree, almost too good to be true! I'm waiting for other models to fail...

[NC MacGuy]

Appears to be just Zune30, my Zune80 is just fine and have never had a problem with it. Sometimes I wish it had a phone so I could ditch my iPhone.
(I'll get flamed but it has great audio quality and more space and battery life than my iPhone)

We shall see what tomorrow brings.:p

[kdarling]

Apparently related to a Nov 2008 software update.

As a developer with tens of thousands of users myself, I feel sorry for the programmers involved. I bet they were planning all sorts of personal holiday parties... and now they'll be at the office working on this instead.

[NT1440]

Honestly, this is a HUGE blow to the reputation of the Zune, seeing as we all love to bash on Microsoft any way, this is deffinatly gonna grab headlines.

I do feel bad that some people are deffinately gonna end up fired for this.

[Michael CM1]

Why do people replace the "s" in Microsoft with $?

Has the company done anything to deserve this or is it just people being angered by a company being successful in achieving its duty to perform well for its shareholders?

1) I'm a shareholder (3 shares, baybee!) and the stock has been crap for the past few years.

2) It's not that they make money for shareholders. It's that Microsoft makes crap that sells well, the McDonald's of the comptuer world, and then tries to crush the competition with crap products. They can't even keep making Windows Media Player for Mac for crying out loud. I had to turn to VLC to get my uncle's computer to play WMV files.

[MattG]

I know two people at work with Zunes...wonder if this will affect them.

[dopey220]

I've never used a Zune, but I know four or five people who have them and are perfectly happy with them. At least, they were. Dunno how today is shaping up for them.

*shrugs* Just sayin' is all.

[Auzburner]

http://gizmodo.com/5121618/how-to-revive-dead-zunes-30s

Here's a quick solution, but I've heard it voids the warranty...

[Prof.]

First. The red ring of death with the 360. Then Vista is a huge flop. Then Windows 7 gets a somewhat bad review. NOW the Zunes are failing. It has not been a good few years for Micro$oft.

EDIT: I have a question. Why do the Zunes only go up to 80GB's when the iPod goes up to 120GB?

[rdowns]

Just make a mental note of this day in history. You'll be able to tell your grandkids what you were doing when the Zunepocalypse hit. :D

[ltldrummerboy]

This will certainly lower Microsoft's music player marketshare. But I've only met one person who owned a Zune, so maybe not.

[NT1440]

First. The red ring of death with the 360. Then Vista is a huge flop. Then Windows 7 gets a somewhat bad review. NOW the Zunes are failing. It has not been a good few years for Micro$oft.

For brand recognition, not a good year at all.

Where has Windows 7 gotten bad reviews?

[Prof.]

Where has Windows 7 gotten bad reviews?
I have so many news sites bookmarked I can't remember where I saw it. I'll start lookin. Gimme a few.

GAH! I can't find it. I'll try to keep looking.

[Prof.]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28449091/

[OllyW]

EDIT: I have a question. Why do the Zunes only go up to 80GB's when the iPod goes up to 120GB?

Like this? (http://www.amazon.com/Zune-120-Video-Player-Black/dp/B001EQ0HAW/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1230751094&sr=8-1) :p

[Luke1robb]

I find this hilarious! Go Microsoft products!

[Prof.]

Like this? (http://www.amazon.com/Zune-120-Video-Player-Black/dp/B001EQ0HAW/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1230751094&sr=8-1) :p
Oh...:o

[elppa]

First. The red ring of death with the 360. Then Vista is a huge flop. Then Windows 7 gets a somewhat bad review.

Link me to one, cause I haven't seen one yet, almost everything has been mostly positive.

[DMann]

Honestly, this is a HUGE blow to the reputation of the Zune, seeing as we all love to bash on Microsoft any way, this is deffinatly gonna grab headlines.

I do feel bad that some people are deffinately gonna end up fired for this.

Not likely, they haven't fired Ballmer yet.

[monke]

Apparently if you call Zune support...

"Thank you for calling, due to extreme weather conditions at this time, we are unable to take your call. Please try again later..."


I'm going to take a stab at this one and guess its a sand storm. ;)

[mattwolfmatt]

I'll bet this has to do with the leap second (http://www.google.com/hostednews/ukpress/article/ALeqM5j3AVJl0lNUFl6cYPOqBqJNqIuhmw). This would explain why those with the current software update are effected, but those without the update are still fine.

[fleshman03]

Enjoy this:

http://blog.wired.com/photos/uncategorized/2008/12/31/zsod.jpg

[NT1440]

Not likely, they haven't fired Ballmer yet.

What I mean is the little guys. They'll probably trace the problem back to some poor overworked coder working in a cubicle and fire his ass.

[shigzeo]

many at headfi are negatively astonished to find their zunes don't work since this morning. sad really. i am not pulling for ipod over zune really just feel sad that people's investments are having a hard time kicking especially in hard economic times.

here is the headfi.org thread (http://www.head-fi.org/forums/f15/30gb-zune-dont-switch-today-396309/) is the thread.
here is the zunescene (http://www.zunescene.mobi/forums/index.php?topic=43550.msg513352;boardseen#new) thread on the issue.

[Prof.]

Did anyone else get an IM from AIM user "Fanboysarelame"? He/She might be a MR user but I don't know who he/she is...:confused: He/She IM'd me about this thread...

[SanibelMan]

If this isn't fixed in the next couple of days, Apple should offer some sort of discount on iPods for people who trade in their bricked Zune...

[SwiftLives]

If this isn't fixed in the next couple of days, Apple should offer some sort of discount on iPods for people who trade in their bricked Zune...

If it isn't fixed in a couple of days, Apple won't have to offer some sort of discount on iPods.

[Sayer]

I guess all 5 kids who got a Zune from Grammy and Gramps instead of an iPod are really mad, now.

[92WardSenatorFE]

http://blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/microsoft/archives/158257.asp?source=mypi

Figured I'd add that story to the mix. ;)

My question is.. if everyone keeps draining their Zunes, then charging it up again knowing it won't work.. would it eventually overheat, short circuit, or something? Just another thing to chew on.

[dr_lha]

Its Y2k! Run!

...8 years later. :p
9 years ;)

[DMann]

What I mean is the little guys. They'll probably trace the problem back to some poor overworked coder working in a cubicle and fire his ass.

Then perhaps they should have fired the entire fleet of overworked coders who released Vista (Longhorn) in 2007.

[Consultant]

Even Microsoft never expected Zune to last beyond 2008 so they put a self destruct function in.

:)

Yeah, affects the 50 people that owns it

I knew all of that "squirting" was going to catch up with them sooner or later....

Ah, I found a fitting term for it: BSOD = Brown Squirt of Death

LOL!

[bitWrangler]

Yes, it could have been worse. Had this happened before Christmas, say right after Thanksgiving, then this really would be a disaster for Microsoft. Having this kind of bad pub right before the start of the biggest selling season of the year would have been an unmitigated disaster.

It will be interesting to see if Apple does anything in light of this. I think it would obviously be bad form to directly make fun of this (not to mention pure karmic suicide) say in the form of a Mac vs PC type commercial (or as someone suggested, turn in your brick and get an ipod). Instead it seems like a great time to crank up the regular ipod adverts. Or be a slight bit more subtle, like "turn in your old HD based MP3 player, working or not, and get xx% off an ipod" :)

[Consultant]

It's on CNN
http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/12/31/zune.player.failures/index.html

:D

Check out google's top searches today (http://www.google.com/trends/hottrends?sa=X)

Particularly numbers, 4, 11, 12, 13, 19, 29, 32, 35, 39, 40, 46, 48, 64, 69, 75, 79, 80, and 84.

P-Worm

Current search results attached.

[Sirobin]

Something I've been wondering about...the computers don't recognize the Zunes, but do they really not have something like the iPhone's DFU mode were they can be upgraded without actually booting? If they don't, that's just more epic fail from Microsoft, and if they do, and even that doesn't work...Microsoft is ***ed.:D

[kdarling]

At least Microsoft acknowledged the problem, and lets the zune users vent on their forum.

Apple would've gone dead silent and fixed it quietly in an update. In the meantime, they would've deleted any messages on their user forums that screamed about the bug.

:rolleyes:

[puckhead193]

looks like y2k came a little late :p

[Auzburner]

At least Microsoft acknowledged the problem, and lets the zune users vent on their forum.

Apple would've gone dead silent and fixed it quietly in an update. In the meantime, they would've deleted any messages on their user forums that screamed about the bug.

:rolleyes:

Absolutely, I was thinking the same thing a couple minutes ago... Sadly, I would guess it's true, but who knows as Apple has not experienced such an outage before. The MobileMe problems cannot even be compared to this.

[Koodauw]

If this isn't fixed in the next couple of days, Apple should offer some sort of discount on iPods for people who trade in their bricked Zune...

That would be most excellent. Genius marketing at a low cost.

[EV0LUTION]

my sisters was dead when she looked at it this morning, she was told to sit tight by the MS boys.

Glad I have an iPod and only have to deal with the rare iTunes **** up.

[IJ Reilly]

This should be one of those clip-and-save items to pull out whenever someone gripes about Apple not giving them exactly what they wanted the moment they thought of it.

[rhett7660]

Feel bad for the people who bought into Zune, but I can't help but laugh at this thread and some of the other websites posting about this. Too funny.

[ProwlingTiger]

It's on CNN
http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/12/31/zune.player.failures/index.html



Current search results attached.

Wow, the few people that bought the Zune must be really active on Google.

[CLuv]

At least the Zune Forum is probably getting more posts than ever, welcome to the Social!

[hdm42]

Apple needs to re-release this as an iPod ad:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nHJkAYdT7qo

":apple: : we may not get everything right, but at least we knew the century (and 2009) was going to end!" :rolleyes:

[Stuipdboy1000]

Just make a mental note of this day in history. You'll be able to tell your grandkids what you were doing when the Zunepocalypse hit. :D

What? Wetting ourselves?

[Auzburner]

Apple needs to re-release this as an iPod ad:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nHJkAYdT7qo

":apple: : we may not get everything right, but at least we knew the century (and 2009) was going to end!" :rolleyes:

Yes! It should it's perfect in this situation.

[SeanMcg]

the epic y2k9 zune failure the aztec calendar predicted is true!!! ...

Didn't Nostradamus have a quatrain about this, too? ;)

[smithruls]

If this really is related to the new year change, thats pretty sad. Is it really that hard to change the year? Every other device does it all every year...

[iParis]

Woot!
Good job Microsoft!
Way to beat down the iPod!:rolleyes:

Now I'm sure when all the current Zune owners buy a new device they will most likely lean towards an iPod.

[weckart]

Real sad that I don't know anybody who uses a Zune. It would just be the one moment to laught at them!

I haven't even seen one Zune in the wild since they we're launched..weird or is it just here in europe?

I saw one in a secondhand shop in London. There is a very good reason why Zunes are as rare as hens' teeth in Europe: Microsoft only sells the Zune in the US and, since June 2008, in Canada.

[kinchee87]

This is a feature rather than a bug. Its purpose is to get the Zune's owners to socialize for the new year party on the Zune forums.

[Tosser]

Thank you –*this thread made my evening. Great comments everyone :p

[UltraNEO*]

http://gizmodo.com/5121311/30gb-zunes-failing-everywhere-all-at-once

http://www.engadget.com/2008/12/31/30gb-zunes-mysteriously-begin-to-fail-at-12am-december-31st/

EDIT: http://news.cnet.com/8301-10805_3-10129977-75.html?tag=newsLatestHeadlinesArea.0
Another article.

EDIT: http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/12/31/zune.player.failures/index.html (Consultant)
Additional Article, Press is having a field day with this... Every source has to have their own take...

This is pretty intense, trying to figure out if it's a new years hoax already titled "Z2K", or for real.



http://gizmodo.com/5121618/how-to-revive-dead-zunes-30s
Quick Solution, Caution may void warranty...

Why doesn't this surprise me? It's by Micro$oft... lol

[LloydBraun89]

this story is a mac users dream!! praise to the gods who caused this to happen.

[bobsentell]

Well, I'm glad the Apple users are getting a kick out of this. And while I don't have a Zune, I offer this kind rebuttal on their behalf: iPhone 2.0. Within two month's of it's release Apple had to produce 4 seperate bug fixes. And lest we forget MobileMe and its successful launch.

This is something that Apple should really look into. What happens to Zune can happen to iPod/iPhone. Especially if it is a software bug. With millions of iPhones out there, it would destroy Apple's good image if they all crapped at the same time after the 2.2.1 or 2.3 update.

At least for Microsoft it was just an MP3 player.

[shigzeo]

yes true, at least only an mp3 player but it is an mp3 player that already is not really differentiating itself from the market offering only the social thing. it does keep good track of old hardware but... this will cause a major hurt to their zune programme.

i hope it gets fixed. but then again, there are probably very few on this forum who need it to be as you have to have windows to use this hardware: that is a shame.

[petermcphee]

This is a huge black eye for MS. Why wasn't this noticed before now? What other products have similar Achilles heels waiting to be discovered by their consumers?

[Dagless]

Well, I'm glad the Apple users are getting a kick out of this. And while I don't have a Zune, I offer this kind rebuttal on their behalf: iPhone 2.0. Within two month's of it's release Apple had to produce 4 seperate bug fixes. And lest we forget MobileMe and its successful launch.
The iPhone didn't have a bug that stopped the entire system from working.

At least for Microsoft it was just an MP3 player.

So what are the Shuffles, Nanos and Classics all about?

[dave-dave]

I don't know if this was already posted, but Microsoft has acknowledged that there is a problem (top right of page):
http://www.zune.net:80/en-US/support

[Prof.]

I don't know if this was already posted, but Microsoft has acknowledged that there is a problem (top right of page):
http://www.zune.net:80/en-US/support
WOW! It was a new year glitch.

That's pretty bad on Microsoft's part.

[TwinCities Dan]

WOW! It was a new year glitch.

That's pretty bad on Microsoft's part.

Don't worry, M$ has assured Zune users that they will fix the firmware before 2012 (the next leap year) ;) :p

[monke]

This is something that Apple should really look into. What happens to Zune can happen to iPod/iPhone. Especially if it is a software bug. With millions of iPhones out there, it would destroy Apple's good image if they all crapped at the same time after the 2.2.1 or 2.3 update.

That's not true. Apple writes its own software for its devices, and Microsoft writes their own. If Microsoft messed up with the date, does that mean it will happen to Apple's devices? No.

At least for Microsoft it was just an MP3 player.

Just an MP3 player? Lets revisit the Xbox 360's red ring of death issue. They quite obviously aren't doing a few things right and are now having many problems because of it. You can't really pass this off as being 'just an MP3 player'. If it happened to their OS, could you imagine what would happen?

[TwinCities Dan]

That's not true. Apple writes its own software for its devices, and Microsoft writes their own. If Microsoft messed up with the date, does that mean it will happen to Apple's devices? No.


True, Apple figured out calenders in 1984, it seems M$ is still struggling... :p

[Auzburner]

http://forums.zune.net/412486/ShowPost.aspx

Well, that's it! The official fix is to wait until tomorrow. I'm sure this is the fix, but how funny would it be if it did not work and all of the Zune's were messed up? Anywho, nice job again MS.

True, Apple figured out calenders in 1984, it seems M$ is still struggling... :p

Well, camon - Let's be nice, calendars are a very tough concept.

[motulist]

Schadenfreude when MS has a failure is always fun, and I am definitely enjoying my schadenfreude for this event. But at the same time we have to be fair about the situation. All companies' products have occasional major bugs, including Apple. Though to be honest again, this is a REALLY huge bug on MS's part. This is a failure that's on a scale I've never seen before in a major digital consumer device. But it's also a bug that's probably easily fixable. The latest I heard is that this crash is due to the system not being aware of the leap day we have this year, so it's entirely possible that all the zunes might suddenly start working again tomorrow. And if they don't automatically fix themselves tomorrow, I'm sure a simple fix will be coming down the chute in the next day or two.

So I guess I'm saying, let's all enjoy our schadenfreude against MS, but lets also not go overboard, because you don't want to tempt fate. If you take too much joy in MS's suffering, that'll tempt fate to make a similar level of failure befall an Apple product.

[jojo13]

zune=fail

period.

[TwinCities Dan]

http://forums.zune.net/412486/ShowPost.aspx
Well, camon - Let's be nice, calendars are a very tough concept.

Well, the Mayan's had it figured out thousands of years ago... :p ;)

[monke]

True, Apple figured out calenders in 1984, it seems M$ is still struggling... :p
Well, camon - Let's be nice, calendars are a very tough concept.
Well, the Mayan's had it figured out thousands of years ago... :p ;)

:D
Well yes they can be complicated these days I guess. With all these 'the world is going to end on Tuesday, April 5th, 2065' how can you program anything? :p


Well, that's it! The official fix is to wait until tomorrow. I'm sure this is the fix, but how funny would it be if it did not work and all of the Zune's were messed up? Anywho, nice job again MS.

I wonder what happens if they don't fix tomorrow.
The headlines are either going to be "30GB Zune's are doomed" or "Magic, presumed to be leprechauns, fixed every 30GB Zune last night". :p

[crees!]

My fiance just showed me her 30GB black iPod that is frozen. She said this morning when she woke up it was like that. I took a look at it and it is indeed frozen. It's stuck on the Do Not Disconnect screen. Can't reset or power it off. This'll be fun.

[mrkgoo]

Well, the Mayan's had it figured out thousands of years ago... :p ;)

To be fair, Apple left all New Zealanders out for a loop when they refuse to update the new daylight savings time changeover until AFTER it happened.

[bobsentell]

That's not true. Apple writes its own software for its devices, and Microsoft writes their own. If Microsoft messed up with the date, does that mean it will happen to Apple's devices? No. ?

Apple put out four software updates in two months to fix bugs. Obviously Apple isn't perfect in their software writing either. These Zunes all crashed on the SAME DAY. These things don't happen by chance. Odds are this is a disgruntled employee who put in a bad line of code and Apple is not immune to this. Microsoft has made billions of dollars more money than Apple selling its software. Odds are Microsoft knows what it is doing. One line of code, gone unnoticed, can cause this. And as Apple gains more and more market share, the attacks on their own software will increase. But if you think Apple doesn't make mistakes, then why is there a forum filled with things Apple should add or fix?

Just an MP3 player? Lets revisit the Xbox 360's red ring of death issue. They quite obviously aren't doing a few things right and are now having many problems because of it. You can't really pass this off as being 'just an MP3 player'. If it happened to their OS, could you imagine what would happen?

But Windows doesn't crash, if you use it right. I've used Vista from the onset and have never had an issue. And I have a 360. I've had it since early 2006 and, again, I've never had a problem.

My point is that Apple needs to immediately review what's been written and add some more quality control measures. Because if a disgruntled employee does this to Apple and their iPhone, they knock out a phone that is used worldwide. As opposed to an MP3 player used streetwide. The economic consequences could be tremendous.

[neiltc13]

My fiance just showed me her 30GB black iPod that is frozen. She said this morning when she woke up it was like that. I took a look at it and it is indeed frozen. It's stuck on the Do Not Disconnect screen. Can't reset or power it off. This'll be fun.

Remove the battery! Oh, wait.... yet another wonder of Apple's product design.

[Melrose]

But Windows doesn't crash, if you use it right.
Oh dear... I would suggest that you rephrase that "Windows doesn't crash for me, regardless of how I use it."

-

Zune users: All you have to do is follow these simple, easy steps (http://www.zune.net/en-us/support/zune30.htm).

[MacTraveller]

Nail in the coffin for zune. The smartest thing MS can do now is to officially discontinue and kill the zune product line. Put the embarrassment behind them in 2009.

[ltldrummerboy]

I guess it's been resolved. Let the battery run out, and then after 7 am eastern on Jan. 1st, you can plug it into your computer.

[NC MacGuy]

Reassuring:

"What if I have rights-managed (DRM) content on my Zune?

Most likely, rights-managed content will not be affected by this issue. However, it's a good idea to sync your Zune with your computer once the freeze has been resolved, just to make sure your usage rights are up to date."

[sushi]

If every Zune 30 cannot be recognized, how do they update?
This part makes no sense.

You would think that there is a ways to reset the Zune so that you could connect it to the PC and have it be recognized.

truth in advertising
Like the brick image. Forwarded it to a few friends. I'm bad already this year. :p

Something I've been wondering about...the computers don't recognize the Zunes, but do they really not have something like the iPhone's DFU mode were they can be upgraded without actually booting? If they don't, that's just more epic fail from Microsoft, and if they do, and even that doesn't work...Microsoft is ***ed.:D
Completely agree here. You would think that there is some sort of way to reset the Zune via the buttons.

Well, I'm glad the Apple users are getting a kick out of this. <snip>
The iPhone didn't have a bug that stopped the entire system from working.
The fact that the Zune is not working is not humorous to me. I feel bad for those who have a Zune and are not able to use.

What I do find funny, or strange if you will, about the situation is that apparently you cannot do a reset of some sort via the buttons to fix the issue so that the Zune can be connected to a PC, recognized, and flash updated.

I just find it hard to believe that you can't do this.

Zune users: All you have to do is follow these simple, easy steps (http://www.zune.net/en-us/support/zune30.htm).
If this works, then it is a relatively simple fix.

[sharp65]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPod; U; CPU iPhone OS 2_2 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/525.18.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.1.1 Mobile/5G77 Safari/525.20)

Nail in the coffin for zune. The smartest thing MS can do now is to officially discontinue and kill the zune product line. Put the embarrassment behind them in 2009.

Do people like you think before you post stupid things? I'm inclined to think not.

[monke]

... But if you think Apple doesn't make mistakes, then why is there a forum filled with things Apple should add or fix?

I didn't say Apple is inferior to problems. Just because it happens to the Zune doesn't mean it's going to happen to the iPod. Like I said Apple writes their own code, so does Microsoft. If there's an error with Microsoft's code, its highly unlikely that it's going to happen to Apple too because different people wrote the code.

But Windows doesn't crash, if you use it right. I've used Vista from the onset and have never had an issue. And I have a 360. I've had it since early 2006 and, again, I've never had a problem.

Again, I didn't say Windows crashes, I'm just using it as an example if it were to happen on a larger scale. Saying its 'just an MP3 player' is an understatement. If its a software coding error, then it could easily happen to their OS too.

As for the Xbox's, I don't have one, I happily own a PS3, but every single person I know who has owned an 360 has had problems with it.

My point is that Apple needs to immediately review what's been written and add some more quality control measures. Because if a disgruntled employee does this to Apple and their iPhone, they knock out a phone that is used worldwide. As opposed to an MP3 player used streetwide. The economic consequences could be tremendous.

I agree that it's probably necessary right now to look over the code. I'm sure it already happens though, with people working on updates and different bugs.

[Melrose]

Do people like you think before you post stupid things? I'm inclined to think not. Sometimes stupid things get posted intentionally. That post itself I'm not so sure about..

[fireshot91]

It was just a driver bug, calm down everyone. It could've happened to anybody, it's just a coincidence that it happened to the one company that everybody hates!

[Tufelhunden]

Apple put out four software updates in two months to fix bugs. Obviously Apple isn't perfect in their software writing either. These Zunes all crashed on the SAME DAY. These things don't happen by chance. Odds are this is a disgruntled employee who put in a bad line of code and Apple is not immune to this. Microsoft has made billions of dollars more money than Apple selling its software. Odds are Microsoft knows what it is doing. One line of code, gone unnoticed, can cause this. And as Apple gains more and more market share, the attacks on their own software will increase. But if you think Apple doesn't make mistakes, then why is there a forum filled with things Apple should add or fix?



But Windows doesn't crash, if you use it right. I've used Vista from the onset and have never had an issue. And I have a 360. I've had it since early 2006 and, again, I've never had a problem.

My point is that Apple needs to immediately review what's been written and add some more quality control measures. Because if a disgruntled employee does this to Apple and their iPhone, they knock out a phone that is used worldwide. As opposed to an MP3 player used streetwide. The economic consequences could be tremendous.


Amen! Using Vista Ultimate for 6+ months now and love it. 2 360's in the house with nary a RROD. Vista has only crashed when I tried some modded drivers, obviously my fault. Now that I have iTunes on my machine I have had 3 crashes, worst software I have ever used. :( Now the iPhone on the other hand, Safari crashes 4 to 5 times a day of and flash forget that because we don't need it, it really isn't that popoular on teh web anyway. :rolleyes: Also, let us not forget Pwn2Own the Mac was hacked through Safari and the Vista Machine did not fall until Flash was introduced.

What I am saying is no system is perfect and they all have their issues. Beware Karma getting glee out of someone elses misfortune is not wise. ;)

[dmw007]

While I feel bad for those who are having problems with their 30GB Zune, I can not help but smile over the misfortune M$ is having with the Zune. :D :cool: :apple:

[iJohnHenry]

it happened to the one company that everybody hates!

So?? What is your point?? :D

[joshooa]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 2_2 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/525.18.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.1.1 Mobile/5G77 Safari/525.20)

I was at best buy and two people returned theirs because of this....

[KingYaba]

Get ready for the next batch of "Hello I'm a Mac" commercials.

[oyebto]

This post shouldnt even be here. has nth to do with any apple or mac product.

[Prof.]

This post shouldnt even be here. has nth to do with any apple or mac product.
You're absolutely right. I'm gonna PM a mod right now and have them delete this whole thing...:D:rolleyes:

[cycocelica]

Everyone was just 9 years too early. This is the end of the world as we know it. Y9K.

[2nyRiggz]

Got me scared for my XBox360....hope it won't RROD at midnight.


/jk.


Bless

[Prof.]

Everyone was just 9 years too early. This is the end of the world as we know it. Y9K.
Year nine thousand?:p

[n00b-1]

During the keynote Phil Schiller will make a passing reference or stupid joke regarding the Zune failure--no question in my mind.

[MacNut]

Well I cant make any cell phone calls at the moment.

[kdarling]

Apple put out four software updates in two months to fix bugs. Obviously Apple isn't perfect in their software writing either.

Yep. Those who live in glass houses....

These Zunes all crashed on the SAME DAY. These things don't happen by chance.

Not by chance, but simply by bad leap year handling code.

Odds are this is a disgruntled employee who put in a bad line of code and Apple is not immune to this.

Nope, no conspiracy. Apparently the driver was miswritten for the particular clock chip used in that particular Zune model.

Far more likely is that all the senior engineers were laid off, and a kid wrote the code, in some outsourced place.

[n00b-1]

Again, I didn't say Windows crashes

And yet it does! OS X has problems too, just a lot fewer.

[MacsBestFriend]

lol i just heard about this: should be resolved by morning they said, but knowing ms they hired people to sneak into everyones house when the were sleeping and swap out the zunes, lol

[alexbates]

lol i just heard about this: should be resolved by morning they said, but knowing ms they hired people to sneak into everyones house when the were sleeping and swap out the zunes, lol

I wouldn't be surprised.

[raster]

I have never seen a Zune, I don't know where to buy a Zune, I have never seen an advertisment for a Zune. Honestly, I have only heard of a Zune on these kind of sites.
Why would anyone buy a Zune?

[ChrisA]

Doesn't look like a hoax. This is gonna look bad for Microsoft.

No it won't. People who use MS product expect this kind of stuff and figure it's just the way it is

[FX120]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 2_2 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/525.18.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.1.1 Mobile/5G77 Safari/525.20)

I was at best buy and two people returned theirs because of this....

Bullcrap. This only affected the oldest model which hasn't been sold in stores for well over a year now. Best Buy wouldn't accept a return on a used item that old.

[zephead]

I can really think of only one picture that would sum all this up:

http://img100.imageshack.us/img100/778/gatesissorryforzunedu0.jpg

And that was before the Zunepocalypse™.

[davester]

HAHAHAHAHAHA!!! Proof that MS shouldn't meddle with a market that is 60% iPod. Fools. :)

[pmanija]

"2YK8" bug for Zune

[sushi]

"2YK8" bug for Zune
LOL'ed at this.

I am sure that Microsoft will have a fix for it.

Before in this thread, there was a link to a somewhat simple fix -- if it works.

The one thing that is amazing, so far, is that there is not a hard reset via the buttons for the Zune.

[BornAgainMac]

I have never seen a Zune, I don't know where to buy a Zune, I have never seen an advertisment for a Zune. Honestly, I have only heard of a Zune on these kind of sites.
Why would anyone buy a Zune?

My friend has a Zune and he can rip a DVD to MP4 format at it's full size and it plays on the Zune. On the iPod the video has to be resized a little bit down and programs like Handbrake have options to make a 'iPod version'.

[ppnkg]

Even Microsoft never expected Zune to last beyond 2008 so they put a self destruct function in.

:)


LOL, best explanation so far!!

[Dagless]

My friend has a Zune and he can rip a DVD to MP4 format at it's full size and it plays on the Zune. On the iPod the video has to be resized a little bit down and programs like Handbrake have options to make a 'iPod version'.
I'm not entirely sure about that. There are parametres required to make it an iPod format, but I'm not sure about resolution. I ripped a load of DVDs in the US standard 640x480 (UK being 571 but as if they'd support that) and they play perfect on my iPod 5.5G and look good on my monitor too.

I have never seen a Zune, I don't know where to buy a Zune, I have never seen an advertisment for a Zune. Honestly, I have only heard of a Zune on these kind of sites.
Why would anyone buy a Zune?

Hah I've no idea. But that said I've never seen one since... Well... I'm absolutely confused as to why they haven't released the Zune outside of the US. They're clearly going after the iPod yet they release it to one market only?

[Chundles]

My friend has a Zune and he can rip a DVD to MP4 format at it's full size and it plays on the Zune. On the iPod the video has to be resized a little bit down and programs like Handbrake have options to make a 'iPod version'.

So long as you drop the vertical resolution to 480 or less then you can use loose anamorphic settings in Handbrake and get an amazing picture quality.

My rip of The Dark Knight is 1032x432 at full res (when played on my laptop or :apple:tv) at 2Mbps video bit rate yet it still plays perfectly on my iPhone.

[Melrose]

This whole thing demonstrates the difference between the parents of iPod and Zune. While, as some pointed out, this could have happened to Apple, it didn't and most likely will never happen.

Apple has superior quality control - whether you throw out the 'third-party dev" or not doesn't change the outcome of the product.

M$ brings an inferior product to market quickly, and under the cover of huge marketing campaigns proceeds to update and fix what are at times HUGE bugs until people forget how bad it was, how bad it is or the product actually improves.

[Tosser]

Apple has superior quality control - whether you throw out the 'third-party dev" or not doesn't change the outcome of the product.
Remember the iPhone updates?
Remember when iPods were shipped with viruses?

Anyway, this is still fun. Luckily the people affected will have a working player shortly.

[lftrghtparadigm]

Sorry folks, but do you honestly believe that a variation on the Y2K problem, something solved over 8 years ago, actually just occurred but on a "small" scale?

As soon as I began reading this, I knew what it was. It was a test. A technology test, and every one of you with a Zune was tested. It was absolutely positively done intentionally. You HAVE to recognize this. You have to know how to recognize this....use your brains.

Here is just an example of all that was accomplished by doing this intentionally:

1. Tested what was previously a hypothetical scenario; Widespread reaction to global failure of a particular type of handheld. What if it was an iPhone, not a Zune?

2. Tested the viability and power of the remote-wipe system. When Apple tried to sneak this feature in under 2.0, by mentioning it as a possible function, they played it down as much as possible, while still mentioning it. Users were shocked and chagrined to find out remote wipe is always active and always in Apple's control. Your iPhone can be shut down a moments notice by its creator, and the ZUNE is no different.

3. And as usual, it tested a large group of people's ability to believe absolutely anything, even believing in a bug that was fixed a decade ago by most technology companies. Is it anything short of embarassing, that this would happen to Microsoft then? A leading tech company? People sure do appreciate irony, which is why they buy it if you tell its true. Unfortunately things aren't very ironic in real life, mostly deceptive and wicked.

Roll your eyes all day, but THIS was no accident, it was not UNFORSEEN, and is not nor ever was out of Microsoft's control. They may very well have gotten their directives and orders from those that know best :rolleyes: and carried it out, but they are not caught unawares here.

[motulist]

I knew what it was. It was a test. A technology test, and every one of you with a Zune was tested. It was absolutely positively done intentionally. You HAVE to recognize this. You have to know how to recognize this....use your brains....<snip>

Roll your eyes all day, but THIS was no accident, it was not UNFORSEEN, and is not nor ever was out of Microsoft's control. They may very well have gotten their directives and orders from those that know best :rolleyes: and carried it out, but they are not caught unawares here.

http://www.clipartof.com/images/emoticons/xsmall2/1231_hysterically_laughing.gif

Dude. You either have to get off the drugs, or you have to start taking some.

[yg17]

Sorry folks, but do you honestly believe that a variation on the Y2K problem, something solved over 8 years ago, actually just occurred but on a "small" scale?

As soon as I began reading this, I knew what it was. It was a test. A technology test, and every one of you with a Zune was tested. It was absolutely positively done intentionally. You HAVE to recognize this. You have to know how to recognize this....use your brains.

Here is just an example of all that was accomplished by doing this intentionally:

1. Tested what was previously a hypothetical scenario; Widespread reaction to global failure of a particular type of handheld. What if it was an iPhone, not a Zune?

2. Tested the viability and power of the remote-wipe system. When Apple tried to sneak this feature in under 2.0, by mentioning it as a possible function, they played it down as much as possible, while still mentioning it. Users were shocked and chagrined to find out remote wipe is always active and always in Apple's control. Your iPhone can be shut down a moments notice by its creator, and the ZUNE is no different.

3. And as usual, it tested a large group of people's ability to believe absolutely anything, even believing in a bug that was fixed a decade ago by most technology companies. Is it anything short of embarassing, that this would happen to Microsoft then? A leading tech company? People sure do appreciate irony, which is why they buy it if you tell its true. Unfortunately things aren't very ironic in real life, mostly deceptive and wicked.

Roll your eyes all day, but THIS was no accident, it was not UNFORSEEN, and is not nor ever was out of Microsoft's control. They may very well have gotten their directives and orders from those that know best :rolleyes: and carried it out, but they are not caught unawares here.


http://meltyourfaceoff.files.wordpress.com/2007/10/tin-foil-hat.jpg

[benthewraith]

Sorry folks, but do you honestly believe that a variation on the Y2K problem, something solved over 8 years ago, actually just occurred but on a "small" scale?

As soon as I began reading this, I knew what it was. It was a test. A technology test, and every one of you with a Zune was tested. It was absolutely positively done intentionally. You HAVE to recognize this. You have to know how to recognize this....use your brains.

Here is just an example of all that was accomplished by doing this intentionally:

1. Tested what was previously a hypothetical scenario; Widespread reaction to global failure of a particular type of handheld. What if it was an iPhone, not a Zune?

2. Tested the viability and power of the remote-wipe system. When Apple tried to sneak this feature in under 2.0, by mentioning it as a possible function, they played it down as much as possible, while still mentioning it. Users were shocked and chagrined to find out remote wipe is always active and always in Apple's control. Your iPhone can be shut down a moments notice by its creator, and the ZUNE is no different.

3. And as usual, it tested a large group of people's ability to believe absolutely anything, even believing in a bug that was fixed a decade ago by most technology companies. Is it anything short of embarassing, that this would happen to Microsoft then? A leading tech company? People sure do appreciate irony, which is why they buy it if you tell its true. Unfortunately things aren't very ironic in real life, mostly deceptive and wicked.

Roll your eyes all day, but THIS was no accident, it was not UNFORSEEN, and is not nor ever was out of Microsoft's control. They may very well have gotten their directives and orders from those that know best :rolleyes: and carried it out, but they are not caught unawares here.

http://www.dvorak.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/02/conspiracy.jpg

[bretm]

Its Y2k! Run!

...8 years later. :p

9 years. Do you work for MS?

[smt1192]

http://faroutshirts.com/images/ItsATrap-Preview.png

[kdarling]

The iPhone didn't have a bug that stopped the entire system from working.

People have such short memory. While it didn't stop itself, the iPhone had a bug that screwed up everyone else's cell capabilities for a while.

Remember the baseband code version that ramped up the 3G iPhone power output until the towers were max'd out and calls had to be dropped? And the "urgent" 2.0.2 fix?

Much more impact than losing one's MP3 player for a day or two. Radio code should be much more tested than clock drive code. And Apple was much less open about it.

[juanster]

People have such short memory. While it didn't stop itself, the iPhone had a bug that screwed up everyone else's cell capabilities for a while.
Remember the baseband code version that ramped up the 3G iPhone power output until the towers were max'd out and calls had to be dropped? And the "urgent" 2.0.2 fix?

Much more impact than losing one's MP3 player for a day or two. Radio code should be much more tested than clock drive code. And Apple was much less open about it.

Yeah it could have been worst except a lot of people did not even realize it. I did not. Maybe because I am in Canada and there just weren't that many iPhones out there to max out the towers? Also in the states it wasn't happening to everybody.

[SPUY767]

Appears to be just Zune30, my Zune80 is just fine and have never had a problem with it. Sometimes I wish it had a phone so I could ditch my iPhone.
(I'll get flamed but it has great audio quality and more space and battery life than my iPhone)

My money is on you not actually owning an iPhone.

[IJ Reilly]

LOL'ed at this.

I am sure that Microsoft will have a fix for it.

Before in this thread, there was a link to a somewhat simple fix -- if it works.

The one thing that is amazing, so far, is that there is not a hard reset via the buttons for the Zune.

Yup, their "fix" is wait until tomorrow. Apparently the problem was a programming error. The Zune's internal clock didn't properly recognize 2008 as a leap year, so it freaked out when it was connected to PC that did. My favorite comment on this:

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

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-zune1-2009jan01,0,2503973.story

[mattwolfmatt]

Apparently the zunes are to "fix themselves" on 1/1/09. Anybody hear if this actually happened?

[cdcastillo]

Ha! True enough! Most of them are most likely total tech geeks anyway.

And we are not????



maybe it's the extra second today.

Run, it's Y31,622,401K.

Extra second, PLUS extra day (Leap Year), which would be today. :p

It is actually, MS have released a statement on the zune fora

[xUKHCx]

This is good news for those with the problems as hopefully they will sort themselves out meaning they don't have to send it in.

At least the problem has been located and a future update will resolve it.

Still funny though.

[djellison]

Doesn't look like a hoax. This is gonna look bad for Microsoft.

No worse than the MobileMe farce, or DL-DVI cables that fail, or Laptops that fall apart, or a Mobile Phone that can't record movies or send MMS's

Doug

[Much Ado]

No worse than the MobileMe farce, or DL-DVI cables that fail, or Laptops that fall apart, or a Mobile Phone that can't record movies or send MMS's

Doug

No, this is worse.

[djellison]

No, this is worse.

If you're an Apple fanboy who jumps on any slight error from Redmond and turns a blind eye to any and all screw-ups by Cupertino, maybe.

[Much Ado]

If you're an Apple fanboy who jumps on any slight error from Redmond and turns a blind eye to any and all screw-ups by Cupertino, maybe.

This is getting much more 'airtime' than the fact that the iPhone doesn't have MMS. It does look worse.

[gkarris]

I think just shows how Zune users can all "pull together" socially and overcome this trial set before them... :eek:

History shows us that "older devices" are prone to breakdowns, and a purchase to the latest/greatest model is neccessary. I think the new versions are not having problems. :)

Great job, Microsoft!

[zephead]

If you're an Apple fanboy who jumps on any slight error from Redmond and turns a blind eye to any and all screw-ups by Cupertino, maybe.

You don't have to be a fanboy (or know anything about tech at all) to notice that this is a pretty big f@$kup. I don't ever recall ANY company having to deal with millions of their products going kaput all at once. Can you imagine what would happen if, say, everyone driving a Honda Civic suddenly crashed because their engines all gave out at the same time?

[CLuv]

Looks like from the Zune 30 forum, M$ is reporting that about half of their Zunes still aren't working after the supposed "fix" and have to wait another day.

Guess some people will be leaving the "social".

Would suck to be a Zune 30 owner, and some Zune 80 owners that are reporting the same problem. Then again, when you make shoddy software, you should expect the same shoddy hardware.

Keep up the great work M$, because without you a lot of people wouldn't have problems to fix.

[Dagless]

If you're an Apple fanboy who jumps on any slight error from Redmond and turns a blind eye to any and all screw-ups by Cupertino, maybe.

Just do a little swapperoony, Apple have never had all their product range crash out (with that approx 50% failure rate for the fix). This isn't a slight problem that got fixed, or a simple replacement part (PB battery recall anyone?). This is an entire line going kaput!

[MacTraveller]

Zune. Epic fail.

[yg17]

Just do a little swapperoony, Apple have never had all their product range crash out (with that approx 50% failure rate for the fix). This isn't a slight problem that got fixed, or a simple replacement part (PB battery recall anyone?). This is an entire line going kaput!


Kaput for 24 hours. If the devices were bricked permanently, it would be a bigger deal, but it's just an inconvenience.

[FX120]

Just do a little swapperoony, Apple have never had all their product range crash out (with that approx 50% failure rate for the fix). This isn't a slight problem that got fixed, or a simple replacement part (PB battery recall anyone?). This is an entire line going kaput!

MobileMe outage?

And before that the repeated .Mac outages.

[dmw007]

Looks like from the Zune 30 forum, M$ is reporting that about half of their Zunes still aren't working after the supposed "fix" and have to wait another day.


I figured that this would be the result of their "fix". :rolleyes: :D :cool:

[NC MacGuy]

MobileMe outage?

And before that the repeated .Mac outages.

Those are failures in one application of a product. Stay away from those app's and you still had an otherwise operable piece of hardware.

[monke]

I figured that this would be the result of their "fix".

Oh don't worry, just wait until tomorrow at noon, they'll be fixed be then. :p ;)

[dmw007]

Oh don't worry, just wait until tomorrow at noon, they'll be fixed be then. :p ;)

I do consider myself to be an optimist, but even I have my doubts... :p :)

[VicMacs]

whats a Zune?

[hhlee]

i wonder what is so different that they would have this bug and not ipods...

[djellison]

This is an entire line going kaput!

It's a software bug for one day.

The headphone jack on my MBP has never ever worked properly, nor ever will. For a 'pro' product, that's more than a bit lame.

For a huge number of paying .Mac users - their email was deleted. Gone.

For days, Mobile Me was unusable. Kaput.

MB's/MBP's not taking DDR3.

Swathes of £70 DL-DVI adaptors dying.

I know which I consider the least troublesome. Infact, I would trade a week of my iPod being dead, to let my Senheisser headphones work on my MBP without hissing or the Mic socket to work with an ordinary headset that ANY PC will happily use, or Keynote to export to MOV with commentary in sync, or iDisk to be useable, or Time Machine to actually frickin work with my £200 Time Capsule, or the wireless range to be anything other than a sham, or iSync to work with more than about 12 mobile phones, or...

Seriously - in terms of IT problems - this isn't a big one. But because it's Microsoft and not mighty Apple - it's clearly, the end of the world. :rolleyes:

[ltldrummerboy]

Well said djellison. Apple has certainly had some missteps in the past, but I would venture to say that none of them have been as high-profile as the great Zune holocaust of 2008, with the possible exception of the hockey puck mouse.

[Cousin Dirk]

So first, Windows wasn't millennium compliant, and now Zunes aren't leap year compliant? How stupid are some of the people at Microsoft?

This reminds me of an old Douglas Adams quote:

I wrote an ad for Apple Computer: 'Macintosh - We might not get everything right, but at least we knew the century was going to end.'

[iJohnHenry]

It is actually, MS have released a statement on the zune fora

Educated guess, given the model-wide failure.

(Former programmer, analyst, etc. :D)

[mkrishnan]

In case it hasn't been posted yet, Microsoft announced the official fix.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7807797.stm

Unbelievably...

The glitch revolves around the fact that 2008 was a leap year and had an extra day for which software on the Zune was not prepared.

This should have been corrected on 1 January when the gadget's software consults the internal clock and gets past the missing day.

By charging the device and turning it on 1 January owners should be able to get the gadget back to normal, said Microsoft spokesman Brian Eskridge.

Nice.

[CLuv]

For Zune owners it will be truly known as the day the music died.

[lftrghtparadigm]

LOL I can see you guys loved that one!

Whoever posted the Cat and Admiral Ackbar, you had me rolling. :D

[Melrose]

Those are failures in one application of a product. Stay away from those app's and you still had an otherwise operable piece of hardware.

Quite so. +1. I admit, once in a while Garageband crashes, or Safari crashes (I think each has crashed once in the last year) - but I can still use the machine.

...and at least Apple's customer service is miles ahead of everyone else's for when you do have a problem. I had trouble with Windows on my old Sony Vaio. I call Sony, they say it's the OS and refer me to M$. M$ tells me it's the manufacturer and refers me to Sony, who then attempts to refer me back to M$ (who I did end up speaking with again and another occasion and was referred back to Sony..). In the meantime the computer simply doesn't work.

[IJ Reilly]

In case it hasn't been posted yet, Microsoft announced the official fix.

It has. ;)

Yup, their "fix" is wait until tomorrow. Apparently the problem was a programming error. The Zune's internal clock didn't properly recognize 2008 as a leap year, so it freaked out when it was connected to PC that did.

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-zune1-2009jan01,0,2503973.story

[mkrishnan]

It has. ;)

Oops, sorry. :o The reports made it seem like the Microsoft response had come later so I didn't look that far back in the thread. :o

[dXTC]

Imagine if you will: Justin Long and John Hodgman, in the familiar "Get A Mac" white room. Each are wearing in-ear headphones.

"Hi, I'm an iPod."

"And I'm a Zu--"

Hodgman, as Zune, freezes. After a few seconds of awkward silence, Justin looks at the screen of his new iPod Touch, and nods. "Yep. It's December 31, 2008." He walks offscreen, whistling a tune, leaving Hodgman still frozen.

Cut to a still frame of an iPod touch.


...Howzat?

[FX120]

Those are failures in one application of a product. Stay away from those app's and you still had an otherwise operable piece of hardware.
I am not talking about their computers, I am talking about the .Mac and MobileMe product, which people pay to use as a seperate product from their Mac.

To me, not being able to read your emails for a day and not being able to listen to music for a day are the same thing, and to me at least the email downtime (especially for a paid service) is a much more dire fukup.

Both were caused by flaws in software and software design. Neither should have happened, but they both did.

[rhett7660]

Imagine if you will: Justin Long and John Hodgman, in the familiar "Get A Mac" white room. Each are wearing in-ear headphones.

"Hi, I'm an iPod."

"And I'm a Zu--"

Hodgman, as Zune, freezes. After a few seconds of awkward silence, Justin looks at the screen of his new iPod Touch, and nods. "Yep. It's December 31, 2008." He walks offscreen, whistling a tune, leaving Hodgman still frozen.

Cut to a still frame of an iPod touch.


...Howzat?

That would be freaking classic....... I bet half the people out there wouldn't get it thou lol.... But that would be good.

[DMann]

That would be freaking classic....... I bet half the people out there wouldn't get it thou lol.... But that would be good.

True, however, thanks to the widespread news and media coverage, half the people out there will get it, and those who did get one, will more deeply regret getting it.

[dmw007]

Imagine if you will: Justin Long and John Hodgman, in the familiar "Get A Mac" white room. Each are wearing in-ear headphones.

"Hi, I'm an iPod."

"And I'm a Zu--"

Hodgman, as Zune, freezes. After a few seconds of awkward silence, Justin looks at the screen of his new iPod Touch, and nods. "Yep. It's December 31, 2008." He walks offscreen, whistling a tune, leaving Hodgman still frozen.

Cut to a still frame of an iPod touch.


...Howzat?

That would be great dXTC! :D :)

[NC MacGuy]

I am not talking about their computers, I am talking about the .Mac and MobileMe product, which people pay to use as a seperate product from their Mac.

To me, not being able to read your emails for a day and not being able to listen to music for a day are the same thing, and to me at least the email downtime (especially for a paid service) is a much more dire fukup.

Both were caused by flaws in software and software design. Neither should have happened, but they both did.

We've had our business servers go down before - and lost email for a couple of days. Anyone with half a brain practices redundancy redundancy. Seriously, you should have at least two email accounts just in case. Google's gmail is free, too. Yahoo anyone? Totally off-base analogy in my opinion.

I won't even go into how many .doc's I've lost from Word which would be a fairer comparison. and it still happens....

[Porco]

It seems like this story is a reasonable excuse to re-post the classic Microsoft Zune image:

[Dagless]

^ why did anyone think that was a good idea for an image? Or is Peter Sutcliffe now doing freelance photography?

[mgrafton]

I do own a Zune 30 so my player was affected by the recent "Y2K9" bug- luckily the problem more or less resolved itself, after a bit of stress and disappointment on my part. I also own a 30 gig iPod.

There are definitely advantages to both players in their own right, but also disadvantages to each. Other than this though, I haven't had any problems with my Zune player. Both iPod and Zune players have good and distinct elements that are desirable, so I don't tout one over the other.

Hopefully, the future holds no more mysterious faults in either player, but I might be discouraged from buying another Zune in the future. :(

[dmw007]

^ why did anyone think that was a good idea for an image?

Good question! I wonder the same exact thing every time I see that image. :D

[Auzburner]

A little bit more information.

"The Culprit of the Zune Massacre"
http://gizmodo.com/5122659/the-culprit-of-the-zune-massacre

[gkarris]

It seems like this story is a reasonable excuse to re-post the classic Microsoft Zune image:

I thought we agreed on this Forum that the image has to do with Ballmer's "squirt"... :eek:

http://forums.macrumors.com/showpost.php?p=3059225&postcount=12

:D

[Melrose]

Good question! I wonder the same exact thing every time I see that image. :D

At first I thought that was a joke with some good PSing. :eek:

[html]

When I saw mixview, my loyalty shrunk a tad bit. I'm glad to see that nothing really changed.

[Memx]

good thing we've all got ipods
:D:D:D:D:D:D

[MacTraveller]

True, however, thanks to the widespread news and media coverage, half the people out there will get it, and those who did get one, will more deeply regret getting it.

Depends. How easy is it for most people to RETURN a purchased Zune for a full refund?

[MacTraveller]

I thought we agreed on this Forum that the image has to do with Ballmer's "squirt"... :eek:

http://forums.macrumors.com/showpost.php?p=3059225&postcount=12

:D

WTF?! Is Ballmer really that socially daft that he uses a borderline-pornographic word like "squirt" and utilizes it as a high-tech verb?

Imagine how stupid (and scandalous) it would sound if Steve Jobs made a public keynote at CES, and then claimed that the new Apple iTablet has the brand new ability to "ejaculate" data faster than anyone can imagine!

Fortunately, Jobs is a masterful public speaker, and is crafty with his choice of words, hence that kind of mistake will never happen. Ballmer on the other hand... is just clownish.

[dmw007]

At first I thought that was a joke with some good PSing. :eek:

Oh no, that is the real Microsoft Zune deal! :D

[mikeinternet]

Awesome.

[FX120]

Fortunately, Jobs is a masterful public speaker, and is crafty with his choice of words, hence that kind of mistake will never happen.

Boom! (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r8L39UwOS-Y)

[Solemony]

Another downfall for microsoft! :D

[EgbertAttrick]

Guess I have to cover up my new tattoo!
http://sydfish.files.wordpress.com/2008/04/zune-tattoo.jpg

[Melrose]

^^ Nah.. just lose the handlebar mustache and you'll improve the looks almost 50%.

[iasky]

Looks like iPod market share is going up. In other news, all 19 zune owners report issues with bricked zunes.

Does anyone know if this impacts the sweet brown model? :cool::rolleyes:

Too funny. Thanks :)