December 31st, 2008
Update: Zune 30GB failure may be due to leap year
According to several reports in online forums Zune 30 devices (these are the original Zune models) started freezing up all at the same time last night. I have a black Zune 30, but it is in the drawer and I wouldn’t know if it froze up or not. It is still very early in Redmond so there is no official word from Microsoft on the cause and what the remedy is for this issue.
There haven’t been reports of any issues with other Zune models, which is a bit strange since all Zune models run the same software. I guess there must be something in the hardware that is triggering this issue. Any readers experienced this?
UPDATE: According to the Zune.net support site, it looks like Microsoft is now aware of the problem. This statement is posted:
Customers with 30gb Zune devices may experience issues when booting their Zune hardware. We’re aware of the problem and are working to correct it. Sorry for the inconvenience, and thanks for your patience!
Indications are that it is an issue with the clock utility that is now part of the firmware. I wonder if Microsoft will figure out a fix or if moving ahead to 1 January 2009 will be the fix?
UPDATE2: A reader (Bill) sent me a comment that the issue may be related to the leap year. It definitely appears to be related to the clock that was part of the last firmware update so non-update Zune30 device may be fine. The fix may be to just wait until tomorrow. That would give Microsoft another 4 years to fix the issue before it happens again. Interesting though that it only is affecting the Zune30 models.
Matthew Miller is an avid mobile device enthusiast who works during the day as a professional naval architect in Seattle. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
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| 12/31/08
