Sometimes My Zune Just Won't Turn On

[Jason Dunn]

I've read scattered reports about this online, but the problem is now personal: remember that black Zune that I gave away? Well, that same week I received a white review unit from Microsoft, and was allowed to keep the unit. I knew about the review unit back in November, which is why I (thankfully) only had to buy one Zune for myself rather than two. I need two for testing sharing features. At any rate, the winner of the black Zune was offered his choice of the brand new black or brand new white Zune, and he picked the white one. Lucky for him, because the black Zune is screwed up.<br /><br />I just started using it a couple of days ago, and I've noticed a very consistent problem: it won't turn on. This morning I tried to turn it on by pressing and holding the Play/Pause button. Nothing happened. Then, about 60 seconds later, it turns on coming out of a full reboot. What's most curious about this is that I can put the black Zune into <a href="http://www.zunethoughts.com/news/show/452/how-to-put-your-zune-into-sleep-mode.html">sleep mode</a>, and it will turn on correctly. I can put it into suspend mode (by holding down Play/Pause) and it will turn on correctly - sometimes. I was just testing this again and it won't turn on for me now at all. If I try forcing a reset, the third or fourth time it will work. Not cool at all - is anyone else seeing similar behaviour with their Zune? I'm dreading calling tech support, because with my luck they won't do anything for me because I'm in Canada.

[velvet elvis]

mine does that sometimes also... really kinda sucks

[David Tucker]

The problem is it wasn't designed to operate in Canada

[cdavis1962]

Yes I have a black zune that I got on the first day, and true enough my zune zoned out.... I thought maybe the firmware update would help, but just yesterday in the car in the middle of a long mix, it went out only to return after 30 minutes of trying different things. I thought it was just a static thing. I still like my zune though when it works it's awesome.

[Crystal3]

I have the problem intermittently with mine too.

[sigur]

I have a brown zune with same minor problem . BTH, from canada too :)

[LPD]

Thankfully my Zune has not had that problem. If I had to quess, its a faulty contact inside the play button. If any of you having the problem call Microsoft technical support I'd really like it if you posted how the call went and if they will replace your Zune. They should, its under warrenty. It would be interesting to see how good the support is. That might make a good forum topic area - Zune Support Experiences.

[NPrtmn4evr]

The same thing has happened to me once or twice. It's not a common problem, but I freak out when it happens. At least I know it's not just mine.

[SuperRR]

I have also had that problem about 4 or 5 times and ironically... I have a black zune.
It went out and I tried every button and combinations, then suddenly, as with you, it turned on and started playing. I would like to add that when I first opened up the zune and turned it on it had the HD crash issue where it had to delete everything.

I'm not really seeing much happening when it comes to techinal support because overall it still works fine, just a little hick-up that I'm sure will get the response, "There is nothing we can do right now, but a software update will be comming soon to solve the problem, Thank you."

[parabolee]

I'm having the same problem. In factr I found this site while trying to figure out what the problem was, I thought maybe I was just trying to turn it on incorrectly.

Most of the time it works perfect. But every now and then it will just not turn on for 20 seconds no matter what I press. And then all of a sudden it come on with the logo and progress bar and works perfectly again.

What sucks is that it usually loses my place in the media file I was playing, so if I'm 40 minutes into a podcast I have to skip forward into the track. Would love to hear if anyone finds a fix for this to save us all calling tech support.

[Philippines]

We gave my sister in the Philippines a new brown zune from the US. She unpacked it, installed the software and plugged the unit to the USB port. After using it for 5mins, she turned it off bec she was leaving and left it charging on the computer. When she went back, it won't turn ON anymore. :eek: I called tech support and said it was bec she was in the Phils and they use diff current. Well, I said "Its a USB port. It doesn't matter...Duh!?" :confused: Then they advised to try pressing the play/pause button several times to drain the battery and plug it again for recharging. It worked! :D Then my sister was not using it for awhile, it turned off, then viola! it would not turn ON again!!!!! :mad: I've been reading forums and a lot of people are very happy about their zunes. Could we have pickedup a lemon? Pls advise us if we need to return it or if there is still hope....Thanks!!!

[etherealsting]

i actually had a problem that was pretty similar. my zune would show the boot screen, but not actually load. the ony time it will actually boot up is when i have it connectec to a pc.

anyway, since someone was wondering if tech would help, i called tech support and they had me try myriad solutions (resetting, shutting down/rebooting, clearing my content, firmware update), but when those didn't work, they actually offered to replace it.

so i'll post when i get my replacement, but you should be covered too.

[Tuvix]

My zune i try to turn it on and it won't even respond. Ignorant mf won't even answer me! I try to push every button. Charge it. Nothing works. Then in 3 or 4 days it'll just pop on out of nowhere and be ready to play. Sometimes 3 minutes, 3 hours, or 3 days later. Other than that, it's a great player to listen to "sometimes" when it actually "WORKS" PS, (I should have gotten a ZEN, i know it, but these were on sale)

[Onelillumberjill]

Several times I have tried to use my Zune and it just doesn't turn on. Just a black screen. It really pisses me off sometimes. Today I had just downloaded some music and decided to put it on my Zune. I plug my Zune into my computer....and nothing....my computer doesn't even reconize it. I tried everything. Restarting the computer, unplugging the zune, locking the zune, and unlocking it, I even tried to plug it into another computer. Same thing. :mad: So, I had the guts to call up the customer support place for Zune. The first time I called I was on hold forever. Then I recalled and got someone right away. He went over so many things with me with my Zune to fix the problem. And I asked him "Has anyone ever called there and complained that their Zune has never turned on?" And he says "No." Thats total bulls***. I was on other bloggers and they had several people call and complain. So, what ended up happening is he said that it will need to be repaired. He told me it could be over a month until I could get my new Zune.:mad: Thats crap.

[zero1]

I had a similar problem but noticed when I plugged it into a pc it came back to life and the zune thought it was locked even though it was not. So I slided the hold switch a few times and I was able to use the zune again.
BTW this was a brown zune.

[kihten]

i got my zune a few weeks ago, and its just had this problem this evening. its a black 80G and it wasnt on, i went to turn it on, nothing works, not even plugging it into my usb, nothing. its still off and sadly i have to admit that even if i DO get it replaced, it'll just get replaced with another zune with the potential for this same issue. i dont wanna "downgrade" my zune with an ipod, cause i actually like the zune better... but this is such a frequent problem with the zune that who's to say my replacement wont have this problem too? im at a loss. it really sucks for this great piece of equipment to have such a big issue.

[onesto1]

A twist on this behavior. My Zune 30 will not turn on after being placed in Hibernation by pressing and holding the Play/Pause button. It will also not respond to any action including connecting the synchronization cable. It will not even enter battery charge mode. The Zune only starts working again after the battery is discharged to the point where the screen shows the "battery with exclamation point inside." Charging the Zune restores it to functionality. This behavior is repeatable every time. This problem started to occur after updating from Version 1.3 to 2.3. This problem also seems to happen after the Zune enters Hibernation after inactivity for an indeterminate amount of time. I have not had the opportunity to note how long a period of inactivity is required. This is a tough behavior to reproduce because every time the Zune is "awakened" from hibernation the inactivity timer starts over. It also appears that pressing and holding the Play/Pause button will accelerate the battery discharge process.

The only way to avoid this behavior is to turn off the Zune using the "Back-Down" shutdown method. (Press and hold the Back Button and the Down Button.)

Has anyone else experienced this problem?

[DJ_Vendetta]

Wow where to start off.... I have a worse problem. Idk know how mines happened. OK my Zune was working perfectly and then it was just blk. i tried turning it on and nothing so I charged it over night and when i woke up I checked it and still no response (I started getting pissed). Well then I started getting desperate so I blew some air into the connector port of the zune and about 10 seconds later it comes out of a reboot screen kinda like your problem so yea I was happy I thought I fixed the problem well I didnt. 5 Min later the back button wont respond so i blew into the port again. It finally responded well yea I have to keep blowing into the port of my zune that really sucks. Today is the worst day. now after it stopped responding it turned off now it doesnt want to turn on or anything no response and no for those smart allecs it is charged it had battery b4 it turned off but now theres nothing for me to do if some one has a way to fix this please let us know.

[enabled]

Yo watup guys? I jus bought a used zune off someone on craigslist. its aight but this **** happened to me, too. i looked it up right away and found everyone wit the same problem...made me feel a bit better. btw mines a white zune...anyway i looked around and this worked for me

To restart the Zune device, set the hold switch to the unlocked position, and then press and hold the Back button as you press the top of the Zune pad. When the Zune device begins to restart, release the button.

try that. it turns mine on. (lol)

[TheSnark]

OK I read this thread to the end since I had a completely dead Zune120 as described by the other contributers to this thread.

How It Died
Zune was in use in the car. Connected to the lighter socket using the official Zune Car Pack (http://www.zune.net/en-US/products/z/zunecarpack/details.page/). While selecting a song to listen to the keypad stopped responding. Nothing I tried would make the Zune start responding, including flicking the lock switch off an on. Eventually I tried powering down the Zune (pressed and held the Pause button). The Zune screen went blank. The Zune then refused to start back up.

Things I Tried
I tried various things to get the Zune to turn back on. Varous key combinations with Zune. Tried docking Zune in my Zune Dock Pack (http://www.zune.net/en-US/products/z/zunedockpack/details.page/). Normally the Zune lights up when you dock it but this time it remained dead. Eventually I sought help from the internet and found this thread.

How I Got My Zune Back From The Dead
First I got my USB sync cable and connected it to my PC. Still got no life from the Zune. Having read about power issues elsewhere I thought the Zune looked like it was not getting any charge and may in fact be completely out of power. I removed the connector from the Zune... blew in the end of the Zune (careful to blow dry air no err.. liquids in there please!). I also very lightly (and I mean lightly!) rocked the connector in the Zune from side to side and up and down just to ensure there was a good electrical connection. Still nothing. Then with the Sync cable still connected I rocked the Zune's lock key on and off leaving it in the on position. As soon as I did this my Zune lit up with a large Battery Charging icon in the center of the screen. This icon stayed around for around 5 mins before the Zune logo was displayed and eventually it came back to life. All my media was still there and the Zune software started up on the PC and a Sync completed 100% with no problems. I left the Zune to charge fully without disonnecting it.

My Guesses/Conclusions
I think there is a fundamental problem with the Zune regarding power. I suspect the Zune is using power after you switch it off or put it in to sleep mode. If this happens to you don't despair. Try what I did and see how you get on. I am sure you can get your Zune back again if you can just get some juice (power) back into it. Put the Zune on a charge source... rock the Zune's lock switch back and forth leaving it in the on position then wait!... the Zune may take some 5 mins or so before it show any signs of life from being completely out of power.

I really hope this helps at least someone out there. :)

[David Tucker]

Snark I think you may be right. I don't think you need to do anything with the lock switch though. Just plug it in and wait a while because if the battery is entirely drained even when you plug it in the Zune doesn't turn right on in my experience.

[Shutensou]

I don't know if this is the same problem as you guys but there are a few similarities. But this one is a red Zune. I accidentally left at my friends house and it was perfectly fine where i left it. When I came back a few days later it would not turn on. So I was like 'Huh.' I plugged it into the USB port in my laptop and my Zune would not turn on to charge nor connect. So i was like '...'. For the few posts I've read said that the battery is to dead to turn so keep it plugged in to your computer. Is it that the real cause? Cause I'm pretty sure that i left it off when i left it there.:(