[Ed Hansberry]

Not good at all.

There is a fix posted at http://forums.zune.net/404026/ShowPost.aspx - it is a hard reset, which is no fun if you have a lot of podcasts you've tweaked settings for or you have picked individual playlists to sync over.

[Ed Hansberry]

Not good at all.

There is a fix posted at http://forums.zune.net/404026/ShowPost.aspx - it is a hard reset, which is no fun if you have a lot of podcasts you've tweaked settings for or you have picked individual playlists to sync over.

[tsahnocub]

A lot of people are stating that the hard reset fix doesn't really fix it. Really seems to be a firmware issue related to the clock.

[Chris Gohlke]

And since it appears the hard reset requires opening the unit, I'd wait for an official statement from Microsoft.

[inteller]

microsoft needs to replace every one of these. These failed at midnight, with the hard drive and screen fully on inside the unit heating up for most people around 8-9 hours if they were plugged into a charger. Mine was warm to the touch this morning when I pulled it out of the dock.

At this point if I were MS I would just collect all of these units and put the Zune30 to rest. I'll just have to eat it on my Travel Kit that can't be used anymore, but I don't want any more **** like this.

Most Zune30 owners were early adopters, so MS just screwed over the most loyal part of its fan base. The PR damage can never be undone on this one.

[doogald]

Originally Posted by inteller

Most Zune30 owners were early adopters, so MS just screwed over the most loyal part of its fan base. The PR damage can never be undone on this one.

I think if MS offers to replace any Zune 30 with a new Zune that the PR damage could be mitigated.

But, it sounds like somebody made a horrible mistake.

[Chris Gohlke]

I disagree, I think the PR damage can be undone, but assuming that there is not an easy fix that the user can perform, it is not going to be cheap.

Microsoft will need to compare the cost of fixing it to the cost of not fixing it. Frankly, they are at the point that if they've bricked all the 30G models and don't make it right, the Zune platform is pretty much done for. Speaking for myself, if I have to go buy a new MP3 player as a result of this, it won't be a Zune.

In a way this is very similar to the RROD problem. Very expensive to fix, but really no choice in the matter from a PR perspective.

[Chris Gohlke]

May want to keep an eye on MajorNelsons twitter feed https://twitter.com/majornelson

[NathanScott]

I got an email from my brother who pointed out that today is the 366th day of the year... which sounds like one of their programmers doesn't know the basic facts about the calendar. And being that they made improvements to the play-count data in the recent update, I suspect that somebody goofed with a day-count variable check.

I haven't turned mine on yet because I'm hoping that I can avoid the problem if I just don't use it today.

This is a great way to get a lot of bad rep for a product that needs all the help it can get.

[Jason Dunn]

Originally Posted by Sven

Charging the unit is OK, but hooking it back to a PC corrects the clock and re-activates the bug. Kind of defeats the function if you can't manage the music on it.

If that's really the problem, then this problem would seem to be very difficult to fix because connecting it seems to trigger the problem - they might be able to release a stand-alone software patch that intercepts the Zune before it syncs and updates the firmware...but if the Zune is bricked, I wonder if it can connect at all to the PC to even receive a patch? Microsoft might have to initiate a recall of some sort.

What a freakin' disaster - the Zune was doing pretty good this holiday season from what I've read, but something like this will undermine consumer confidence in a big way. I guess the only ray of light is that it's only impacting Zune 30s, and there are more Zune 4/8/16/80/120's on the market than Zune 30s...although it's not like Zune 30s were ever pulled from retail markets, so it's possible someone got a Zune 30 for Christmas this year and now it's not working. That's a bad scenario.

FWIW, both of my Zune 30's charged up and booted up OK - but I also haven't synced them with my computer in many months. One is firmware 1.4 and one is firmware 2.4. I'm sure if I docked them and updated the firmware they'd be nuked like everyone elses.

[Jason Dunn]

Originally Posted by NathanScott

I got an email from my brother who pointed out that today is the 366th day of the year... which sounds like one of their programmers doesn't know the basic facts about the calendar.

That's an excellent point - and it sure seems like it might be related given what's happening here seems to be calendar-related.