Zune Shutting itself off

[rzanology]

This has been happening to me for the past few days. it started after the update. i'd be listening to music and it just turns off. i have to take out the headphones, and flick the lock switch in the lock and unluck positions a few times for it to come back on. when it comes on the zune screen shows....as if it was turned off completely and not in stand by. any thoughts? Any way to hard reset this thing?

[TheReasonIFailed]

I've had this happen to me about 3 times since I updated to 1.2. It seems to happen to me when I unplug my headphones.

Other than that, the device works like a charm!

[mkosma]

I have had the same issue, and recently posted this elsewhere (http://www.xblradio.com/blogcast/?p=205#comment-5044):

My zune did the same thing twice this morning. Called Zune support, and learned that the support reps got a memo about this today. They are watching the issue and trying to diagnose it. Their belief — supported by my usage — is that this problem occurs only with certain types of encoding or DRM or errors in files. So it’s not a hardware problem — returning the device won’t help. It’s a firmware problem or a problem with a particular media file or type of file.


The most useful thing for us to do to help them fix this is to figure out what’s common about the files that cause the reset.



Most important: Does the same song always reset the zune? If so, we can narrow our focus to what it is about that song.



Of course, it could also be an intermittent error with a particular type of song, which will be trickier but still should be able to be isolated.


Here’s my info. My entire library is MP3 and breaks down as follows. Note I have NOTHING with any DRM.


60% - CDs ripped to FLAC, converted to vbr MP3 via Lame
35% - MP3 files downloaded from emusic.com
5% - random collection of other MP3 files from unknown sources


My suspicion is that that tracks that are crashing are among my 5% “unknown origin” category.

[mkosma]

Well, I have to revise my hypothesis. I noticed that the halt-and-restart occurred today on a track (Smithers-Jones) from Live Jam by the Jam -- an album I downloaded in mp3 (VBR) format from emusic.com.

And, once Zune restarted, I played the track all the way through, without any problems.

[apathymusic]

I had a problem similar to this. It sounds like it might be due to static electricity. Read this: http://www.zune-online.com/news/zune/static-electricity-shuts-zune-down.html