In September, Microsoft released the Zune 3.0 software and firmware update along with its newest hardware, the Zune 120GB and 16GB models. At the time, Microsoft mentioned that it would be phasing out the older models slowly–but the company didn’t say the change would be this dramatic.
As early as yesterday evening, reports of 30GB Zunes crashing began to surface on Microsoft support forums and gadget blogs. Microsoft updated the Zune support Web site
with the following acknowledgement: "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!"
We contacted a Microsoft spokesperson, who confirmed the issue with this official statement:
"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.
"That being the case, 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."
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