Microsoft's Latest Global Problem

By Chris Crum - Wed, 12/31/2008 - 10:54

Zunes Around the World Simply Stop Working

All of the Microsoft haters out there will love this one. When I got up this morning and went to my car to go to the office, I plugged my Zune in to get some tunes on for the drive, and to my dismay, I could not get a single thing to come up on the screen (much less out of the speakers) except the Zune logo. In fact, the device is currently sitting on my desk with the same problem.

I was beginning to get mildly perturbed about the situation, as I have only had the Zune for about a year, and am not ready for it to be on the fritz just yet. I decided that there was a good chance it would correct itself when I got home later and tried to sync it. Then I came across this article.

It turns out that this is happening to people with 30GB Zunes all over the world. Some kind of huge bug. "No official word from Redmond on this one yet but we might have a gadget Y2K going on here," writes Matt Burns at CrunchGear. "Fan boards and support forums all have the same mantra saying that at 2:00 AM this morning, the Zune 30s reset on their own and doesn’t fully reboot. We’re sure Microsoft will get flooded with angry Zune owners as soon as the phone lines open up for the last time in 2008. More as we get it."

It almost seems as though Microsoft thrives on angry customers. I'm sure there are plenty of people up in arms about their new patent filing for pay-as-you-go computing that could see a future of paying to use programs as services on your PC.

Here's the part where you tell me I should be using an iPod. For the record, I have one of those too.

Update: According to Engadget, "the team of Zune developers is working like mad to figure it out."

News Tags: Technology, Microsoft, Music, Zune

About the author:
Chris Crum has been a part of the WebProNews team and the iEntry Network of B2B Publications since 2003.

6 Comments

By Buckled Down (WPN reader) - Mon, 01/05/2009 - 05:04

Designed to fail

Maybe all the Zune 30s were designed to fail, so they could sell you a new one.

And if Zunes were designed to fail, as it seems in this case, then they should NOT have synchronized that failure at the same time.

By Dr. Dan Gabriel (WPN reader) - Sun, 01/04/2009 - 15:35

Microsoft Irritations

Why continue to fight the Microsoft blues? Finally fed up with Microsoft, I switched to the Linux OS. Computer heaven. Only extremely rare glitches. I have Ubuntu 8.10 and Linux Mint 4 and upgrading to 6. You can download a version to run for trial for free then install if satisfied. Try www.linuxmint.com

By Joseph Martel (WPN reader) - Sun, 01/04/2009 - 22:33

Ubutntu 8.10

i have using Ubuntu for about five months and just installed 8.10 (the latest) It is working very well. We need more people to help each other out.

By MS skeptic (WPN reader) - Sun, 01/04/2009 - 10:09

tssh, this and IE updates

tssh,

this and IE updates crashing everyone's computer recently - looks like a Microsoft double whammy.

By Guest (WPN reader) - Sun, 01/04/2009 - 07:27

Wow!

You mean someone actually bought one?

By Guest (WPN reader) - Wed, 12/31/2008 - 11:25

There is some idea it's a

There is some idea it's a leap year bug and it will be fine tomorrow. If you reset the date as 1-1-09 it works. Apparently the gee-knee-us-is at Microsoft never heard of February 29th???

I wouldn't ride in an elevator if I knew Microsoft tech was being used to run it.