Z2K9: The Day the Music Died

[Aiello]

Well, isn't this just grand. Microsoft's New Years gift to us Zune 30 owners.

http://gizmodo.com/5121311/30gb-zunes-failing-everywhere-all-at-once?skyline=true&s=i

So, I take a quick break from work to check Google News and this is what I find. I was planning to use my Zune as a music source for a New Year's Eve party tonight, too. Hopefully mine wont brick too, but I guess I will find out once I get off work. Microsoft better fix this fast or buy us all new Zunes (a 120 would be nice :P). I was already thinking of getting a new media player that has better Linux support, and this might just push me off the edge.

Any Zune 30 owners experiencing similar problems to those being reported?

[mihai.ile]

wow...

[RATM_Owns]

Is it wrong to find this strangely hilarious?

[mihai.ile]

From one of the comments on the site:



Windows desktops get the Blue Screen of Death (BSOD).
Xbox 360s get the Red Ring of Death (RROD).
Windows Mobile gets the Dark Screen of Death (DSOD).

Zune didn't want to be left out.

Microsoft came up with the Midnight Freeze of Death. (MFOD).

At least they're consistent.


No Comment.
Man those Microsoft guys really have bad luck in making quality software...

[Ozor Mox]

From one of the comments on the site:


No Comment.
Man those Microsoft guys really have bad luck in making quality software...

That's a bit generous isn't it? It implies that Microsoft write really amazing software but right before its release, lightning strikes the server and changes all the bits around to make the software really buggy and poor quality...oops, bad luck! ;)

[Sealbhach]

That's a bit generous isn't it? It implies that Microsoft write really amazing software but right before its release, lightning strikes the server and changes all the bits around to make the software really buggy and poor quality...oops, bad luck! ;)

LOL!!!:D:D:D

It might be like that. I think they're putting so much energy into being paranoid about competitors that they have no time left over to make good quality products.


.

[motang]

Wow...that is just absurd that something like that would happen. I just got myself a Sansa Fuze 8gig which also has a microSD slot and supports up to 12 SD card. I am loving it. On the back of the box it even has Tux says it is supported by Linux, and it is. Came home and plugged it into my notebook and I was syncing up nicely with Banshee.

[inxygnuu]

*speechless*

1 it was a trap
2 they all broke
3 it was a bug
4 M$ did it
5 M$ did it.
6 M$ did it..
7 M$ did it...:P

P.S. I dont know why, but that is truly amazing! =P~

[Aiello]

Does anyone else think it is a sad sign of the times that some people are talking about class action lawsuits. Come on people! Its not like the things are blowing up or spewing out some sort of horrible radiation! Yes, it does suck that they all died on New Year's Eve, but a class action lawsuit?

[inxygnuu]

Windows desktops get the Blue Screen of Death (BSOD).
Xbox 360s get the Red Ring of Death (RROD).
Windows Mobile gets the Dark Screen of Death (DSOD).

Zune didn't want to be left out.

Microsoft came up with the Midnight Freeze of Death. (MFOD).

At least they're consistent.

lol. what does the red ring of death look like? I will google it...

[Swagman]

lol. what does the red ring of death look like? I will google it...

Buy an Xbox and your'll get one free !!

[MaxIBoy]

Is it wrong to find this strangely hilarious?


No, it's not wrong. I almost fell out of my chair.

EDIT: see screenshots.

[insane_alien]

a fine example of the quality software you can get from a closed source development cycle using only qualified professionals rather than the stuff some opensource hippy probably wrote in his mums basement.

if this was an opensource mp3 player that problem would likely have a fix by now. thats if it even came up in the first place.

[Aiello]

Is it wrong to find this strangely hilarious?

I suppose not, but it is far from hilarious for us who own a Zune 30. I just got home from work and I turned on my Zune to test it out, and lol and behold, it froze on startup. *sigh*

[MaxIBoy]

Apparently, you can fix the problem with a simple hard-reset.

[Aiello]

From what I have read, this has had mixed results.

Hm... its starting to heat up. I assume that is bad.

[Skyride]

Hehe, I saw this on slashdot earlier. Just brilliant. It pretty much sums up why I use a laptop and don't bother with an MP3 player. They are too closed, so when this sort of thing happens your screwed. I know about 4 or 5 people who have 30GB zunes aswell.

My guess is theres a bug which throws it into a infinite loop and MS just thought "ah well its just small no reason to put a timeout there".

I'd get it off if its starting to heat up just incase.

[zmjjmz]

My Rockpod has yet to fail.

[MikeTheC]

Um, the only thing I have to say to this is... "Bye, bye, Ms. American Pie, I drove the Chevy to the levy but the levy was dry"...

[Frak]

Just happened to mine.

Oh well, I have a 4, 8, 80, and a 120. I've been doing hardware testing on them, so I'll be good for awhile.

BTW, when I read this, I rofl'd.

[Frak]

DOUBLE POST
sorry, I found a fix for it

To fix this, yourself, you need to disconnect the BATTERY and the HARD DRIVE. This will reset the internal battery BUT it will screw up your warranty. Fix it sooner than later, I guess.

[I-75]

The saddest part of all this is the amount of money people spent on that Zune.

Whereas my cheap Curtis 2 GB MP3 player which cost me less than $20 in 2007...still works fine. I have to assume the firmware is open source or some generic...something.

I still have the second (third?) generation I-POD with 20 GB ...that still works OK although the battery on it is on the way out.

[MellonCollie]

Pinched from another website...


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. 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.

Q: Why is this issue isolated to the Zune 30 device?

It is a bug in a driver for a part that is only used in the Zune 30 device.

Q: What fixes or patches are you putting in place to resolve this situation?

This situation should remedy itself over the next 24 hours as the time flips to January 1st.

Q: What's the timeline on a fix?

The issue Zune 30GB customers are experiencing today will self resolve as time changes to January 1.

Q: Why did this occur at precisely 12:01 a.m. on December 31, 2008?

There is a bug in the internal clock driver causing the 30GB device to improperly handle the last day of a leap year.

Q: What is Zune doing to fix this issue?

The issue should resolve itself.

Q: Are you sure that this won't happen to all 80, 120 or other flash devices?

This issue is related to a part that is only used in Zune 30 devices.

Q: How many 30GB Zune devices are affected? How many Zune 30GB devices were sold?

All 30GB devices are potentially affected.

Matt Akers
Zune Product Team

[picpak]

This is why I have an iPod.

[djsroknrol]

Billy, Billy....what sort of fresh hell have you wrought?...LOL

[Frak]

This is why I have an iPod.
...ok

That's why I have a Zune? My software is also impervious to bugs?

[Xnyper]

Windows desktops get the Blue Screen of Death (BSOD).
Xbox 360s get the Red Ring of Death (RROD).
Windows Mobile gets the Dark Screen of Death (DSOD).

Zune didn't want to be left out.

Microsoft came up with the Midnight Freeze of Death. (MFOD).

At least they're consistent.


Recently I was doing my equivalent of reading the daily newspaper (slashdot) and I stumbled upon a discussion (http://ask.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08%2F12%2F10%2F0024235&from=rss) over which type of programming is best to teach to an intro-to-programming class.

At one point somebody had said that a language was considered functional if it had functions in it. There was then a discussion of functional vs procedural languages, to which somebody added:


I prefer non-functional programming. It's all the rage at Microsoft. ;-)

[richg]

All it took was ONE EXTRA SECOND.

Rich

[cmat]

I know someone on his 3rd xbox 360. This doesn't surprise me. I got a $90 Creative Zen. It has all the features the Zune and iPod have that I care about. Few issues like it locking up randomly when I dump a large amount of tracks on it in one session. Otherwise I got my money's worth.

[aikiwolfie]

Well, isn't this just grand. Microsoft's New Years gift to us Zune 30 owners.

http://gizmodo.com/5121311/30gb-zunes-failing-everywhere-all-at-once?skyline=true&s=i

So, I take a quick break from work to check Google News and this is what I find. I was planning to use my Zune as a music source for a New Year's Eve party tonight, too. Hopefully mine wont brick too, but I guess I will find out once I get off work. Microsoft better fix this fast or buy us all new Zunes (a 120 would be nice :P). I was already thinking of getting a new media player that has better Linux support, and this might just push me off the edge.

Any Zune 30 owners experiencing similar problems to those being reported?
It's from Microsoft. What did you expect. Windows is unstable and riddled with viruses. Their "genuine advantage" program locks paying users out of legally owned software and the XBOX 360 still suffers the "ring of death" issue.

Why would your Zune perform any better? Seriously. Think about it. It's from Microsoft.

Happy New Year :P

[MellonCollie]

After doing some poking around in the source code for the Zune's clock driver (http://pastie.org/349916) (available free from the Freescale website), I found the root cause of the now-infamous Zune 30 leapyear issue that struck everyone on New Year's Eve.

http://www.zuneboards.com/forums/zune-news/38143-cause-zune-30-leapyear-problem-isolated.html

:popcorn:

[Frak]

It's from Microsoft. What did you expect. Windows is unstable and riddled with viruses. Their "genuine advantage" program locks paying users out of legally owned software and the XBOX 360 still suffers the "ring of death" issue.

Why would your Zune perform any better? Seriously. Think about it. It's from Microsoft.

Happy New Year :P
Every part, product, or service I've gotten from Microsoft has been very great, well supported, and all service repairs on all products were handled by Microsoft ON THEIR OWN BILL. They did not bill me for shipping a product to them nor back. Plus, I got a shiny new Zune and a shiny new 360.

I care if a product is bad. Unfortunately, Microsoft products aren't bad, IMHO. They may be less than perfect, but nothing is perfect. Better, though, is the service and support they give, which is top notch.

Oh, and I've been locked out by WGA. I don't blame Microsoft for protecting their investment. I called Microsoft, they apologized for the inconvenience, and gave me a key to restore it. The entire call took maybe 3 minutes.

[aikiwolfie]

The trouble is though, for every person that says Microsoft is great there's one that says they suck. Then there are the problems themselves. Most of the issues shouldn't even surface at all. But they do.

Personally I feel it's just better to have something work and not need to call their tech support than to have a great tech support experience. I'd really rather just not have to make that call.

[Spike-X]

Yeah, somehow an organisation who have had so much practice fixing their stuff-ups that they've gotten really good at it doesn't exactly inspire my confidence.

[Frak]

The trouble is though, for every person that says Microsoft is great there's one that says they suck. Then there are the problems themselves. Most of the issues shouldn't even surface at all. But they do.

Personally I feel it's just better to have something work and not need to call their tech support than to have a great tech support experience. I'd really rather just not have to make that call.
Everything fails, and it's nice to have a company that admits it. I have an Acer 22" that runs fine, no problems, though, I don't plan to buy a new one based on their horrible support. If I buy a new monitor, even if my last one failed, and it does fail, and I am forced to call tech support, I'd like it to be good support.

Microsofts products aren't "bad" enough to make me stop buying them based on their superb support and service.

[geoken]

The funniest thing here is how the 4 pages of MS bashing continue even when it was revealed that the error was in the (as this board claims) infallible open source code of the freescale processor.

I guess when there's Microsoft bashing to be had, the actual facts shouldn't stand in the way.

[Swagman]

The funniest thing here is how the 4 pages of MS bashing continue even when it was revealed that the error was in the (as this board claims) infallible open source code of the freescale processor.

I guess when there's Microsoft bashing to be had, the actual facts shouldn't stand in the way.

Same as it's ever been then throughout history.

Now why did we invade Iraq again ?

[Bens_fullonworld]

Um. You think they might have tested the unit before mass producing it? Kwailty....

On the plus, the do look cool. Very Candy.

[Joeb454]

Microsofts products aren't "bad" enough to make me stop buying them based on their superb support and service.

I have to agree with you actually. I've had an Xbox 360 since August 2006 and it died last November (2007) so I called them up, explained, and they sent UPS out to collect it, and it was returned within 3 weeks and a free month of Xbox Live was thrown in as well, because I hadn't be able to play it throughout that time.

Also I had a Windows install that wouldn't activate once, despite the product key being stuck very firmly to the side of the tower. Called them up and the just said "OK, put in this code" :)

They're support is pretty decent, especially when it comes to the hardware (i.e. Xbox 360)