All the World's Zune 30s Mysteriously Freeze Up

Bizarre bug struck mp3 players just after midnight last night

By Nick McMaster, Newser Staff

Posted Dec 31, 2008 1:17 PM CST

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All the World's Zune 30s Mysteriously Freeze Up — New models of Microsoft Corp.'s Zune portable media players that were announced Tuesday, Oct. 2, 2007 are shown at at Microsoft headquarters in Redmond, Wash. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)

Microsoft’s Zune has a bizarre bug: Hundreds, if not thousands of the 30G models froze up simultaneously at 12am PST, CNET reports. The MP3 players all displayed a startup status bar frozen at 100%; the timing has prompted some Zune owners to call the problem “Z2K,” after the Y2K bug.

Users on Zune forums are livid about yet another misstep for the media player. "I can't take it anymore,” wrote one on ZuneScene.com. “Listening to music is about the last thing I do with my Zune. I always have to reinstall, download new firmware, or wait for the slow software to catch up. Now this? I want to throw it away and never look back." Microsoft has acknowledged the problem and is working to correct it.
(More Zune stories.)

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