I let my battery run out, changed my computer's date to last year, and then reconnected my Zune. So far, so good.

How do i do that with mine?

Dude I'm pissed....this actually happened to me today.....I can't get this thing to do anything.
It is stuck on the ZUNE booting screen. It won't respond to anything, plugging it in does nothing....

Happened to me too! I was ready to sync a new playlist for tonights party and death was written all over my Zune! Pissed man...pissed!

Dude. This. Sucks. Majorly.

mine died too. weak sauce!

I woke up this morning to behold a dead Zune. Alas! This conspiracy must be revealed soon. Why today? Why now? Woe to Microsoft!!!

This is crap! How can Microsoft sell a product that they know will stop working on a certain date!
I personally think that they should refund all 30 gig owners that have had this problem, but thats just my opinion.
This is just another let down from Microsoft and another reason for me to swich over to Apple because i know that this would not happen with them.

Just happened to me today. I AM FURIOUS!!!!!!!!!!!!! New Years Eve and I can't listen to MY music in MY car or while I'm working out!!! This is a new LOW for microsoft!! GREAT TECHNOLOGY THEY HAVE!!

Mine wasn't plugged in to anything when I turned it on and it is dead. Nice job Microsoft. Class action anyone?

Let your battery run out, change your date on your computer a few months one direction or another, and then reconnect. It worked for me.

Unplugging the battery works...until you resync then the fix does not work at all. Permanently locked up now.

I posted a step by step with pictures here: http://www.gottabemobile.com/forum/forum_posts....

Unfortunately, resyncing causes it to lock up again...permanently - so far

David

well I wish I had seen your post before I tried it!

My zune no longer stays at the logo screen. It boots up, hits the logo/loading and after a few seconds the screen goes blank. Also sounds like it powers down the hard drive.

I was really beginning to enjoy my zune. Only had it for 3-4 months. Thought it was the best $100 I ever spent (got it on clearance) but I guess I was wrong!

thanks, i got it back. I will check for permanent fixes before I resync.

No, that is not a temporary work around.

I previously disconnected the battery and was able to get my 30gb Zune working again. After reading the "work around" I decided to give it a try and at least hopefully get a few albums sync'd.

I set my clock back exactly one month and hooked up my Zune (tested before hooking up and it was working fine). After the Zune software started the Zune went back to the logo and loading page. Zune software does not recognize a zune as being attached.

Was really hoping to get those albums sync'd and at least recharge the battery a little bit.......bummer!

Did the samething to me. Went to turn it on and sync and boom Zoion loading screen. I thought it just needed to be reset. Searched for it online and found this website. i was in shock and freaking pissed. If they dont fix this then I will be moving to something else. Nice MS real nice!

Dudes, do you have any idea how many iPods got returned cuz the things just croaked for no apparent reason? The only reason this is getting so much attention is cuz its hitting everyone simultaneously. most likely they will put out a software fix and everything will be sunshine and happiness again. Unlike those iPods that were FUBAR.

it happened to me too...very disappointing! This is my first mp3 player i've owned. i ponder between getting the ipod "another crab-apple product" or getting the zune. i love my zune...i kind of hope the company would do something more for their customers...like a discount towards upgrade our zune or some free music...last year my apple computer died and so i said so long to the apple company...do any products last? or should i ask which last longer or electronic products or american jobs? what a joke...

my 30 gig apple ipod 5th generation is working fine =] lol

im pissed cuz i just got this for christmas and my zune is on that damn screen when i look at it this morning someone please find a way to stop this i want my music!!!

wow, i tried to use mine slightly after midnight and i thought it was just my zune. hope to have some way to fix it soon..

My Zune does not have the latest firmware (I'm running Version 1.4(485) Hardware 2.0) and also experienced the lock up problem. Since I've owned it for a couple of years, I'm unconcerned about voiding my warranty and reset it using the battery solution.

I am pissed too!! This is complete BS. I am leaving tomorrow for a two week vacation to Australia and now I need to go get a new Zune. I hate to get a new Zune given what just happened but my entire music collection is on Zune, it will be the easiest way to go.

They came out with the Crappy Vista OS and now this? They need to stop handing out H1-B Visas and start hiring some quality help.

I ordered an iPod touch a few days ago not knowing this would happen. All I can say is wow. This situation is somewhat similar to an xkcd comic. haha. epoch fail, but not really since the date is in the future not past.

Happened to me too! Is it Why ZuneK?

Stupid Microsoft i wish apple would give them a real run for their money, so that they will be forced to quit putting out crap like they have been.

Microsoft needs swift kick in the Ass

Yep, mine's a brick too. Man, this is huge egg on the face for Microsoft. How in the world could they let something like this happen? It's like the Millenium all over again, except this time the computers actually did crash.

Guess I will toss my 30 gig Zune and get an iPod Touch.

Everybody else who is willing to slay bill gates and shove my dick down throat please let me know

I agree with almost everyone... this sucks, bad day to not have your music, the fact that the 30g's all died on the same day, etc. Apple still sucks worse, though. :) My personal peeve is that MS just had everyone get the new & improved firmware that is.... well, not acting new & improved. I'm glad I didn't just get one for Xmas that died today, though! I've had my 30g Zune about a year and haven't had any issues at all, until this. I'm going to try the "let the battery die & change the computer date" option and see if that works until they get around to a fix for it.

did changing the date work

hello hello... My Zune 30gb died today also... all seems that this issue is happening around the world... I am Costa Rican and I'm located in down here in my country, my friend's zune died as well :S so I had to reset the battery to get it working again!
Thanks for the help!

OMG!! im soooooo frustrated!!! how could this happen? My sister has an ipod and all she could do is laugh at me! Im never buying another Zune device again!!!!!!!!

Has anyone found a fix temp or otherwise

what the hell

This is happening to me right now. I can't use my Zune at all. Is this a sick joke???

Hello fellow zuners! We shall not be apart..but reunite and hope Microsoft will come with an answer. We shall not curse our mp3, though we feel no glory nowadays. Never worship ipod, and you will be free!

Has anyone actually tried changing the date on the computer forward to 1/1/09??? It's possible that the Zune just gets stuck on 12/31/08, and we know for sure it works if we turn the date back to any month/day. But what about forward one day?

Man this is some crap, i think Bill should give ur all one of the new zunes. why didn't they nitify everyone about this couple day ago so we would know what to do.

Man i am pissed cant believe this is realy happening. Bill need to issue all of us a new zune in the mail.

Man i am pissed cant believe this is realy happening. Bill need to issue all of us a new zune in the mail

Mine did the same. I'm furious, but am more interested in being notified of the official fix. I'll think twice before using Zune for my party sounds. Glad I'm not hosting the NYE bash tonight, I would have counted on the Zune...

Dear Bill Gates,

Your Zune sucks ass. Please fix.

Thanks,
Kristin

heh. im not even pissed now. its not just me. whatever haha.

...hurry up and fix it.
cant wait to get my 80 (or 120) gig.

WTF- SO GLAD I PICKED THIS UP. NORMALLY THE ZUNE KICKS A$$ BUT WHAT THE HELL. I GOT IT SO I COULD LINK IT TO MY XBOX 360 AND IT DOESN'T EVEN REGISTER AS AN EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE LIKE AN IPOD DOES ON MY CPU- AND WHERE IS THE VIDEO CONVERSION SOFTWARE? WEAK! I HAVE TO WASTE TIME AND MONEY ON OTHER SOFTWARE SO I CAN CONVERT MY DVD'S TO WATCH ON THE GO OR STREAM THROUGH MY XBOX. AND THE CLINCHER- I CAN'T EVEN LISTEN TO MUSIC OR WATCH ANYTHING ON IT NOW- THIS CRAP BETTER GET FIXED!
HOW CAN YOU UPDATE THE XBOX 360 CONSTANTLYLY WITHOUT HOSING THE HARDWARE BUT SOME DUDE MISSED A LINE OF CODE , AND I'M SURE THIS PROBLEM AROSE BEFORE TODAY WITH SOMEONE HAVING THE WRONG SYSTEM DATE AND SYNCING WITH THEIR CPU, BUT YOU WAIT FOR MASS HYSTERICS TO MAKE A MOVE- COME ON- SERIOUSLY !?#%!$
WEAK SAUCE INDEED!

zune sucks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Posting on Zune Website:

Follow these steps:

Disconnect your Zune from USB and AC power sources.
Because the player is frozen, its battery will drain—this is good. Wait until the battery is empty and the screen goes black. If the battery was fully charged, this might take a couple of hours.
Wait until after noon GMT on January 1, 2009 (that's 7 a.m. Eastern or 4 a.m. Pacific time).
Connect your Zune to either a USB port on the back or your computer or to AC power using the Zune AC Adapter and let it charge.
Once the battery has sufficient power, the player should start normally. No other action is required—you can go back to using your Zune!

I cannot believe it. I was searching f/a way to unfreeze my Zune & came across this page. You have GOT to be kidding me! Way to go MS...I guess I have to wait 'til tomorrow & hope this is corrected. Ugh. And to think I JUST got my Zune back from my bf this morning, worked on a NYE playlist all afternoon, just to try to sync it & get this...

I cannot believe it. I was searching f/a way to unfreeze my Zune & came across this page. You have GOT to be kidding me! Way to go MS...I guess I have to wait 'til tomorrow & hope this is corrected. Ugh. And to think I JUST got my Zune back from my bf this morning, worked on a NYE playlist all afternoon, just to try to sync it & get this...

LOL,I can't believe this, why is it happening on this date?

This is like, bull sh*t! I paid $250 bucks for my zune, and now its not working at all, and can't do anything. It's bullsh*t. Talk about money down the crapper. As of this friday, I'm switching to Apples iPod...

It's the government! they're spying on us!

well im glad i found this. im not the only one. i thought it was a cluke of nature :/ i just want it fixed hahah. god damn father time hahaha

this happend to my zune and i was so mad. i have an old charger for it taht broke and i found out that if you connect the wires on the wrong side they are ment to be on it turns the screen blank. then i put it on ne good charger it charged fine untill i looked at it a fe hours later it wasnt fixed:(

great my zune died too wtf is this y2k8 all over again

im thinking free perks too all 30g owners who have this crap to deal with

My entire playlist for the New Years eve party was on my Zune. Currently not a happy camper. Too late to resolve now, but tomorrow is another day. I may spend it looking at other brands.

My Zune 30 is frozen. What should I do?

Follow these steps:

Disconnect your Zune from USB and AC power sources.
Because the player is frozen, its battery will drain—this is good. Wait until the battery is empty and the screen goes black. If the battery was fully charged, this might take a couple of hours.
Wait until after noon GMT on January 1, 2009 (that's 7 a.m. Eastern or 4 a.m. Pacific time).
Connect your Zune to either a USB port on the back or your computer or to AC power using the Zune AC Adapter and let it charge.
Once the battery has sufficient power, the player should start normally. No other action is required—you can go back to using your Zune!

Well,
happened to me too :( TODAY!
not even plugged in
i've had it for two years....

STILL BEATS ipods,
had 2 of those and their battery burnt out after a year...
atleast microsoft attempts to fix the problem

yo!!! this suck it just froze on me ,whats going on is this real... i used to like bill gate now i want to kill him and microsoft.

Weird... my iPhone and iPod are working fine.

just got a new docking station for my zune for christmas and was enjoying it last night, but just as the clock struck midnight the song i was listening to suddenly stopped halfway through and i saw the zune logo/loading screen. i let it die and brought my docking station to work and figured if i recharged it it would work fine, but it didn't and i was forced to listen to abba all day.

Amanda added this to the comments on my recipe for resetting the Zune:

Update from Zune site:
http://forums.zune.net/412486/ShowPost.aspx

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?

All 30GB devices are potentially affected.



Q: Will you update the firmware before the next leap year (2012)?

Yes.
Matt Akers
Zune Product Team
reply

Mat tAkers my money then says he's sorry!
How corporate and how pathetic!


You are young and life is long and there is time to kill today . .. .

Leave it up to Microsoft to find a new way to BEND US OVER w/o the courtesy of a reach around!

Man IM totally Pissed off!!!!! My new year has been ruined by YOU ZUNE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I wanna break it into a Million Pieces @#$#$@!!!!!

Wow, a lot of you are really pissed! I was upset when my Zune locked up, but now that I've found it has happened to everyone, I feel much better that it will be fixed. Are you all really that upset, or do you just want free stuff? It seems to me that it was just a mistake. I know I've made them. What would really suck is if everytime I made a mistake, I had to give everyone standing around me a whole bunch of free stuff. My zune has worked great for two years. I absolutely love it. This is just a hiccup.

excellent job microsoft. I can not say anything than this.

I guess I am in the same boat, My zune also gave me the screen of death. I really want to know where do we go from here? I have a lot of music on this unit and it's not like it is transferable to a new zune without problems ( second time around ).

Dude, me and my friend were going to switch music devices for the weekend,
and we were so excited!
then i wake up and my zune is totally frozen.
LAME.

Mine is working fine now. Maybe I should sue MS for a whole 24 hours of downtime. Seriously...it was an inconvenience, but not what some are making it out to be.

tough break indeed. first the X-box meltdown and now the this. at least the Zune seems to be more fixable...

I waited, even did the battery thing. My rad ass zune works for a little minute and then froze up again. Anyone else still having problems?

yeah - mine still won't boot either. it's 9:30pm est 1/1/09 and it's still locking up on the boot up screen... any advice out there?

My Zen worked fine all day.. : ) However,,,my kids Zunes did not,,,so I caught ample grief over that one!!

This has been a pattern for Microsoft. I've had (3)Xbox 360's go down for the same reason and now my sons Zune. I've had enough of Microsoft, for one "Stay out the hardware business you guys suck at it!" We will dump our Xbox360 and get a PS3 like I wanted to and we will dump the Zune for Ipods and heres hoping Linux takes over PC's

I have tried everything and even did ehat they said on january first. So far nothing has worked. I payed alot of money for my zune and if it doesnt come around soon i want my money back! Same with all the money i spent for all the songs i bought!

My Zune 30 is frozen. What should I do?

Follow these steps:

Disconnect your Zune from USB and AC power sources.
Because the player is frozen, its battery will drain—this is good. Wait until the battery is empty and the screen goes black. If the battery was fully charged, this might take a couple of hours.
Wait until after noon GMT on January 1, 2009 (that's 7 a.m. Eastern or 4 a.m. Pacific time).
Connect your Zune to either a USB port on the back or your computer or to AC power using the Zune AC Adapter and let it charge.
Once the battery has sufficient power, the player should start normally. No other action is required—you can go back to using your Zune!



My Zune 30 has been working fine today. Should I be worried?

Nope, your Zune is fine and will continue to work as long as you do not connect it to your computer before noon GMT on January 1, 2009 (7 a.m. Eastern or 4 a.m. Pacific time).

Note: If you connect your player to a computer before noon GMT on January 1, 2009, you'll experience the freeze mentioned above—even if that computer does not have the Zune software installed. If this happens, follow the above steps.



What if I have rights-managed (DRM) content on my Zune?

Most likely, rights-managed content will not be affected by this issue. However, it's a good idea to sync your Zune with your computer once the freeze has been resolved, just to make sure your usage rights are up to date.



What if I took advice from the forums and reset my Zune by disconnecting the battery?

This is a bad idea and we do not recommend opening your Zune by yourself (for one thing, doing so will void your warranty). However, if you've already opened it, do one of the following:

Wait 24 hours from the time that you reset the Zune and then sync with your computer to refresh the usage rights; or
Delete the player's content using the Zune software (go to Settings, Device, Sync Options, Erase All Content), then re-sync it from your collection.

I wait and do that, and it dont work, and that last option dont work because the computer cant sync with the zune.... So what should I have to do????

obviously dont sync it change device in device manager to a usb device and put your files on that way

this sucks.
RIGHT AFTER I BUY A NEW PC TOO!
ahhhh!

I have Two Zunes - One worked fine after Jan 1. The other bought at the same time still freezes on the Zune screen and will not reset or do anything. I have tried to drain the battery charge and load 6 times now. Please help!

Mines still frozen, 2 weeks now, Ive ditched wndows and gone over to linux atleast they support their OS , also Im getting either a creative zen X fi, or ARCHOS 405, both have the same space, but they dont suffer from microsoftitus

ive done this recipe more that enough times and i still cant figure it out sometime is works sometime is dont....please let me know what you did to fix ur's.