Leap-year glitch zaps Zune players at same time

Posted by Adam Wills

Zune users are breathing a little easier now that Microsoft has figured out what rendered their 30-gig media players into bricks simultaneously at 2 a.m. on Wednesday. Owners of the media player are calling the glitch Y2K9 or Zune 2K9, a reference to the Y2K bug.

Scores of Zune users on Wednesday—the last day of a 366-day leap year—reported that their 30GB Zune devices were freezing up. Complaints rippled across message boards as people booted up the gadgets and found they could not get to their songs or pictures (CNET). By the middle of the day, Microsoft had identified the root of the problem: the Zune’s internal clock was stumbling as it tried to handle a leap year. (See Microsoft’s Zune support site for more details.) Things would start to resolve themselves, the company said in its Zune 30 FAQ, by noon GMT (4 a.m. PT), and it advised users with frozen Zunes to follow these steps:

1. Disconnect your Zune from USB and AC power sources.
2. 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.
3. Wait until after noon GMT on January 1, 2009 (that’s 7 a.m. Eastern or 4 a.m. Pacific time).
4. 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.

Or you can try what zenwaves suggests in response to the CNET story:

Incorrect protocol!

The sequence events *should* read:

1. Disconnect Zune from USB and AC power sources.
2. Wait until the battery is empty and the screen goes black.
3. Purchase iPod or other media player not manufactured by Microsoft.
4. Recycle Zune in ecologically responsible manner.

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