The Day The Music Died — Frozen 30GB Zunes
My 30 GB Zune is frozen, along with almost everyone else’s 30 GB Zune. MS says: “Customers with 30gb Zune devices may experience issues when booting their Zune hardware. We’re aware of the problem and are working to correct it. Sorry for the inconvenience, and thanks for your patience!” More at MSNBC and Ars Technica.
UPDATE: Possible explanations:
* Slightly late Y2K issue
* Alien Virus
* Evil Clowns
* Egyptian Curse
* Latest GNR Album Rocks Too Hard
* MS Sucks
UPDATE 2 – I have a feeling this was a coding error related to 2008 being a leap year — today is day 366. Could be wrong, but as a long-time mainframe programmer, I’ve seen leap year glitches a few times.
UPDATE 3 – Microsoft says the issue will fix itself tomorrow..
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.
Read more details on the official Zune blog.
UPDATE 4 On Twitter, ZuneInsider is assuring us that the firmware will be updated before 2012 — the next leap year. Man, I hope I’m not still using my brown 30gb Zune 4 years from now. 
link: http://twitter.com/ZuneInsider
