30GB Zunes Right Themselves
For many Zune owners, new year’s eve was a day of frustration. Wednesday saw floods of reports from owners of 30GB Zunes who said their players were crashing. At the same time.
From midnight on the 31st, the Zune’s operating systems freezing up. Zuners reported that the device would begin to load, but would freeze, locking up on the loading screen.
Microsoft has acknowledged the problem but did not offer a fix. "Customers using the Zune 30 might experience problems starting their players," says the company on the Zune website. "We’re aware of the problem and are working to correct it. The Zune Social might be slow or inaccessible. Sorry for the inconvenience, and thanks for your patience!"
However, it seems as though the problem is no more. The BBC reports that, as of yesterday, Zune devices should boot and load as normal. Apparently the problem was all down to the fact that 2008 was a leap year and had an extra day for which software on the Zune was not prepared.
Microsoft spokesman Brian Eskridge says that the this should have been corrected on January 1 when the Zune’s software consults with the internal clock and overcomes the Zune-boggling extra day. Let us know if you were affected and if your Zune has since righted itself.
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Is this to tell the non zune users or something? any zune user who tried to turn it on would know by now.
Daughter's & Son's Zunes both locked up let the Battery drain, re charged turned them back on no problems total web panic
not prepared for a leap year?
lol the result of dumbing down computer programming school
^
+1
Here is a java code to figure leap years:
import java.io.BufferedReader;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.io.InputStreamReader;
import java.util.Date;
import java.util.GregorianCalendar;
public class Main {
public static void main(String[] args) throws IOException {
BufferedReader in = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(System.in));
System.out.println("Enter the year you want to check: ");
int year = Integer.parseInt(in.readLine());
GregorianCalendar calander = new GregorianCalendar();
calander.setGregorianChange(new Date(Long.MIN_VALUE)); // Sets calander to pure Gregorian calander See: http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.5.0/docs/api/
if (calander.isLeapYear(year)) {
System.out.println(" ");
System.out.println(year + " is a leap year.");
}
else
{
System.out.println(" ");
System.out.println(year + " is not leap year.");
}
}
}
Is this to tell the non zune users or something? any zune user who tried to turn it on would know by now.
It's just to bug you.
Good thing microsoft doesn't make phones
that would suck on new years trying to call a taxi and not having your phone work!
check this out
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hh-eqWwOad0&NR=1
it`s about the zune =))
Actually, it appears that the problem was caused by a third-party, to whom Microsoft outsourced the firmware for the 1st-generation Zunes. Looking over the source code that was used, the problem was that the check to see if it was a leap year left out a critical component: what to do if it was the 366th day of the year. Normally, on non-leap years, the code, when it hit the 366th day, would subtract 365 from the day counter and add one to the year counter. If it was a leap year, it would subtract 366 if the day counter was 367... But if it was 366? Oops, they forgot to handle that contingency. Hence, on midnight, December 31, they all crashed. (midnight as in as soon as it became New Year's Eve, NOT as soon as it became 2009) But when it became January 2nd, the Zunes were able to right themselves, as their day counter was thus 368, and so they wouldn't hit the infinite loop that locked them up.
It could explain why only the 30Gig Zunes are affected.
I didn't use my Zune on the 31st, I was busy celebrating New Years.
If it did have this problem, it went away because it works just as good as it always has. One day every 4 years isn't such a big deal to me.
In addition, these articles seem pretty negative. I don't like Microsoft that much, but when it comes to my Zune, I couldn't be happier. Hell, they've even provided firmware upgrades that have added features to the Zune.
Sure, it'd be annoying to have to go without it on a day I wanted it, but it's one day out of 4 years (1 day out of 1,461 days) that it will have this problem. I'm happy with the Zune. How much would you like to bet this will be a non-issue by the next leap year?
I'll end by saying please don't get your panties in a bunch. It was an unexpected bug that worked itself out. Big deal.
I thought my Zune died....so I dissected it. :| I believe I just pwned myself...
I put my Zune in a freezer, because it stopped working. I took it out a day later, and it was nice, frosty, and working!
I thought I was a genius... apparently not. D:
I wrapped mine in a towel and the next day it was working fine.
I peed on mine, mine is not working.