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Microsoft's Year-End Zune Fail

Users of the 30-GB Zune all over the world awoke this morning to find that it was the day the music died. Although it's still a bit of a mystery why the Zunes failed, the only fix that gets the Zune working right now is an extreme reset that requires disassembling the case to disconnect both the battery and hard drive.

If there was ever a question that people were buying Zunes, this simultaneous breakdown has proven that there are plenty of them. A visit to several Zune forums shows they are all frustrated to have a nonworking music player. For its part, Microsoft promised to provide more information on its support site as soon as the company has a clue about why this has happened.

Since users started reporting the problems shortly after midnight today, many commenters guessed it was related to the fact that 2008 is a leap year. According to a post on the zune.net forums, they were right. Supposedly, the Microsoft engineers investigating the problem say that the capsized Zunes will right themselves automatically once the clock rolls over to Jan. 1. If that's the case, it may be best to wait for tomorrow, rather than disassemble the player.

If the post is accurate, this is a one-day inconvenience for Zune users that will soon be over. It's also an embarrassment for a player that's struggling for market share against Apple's iPod clan. Happy New Year, Zune users!

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