Microsoft's 30GB Zune plagued by freeze

Anyone one else have this problem.  My zune is frozen. 

I am concerned about how this will be fixed because the zune is stuck on the load page.

When I plug it into the computer, it is not recoginzed.  How the heck will they fix this?

I bet we will have to mail them in for service.

Yes, I woke up at 3 AM with my 30GB Zune lit up and frozen at the startup screen, exactly as mentioned in the article.  All the various methods of rebooting failed, including letting it run down and hooking it up to the computer or charger.  The hard disk whirls away inside.  The only way to turn it off is to let it run down.  As soon as you recharge it, it does the same thing again.  If this is a simutaneous phenonomon among many of the same devices, I would suspect it relates to a bug or virus which loaded with the last firmware update from Microsoft.

My Zune 30 started acting up about a month ago and I had given up on it since I couldn't send it back for warranty without a receipt, it was a gift. I tried charging it and going to Zune webpage for a fix and nothing worked. It has been sitting in a cabinet ever since. Hopefully after paying over $200 for it they can come up with a fix free of charge. It was one of my most prized possessions and it sucks having only owning it for a few months and it sits there collecting dust.

Woke up this morning to my Zune, while plugged in and fully charged, stuck on the loading screen up to about 95% loaded. Tried rebooting, obviously no luck. No commands will work since the software that reads the commands is not actually loaded. Draining your battery does not work either... once you recharge, it will get stuck again once trying to load.

Come on MS!

This is the temporary fix that I was able to perform on my zune.  However, it involves removing and reinserting the battery.  Thus, you will need to remove the back of your zune and unplug the battery.  Wait a couple of seconds and then plug it back in.  Then reassemble the zune. 

There was no data loss in this scenario.  A good site that shows how to remove and reinsert the battery can be found here:

I used a small flathead screwdriver (the mini ones) to pry open the case after removing the screws.  Just make sure that you pull up the small brown clip that holds the ribbon to the battery connector prior to removing the cable.  Reinsert the cable after the zune shuts off and then push the clip back in. 

Put the zune back together and then turn it on.  Make sure that the lock position is set to the 'unlock' mode prior to putting the case back on.

From what I've seen, this is the only way to get this to work until Microsoft comes out with a fix. 

Best wishes and Happy New Years.

Mine worked fine yesterday.  I had just bought a new sync cable and then I saw the news story online this morning.

I waited a good half hour before I tried to turn it on.  Now it's sitting here, the logo on the screen like open eyes on a corpse.  There's no use trying to unfreeze it.

I bought mine in August of 2007.  It was a replacement for a Phillips mp3 player.

Mine frooze up in Oct 08. After a month of working on it off and on. I placed in the gargage can. At Christmas, I was going to by an IPod touch but they were all sold out. Now I have a 120 gb Zune.

My husband had the same issue this morning as well.  He is quite frustrated since he uses it at work!  He had the issue twice before but it fixed itself once the battery wore down and he rebooted.  No luck today.  Thanks MS for an angry husband!  Hopefully this gets handled in a timely manner so Zune 30 owners can have a Happy New Year!

Turned on Zune and it froze.  I can't even get the battery out so it's now dead.  Great paperweight!!!

I have an 80gb model that works fine but my brother has the 30gb model and his is frozen. Tried draining the battery and rebooting no luck just stuck on the load screen at about 95% not sure what we can do since the firmware won't  load how are they going to fix this.....

I read earlier that taking out the battery and hooking it back up fixes the problem.  It resets the clock.   I am using my 30 GB Zune right now after doing the procedure.   There are two small phillips screws by the charging connector that need to be removed prior to opening.

One note.  Don't set the clock or the same error will occur.  I would recommend just waiting for the real fix too.

I was really surprised that my Zune also exhibited the freeze-up problem that I read about on-line.  I haven't done any updates in over a year and I still have the same problem.  It must be a virus set to activate on today's date.  I can't imagine what else would cause this.

Unlike many others who had their Zune connected to their computers, mine was sitting on my nightstand as it always it. I'd charged it a day before but been listening to my music on my computer. After reading this article, I grabbed my precious, turned it on, and sure enough, it's stuck. I've had it almost exactly 1 year (Christmas last year) after years and years of asking for an MP3 player. I picked Zune because it was different, but now it's just another Microsoft problem. :(

i went to leave the house today and as i went to check my zune charge level noticed it was frozen on the zune loading screen. This all started with the two most recent update the summer update caused my battery to be full one minute and dead the next when fully charged. after the last update the battery problem seemed to disapear but i have had a few freeze ups where i've had to reset the zune and let it boot back up too work. my gf is having all the same issues with her pink zune 30.

My Zune was working great yesterday and when I came in this moring for work it had froze up.  I have tried everything in the world to un-freeze it.  Nothing.  I'm wondering if anybody has heard from Microsoft on how they will fix this problem.

The issues with my Zune started early this morning around 2am and all tries to reset the Zune have failed.  I waited for it to die and plugged it in, but it fails to respond once again. 

Yeah I woke up earlier this morning and turned it on and it frooze on the start up screen.  This is the first time this has ever happened to me and I hope that microsoft with do something quick to fix this.  It worked fin last night but not this morning.  I guess I will have to just wait until the battery dies like everyone else.

Internet Explorer freezes up at random on my new Dell computer. I cannot find a fix to this problem. I have to do a computer restart. Dell nor Microsoft seems to care about my problem as I have tried to get info from both of them for months and they send suggestions that do not work. 

This is exactly why I stick to Apple for products like mp3 players and phones.

I <3 my 16gb iPhone, 16gb iPod Touch, 4gb iPod Nano, and 80gb iPod Classic.

I'm a Zune 30G user experiencing the same problem as the rest of the world.  I am currently waiting for it to lose all power so I can recharge it.  I've noted many who did this and say it still hangs when rebooting after recharging... but am thinking these people are recharging through their USB computer port.  When recharging it that way, it will resync to the PC when it has enough charge... I am wondering if that is where part of the issue might be, related to synching with the PC?  By recharging via the dedicated power adapter (not the PC's USB port), I am hoping it will recharge and reboot itself while NOT connected to a PC.  If that works, it would be temp until attempting the next sync to the PC.  I would expect the next sync to the PC would return it to its frozen state, but at least it may be usable until Microsoft releases a fix.

Jon you are lucky. My zune doesn't have any screws so I just get to wait til they come out with a sexy new fix. Come on  MS, I spent 200 bucks on it an it just sits there.

Zune froze up.  I can't even get the battery out so now it's dead.  Great paperweight!!!

I just saw the head line on MSNBC. After reading the article, I checked my Zune, and it's frozen. The last time I used it was yesterday at work. It worked perfectly until now. I need my Zune.

Didn't believe it would happen to me too, but i'm now a statistic.

Stuck on bootup screen with the bar on bottom...

After reading the MSNBC article, I tried starting up my 30GB Zune and had it freeze just like all the others.  I'm hoping this problem is limited to just this date and once the battery drains and all is started up tomorrow, it will be back to normal.  If not, I hope the guys at MS are forgoing the end-of-year parties to fix this for us.