Apparently overnight from Tuesday to Wednesday, many, if not all, first generation Zune 30 gb players froze and refuse to operate. The shutdowns seem to have occurred simultaneously around 1:30 a.m. Wednesday, December 31. Zunes that have frozen may or may not start up again, and when they do start up, they freeze again before completely booting.
Microsoft has issued a vague "we're working on the problem" statement on the Zune website.
I have a nearly four year old iPod 60 gb player (gen IV, I think). I've never had one second of a problem with it (I can't say the same for iTunes, however). When I bought MP3 players for everyone in my household for Christmas, I opted for Sony and Sansa players, something without much operating system to go wrong, and with no firmware updates to screw anything up. I'd have bought iPods but they were out of my budget for a family of five.
Since my entire household is now on a New Year's Eve trip to Chicago, and everyone has their headphones in rocking to their own music (I'm catching up on all my podcasts), I'm glad that we don't have a crashed Zune to deal with. I'd have a van full of angry teenagers on my hands if we did!
I hope Microsoft is able to track down the exact problem and get a fix out ASAP. Considering it's the holidays and perhaps half of Microsoft (along with the rest of the U.S.) is away on vacation, I don't anticipate a fix yet today, which is bad for those wishing they could use their Zunes right about now.
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