Microsoft has issued a solution to the problem which caused the 30GB Zune to spontaneously reboot and lock-up yesterday. The cause appears to be an ‘unexpected’ leap year.

As we reported yesterday, Zunes around the world went into a coma at midnight Pacific time (8am British time or GMT), with even those in use rebooting mid-song. The device then refused to restart through any method other than opening up the device.

Microsoft now says the solution is to disconnect the Zune from both USB and wall-socket power sources, wait until the battery drains completely, then plug it back into your computer and recharge it.

The support note warned users to wait until noon British time today (7am Eastern Standard Time, 4am Pacific time) before plugging the device back in. That was around an hour ago at the time of writing and some users have already posted on the Zune support forum to say the technique works.

Though the problem shouldn’t affect digital rights management content, Microsoft also recommends synching the device with your computer to make sure usage rights are up to date.

For those who opted to open up the Zune, the firm suggests waiting 24 hours from the time you did this, then synching it with your computer, deleting all content through the Zune software, then synching again.

Earlier this morning, a Microsoft statement on the Zune support site blamed the problem on:

a bug in the internal clock driver related to the way the device handles a leap year.  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).

While it’s nice to have these answers, they throw up several new questions: Why would a date-related problem arise and then correct itself 28 hours later? Why would a device made in 2006 not be capable of dealing with 2008 being a leap year? And should Zune-owning party hosts rethink their music plans for New Year’s Eve 2012?

Related:

Entry was posted on Thursday, January 1st, 2009 at 10:29 am under Media players, Music.

Read more entries by John Lister.
Stumble It!