Microsoft Zune Forgets To Leap

By: Rob Adams
Staff Writer
Published: Jan 2, 2009

The Microsoft Zune MP3 players failed to acknowledge the leap year for 2009. The mobile gadget mistakenly thought there were 366 days in 2008.

Microsoft Corp said its Zune music players failed to acknowledge the current leap year by adding an extra day instead of an extra second. The company said there was a bug in the portable multimedia player that caused it to malfunction.

"The issue should be resolved over the next 24 hours as the time change moves to January 1, 2009," Microsoft said in a statement.

The problem affects the Zune 30 GB model. Thousands of Zune users who could not use their music players after the new year. The problem was first noted a few minutes after the new year switched over.

Fixing the Zune player is easy. First, disconnect the device from USB and its AC power sources. Wait until the battery is totally drained. If it was recently charged, this may take a few hours. Wait until the Zune display screen goes black.

From this point forward, Microsoft suggests reconnecting the Zune to either a USB port on the back of your computer or to an AC power using the same adapter that came with the device. Allow the unit to charge and this should be the fix.

"Once the battery has sufficient power, the player should start normally. No other action is required—you can go back to using your Zune," Microsoft said.