So Microsoft released their 30g Zunes with a major flaw. On December 31, 2008, every single 30g Zune in the world has stopped working.

Link here

And for the linkophobic:

Baffled consumers are griping about a mysterious glitch that appeared to cause thousands of Zune music players to simultaneously stop working late Tuesday and early Wednesday.

Internet message boards have been flooded with complaints about Zune's 30GB models freezing, prompting Y2K-like speculation about end-of-year hardware or software problems.

"It seems that every Zune on the planet has just frozen up and will not work," posted a Mountain Home, Idaho, user on CNN's iReport.com. "I have 3 and they all in the same night stopped working."

"It froze and there was no way to turn it off so you just have to wait until the batteries went dead. You can't push any buttons or anything," Carlos Colon told CNN. Colon said he owns a first-generation 30GB model.

Other users report their Zunes reboot but freeze when the startup status bar reaches 100 percent. A post on Zune.net titled "Help-frozen zune!!!!" had attracted more than 19,000 comments by Wednesday afternoon.

Some Zune users have dubbed the crisis "Y2K9" or "Z2K9," a reference to New Year's Eve and concerns over potential widespread computer failures on January 1, 2000 -- fears that proved unfounded.

To add: I think that's the funniest thing in the world.

Also, the title should have been, "All the 30g Zunes in the world have stopped working... LOL"

Sooo ridiculous.

My guess is the leap year, but the calender shouldn't be running so much memory on the Zune that it completely messes up all the other files that it keeps running.

BIOS.

I don't know what that is.

Basic Input/Output System.

internal clock.

you're right though, it's the leap year thing. Microsoft is offering no hotfixes, only asking that their customers be patient.

I suppose the same could be said for their Vista support. :P

WAY TO STEAL MY MOOT ENTRY, JERK! >=P

Ah, I see. Microsoft would be smart to offer a hotfix rather than offer a massive refund to everyone that has one. I feel bad for that company. So much money, but customers almost EXPECT something to go wrong.

Well the reason people are asking for some sort of compensation is because as Zune owners, they're worrying about the same thing I'm worrying about.

The Zune logo, title, and loading bar have been sitting on my screen (the Zune cannot enter sleep mode) for the past 17 hours. It's liable to burn it at any point, and our warranties are up.

*laughs evily* mwa ha ha ha! It's a mass conspiricy! I did this! You must all buy Ipods now for they are superior to the Zune!!!!!!!!!! Bow before the benevolent apple! -Steve Jobs

USAToday article

"The company said the issue should be resolved over the next 24 hours as the time change moves to Jan. 1, 2009. The internal clock on the Zune 30GB devices will automatically reset Thursday at 7 a.m. ET."

i'm so out of touch, by the title i was imagining tiny oompa loompa type people called zunes people going on strike :S LOL. i sound like i'm on drugs hah

I think that would have been far more interesting ;-D

I take it Zunes don't have reset buttons?

[Another plus about Zens: reset buttons.]

Zunes has a reset. The back + up button at the same time.
It has nothing to do with a rest and it being fixed. It's an internal clock problem. It'll fix itself tomorrow, 7am EST.
Or so Zune.net and news sites say.

reset*

Ohh, I see now. So the clocks update automatically then, I presume?

Stupid question. Strike that.