Microsoft indicated that an issue which caused the 2006 model of 30GB Zune devices to turn to bricks at the end of the past year had been resolved. On December 31, 2008, reports of Zune media players becoming unusable started pouring, with Microsoft revealing that a technical team was investigating them and was trying to get to the bottom of the problem. The Redmond company referred to the bricked Zune 30 devices as a widespread issue, but failed to point out the exact number of users affected. It revealed that by noon GMT January 1, 2009 the bricked Zune devices should come out of their coma.

“Early [in the morning of December 31, 2008] we were alerted by our customers that there was a widespread issue affecting our 2006 model Zune 30GB devices (a large number of which are still actively being used). The technical team jumped on the problem immediately, and isolated the issue: a bug in the internal clock driver related to the way the device handles a leap year,” Microsoft's Paul Davidson explained.

The Redmond giant indicated that the driver bug only affected the 2006 model of the 30GB Zune media players, and that the comatose devices were bricked due to the failure to handle the 366th day of 2008. According to Davidson, the bug will be corrected in the firmware, so that the scenario would not repeat itself in the next leap year 2012.

Users are advised to disconnect the affected Zune devices from USB and AC power sources, and let the battery drain completely. All bricked Zune media players should come back to life, if they are connected to a computer via USB or to AC power through the Zune AC Adapter, after noon January 1, 2009.

“The issue should be resolved (...) as the time change moves to January 1, 2009. We expect the internal clock on the Zune 30GB devices will automatically reset [on January 1, 2009] (noon, GMT). By [January 1, 2009] you should allow the battery to fully run out of power before the unit can restart successfully, then simply ensure that your device is recharged, then turn it back on. If you’re a Zune Pass subscriber, you may need to sync your device with your PC to refresh the rights to the subscription content you have downloaded to your device,” Davidson added.