I’m having an issue with my Zune and thought I’d ask here before slogging through Microsofts board to try and hunt down an answer. The Zune itself seems fine…it’s still playing my audio books (the only thing I use it for), it’s still recharging. However, it won’t connect to my computer. The data cable seems fine but plugging it in gets me a whole lot of nothing. I can’t download audible.com books, it won’t bring up the Zune start screen…nada.
Anyone have this problem? Is there any fix for it? I’ve tried both rebooting and shutting the thing down but it doesn’t seem to matter. I’m hoping that the thing isn’t completely tits up…I have another series of trips coming up in the next 3 weeks and I want to put a ton of books on it for the trip.
Just to confirm, you plug the Zune in and open the software manually, but it doesn’t recognize the Zune? Any time that’s happened to me, a restart of both the computer and the Zune itself fixed it. Past that, I would try reinstalling the Zune software.
Damn…reinstalling the Zune software will, I assume, wipe out all the stuff I have loaded on it, yes?
And to answer your question, Silophant, yes…plugging in the Zune and running the software manually doesn’t recognize the Zune as being there. Same with running the Audible.com software…it doesn’t recognize that there is a device there.
And this is the same on 3 different computers. Normally when I plug the Zune into a USB port it automatically recognizes that some USB device has been plugged in.
It shouldnt. Reinstalling the client (not the firmware) will just reinstall the binaries and fix whatever might be messed up. Your profile and songs should be safe.
This sounds like the issue. Either your data cable is screwed up or the connector on the Zune is somehow wonky. The fact that it charges but doesn’t seem to be recognized as a USB seems contradictory, but who knows. Maybe you should try buying a new cable at Best Buy before doing anything too dramatic.
Well, it’s gone to the next level now. This morning I tried to turn it on an…nada. It won’t power up. I know it’s working (somewhat) because when I plug it into the computer I get the background recharging icon in the middle of the screen. But it won’t power up.
I’m thinking I’m screwed. Just a quick google search this morning yields hundred of folks talking about Zune issues. This is the first real problem I’ve had with the thing, but it seems catastrophic. I’m hoping Microsoft will take it back for an exchange or something…unless someone has any other ideas. I don’t think I can do a re-install unless it powers up, right?
Definitely going to try that advice before I do anything radical…or start the process of sending the thing back. For one thing, I figure if I have to send it back I’ll lose all the stuff I’ve put on it.
Not the audible stuff…though I won’t ‘lose’ it in any case as I can just download it again from their site. It’s more of the pain in the ass aspect than that I’d lose stuff. Plus, if I do have to send it back then I won’t have it for my next series of trips…and I’m addicted to the thing at this point. I’ll probably go through withdrawal…or just break down and buy another one before I leave the country. Then I’d have two…
Just figured I’d give anyone following along and interested an update. Not sure what happened, but the Zune just came back to life. I had basically plugged it into the USB cable on my laptop this morning and forgot about it…then, without doing anything I could tell it just kicked on and auto-opened up the Zune software on the laptop.
It’s still flaky though. I noticed that everything I have in my Music folder is inaccessible (according to the Zune software it’s all still there). When I go to Music the only option there is Now Playing…clicking on that give me No Items. This despite the fact that I have about 20 books from different authors under Music. The Audiobooks section (created by Audible) is still there and all the books are still in there and accessible…and they seem to be playing normally.
In any event, the thing is at least marginally working now. It’s annoying that all of my books in Music seemingly are gone or inaccessible, but at least the thing is somewhat working.
If anyone has any idea what the deal might be with the Music folder let me know. Otherwise, thanks for the advice and help.
You can play everything as expected in the Zune software right? (Have I mentioned how irritating it is that the software and the device are named identically creating automatic confusion?) If so, you could try resetting the Zune device to it’s original state.
This will erase all the content and revert the firmware to it’s original state. From there you will ought to be able to re-sync with the software and reinstall the most recent firmware. After that re-adding the content should be a breeze.
It’s totally non-functional at this point and I’m in the process of sending it back for an RMA. No idea how long it will take to get the new one back…they won’t even give me an estimate. I’m trying to put some of my MP3 books that I’ve ripped from old CD’s on my iPod for my trips so I’ll at least have some stories to listen too. I’m not sure if I can convert my Zune formatted audible.com books or not, or if they allow you to download multiple times in multiple formats…something else I’m looking into.