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General discussion

Could leaving a Zune on pause for a long time cause lockup?

Jun 14, 2009 9:28AM PDT

My wife and I each have an 80 GB Zune. Recently we purchased an iHome ZN9, which is specifically manufactured to work with Zunes. A few nights ago she plugged her Zune into the iHome and we were listening to some of the music on it. She then paused it using the pause button on the iHome, and we went about our business for the rest of the evening. When we came back to the iHome we found that it was impossible to resume the music. It was also impossible to turn off her Zune. We knew that we had to let it totally drain the battery so that she could plug her Zune into the PC and let it recharge today.

What I would like to know is, could this be an issue with the iHome? Or is this a known issue with the Zune?

Discussion is locked

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On pause, in sleep mode, battery goes flat
Jun 15, 2009 7:49PM PDT

This is sometimes an issue with laptops. I've advised people to remove the battery for a couple of hours and then reconnect it -- if that's an option with Zune, I don't know (as I'd never voluntarily buy a Microsoft product).

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The Zune 30 had that date bug.
Jun 15, 2009 9:49PM PDT
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What's does the leap year glitch...
Jun 22, 2009 11:26AM PDT

...of the Zune 30 have anything to do with this Zune 80's problem?

MY Zune 30 survived the glitch without any problem, mostly because it wasn't ON on 12/31/08 (having long since been retired from use). Of course when the NEXT leap year comes this same code problem could easily happen then as well.

But then again, the thing will be absolutely ancient by that time and no one in their 'gotta have the latest and greatest' mindset will give a hoot.

As for the problem with the Zune 80: Sorry to hear about the lock-up. I've never had a chance to pause my 80 on any 3rd-party speaker dock, but I have paused playback on my 80 while on the Zune dock sold by Microsoft that I use with a set of powered Klipsch 2.1 speakers and then left it alone still paused...it's had no problems waking up each time. But then the Zune dock is getting power directly from the supplied wall wart and not through another device's power supply.

Assuming that you did get your wife's Zune 80 to operate again, I would guess that there might be a current management compatibility issue between the iHome unit and the Zune 80 that causes this freeze, or perhaps it's with ALL Zunes for that matter.

If however you NEVER got the Zune restarted again (I don't know since you haven't been back), then I'd guess that something might've happened (surge, spike, etc.) that cause your wife's Zune to brick while on the iHome. There have been occasional reports from iPod owners having similar issues with their 'compatible' iHome devices.

One such discussion:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1414635

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What it has to do with this?
Jun 23, 2009 3:31AM PDT

Everything. It's just one of many examples of where the products are being delivered buggy and a fine example where they are not going to fix it.

Sorry if I was unclear.
Bob

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Re: What's does the leap year glitch...
Jun 23, 2009 2:20PM PDT

Interesting idea, here! We were able to get my wife's Zune to run again, by leaving it plugged into the USB port on a PC long enough.

Sometimes I wonder if manufacturers uses consumers as their beta testers.

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Its A Problem With The iHome
Sep 22, 2009 12:00PM PDT

I always have this problem with the iHome. If it is left in for a long time and not doing anything, like playing music or actually charging, it freezes up. You can still see the screen faded in the background but nothing will work.

All I do is reset it by holding: the back button and down at the same time. The screen will disappear and it can be turned back on by holding the play button. It may need to charge again.

First time this happened i didnt know what to do so i sent the zune in for a new one, but it happened again with the new zune so i figured it wasnt the zune.Not sure why this happens but when it does, the zune is really hot. Im guessing it overcharges it or something like that.

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Just so you know.
Sep 22, 2009 10:02PM PDT

The charging circuit is in the Zune. The power that is supplied to the Zune is often what we call a charger but that's a misnomer. The power to the Zune is just that, power. You should call it in and lodge a complaint.

Again, the charging circuits are in the Zune, not the iHome or wall adapter.
Bob