Zune 30: the leap year ended it, the new year fixed it
Every 30GB Zune froze on December 31, 2008, a leap-year clock bug
The market's verdict: +7.3% on MSFT in the week after.
What actually happened
On the morning of December 31, 2008, every 30GB Zune on the planet froze at once, stuck at the boot screen. The cause was a leap-year bug in the player's clock driver that hung on day 366, and because the code lived in the firmware there was nothing to install, nothing to click and nowhere to go. Microsoft's official guidance was to let the battery run down, charge it back up, and restart after noon GMT on January 1, 2009, when the date rolled past the bug and the players healed themselves. The internet named the event Z2K9. As disaster recovery plans go, "wait for tomorrow" is refreshingly honest.
This one is officially acknowledged.
They did it more than once
Zune couldn't handle day 366. Exchange couldn't handle 2022.
Links
↳ caused by Zune 30 firmware (clock driver)
Timeline
- Dec 31, 2008 Confirmed First reports came in.
- Jan 1, 2009 Fixed Devices recovered on their own when the date rolled over.