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Microsoft explains Zune glitch

Leap year issue caused players to freeze

2 January 2009 9:34 GMT / By Amy-Mae Elliott

30GB Microsoft Zune owners experienced problems with their media players at the end of 2008.

It seems owners of the iPod rivals players suffered from the devices "freezing" on 31 December. The Zunes would not boot up or play the stored music, videos and games or transfer data.

Microsoft has revealed this was due to a glitch involving their internal clock as the device was not programmed to cope with a leap year.

The company issued advice to turn the devices off and let the devices fully charge up before turning them back on in 2009, a solution that has appeared to work for most, although some problems are still being reported.

Microsoft's Zune range has never been launched in the UK, although a 2009 release has been rumoured.

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Audio, MP3 players, PMPs, Zune, Microsoft