Good info. Also Cesar, how do we get Vista Media Center to recognize Zune playlists?  Is there a workaround?

I'm assuming you mean reset as in reboot?

the following links are quite useful too. :)

How to restore your Zune device. - AKA how to format your Zune... :P

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/927001/

How to erase all content from your Zune device.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/926917/

-high five-

I've yet to physically meet someone with a Zune.

Is there some Zune community out there?

SU - I sent it on to the team; I'm looking into it.

Thanks a lot Cesar.

you're welcome, man. I'm trying to hook you up - you were one of the first people to comment on this site, so I appreciate that.

That's a good thing to know!  I use it on my iPod all the time for when it freezes (and to access iPod Linux..... but Apple doesn't need to know about that....)

I thought that was to force the unit to fully shut down? You know, instead of having it in stand by mode? I guess it could also be considered a "reset" mode, but most people aren't aware that it is also the way to force the unit off. That's why when your Zune hasn't been turned on for atleast a day, you get the load screen, I assume.

One feature I think the zune is missing is a "now playing" list. I know there's the quick playlist, but it's faster to start playing something and then add to the now playing list. Plus, you don't have to go through menus to erase the now playing list, you just have to play something else.

I've been using this for some time.  It works well when my Zune inevitably freezes up from my constant ADHD level taxing of the processor.

Now if only it wouldn't freeze from constant activity... that would be nice.  

Albert - as far as i am aware holding the Play button turns the Zune off (or is that standby?) and the back-up thing is a reboot.

I agree about the now playing option.  If you keep hitting back it will eventually take you to now playing, but it would be cool to have an option in a, or even several menus.

Also the ability to shuffle an album - you go into albums and it has 'shuffle all' but there is no option to shuffle the tracks on an individual album.  I know there is a shuffle option in settings but it would be cool to be able to just pick an album and choose to listen in random order or not.  

You know if you switch the hold button right after you do the reset it turns it off. Thats a good way to save some actual batter life.

to make this clear because some still dont know. to put the player in stand by hold the play button. to turn off the zune the back button and down button are held down at the same time for maybe 5 secconds. this doesn't erase anything, and will save your battery. enjoy.

yeah thanks man, lol ,mine froze and didn't know what to do =P

when i try to restore my zune turns off!!! and now it wont work

when i put the zune player to the pc via the usb and it fully charges but when i take it off it freezes and I tried everything but it won't shut off, what is the problem?

OK! Here's my problem... My Zune was loading and it froze just when the loading was done... It's heating up and well, to tell you the truth, it's just frozen. I've tried reseting it, but nothing... Can somebody PLEASE help  me! This is the first time something like that happens to my Zune.

I finished downloaded my music, pictures, and videos and i noticed my screen froze but my loading bar is still moving. i tried reseting it but it didn't work. i hit the back button too but that also didn't work!

hello fellow zune owners!

I am here to complain about my little problem :D

My zune has been freezing a lot lately and it slows down like a computer. It takes a while for it to start playing again, also when I'm going to another song, the backlight won't activate immediately, and the same backlight problem but with the sound adjustment. I have dropped the Zune a few times, but this problem has not occurred until at least a week after the last dropping.

Also, today I was going to sync it as I normally do but my computer did not recognize my Zune. I was going through the steps to help it register the Zune and eventually my computer was reading the Zune but I did nothing. I thought that this was weird.

So, if an administrator could help me with the freezing glitches, then I will be thankful.

Although, I don't see how you could help with such a situation because I do not have a warranty on it.

yea.i tried the whole press the back button and up but its not working.

it only has the charging sign but its not even connected.

HELP!!!!!!

what am i supposed to do?

I just got my zune a couple of weeks ago off of ebay. However it is now not working at all. Every time i plug it into the usb, it just flashes the "Zune" symbol. I have tried reseting it but nothing works. I am going to try and get the manufacturer warenty, but I am not shure if they will let me since i don't have the recite, and because i bought it off of ebay.

My ZUNE froze today for the first time. I had read about the "reset" but never had a good feeling about it. Mine finally came out of the sync screen by it's self. huh. I'll take it.

Erik, I am having the same problem (Zune screen continuously flashing)did they allow you to use the warranty without a receipt? I am in the same boat, no receipt!

~D

same prob....my zune wont do anything...no lights no display...tried resetting tried connecting...still nothing just blank...any ideas?

i was trying to sync my zune one day and when i tried it wouldn't work....i do not know what to do to make it sync! when i plug it into my pc it charges but it will not ever sync!! what do i do?

My friend owns a Zune, and his won't turn on. the battery has been charged recently, but the thing is frozen (the zune is turned off and frozen). Is there any way to get it unfrozen?

thath does not help me because my zune is locked i cant reset it, i try to unlock it and it is still locked...

you're preachin' tto the chior. I'm on my second Zune, after sending the first back in hopes the second wouldn't keep freezing. No such luck. It seems like when i use the headphone jack to hook it up to a stereo it'll play for a while, then STOP. It freezes, restarts itself then starts over. Now it freezes on the logo, heats up and makes this humming sound. Back and up don't do squwat!

I have to wait out the battery-recharge-and try again. They should do a recall!

i can't sign in to my zune program. i click sign in, type in my info, click sign in button and nothing happens........ever. i have never been able to sign in, i am seriously sending the zune back!

hey um im in the same position as most of you i just got my Zune today went to charge it and install everything and now its stuck on the charging screen and its not even plugged in... any help? i tried resetting it but it doesnt work...

My zune just shut down, thought it was dead charge but won't do anything.  Please help. My kid is in hospital with leukemia and can't listen to her music.

OMG thank you, my zune has been frozen alll day i though i might of half to send itr back to micorsoft.. thank you

Help - I cleaned my system so now the Zune Application is clean but my Zune music is still on my Zune player. I am trying to revert the Zune application to the player Library but the last time I tried to do it the application wiped all of my music off the player. 500 song's. I really don't want to do every album over again (Rip n Sync)

OMG! I Love You Now!

When my zune (yeah, I was dumb enough to buy one) is unpluged: I get a battery error and it turns of  (but it is charged). When it is pluged in : I get two icons, the low battery and the charging icon in and endless loop. I cannot reset...I really want to throw this thing through microsoft's window like the old lady throws the tire in the discount tire commercial.

please help me shut down my zune! i know the trick with the down button and the stop button but it wont shut down and i read the up button trick and did it but nothing she comes right back on! what can i do? thank you

jean

i have another problem do u know how u charge it and it shows this big icon...yeah charge it and it like freeze..and when i turn it off the icon is still there...wtf

how do i get my zune to stop beingg frozen i lost my manual so i don't know how!

alryte ma zune is turning on and off i reseted every thing that u could think of ...wats wrong with it ...i have no reiept so im screwed

um...i get to the point where i restore the firm ware but it wont let me go farther then that...it says no updates found and i wont let me sync any thing to my zune?whats up with that?

please help! i cant delete anything off my zune!!!!!!!!

ther are alot of good suggestions on this page... One time when I called zune about a problem the guy told me that alot of people want to see some of these changes made.  He said the best thing is to go to the zune site and click "feedback" and tell them about it.  He told me that they actually do look at those for suggestions and the more something is mentioned the more they consider it.  I personally wanted a way to convert quicklists to actual playlists, a better system for organizing videos (like putting them into playlists) and I wanted more options in the center-button menu while playing a song.  (i.e.- "add to quick list" and "more from this artist" etc."

Is there a solution to this battery charging this?  It seems to be an epidemic.

I'm having a hell of a time downloading my siongs onto the Zune.. No matter what I try it seems to transfer some and then locks up and does nothing, I have to unplug it aand it may transfer some again stops.. I never thought this was supposed to be that difficult?? I had this thing now for over a year and I'm getting sick of all these issues. I just updated the firmware and program. I don't think It should lock up like this?? Please Help me

I just got my zune like a week ago and when i turn my zune on without the charger, it shows the zune opening screen for just a second. When plugged in, it turns on just until the loading bar is finished. It only stays on when connected. Why can i do to fix this?

umm dude my 80 gb zune froze and its showing

3

please wait.

i tried ur

method.

but its not working

what shuld i do>?

My zune won't charge!  I plug it in, it boots briefly then makes a click sound and shuts down.  Tried different charging (car, computer).  Tried toggling the lock button back and forth.  Nothing works.  I have a $300+ investment here (device + accessories) and still no music.  HELP!!!

Stephanie:

I had the same problem but did the following:

When the zune is loading hold the Back button at the same time as you press both the left side of the Zune Pad and the OK button in the middle of the Zune Pad. Continue to hold these buttons until your Zune device restarts and "Please wait" appears.

What you will have done is reset the zune and wipe the hard drive.  You need the zune software running, the zune will update and after naming the zune will re-load all of your content.  Will take some hours to sync all your stuff.

Tough but works!!

hey i tried to restet my zune but it is stuck on number 3 were it says please wait

i updated my zune with the new software thing. and i get my new music to the now playing area but i have no idea how to get it to sync to my zune.

Yeah same problem as bloody may. Nothing works, i waited till the battery ran out, recharged it, and same problem.

maybe ur zune is on hold

I have a zune that completely froze and locked everything out.  All that shows up is a plug in device looking thing inside the battery.  Is there any buttons to press and hold that will make it reset?  

My Zune (which I got for Christmas) is frozen with the low battery screen showing.  None of the options have worked in trying to get this to reboot.  Will be exchanging for a new one - if the problem still persists....will try another brand.

my 80gb zune is stuck on the please wait screen. i called microsoft and they didnt help. please help!

Not sure if anyone knows how but my zune is only playing one album at a time. Is there a way I can set it so say when it is at the last track of an album and I hit the next track button it'll just skip to the first track on the next album? All it does is let me play one album and when I skip the last track it brings me back to the start of said album.

thaaaannnkk you. that helped enourmosly.

zune froze up completely,its just a dark screen and you can see s omewhat of where it last leftoff at as in "play"I tried to reset,no luck and ive had it for about a week.

wth??

Wow this is really a pain.  I have tried the reset as listed in other posts and now it is stuck on the 4th step...Clearing contents, please wait.  Has been there for 15 minutes.  The reason we tried to reset is because we turned it on and all the media files had dissappeared. Simple as that.  My son's Zune deleted everything once when he simply connected it to my computer.  

At any rate, I would appreciate some help.

thank you so mcuh i was about to cry because i thought i had broke my zune but thanks for the help

i replaced my LCD screen in my zune. Now the buttons wont unlock! Someone please help!

OMG THANK YOU SO MUCH. my zune wouldnt turn on for 2 days. i hooked it up to my computer didnt turn on or say it was plugged in.

i go on computer i find you. i read what u said and it WORKED.

DUDE THIS GUY IS MY BEST FRIEND NOW

Add BMANLIKEBERRY on zune

Just wanted to say thanks for the info on re-setting Zune...I was SO sad when mine froze on black screen and wouldn't turn on....now I'm back in action....Cheers!

I have the 30 gig Zune-- without the warranty, and my zune has been freezing starting today at random. I have never had a problem with my Zune, I've dropped it once lightly on the carpet partially (I had my earbuds plugged in that stopped it from fully falling)I turned off my Zune using the Back button and Down button, then turned it back on where it froze on a black screen. I pressed the Play/Pause button which brought me to the main screen where a popup informed me that it had to recover from an error by erasing all my content. I clicked "OK" and nothing happened. Now my Zune is currently running very slow and will not play some of my music. Please email "Royalroland@gmail.com" as I will likely forget to check on this site.

-Thank You

Oh, thank you sooo much!  This was really starting to irritate me - waiting for two days after the frigging zune freezes before I can use it again.  Your simple instruction has made my life happier.  Thank you!!!

omg

thank you so much,

this helped a lot,

i was so worried,

yessss

thanks a loott

thank you soooo much!!!!

my zune 80gb is stuck on the please wait screen.how do i fix?

Ahaha. Thank you so much, this really helps when my Zune freezes. Constantly.

On EVERY song. D:<

And it sounds like everyone else's having this problem...

yo thankss

thanks that helped alot

So Yeah My Zune, Wouldn't Let me shut him off, or put him into standby i should say. The reset (back+up) worked for me. Thanks.

my zune has frozen up and icant get it to come back on.Please help me and after i just got done down loading podcast to it and started to watch one of them and i clicked on 4or5 times.And then i tried to turn it off and turn it back on but it didnt come back on though.And i would apprecciate if you could tell me what to do please.

when i  plug my zune in to my PC it starts to charge and but when i go to see if its sycing anysongs it say connect zune to PC but it is pluged in but it doesnt read it and i dont know what to do ??

Thank you so much. My Zune froze during my hour and a half long subway ride to school. I didn't want to be Zune-less on the way back.

i have the 30 gig Zune and i was wondering, my zune freezes and i basically have the same problem with everyone else.do you think i can return my Zune to the zune company(i have a manufacterers warranty) and get a new one?

the reset works on my 80 gig and thank god for someone with that knowledge.  i nearly sht a brick when it froze a week after just having spent almost 300 american on the thing.  other than that i love the device and hate the software.  someone should hack i tunes to recognize zune devices.  xD lots of love to zune community

Is there a way to reformat the disk on the Zune (30GB)? Mine freezes, and I've done the reset/restore, but it still freezes. On other disk based systems, re-formatting (which marks bad spots on the disk) is a standard operation.

Thanks,

Kevin

my zune froze it gives me 3 please wait it stay like that until the batery dies.

I have tried the following and it works to the point of deleting everything and me reinstalling the firmware, but at the next step it returns to the same problem: the initial load screen comes up and at the very last point it clicks and starts to reload again. The first time I tried it went to the main screen, but something happened.

"# November 26, 2007

Stephanie Usrey

My zune won't charge!  I plug it in, it boots briefly then makes a click sound and shuts down.  Tried different charging (car, computer).  Tried toggling the lock button back and forth.  Nothing works.  I have a $300+ investment here (device + accessories) and still no music.  HELP!!!

# December 03, 2007

Hector from Puerto Rico

Stephanie:

I had the same problem but did the following:

When the zune is loading hold the Back button at the same time as you press both the left side of the Zune Pad and the OK button in the middle of the Zune Pad. Continue to hold these buttons until your Zune device restarts and "Please wait" appears.

What you will have done is reset the zune and wipe the hard drive.  You need the zune software running, the zune will update and after naming the zune will re-load all of your content.  Will take some hours to sync all your stuff.

Tough but works!!"

Thank you! this is the second time it happened. Last time i just waited for the battery to die then plugged it in and it worked

Thanks that back and down trick really helped but I still want to know why my zune locked up and only the album art was able to be seen, but it was dark. well for now I´m just happy to have my zune back.

thanks again.

this is bullcrap

it does not work!!!at ALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

WOW. Thank you so so much. This has been happening for the last 3 days and I've been having to wait all day for it to unfreeze. This was such a hugh help. THanks

First off, new zune owner, but not first time user with some advice for you guys. Email me at white.eagle.14(AT)gmail(dot)com with ANY questions and I'll try to get back to you.

For all of you with the message telling you to connect the zune to your computer in a never ending loop, even after performing the harddrive wipe shortcut, you most likely have a bad harddrive. This is more common on 30gb zunes as I've experienced (Friend has had TWO die, I'm on his second dead one with a new Hitatchi ATA-7 drive.) The toshiba MK3008GAL, the harddrive in the zune Classic/30 Is prone to failure (or they had a VERY large bad batch. ) And it results in this error message. The solution is a new ATA-6 or ATA-7 1.8" Compact harddrive (Any brand should work as long as it is a ZIF socket. ) Currently, my replacement drive is the Hitatch Travelstar C3K60 Slim 30gb (from a dead Creative zen vision W ) and it works like a charm :)

http://www.hitachigst.com/portal/site/en/menuitem.791419b49758db5deb4703e3aac4f0a0/

Also, to ANYONE who has dropped theres and now has this message, your hard drive most likely has A) Bad sectors B) A bad motor or C) Bad R/W heads, Resulting in either A) Sluggishness or failure to perform certain operations B) Failure to play certain songs, show album art, or function at all or C) Display the please connect to computer message (Cannot read firmware updates stored on harddrive, needs to recover). ----- If you get C) Your zune is Most likely not recoverable. Plug it in to the computer and go for it. If it doesn't work the first time, you better hope MS covers you under warranty. Alternatively, the harddrive I posted above is a working option, or maybe a zune with a bad screen on ebay for an HDD swap?

Anyway, Hope this helps. Comments, compliments, and questions to be directed to my email :)

-0mega -- white.eagle.14(AT)gmail(dot)com just replace what is in brackets with the symbols ;)

Hi all, I have a problem with my Zune 80 where it spontaneously died on me, and whenever I connect it to a charging device i get a faint battery symbol w/ a lightning bolt that fades away after about 3 seconds, if i leave it "charging" nothing happens, and i've tried completely discharging it but after a week nothing seems to work, what am i to do?

Is there any way to run scandisk on the Zune 80 hard drive without actually taking the drive out and putting it in an external enclosure?  I know I just have some bad sectors that a simple scandisk scan could almost certainly mark as bad, preventing the zune software from trying to write over the bad areas every time I try to sync.  I already have the player showing up in explorer, but since it is a portable device, the only option given is to format (none of the tools that show up with other drives, like scan for errors, defrag, etc).  Any advice would be greatly appreciated.  

my zune has a blank screen and I am unable to get the backlight back up or use the back button on the Zune.   Basically it is frozen.  I thought I was resetting it by holding the middle buttion and the play button simultaneously but obviously I did something else to it.  Can anyone please help me?????

Hi,

I was listening to music and all of the sudden it stopped playing.  When I took it out of my pocket it was on the home screen and I had to select the song in the playlist to get it to work again. Then about a minute later it stopped playing again.  I now have a black screen with the backlight constantly on.  I have tried to reset it and it does not work.  Any suggestions?

Thanks,

Steve

this is cut & pasted from a different message boar so i take no responsibility for it but im having the 'faint battery symbol' crises, im in the uk and i have no receipt cos it came off eBay...but im about to try it!

had the same exact problem as you did. It all started after v2.0 was launched. I went threw 6 30gig zunes. Now i have a 80gig zune. This is what i had to do.

1) Use unzoone to unistall the software.

2)Go into your c drive and make sure everything with zune is deleted.

3) go to microsoft.com and download .net framework 3.5

4)reinstall the software

5) Restore your zune device. for 80 gig(restart the zune then hold the play pause button,left arrow button,and the back button.) for 30 gig(hold middle,left,and back at the same time)

6) hook up your zune,reinstall the software,and let everything resync.

I know this is a very weird way of doing it,but i went though 6 zunes,all with that problem. And now since i did that it works now(knock on wood).

I talked to a zune support tech,and he said he did the exact same thing. he said his problem too all started with 2.0 hope this helps.

~so im hoping it works!!!

thanks so much i put a movie on it and my friend froze it then i tried what u said and it worked thanks so much u helped me alot!

i just recently updated my software to version 2.5 i was syncing my zune to it and all of a sudden it just shut down. it wont do anything i cant turn my zune back on or anything. when i connect it to the computer it doesnt charge and nothing happens, it doesnt even recognized that its plugged in.

can someone please help?? because ive only had it for a month

ok, my zune froze up (as usual) so i did the reset which has worked before and restarting my zune, but this time when i did it, it wiped my zune clean

anybody no how to retrieve the information from the zune

i have an 8gb zune that is frozen, what is the back button??

Hello all

I am here in desperation, please help me if you can.

I have an 80gig zune which has been working fine since i got it new 2months ago. I left it on charge, then when i came to use it, it  had frozen ( 1st time). I looked the problem up on net, so i followed the instructions and did a restart, this gave me an error 5 screen, also frozen. So now i followed the advice given to restore zune device software ( http://support.microsoft.com/kb/927001/ ), now my zune is stuck on 'no3 please wait screen & will not switch off or respond at all.

If you can offer me any help and advice i would be very grateful. Thanks for your time & sorry to be a bother.

Best wishes

Brad

My Zune Player is hanged at Clearing contents. I tried to hold the back key and the top of the touch pad several times. Nothing happenes. It stuck like that. Please can someone help me

My id is souma.dey@gmail.com.

hello, my cousin Niko's zune has problems when he turns on his zune it just stuck in one spot everytime he clicks the d-pad it wont move. he also cant reset it.hit me up at the video game GTA IV. my number is 227-174-9786. if you want to talk then you know where to find me at im in the hood.-LIBERTY CITY or maybe i can come back on this site. dont forget to come to my wedding in alqonquin! i going to marry Mallorie

So, I've had my 30g Zune for two year-ish. And since Monday it has been freezing, not playing, basically being a douche. Nothing will work. It doesn't restart. It doesn't turn off. I think it's dying. And I love my Zune. I don't want it too die.

Is there anything I can do, to prevent its' death?

hit me up at myspace.com/lizthrocker

or

liztherocker@msn.com

So, I've had my 2nd gen 80 Gig zune for about a month now.  And the entire time I've had it, its battery life has been a little messed up.  I'm supposed to get at least 18-20 hours of playback with the wireless and the touch turned off.  And I do have them turned off.  And I'm only getting something like 8 hours before it just shuts off.  It will say I have half a battery left, and it will just shut off.  

I heard a rumor going around that there is a small software glitch with the 80's that makes them shut off, has anyone else heard about this??  If so, and you know how to fix it or what to do to get it fixed, please e-mail me!!

As per what a lot of people are seeing here, I've got a 30 Gig Zune that started endlessly looping through the firmware upgrade screen.  Prior to that it was playing music fine and then would just freeze for a few seconds randomely.  I eventually got it to reload the firmware by doing it OVER and OVER (probably 20 times).  It's clear, however, that the drive is going bad and it's a bit frustrating that there is no way to run scandisk on it.  I've ordered a new drive (20 gig for $29 shipped on eBay) so I'll swap that in, but for people with this problem, it doesn't seem that there is any real solution to fix it (make it work permanently and correctly) other than replacing the drive.

Ok im having reallyy big problems... its frozen and ive had 300 songs on it and i dont want them to get deleted but now its at the "Please Wait" screen and its stuck.. it wont reset and if someone could help me PLEASE send me a message om my myspace  myspace.com/midniterunn3r99

So its 2:15 AM right now in New York and I'm figuring out why my Zune is staring me dead in the face with thie "3, please wait, veuillez patienter, espera" screen. I've tried the key commands that I have seen on millions of forums so far and to my dismay, I get no sort of response from the device.

I could care less at this point if I lose my data on there but, I just want my Zune to work again.

Oh thankgoodness for this page. My zune was plugged in and charging today, and I was listening to it. Suddenly it said "Syncing" and stuck on that screen for quite a while, even though I hadn't lined anything up to sync. So, after about a half-hour, I unplugged it from my USB port, and it stuck on pause. I couldn't play any music. I would click on the "play all" for a certain artist, and the words would flash, but it wouldn't continue after that screen. I tried plugging it back in to finish it's syncing, but my computer wouldn't recognize it being plugged in anymore. I looked online and found this with the reset secret, and bam: it works again. Thank so much.

okay my zune has a little lock symbol at the bottom of the screen, i checked to see if it was on hold but it isn't on hold at all, the lock symbol wont go away ive tried resetting it from the computer and the lock symbol stays there and i cant use it at all because none of the buttons will respond!

what should i do?

My 30g Zune won't turn on. Won't charge. Won't connect to my computer or anything. The screen stays black. PLEASE help me. I've tried everything. If you have a sloution send me an email....

blondiechik_247@yahoo.com

I would appreciate it so much.

me and my brother were sharing a picture and a song and the picture went throughand the song didnt meanwhile the damn thing froze and it is makeing weird sounds and you cant see shit on the screen anymore i tried chargeing it reseting it turning it off and then back on and nothing what can i do to fix that problem with out costing me anything? if you could email me and tell me that will be fine thank you for your coroperation.

email is -   angel-2b-08@hotmail.com

please contact me with information on how to fix my zune....(30g)

hey i have a zune and i replaced the screen from ebay, and now it blinks the zune sign and go's on and then off and does nothing!  it also tries to boot up when pluged in, but just randomly turns off and has never got fully booted i dont know what would go wrong please help!!  thanks hit me  a email at blondi.josh@gmail.com