1. Disconnect your Zune from USB and AC power sources.
2. Because the player is frozen, its battery will drain—this is good. Wait until the battery is empty and the screen goes black. If the battery was fully charged, this might take a couple of hours.
3. Wait until after noon GMT on January 1, 2009 (that’s 7 a.m. Eastern or 4 a.m. Pacific time).
4. Connect your Zune to either a USB port on the back or your computer or to AC power using the Zune AC Adapter and let it charge.

Below is another fix that was found on Yahoo News and there’s a video to follow.

A Zune.net user named Dmodegirl claims to have solved the problem. She said the Zune needs a “hard reset” and suggested using a small screwdriver to pop off the plastic shielding where the Zune cable plugs in and remove the two screws on either side of the plug.

“Pop the cover off and locate the battery plug at the top left corner of the Zune. Using your screwdriver, pop the cable connection halfway off, and do this to the other plug on the right side,” she wrote. “Wait three seconds, then push down the right connector and then the left battery connector. Your Zune should start up immediately. Press the backing of the Zune down (make sure headphone jack is aligned) and put the screws and cover back in place.”

Click here to view the embedded video.

This method of fix above is not recommended by Microsoft because it does void the warranty. This seems to be a software malfunction and hopefully other Microsoft products like the xbox don’t have similar problems. All this goes to show the superior quality of the Apple products and the open source software community. We’ve always liked our Zune but in the future will be leaning towards the IPOD.

Anyway, the video here produced by Cambridge House is very good and very informative and I highly recommend watching it and as far as actually seeing him talk in person… I’d recommend skipping it because he basically tries to say verbatim, the exact same thing in this video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Special thanks to The University of Akron for sponsoring this forum for the community. There are good number of speakers this year and I plan on attending them all. If you’d like to find out more about the forum and dates, please visit EJ Thomas Hall, University of Akron Forum Series. I will continue to write about each speaker during the forum and will try to find videos to be posted here.