Zune not recognized at all

[Flamin_Spirit]

Alright I've had my Zune 8gb since last year (round about September) and it's worked fine until a couple days ago.

I plugged my zune in just like I normally would to sync a couple songs that I had bought earlier that day off of Amazon.com's MP3 store (all my other Amazon.com music works fine) when I plugged the player in it started "updating" some music files, I'd gotten used to this even though I don't really know why it does this, but then it got stuck at 17%, this has happened at various points through my time of having a zune, usually just a wipe of the internal memory through the software works like a charm, but this time was different. I tried to get it to wipe, then the software recognized no music on the device, but 5.36 gb was "reserved by other computers" I had had exactly that much music on the device and sure enough when I unplugged it and looked through the device all my stuff was there, down to the last photo, except for the new music I had bought.

so I decided to try having the softwre forget the device, then plug it back in. this had no effect, the zune still came up as mine and it still had no content showing in the software, but all my music was on the device. I did a hard reset (back and up at the same time, then play/pause to turn it back on) this had no effect, so I did a content wipe from the device, now I had no music or photos or anything oon the zune, but the computer still showed 5.36 gb as reserved, so I uninstalled the zune software and reinstalled the v3.1 software, no changes, so I did the last ditch effort thing, a full wipe, including firmware, and when I plugged it in it reinstalled firmware to 3.1 on the zune, but the software stuck at the "please wait while your device is updated" screen, the next and cancel buttons were greyed out. I left it connected, and at this point for half an hour, when I came back to it it was still there, the Zune was at the main menu, the software as frozen. so I exited the software and restarted it, now the software won't recognize the device at all!

I've tried reinstalling the software and reformating the zune several times now, and have come to the same spot as I've described.

so should I just toss the zune, or is there another thing I can do? I've been looking at new players as well, but I'd rather wait till summer or next fall to actually get one. Next time I'm definetly not getting another Zune, I didn't like not being able to use WinAmp or WMP11 to sync, and the collection on both the device and the computer was finnicky at best, but that's not the issue, at the current time it's just plain and simple unusable.

[jkj1962]

The Zunes have a 1-year limited warranty. I would submit an online repair request at zune.net. It won't cost you anything to get it replaced, and then you could sell it instead of tossing it.

[Flamin_Spirit]

I entered my information and the site says my warranty is expired, apparently it's not a 1 year warranty like the site says it is, then again you may have to register the device in a certain timeframe, which I most likely missed due to not knowing that you had to register to get the warranty.

So... is there another way to install the firmware? that may make the device recognized by the software.

[Ricardo Dawkins]

Format and erase it and try with another computer.

[Flamin_Spirit]

I already have tried reformatting the zune itself, and I don't have another computer to try it on, the best I can do is a fresh install of the Zune software, and that doesn't work.

again, is there a way to force install the firmware (like other players when firmware files are dropped onto the device) instead of using the Zune software to do it? I think that that is the problem, either that or it tries to upgrade from nothing to v1 to v2 to v3 etc but one gets stopped or it expects another version and can't find it, so it freezes. I would love to not be forced to buy another player prematurely, meaning before I needed more space.

[jkj1962]

Originally Posted by Flamin_Spirit

I entered my information and the site says my warranty is expired, apparently it's not a 1 year warranty like the site says it is, then again you may have to register the device in a certain timeframe, which I most likely missed due to not knowing that you had to register to get the warranty.

If you have the original receipt, you may be able to contact Zune Support by phone and fax a copy to them to get the warranty straightened out. It would be worth a call to find out.

[Flamin_Spirit]

I don't even have the original box, the only things from the original purchase that haven't been tossed or lost are the player and the USB connection cord

EDIT: Alright, since no more answers are forthcoming, microsoft won't recognize my warranty, and I've done everything possible to try and get my Zune to work, I'm ditching it, with my next paycheck I think I'll get a Cowon D2, $160 for 16 gb plus being able to add another 16 if necessarry for about $30 sounds fantastic to me