Zune skipping problem!

Many of you, including myself, are experiencing skipping problems with songs dowloaded from the Zune marketplace. Release 1.2 of the Zune firmware did not fixed the problem for some of us. But the good news is our Zune firmware guru, David Caulton from the Zune team, wants to hear from you!

“The Zune team needs your help! They think they've dealt with most of the possible sources of skipping and crashing devices in the 1.2 firmware. If you've upgraded your device to the 1.2 firmware and still have files that reliably skip or otherwise cause bad behavior, can you drop me a line at dcaulton@microsoft.com” [Zunester]

We like this kind of interactivity with a Zune technical team member! Don’t you?

Update: If you set your backlight to "always on" (menu: settings/display/backlight: always on), the skipping problem will stop at once. Of course your backlight will stay on forever and it will drain your battery faster. But you will stop this annoying problem until the Zune team releases a patch to solve the issue.

I've noticed that if I try to turn the volume up or down at the beginning of a song, the Zune does not react right away to my commands. This problem seems to be related to the skipping issue. Anyone noticed the same thing?

Comments

[TwistedStem]

My Zune skips and is unresponsive too... I too feel that these behaviors are related. I also have a strange feeling that it was related to the amount of files on the Zune as mine is over 2/3 full now.

[TwistedStem]

My Zune skips and is unresponsive too... I too feel that these behaviors are related. I also have a strange feeling that it was related to the amount of files on the Zune as mine is over 2/3 full now.

[Jonathan Bagley]

I too am having the same skipping issues as described above. I was afraid it was a mechanical issue but if another firmware update will fix it I will be very happy. I have 7 gigs left on my Zune and I too feel that it has something to do with the amount of songs. I will try the backlit always on thing until the problem will be resolved.

[Cory]

I had this issue even when I only had a couple albums downloaded from the marketplace.

The backlight trick does work. I hope they fix this soon. I've already swapped out one zune thinking it was a mechanical issue.

[Robert]

ok - I am actually glad that I am not the only one that is having the problem. I will try the back light trick, but I do hope they come out with a fix soon. I do not seem to be able to get it down to a particular song or anything, but I can say when it happens, it takes a few button presses to make the Zune respond again. I will also shoot an email to Microsoft about this. Has anyone had luck with any other tricks?

[jeff]

i have the same problems with my zune,,,first it skips when it changes from one song to another,,,,second,,my zune would just shut off intermittantly,,i found static electricity to be the culprit,,,i hope they get this fixed soon,,,

[Andrea]

Same issue, I started noticing it after putting about 21g of media on the system. My backlight setting, from the beginning, was always set at 5 seconds. Also, battery draining fast and the skipping starts on about the third played song.

[Steve]

I have just recently started to experience the skipping problem. I'll shoot them an email as well. Love the Zune though.

[Chris]

Skipping here too. And my Zune just started randomly shutting off as Jeff mentioned, even when sitting on the desk while listening. Odd odd odd.

[Lux]

Same here. Before I played with the Marketplace, skipping was minimal and was usually only for the first few seconds after starting the first song. Now, it happens kind of randomly and sometimes it's really bad.
As far as shutting off, static WILL shut off the Zune. I work in a lab and part of our protective gear can cause static which has given me quite a jolt when it grounds through me via my headphones and shuts the zune off.

[Lux]

Same here. Before I played with the Marketplace, skipping was minimal and was usually only for the first few seconds after starting the first song. Now, it happens kind of randomly and sometimes it's really bad.
As far as shutting off, static WILL shut off the Zune. I work in a lab and part of our protective gear can cause static which has given me quite a jolt when it grounds through me via my headphones and shuts the zune off.

[karl]

I am having the skipping problem as well. I noticed it started about the time I had the hard drive filled up halfway. Interestingly enough, it seems that it happens for exactly the first 28 seconds of the songs. Also had some issues with battery life.

[Dustin]

mine only skips when i play it through my aux port in my car. its fine when i listen to it w/ headphones

[Nabz]

Canadian user with a Zune here, (got it from ebay) Mine keps on skipping like a hell, untill I turned off the wifi mode.
I've never gotten a skip since then, but my zune shuts off regulary, it is kinda of annoying.. I dont know why it keeps on shutting down, it seems if I do hold the zune in my hands, it will not turn off at all, as soon as I put it in my laptop Bag, bang.. shuts off after a few minutes of walking.. very odd.

[Nabz]

Im really starting to wonder if I made a mistake in buying this item vs the iPod, it seems it got bad reviews from all over,. and dont get me wrong, I really like the Zune, it looks good, sound quality is awesome too, I own Xbox/Xbox360, I bought the zune for compatibility with Microsoft's products, and I aint seeing anything at this point on. Xbox360 cant even detect mine.

[Tyler H]

i recieved one as a christmas gift, and i think the large screen and picture quality is great and it works wonderfully.... the only problem is i wanted it so that i could listen while i paint, and as i turns out, the electrostatic equipment we used to paint shuts it down almost immediately. this did not happen to my 5 year old RCA Lyra, or my friends Ipod, or any of the cheap flash based mp3 players anyone else has... is this even something they can fix with firmware? it seems like a hardware issue to me. i'm going to try to wrap it with an anti static bag, although i doubt it will work, ill post if it does

[scott]

I am having the same issue, and i am attempting to have everyone with this issue go to my site and comment with their issue and im going to get with microsoft to show them this is across the board. if you are having the issue please go comment.
http://itsnotlikethat.com/wp/index.php/2007/01/31/zuneskipping-circa-1996/

[jeff]

It is static that is turning my zune off,,,i bought a different set of headphones with a larger diameter cord,,this seemed to help alot as it doesn't shut off as much. It still shuts off though so my next step is going to be wrapping my cord with electrical tape,,i'll let ya know if this helps,.hopefully they will fix this soon,,,jeff

[Scott Wendt]

The skipping is fully cured by attaching the zune to a good power source (not all USB ports qualify).

The lag in UI at the beginning of songs can be seemingly be temporarily cured by syncing your zune with the computer it is partnered with. Attaching as guest does not seem to be sufficient from my really informal testing.

[Dale Bundy]

The backlight on my Zune stays on all of the time no matter what setting I use. Is there any known cure for this. It kills my battery pretty quickly.

[T Holzer]

I tried the anti static bag and it didnt work, i called microsoft tech support and they told me to charge it for four hours, and didnt seem to understand what static electricity was. if i dont find a cure soon, i think im gonna have to buy an Ipod, i told the woman at microsoft and she told me to have a nice day.

[Nabz]

T Holzer, this is ridiculous, if MS Tech support tells you that, it pretty much means they dont give a flying sh*t about their customers, and that Zune shutting off problem is pretty annoying, Mine shuts down from 1 to 5 times a day. Same for the XBOX support, it is pretty lame, They hung up on me 4 times in a row.
Ipod has no such problems as I have owned one in the past.
Though Creative Zen had the same shutting down problems..

I need a good working Mp3 Player!
I'm quite frankly pretty much dissapointed in all of this, and the worst part, im stuck with this Zune, as I cant return it, I bought it off ebay, (There's no Zune in Canada yet so..) Otherwise I would definitely switch to Apple's Ipod.
This is very frustrating..

[Robert Briggs]

Yeah, I love my Zune! Doesn't scratch or finger print, has better sound output than an Ipod but the static shutdown thing has got me bummin' for sure. I work with large scale graphics and most of the media we use has huge release liners that are Tesla's worst nightmare. If I'm working with that stuff, I might as well not even carry my Zune. It constantly shut's down and reboots. I hope MS can adjust the boot threshold through the firmware or we're all a bunch of suckers! THANKS BILL!

[i'm gonna blow my brains out!]

i'm not really. but I listen to stern which is like a 5 hour clip and the f-ing thing shuts down halfway through, it take like 5 minutes to get back where I was!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! should've got an ipod

[Amy]

I've had the same problem with the Zune shutting down for no reason. It happens as much as one time a day (I listen while at work) and it just happened two times within 10 mins. It takes forever for it to come back on...or so it seems.