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.