29 Jan 09 Is the Gigabeat still plagued by the Y2K9 Zune Bug?

On December 31st 2008 the world caved in for 1st gen Zune owners when their precious little players all of a sudden stopped functioning. As we later learned, Microsoft forgot to account for the leap year, and the player's internal clock imploded in a yelp of confusion. Thankfully the bug only last for 24 hours and all Zunes were up and running for the New Year. During that same period, news started to come in that Gigabeat players were also affected. That's not surprising considering the Zune was originally built by Toshiba and both were essentially running on the same PMC platform.

I figured the Gigabeat bug would be resolved just as the Zune one was, but that doesn't seem to be the case. Some 28 Days later (awesome movie btw) and alot of models still aren't working, at least in Japan. Players affected include the S, V and T-series. I've heard mixed reports on whether the bug is still ongoing so if you own of the players listed, let us know. It could be a problem that's just afflicting Japanese models. Toshiba just released a "software update tool" for the T-series which they're hoping will resolve the issue. Still nothing for the S and V-series however. We'll keep you updated on whether the fix is working. Some 24-hour bug huh.

Gigabeat Japan

via AV Watch