Skipping During Playback??? Lagging?

[XLT66]

Hey everyone, I've had the Zune since it came out on the 14th.  I've only hooked it up to my brand new HP Laptop, installed Zune software, and began downloading albums from the marketplace.  I love how everything is super organized, which in itself makes it better than the iPod to me, but I've been having some problems.

When I have headphones plugged in, I'd say once out of every 5 songs the Zune starts skipping.  Pausing the song in and out.  Most of the time it fixes itself after say, about 15 seconds, and continues on with the song. 

Has anyone else has this issue? 

Also, has anyone else noticed that it seems to lag a lot?  Like it will take a couple of seconds before it does what you tell it to on the buttons.  Like if I want it to go to a song on an album, i press the song, play now....then like 3-4 seconds later it will start to play.  Especially bad when I am playing a song and want to go back and browse other songs.

Is this normal for everyone else?  Every single song I have comes from the Zune Marketplace so i figure it should be fairly "bug-free".  Should I reformat the Zune and re-sync everything?  I have about 4000 songs right now...I would really rather not do this.

[lola1]

I have the same problem. In another thread about skipping while in playback, I read that it may be happening with ZuneMarketPlace downloaded songs. It's true that I hadn't noticed anything before signing up for my Zune Pass and unlimited download, while listening to my own songs. A firmware update might fix that, but I think that your Zune device is definitely not at fault (at least it's not defective and I doubt exchanging it for a new one will change anything). I tried to reset my Zune, but the skipping happened afterwards again. This sucks.

[lola1]

All right,this is horrible, it's skipping during playback of pretty much every other song I downloaded (Zune MarketPlace - Zune Pass). I'm considering returning the Zune and getting a Creative Vision M with a subscription to another service. It sucks because all the other features and functionalities of the Zune are awesome. But this skipping is driving me mad.

Strange, when I fast forward till the last seconds of one song and let it play and go over the next song, it doesn't skip. And if I replay the same song (one click to the left), the song that had skipped before, doesn't anymore. The skipping always occurs at the beginning of the song. Goes to show that there's a big problem with the internal software/decoder, not with any corrupted song file.

[-james-]

Same problem (I started the other tread that lola1 is referring to).  Microsoft (or the techs on the support line at least) don't seem to know anything about it.  Their only suggestion is to replace the device which, like lola1, I have my doubts about.

Also, and I don't know if this means anything, mine seems to be getting worse as well.  I thought it might be related to remaining battery life, but it was bad this morning and it was fully charged.  Maybe because I've downloaded more from the Marketplace since (I have no idea how that would matter, but it's the only difference I can think of)?

[lola1]

My Zune was charged up this morning and songs were skipping fromthe beginning, whatever album (Zune MarketPlace). So it's not a question of battery life. Also the Zune was either in my pocket, or on a table,I wasn't moving or walking, so it doesn't seem to be the hard drive itself skipping. My device is full of downloaded songs. Resetting it didn't do anything. I'm gonna try as a last resort to delete the whole content of the device and to load only ten albums or so and see what happens. Otherwise I'll write to Microsoft Tech support. If no news comes in on any forum or on the Zune.net website, I'll just return it. Otherwise, if this is to be fixed with the next firmware update, I'll wait.

[illumination]

My Zune was charged up this morning and songs were skipping fromthe beginning, whatever album (Zune MarketPlace). So it's not a question of battery life. Also the Zune was either in my pocket, or on a table,I wasn't moving or walking, so it doesn't seem to be the hard drive itself skipping. My device is full of downloaded songs. Resetting it didn't do anything. I'm gonna try as a last resort to delete the whole content of the device and to load only ten albums or so and see what happens. Otherwise I'll write to Microsoft Tech support. If no news comes in on any forum or on the Zune.net website, I'll just return it. Otherwise, if this is to be fixed with the next firmware update, I'll wait.

Has anyone called the ZUNE support line? The queue to get to a person is never long. I say this because the more people that let them know that there is a skipping problem the more they will see that it needs to be fixed. I encourage you to call. 1-877-GET-ZUNE

I work with Microsoft products as a profession and I can tell you that for what they lack they make up for it in their ability to respond to problems presented through their support channels. I dont believe that the ZUNE will be any different. If this is to be an iPod destroyer then they will have to respond to bugs.

Josh

[-james-]

Has anyone called the ZUNE support line?

Of course.  Twice.  Neither tech was aware of the problem (nor were the level 2 techs they consulted) and the suggestion, both times, was to return the device and try another.

[godfa7h3r]

Just confirming the same problem. Skipping music and a sometimes laggy interface when browsing music while listening. I called the Zune hotline and told them about the skipping music and my other issue with Greatest Hits albums, but I forgot to mention laggy interface.

[bhakta]

I had the same problem when I first downloaded and used marketplace. Thta hasnt happend since. Now my ache is that whwn I add in song titles, they disappear when i come back the next time

[-james-]

Zunethoughts.com picked up this story and posted it on their site.  Everyone who is having problems, please head over there and comment on the issue (http://www.zunethoughts.com/news/show/315/zune-marketplace-song-playback-issue.html).  Hopefully we can draw some more attention to this and get some answers.

Thanks,
James

[hookemhorns]

how about u don't use Zune Marketplace and you try morpheus or oarangeline pro to get songs

[-james-]

I don't know... maybe because I'm not a thief?

[Man on the Zune]

I took my brown zune back today, the skipping was making me insane, about every 4th or 5th song. Although when I had the car adaptor plugged in, it didn't skipping anymore, anyway I took it back and got a black zune, so far no problems at all.

[Xtcme]

 

  Spoke with Tech support today...They are AWARE of problem!!....It is  a problem with Software NOT player....Firmware update SOON to fix this problem!!

   I too have this problem!

  Not that bad but I do have it

[-james-]

Great news Xtcme!  Thanks for the update.

[Lloyd Christmas]

YES! Oh geez... lol This has been bugging me sooo much. For the song skipping, I was pretty confident it was a software issue because most of my tunes play alright. The laggy interface on the other hand has been killing me! Mainly on shuffle mode it lags anywhere I go.

I'm glad to hear there will be a firmware update soon! These two issues are the only things that are killing my Zune experience.

(hi everyone btw) =)

[gshocker]

That is great to hear. I can't wait to get the update as I am loving my Zune other than this issue. Thanks for finding out for us.. The tech I talked to last week had not heard of this so it is good at least that someone admitted it finally.

[Evil1234]

Hi All!

I am soooo happy to have found this place! I have been going crazy as my Zune also skips. I have been on the phone with the support Level 2's for DAYS. AND even though they always tell me no one else has reported the issue... they have, I have personally had 5 BUG reports submitted about my issues!

{WARNING:
 Just as an FYI.. if you return your zune.. watch out for violating the "3rd Zune" licensing rule... its a pain.. and no one at support knew how to fix the issue. It will not allow you to sync music to your zune if you do it.

A fix...
You can uninstall and reinstall (leaving music) this will allow you to have ONE shot at putting music on your Zune.

A perm fix..
Possible: If you go to OPTIONS/PRIVACY/CLEAR CASHE this seems to clear out the associations with your zune.
}

So, a few tricks...
Basically I figured out, mine has a skip pattern. (with Display on any blackout timeing)
When you first hit play.. that song will play fine.
(the screen then dims during this song)
Then.. the next song.. fine!

After that, every other song skipps from 5-15 seconds.. and this gets worse and worse over time. (it starts with a single pop, then 2 pops, then it just starts doing the whole thing.)

--
Is that what everyone else has?
I have ripped music on mine too, and it does NOT do it on those at all. So it has to be something with the music, I have tried different computers, 2 different operating systems, and 3 DIFFERENT Zunes.. Even a redownload of the software and all of the 20 GIGS of music did not fix the problem. (Some of these however will ACT like its ok for like 2 hours or so, then it will start again.)
--

A Fix.....
So, after experimenting.. I decided to try different display options as mine only does it with black screen.
Now, if you set your backlight to "Always On" mine does not do the skipping.
If you have it plugged in, it doesnt skip.

Anyone else have any tricks? These actually make it bareable for the most part..