Zune 8gb Battery Problems

[MaestroX1]

Hi,

I have a 2 week old Zune 8, and it worked perfectly for a week. I left it on one night (on standby), and in the morning it refused to turn on. This was last Monday.

After searching the net, it seems I have to recalibrate the battery meter. The problem is, the damn thing refuses to let me. Every time I charge it to full, it either shuts down when I'm about to start playing music/changing settings, or as soon as I unplugged the cable.

The back of the player gets hot soon after (I imagine the battery is discharging itself) and this lasts for about an hour or two.

However, once it cools down, I still have to wait an several hours before I can plug it in again and start charging, or it will refuse to start charging OR be detected by the PC.

It just happened again 20 mins ago. I charged it 3/4 of the way, and was just about to unplug it when it shut down. Right now it's again discharging.

Any ideas as to how I can get it to discharge while running?

As I live outside the US, my options are a tad limited...

Thanks,
MaestroX1

[MaestroX1]

Anyone?? Tried again today... shut down as soon as I unplugged after a full charge.

[MaestroX1]

Right...

At long last, I managed to drain the Zune battery. It required a 13 hour charge to do this.

The recalibration didn't work though. On the next charge, it shut down again.

After another 13 hr charge, I reformatted the Zune, and loaded the firmware again a couple of days ago. I was still having problems with it shutting down though.

However, I don't think it's entirely a battery problem, if at all. I've noticed that the process of unplugging the Zune is what results in the shutdown (Close Zune player>Eject from tray menu>disconnect Zune cable). Everything works fine until the last step. As soon as I remove the cable, it shuts off and begins discharging.

To confrm this, I instead unplugged the USB end of the cable and it didn't shut down. I let it play about 2 hours of music before I decided to try and turn it off and on again. With the connector still plugged in, it restarted, but when it was off and I removed the connector, it refused to turn back on. This was about 4 hours ago.


What exactly is the problem? Is it both the battery and cable, or just one of them? Anything I can do to resolve this at home?

Cheers,
MaestroX1

[NSILMike]

One thing it most definitely is not: a calibration issue.
The excessive heat is a clue suggesting a problem with the battery, or the battery connections. It should not get noticeably hot, unless you are charging it in a confined location (if so, don't.)
I don't want to blame this on the battery...it's likely the issue, but not necessarily- so I don't want to cause you to spend money on the wrong repair.
See if rapidrepair.com can help you internationally at reasonable cost?