So my red Zune 30 was acting up this weekend, and I figured it was time to just do it and get a Zune 80. I went to Best Buy, used my Product Service Plan that I purchased through them and got a Zune 80 for $150 (not including a new two-year replacement plan). I got home, unboxed the Zune 80, and hooked it up.

This is when I saw a message on the screen, stating that the Zune was attempting to recover from a critical error and that it needed to erase the contents of the device. With eyebrow upturned, I pressed the Zune Pad in confirmation, and the Zune reset, clearing the data. Unfortunately, the same error came back up. Again. And again. So off I went to Best Buy and replaced it with another Zune 80. Got home, hooked it up, and it synced with no problems.

The next day, I was listening to music and the device froze while changing tracks. I did the standard Zune reset, and the device went into Device Recovery Mode, erasing my data and asking to connect the Zune to a PC and reload the firmware. When I did, the Zune desktop failed with a couple errors (first stating that I didn't have enough drive space, and then after another reset it gave an "Unknown error has occurred" message). It was dead, Jim. I'm guessing the store received a bad batch.

So I went to another Best Buy, and swapped it out with a Zune 80. So far, so good, but I'm not convinced that I'm out of the woods yet.

How about you guys? Any Zune horror stories to tell?