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My Zune software had worked fine for several weeks until I moved my hard drive into another computer. At that point I started getting an error upon startup.

I looked at Microsoft’s solution which was very long, confusing, and led me to a web page with a dimmed out button and no explanation what to do to reset the DRM if the button on that page was dimmed out!

Well, I’ve found many people don’t even need to go through all of that. To make a long story short, the most common fix for this problem is the following:

1. Open up the Documents and Settings folder on the drive in which Windows is installed. Then open the “All Users” folder.
2. Enable viewing of hidden and system folders. Do this by selection Tools and then Folder Options. Click the View tab. Select “Show hidden files and folders” and UN-check “Hide Protected Operating System files” and then OK out until you’re looking at your folder again.
3. You should now see a “DRM” folder. Rename that folder to any other name. I renamed it “DRM_BAK”

That’s it. In most cases, that will fix the problem.

If Windows did not let you rename the folder, try restarting (I had to do this). If that doesn’t work, make sure you’re on the Administrator user account.

Now for the long version, for those of you who are interested, or need more choices…

First, I read that I should try to reset the DRM on my computer. You are supposed to enable viewing of hidden folders first (see above). Then you go into the documents and settings folder, then the “All Users” folder. There will be a “DRM” folder in there that you should rename. The idea is that your software will see that there is no DRM and recreate the folder. I did that on my C drive, but it didn’t work.

I scoured the net and several people said to basically go onto WindowsUpdate and update EVERYTHING. I did that, and nothing worked.

Here are the things that didn’t work

• Uninstalled, then re-installed Zune software
• Updated .NET 2.0
• Updated to IE 7.0
• Updated to Win XP SP3
• Did the Cumulative Security Update for IE 7
• Installed .NET framework 1.1 (AFTER installing 2.0 it was still there in Windows Update, so I installed it.)
• Installed .NET framework 1.1 SP 1
• Installed Security Update for .NET framework 1.1 SP 1
• Installed Root Certificates Update (Didn’t think it would work, but tried…)
• I had “AllUsers” and also “All Users.WINXP” folders, and renamed both DRM subfolders to DRMBak. Did not work.
• Installed Windows Media Player 11. I received two errors after installation was complete. One was a DRM.exe error and then a “Dr Watson postmortem” error.

It wasn’t until I received an error that my F drive was running low on space that I realized the problem.

That computer had multiple hard drives, and there were remnants of old Windows installations on there. I had gone into the C drive’s Documents and Settings folder, but it turns out that was not where my current Windows installation was. It was on the F drive. I only realized that when I saw the low disk space notification as a result of all of the other updates I did.

So I then went into the F drive’s Documents and Settings/All Users folder, renamed the DRM folder to DRM_BAK… and it worked.

Lesson learned: Make sure you are in the CORRECT “Documents and Settings” folder on the correct hard drive!

Some people have said that updating the .NET framework might fix the problem, but it seems that renaming the proper DRM folder usually does the trick.

Here is a term paper, dated February 11, 1992. It was written in graduate school and received an A. As with other papers on this site, the examples used have since been lost.

The late string quartets of Ludwig von Beethoven are monumental works in the development of the evolution of tonality in the 19th century.  Opus 131, No. 2 is a movement from the C-sharp minor quartet - one of only two pieces Beethoven wrote in this key.  In both pieces, he chose to open the piece with a slow movement.  For Op. 131, the first movement is a fugue, followed an Allegro movement in the key of D major - an unusual tonal relation to the overall key of C-sharp minor.  The movement is an abridged sonata form, and this is the movement to be discussed in this paper.

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I wrote this paper in graduate school. I recall being highly motivated by the subject, reading and researching as much for my own enjoyment as for this paper. It is dated June 1992, and received an A.

Chamber music had never been an integral part of French music until the end of the nineteenth century.  There were some notable works such as the trios and sonatas by Rameau, Couperin, and Leclair, but never was any emphasis placed on the chamber medium.  The events and individuals who led to the rise of chamber music in France at the end of the nineteenth century shall be the subject of this paper.

A reasonable figure with which to begin such a study would be Cesar Franck.  Because he is often hailed as the father of modern French chamber music, his contribution and influence shall be a point at which to begin such a discussion.  This paper, however, shall delve a generation beyond Franck to examine his influences, and to gain a better understanding of what may have led to his interest in chamber music.

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It was 1990 and I was killing time in a record store, back in the days when they actually seemed to have them. And not even in a mall. I was shopping for CD’s, back in a day when people actually had those too.

Wow.

So as any good record store will do, they played new and random music in the store for shoppers to hopefully like and buy. Usually it was some odd crap that even the band producing it probably didn’t even like. But I recall that day in 1990 when I heard something special.

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A couple days after getting my Zune, I woke up and went to turn it on - and nothing. Nada. I went online in search for the answer, and found a lot of answers - and none that were the answer I was looking for.In my situation, it was far simpler than all of the crazy solutions I read about. So if you’re a new Zune user, and your Zune won’t turn on, you might have the same problem I had…

The battery went dead and needed charging.

Before you laugh - read on. Naturally, I thought it could be a dead battery, but wrongly assumed that when I plugged it in, the power from the USB cable would immediately wake it up. That is wrong.

If your Zune goes dead, it will take several minutes (give it 10 minutes even) of charging from the USB connection before it will turn on. I believe that’s because the power from the USB cable doesn’t directly power the Zune, so it must charge the battery enough to run first.

If that is not your problem, I did learn of other things to try when researching my “dead” Zune problem. The most common answer I saw was that you need to simply reset the Zune. How to reset your Zune? Simply hold down the back and up button on the control pad. Also, make sure the keypad isn’t locked on the top, so that if you do need to reset it the keys will actually work.

If your Zune ever seems to be acting strange, it might be wise to reset it. This is the exact same as rebooting a computer when it’s giving you problems.

Some people said to merely plug it into the USB cable and that might “wake it up” so to speak.

Other Zune battery tips
I noticed that leaving it on in wireless mode will drain the battery far faster than with wireless mode off. If you use the wireless sync, be sure to turn wireless mode back off as soon as the sync is complete. And if you’re like me and hate to pick up your Zune after a night of sleep, only to see the battery’s charge has gone down, you can also turn the Zune completely off instead of having it go into standby mode. Standby mode allows it to come up faster, but slowly drains the battery over time. Press the back button and push the control pad down and it will power off in a few seconds. Press and hold the play button to turn it on again. It takes longer to power up, but those extra few seconds are easily saved in extended battery time.

So to recap the commands…
Back + Up = Reset/Restart
Back + Down = Turn off, also known as Sleep mode

I must preface this by telling you upfront that I have a boatload of tangents to go on. Bear with me and enjoy the ride…

I’ve always been interested in the Apple vs Microsoft saga. It’s interesting to see the usual tables turned when it comes to the portable music player market. Apple has roughly 70% of the market, against about 3% for the Zune. It’s not unlike the browser and OS wars, which Microsoft dominates at 70% and 90% repsectively.

I kind of owned a first generation Zune in late 2006. I say “kind of” because it was given to me, and then taken back. Indian givers! Very long story there. But nonetheless, I had it for a while and was familiar with the first generation model.

Let me start by saying that I’ve always been the kind of guy to not do what everyone else is doing. I even remember as a kid when Star Wars came out in 1977 (did I just age myself there?) and all my friends were going to see it over and over… to the point that I refused to see it. I got sick of hearing about it and decided I wouldn’t allow myself to like it.

I guess I just hate hopping on the bandwagon.

Like the iPod. But read on.

Not that I’ve always been right, but I always pull for the underdogs, especially in a bandwagon atmosphere. The irony is that sometimes the underdog is one of the most powerful companies in the world.

Circa 1994. The hype about the next generation of Windows was already mind-numbing. I thought I would puke if I saw one more article about what would be called Windows 95. Everyone was on the bandwagon. I was already a Windows user, but still - the avalanche of speculation was simply too much. As an avid PC user, I wouldn’t even consider switching to a Mac at that time (or forever, for that matter - mental note for a future blog entry).

Enter IBM.

They had been marketing OS/2 as a Windows alternative. At the time I think they were still more powerful than Microsoft, so surely they could hang in the OS wars. I thought. I picked it up the new version of OS/2 (called “Warp” apparently because it ran programs so fast) and I liked it. It wasn’t quite as good as Windows 95 (which wasn’t out yet), but it was different and fresh and did everything I wanted it to do. And it was better than the current version of Windows. It was easy to get on the OS/2 bandwagon because there was so much room on there. I championed it as best I could, and other OS/2 users were pretty zealous. Not only did I like the operating system, but I thought it would benefit the PC world to have some stiff competition for Windows.

As we all know, Windows 95 came out on August 24, 1995 and most people forgot about OS/2 Warp by the 25th. So what did I know.

14 years later, the tables have turned. This time I’m pulling for Microsoft… the underdog. If anyone is going to break the iPod monopoly, who else but the kings of monopolies to do it? If you’re still not sure, ask Netscape. If you can find them.

Speaking of Netscape and web browsers, I’m still pulling for the underdog there. I use Firefox. So really, between OS/2 and Firefox, I’ve gone against Microsoft twice. Just keeping the bandwagon score straight, mind you.

But then again I’m no fan of Apple, let me just say that up front. I don’t know if it was their proprietary hardware back in the day, or how the typical smug Mac user would spew his anti-PC propaganda. Maybe I just never liked calling my computer a “Mac.” I really don’t like that name. It sounds like the name of a dog or something. “Mac” - blah. Anyway, I used a Mac for several years and yes I did have some issues with it, but I understand why people like them. It wasn’t bad at all, don’t get me wrong. I do see the appeal. So I don’t look down on Apple users or proponents, at least until they start PC bashing. I just don’t want to be an Apple user, nor do I want to go out of my way to contribute to Apple’s success.

So in late 2006, Microsoft released their first generation Zune, most likely to the scoffs of all those smug Mac users from my past. Sure, it was inferior to the iPod, but I do recall showing it to several teenagers who owned iPods, who all said it was “tight.” I liked more about it than I didn’t like.

But yeah - it wasn’t quite ready for prime time. My biggest complaint was that it was just too big and, looking back, it did lack some key features. But that size - it was the mp3 player equivalent of one of those huge late 80’s cell phones.

So Microsoft dug into those deep pockets and put some money into the next release, the second generation Zune. It is a very worthy competitor to the iPod. It has an enhanced interface, large screen, wireless syncing, touch-sensitive pad, FM radio tuner, and all the bells you’d expect from a prime time media player.

If you’re already on the iPod bandwagon, chances are you aren’t going to jump off. If you’re looking for something new, don’t want to be the next yuppy iPod user, or are trying to decide between the two, I can highly recommend the second generation Zune.

There is the Zune Marketplace, which is a worthy competitor to iTunes. You can purchase tracks one at a time, or you can subscribe to a Zune Pass, which allows you unlimited downloads for $15 a month. A caveat is that if you cancel your subscription, you will lose those downloads. But hey you know you’ll download thousands of songs and listen to the hell out of them, so you know it’s worth it. And you won’t have the RIAA knocking at your door. It’s the cost of 1 CD per month for unlimited music. It’s a good deal. And surprisingly, you’ll often find hard to find tracks that are impossible to find on P2P services such as Limewire. And it’s legit. For example, I found a song by a band I saw back in LA in the 80’s called Hellion. In fact their entire album was available.

It remains to be seen if the Zune can actually make enough of a dent in the market to survive. I’m willing to take the risk. I don’t fall for “Don’t buy a Zune because nobody has one” or “They won’t last” because I don’t care. Nothing lasts forever. Remember when DOS was the main operating system? Remember going to a music store and having to choose between LP’s and cassettes? Remember record stores for that matter? Don’t be such a bandwagon jumper that you let someone else sway you.

If you’re an Apple or iPod zealot, don’t come to me crying about how biased I am. I AM biased, because I don’t like Apple, because I hate being on the bandwagon with everyone else, and because I actually LIKE the Zune. I freely admit my bias. There are plenty of iPod and Zune apologist sites, which this is not. I don’t care if Microsoft and Apple both go down in flames. In this particular battle, I choose Microsoft and gave some of the reasons why. It’s my opinion. You’ll live.

The world is full of lemmings, so don’t be one. Look around for once. Don’t just jump on the most crowded bandwagon. There’s still room over here on the Zune bandwagon.

For now.