Did somebody not flush after they dropped a brown zune?

So about two weeks ago, woot had a refurbished brown Microsoft Zune MP3 player for $85 shipped. I made fun of the Zune when they wanted $250 for it whenit first came out, but $85 is a hell of a price for a 30 gig mp3 player with a big color screen and video capabilities. I'm currently using a Creative Zen Micro Photo 8 gig that I got over the summer for $50AR, and I can probably get close to that on eBay for it, so I figured my net cost would be <$50, and I'd get a way nicer mp3 player out of it.

I got the Zune on Saturday, and tried installing it Sunday night. The unit looks good - no scratches or anything. Installed the software, plugged in the Zune when prompted. Windows recognized it and grabbed the drivers, but when I plugged it in the Zune software didn't recognize it.

I've had a pretty busy week, so I didn't get a chance all week to screw around with it. I did read some message board forums that suggested unistalling the software, and reinstalling it without a network connection so it would use the older software on the CD.

So Friday night I decided to make my Zune work - which shows how lame I am when I spend my Friday night playing with my brown Zune. Tried it with the cd and no network connection, but then Windows wouldn't detect the Zune through the add hardware wizard, even if I plugged the network connection back in.

After four tries of various combinations and a couple hours, I finally got it to work by plugging it into a back usb port and using the software cd with a network connection so it would grab the latest software.

I've owned a number of MP3 players - an original 10 gig firewire iPod, an iPod shuffle, an iPod Nano, and a Creative Zen Micro Photo. The Zune is the only one I've ever had a problem getting to install - even though my original windows iPod was pre-iTunes and shipped with MusicMatch (ewww!).

One other interesting thing is that the Zune will automatically find your MP3's and sync them with the Zune. I have 35 gigs of MP3's and a 30-gig Zune, so I'm not sure how it picked what's on there, but I figured it would be easier than picking songs randomly, so I left it syncing and went to bed.

So the software sucked, but how's the hardware? Don't know yet - haven't used it yet. I plan on going to the gym tonight, so I'll bring the Zune and give it a workout while I do my workout.