Hi all. I don't know if this is in the proper forum category but I'll give it a try. My iPod mini is dead after only 1 year and 4 months of very light use.
When I try to turn the iPod on, it displays the Apple logo for an unusually long amount of time (~1 full minute) before displaying the folder with exclaimation mark. I went to apple.com/support and read that I could try putting it into disk mode and restoring the firmware. It takes it about 2 minutes to boot into disk mode. It only boots into disk mode on about 1 out of 3 tries. The rest of the time it will hang on the Apple logo until I reset it. Once in disk mode, if I try to connect it to my Mac with either firewire or USB, the iPod resets, or my Mac simply can't/won't mount it, or both. On my PC, when I try connecting with USB, it gives me that PC "beep" letting me know it found a new USB device, and about 3 seconds later, gives me the USB disconnect "beep". Since the iPod must be mountable to restore the firmware, and the iPod doesn't mount on firewire or USB, on mac or PC, I can only assume it's dead.
Oh, and one more thing. The hard drive is a lot louder than it used to be, and seems to be stuck making a repetitive seek pattern based on the sounds.
I did not purchase Applecare, because I knew that I would only be using the iPod about twice per month for one hour each time. I've only used it maybe 30 times. Was I incorrect in assuming that since Apple has made millions of these things, they would have figured out how to make it last longer than a year and four months? I assumed, I guess incorrectly, that it would last much longer than one year since it would only be receiving light use, therefore I didn't see the need to buy the extended warranty. I guess this experience has put me in my place: not even Apple is immune from making defective hardware products, even products as wildly popular as the iPod.
The way I see it I have two choices: either sell it for parts on ebay (the screen still works, case is in relatively good condition, and I assume the motherboard also works. It's the hard drive that's bad), or replace the drive. The former seems more feasable because the 4 gig microdrives are EXPENSIVE. I might as well just buy a new 4 gig mini. I've never used it for longer than 90 minutes at a time, so I can only assume the battery is still good (the battery indicator bar doesn't even move after 90 minutes of music).
So two questions: if I were to sell it for parts, how much could I get for it? Are there any web sites that buy brokeass iPods? Is there anyone here who wants it? Second, am I correct in assuming that any compact flash card, whether solid state or hard drive, can replace the stock drive? I might take it apart and stick a 1 gig compact flash card in there. Those are reasonably priced compred to a new ipod. Having 4 gigs of storage has never been that important. Most of the time I only had 2 gigs on there, most of which I didn't listen to (I only ever listen to maybe 5 albums worth of music when I was with my iPod).
When I try to turn the iPod on, it displays the Apple logo for an unusually long amount of time (~1 full minute) before displaying the folder with exclaimation mark. I went to apple.com/support and read that I could try putting it into disk mode and restoring the firmware. It takes it about 2 minutes to boot into disk mode. It only boots into disk mode on about 1 out of 3 tries. The rest of the time it will hang on the Apple logo until I reset it. Once in disk mode, if I try to connect it to my Mac with either firewire or USB, the iPod resets, or my Mac simply can't/won't mount it, or both. On my PC, when I try connecting with USB, it gives me that PC "beep" letting me know it found a new USB device, and about 3 seconds later, gives me the USB disconnect "beep". Since the iPod must be mountable to restore the firmware, and the iPod doesn't mount on firewire or USB, on mac or PC, I can only assume it's dead.
Oh, and one more thing. The hard drive is a lot louder than it used to be, and seems to be stuck making a repetitive seek pattern based on the sounds.
I did not purchase Applecare, because I knew that I would only be using the iPod about twice per month for one hour each time. I've only used it maybe 30 times. Was I incorrect in assuming that since Apple has made millions of these things, they would have figured out how to make it last longer than a year and four months? I assumed, I guess incorrectly, that it would last much longer than one year since it would only be receiving light use, therefore I didn't see the need to buy the extended warranty. I guess this experience has put me in my place: not even Apple is immune from making defective hardware products, even products as wildly popular as the iPod.
The way I see it I have two choices: either sell it for parts on ebay (the screen still works, case is in relatively good condition, and I assume the motherboard also works. It's the hard drive that's bad), or replace the drive. The former seems more feasable because the 4 gig microdrives are EXPENSIVE. I might as well just buy a new 4 gig mini. I've never used it for longer than 90 minutes at a time, so I can only assume the battery is still good (the battery indicator bar doesn't even move after 90 minutes of music).
So two questions: if I were to sell it for parts, how much could I get for it? Are there any web sites that buy brokeass iPods? Is there anyone here who wants it? Second, am I correct in assuming that any compact flash card, whether solid state or hard drive, can replace the stock drive? I might take it apart and stick a 1 gig compact flash card in there. Those are reasonably priced compred to a new ipod. Having 4 gigs of storage has never been that important. Most of the time I only had 2 gigs on there, most of which I didn't listen to (I only ever listen to maybe 5 albums worth of music when I was with my iPod).