iPod ipod cycling and exalamation point

k, my ipod had been sitting, unlistened to, for some time, and when i tried to sync it with my pc, it said there was no software (iTunes helper said that.) i didn't have time to restore it which was my first impulse, so i figured i'd just standby my machine. i put it in standby, then as soon as it went off it immediately turned on with *all* fans at full tilt. i tried to standby again from the windows login screen. it bsod'd. okay, i figured, must not like the slight OC i'd just given it (210x11 as opposed to 200x11) so i reset the bios to defaults, etc. and restarted, then shut down. as soon as it shut down, it started up again! i realized it was my ipod being connected over firewire that was causing this! i took my ipod out, then standby'd it. i plugged my ipod in this afternoon to restore it and put some music on, and i did, but now it boots to a folder with an exclamation point and it keeps boot-cycling (apple screen, then whiny, incredible loud hard drive, almost like a fan, then folder-exclamation thing, then spin down, then repeat. ive reset it but it keeps doing that and i cant turn it off. i guess ill just wait for it to run out of batteries...but what do i do now?

apologies if this has been posted before...

no one knows? if something's seriously wrong i could maybe get to the barton creek apple store this weekend

grapes911 said:

This is what the apple site says:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=61003

Click to expand...

thanks, man.
i took all the steps it said already and it still gets that. i guess the poor guy's dead good thing i sprang for applecare though. would taking it to a reseller be ok? i have one right down the street from me. i mean as opposed to bringing it to an apple store.