iPod iPod Nano 4th Gen works only when it wants to

Hey guys

After our vacation trip to France, where we charged my gf's iPod Nano 4th Gen with an "Chinese" cable, it stopped working. (It had charged a few times with that same cable before, and I also used it to charge both our iPhones. No problem there).

I've had the iPod plugged into my laptop with an official cable that came with my iPhone after we got back home, but it remained dead. I tried resetting, nothing seemed to work. So I assumed I had wrecked the battery by using the fake cable.

Today i was googling on how to change the battery myself, when all of a sudden the iPod (which was still connected to my laptop) just lit up. The Apple logo appeared and it started charging.

I let it charge for a while, and everything seemed to be ok.

A little while later i picked up my laptop, forgetting the iPod was still plugged in and it fell off the table, but didn't hit the floor (it was dangling on the cable). I look at it: dead again.

Same story: resetting doesn't work, plugging it in doesn't work, it won't charge, iTunes won't recognize it.
I'm pretty sure the battery isn't completely dead, since it had been charging for quite a while, yet the iPod refuses to do anything at all.


Could it be the battery after all, or something else?


Edit: And no, i doesn't fall under warranty so going back to the Apple store is no option.

Wikwoo said:

This may sound a bit weird, but when my iPod Touch 2nd Gen would only power on to the Apple logo and turn off shortly after, I did this:
Step 1. Connect iPod to computer.
Step 2. Shut down computer.
Step 3. Power on computer with iPod still connected.


For some reason this jolted enough power into the iPod to get it to start fully and start charging normally. I don't know why this worked, maybe it started supplying a large amount of power before the computer had started up enough to start regulating the power flow of the USB ports? I don't know..

Click to expand...

Thanks for the tip, but no luck.

Wikwoo said:

Is it on hold?

If not, you can try to plug it into a wall charger if you have one, and toggle the hold switch on and off, then hold the center and menu buttons until the Apple logo appears, that *should* force it to search for a charge.

Click to expand...

I'm not a blonde, so no it is not on hold.

Tried that before, didn't work. Tried it again, still didn't work.

I think I'll just order a new battery and see if changing it helps. She won't want to pay to have the old one fixed anyway, we all know women: once it's "broken" they've got a reason to buy a new one.