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Nermal

Moderator
Original poster
Staff member
Dec 7, 2002
20,595
3,933
New Zealand
After my CD eject issue, I'm starting to wonder whether I've come across Apple Hardware Failure Day or something.

Last night I went to use my iPod, and got the "low battery" icon. I thought that was weird, because I'd used it the previous day and certainly hadn't drained it. I plugged it into my computer, and got a screen I'd never seen before: "Battery very low. Please wait."

After 5-10 minutes, it started to "boot up" and changed to Do Not Disconnect, and iTunes loaded and synched as per usual. I quit iTunes once it had finished then left it to charge overnight.

This morning I was surprised to see that the iPod was still in Do Not Disconnect mode. Looking at the computer, iTunes had re-loaded and performed another synch; it was as if the iPod had rebooted at some point during the night.

The problem was that the iPod was no longer mounted in iTunes. It was also not showing up on the desktop or in Disk Utility. Restarting iTunes had no effect, and even when I rebooted the computer the iPod still said Do Not Disconnect (and, upon closer inspection, still claimed to be charging) and didn't mount.

I've unplugged and rebooted the iPod (Menu + Select), and it's now showing the main menu like it should. It claims to be fully charged.

Now for my actual questions. Should I be worried? Has anyone else had a similar issue? Do you think that this is a sign of something about to fail, or is it likely just a one-off problem?

The tech stuff: It's an 80 GB iPod, and has what I believe is the latest firmware. My computer is running iTunes 7.0.2 under OS 10.4.8.
 

Nermal

Moderator
Original poster
Staff member
Dec 7, 2002
20,595
3,933
New Zealand
Should I be worried?

Apparently I should! It's shut itself down already, and won't boot up. I get the Apple logo, then it "kernel panics" - the screen fills with stripes and it just sits there. I reset it with Menu + Select and it's back to the "low battery" icon. I'm back where I was last night. It looks like it'll be going back tomorrow!
 

Nermal

Moderator
Original poster
Staff member
Dec 7, 2002
20,595
3,933
New Zealand
I've already completed the service request form, so the box to send it back in should turn up in a couple of days. When's the superbowl?
 

jsw

Moderator emeritus
Mar 16, 2004
22,910
44
Andover, MA
I've already completed the service request form, so the box to send it back in should turn up in a couple of days. When's the superbowl?
A little over two hours from now. Although I don't know why that would matter...
 

Nermal

Moderator
Original poster
Staff member
Dec 7, 2002
20,595
3,933
New Zealand
Well, there's a replacement coming in from Australia. I presume, since it has to come from over there, that they're just replacing one part rather than the whole thing :( but it looks like I'll have a working iPod again soon :)
 
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