iPod Is My iPod on Death's Door?

[josepht]

A month ago, I could feel the hard drive churn and whir after a freeze-up. I did a hard reset, and that solved it. Last night, it did the same thing; but after the hard reset, all the data was lost. I plugged the iPod back into my G5's FireWire port to sync it with iTunes. It said that I needed to restore the factory settings. I did that.

After the reset from restoring the factory settings, the computer asked if I wanted to initialize the disk since it was not readable. I reformatted the disk as Mac OS Extended. It would never finish the reformat.

I cajoled and pleeded for a while, today, and got the thing to reformat. Then I reinstalled the iPod software. The restore went smoothly and I got a message to flash the firmware. I did that.

I plugged the iPod back up to the G5 and opened iTunes to reconfigure and load the iPod. iTunes said it was copying the first song in my library, but it could never seem to actually move any data over. So, I stopped the transfer and repeated the restore and flashing-of-the-firmware processes. Then I plugged the iPod back into the G5 via USB 2.0, since I suspected the FireWire cable to be faulty. That still did not help.

Now, I can do a hard reset, but when it reboots, I get a little folder icon with the iPod's support site Web address underneath.

My warranty has been expired for twenty days. Is there anything anycone can tell me to help me fix this thing? I don't want to have to buy another one.

Thanks,

Joseph

 

[Benjamindaines]

It does sound like your hard drive is crashed. Plug the iPod into the computer, open up Disk Utility to check if the S.M.A.R.T status is passing or failing. If it is failing then your cheapest option is to buy a dead one on ebay and swap out the hard drive. If the S.M.A.R.T status is passing then you have a software issue, but since you have tried everything I can think of you should take the iPod to an Apple Store and just pay for repairs (If you don't wanna do the ebay option then you can do the same thing even if the S.M.A.R.T status is failing)

-Cheers.

 

[Laser47]

It does sound like your hard drive is crashed. Plug the iPod into the computer, open up Disk Utility to check if the S.M.A.R.T status is passing or failing. If it is failing then your cheapest option is to buy a dead one on ebay and swap out the hard drive. If the S.M.A.R.T status is passing then you have a software issue, but since you have tried everything I can think of you should take the iPod to an Apple Store and just pay for repairs (If you don't wanna do the ebay option then you can do the same thing even if the S.M.A.R.T status is failing)

-Cheers.

The ipod does not have the ability to report its smart status through usb or firewire. What you could try though is to get into its diagnostic menu and execute a hard drive scan or do a check of the electronics
For more info: http://www.methodshop.com/mp3/ipodsupport/diagnosticmode/index.shtml

 

[AP_piano295]

Dont rule out talking to apple yes your warranty is expired but they are a very good company. My friend brought his ibook up to them after something went wrong with that a couple of months after his warranty was gone, the techs took one look at it said "yeah will fix this youll have it by friday free of charge." (this was ibook gen before the current gen) so yeah ask apple you have nothing to lose.

 

[josepht]

The rep on the phone said they would not help me since it was out of warranty. Maybe I should've asked to speak to his supervisor.

I just went into the diagnostic mode, and it passed the HD test.

 

[Benjamindaines]

The rep on the phone said they would not help me since it was out of warranty. Maybe I should've asked to speak to his supervisor.

I just went into the diagnostic mode, and it passed the HD test.

If the hard drive passed then it's probably a dead logic board. To get that repaired is going to cost a lot so you might as well get a new iPod if that is the case. Rather than asking to speak to the rep's supervisor you would probably benefit more from going into an actual store and talking to a genus about it.

 

[Laser47]

try the 5 in 1 test and the run in test.

 

[josepht]

Everythings passed.

 

[Benjamindaines]

Everythings passed.

hmmm this is bizar....

 

[fartheststar]

If the hard drive passed then it's probably a dead logic board. To get that repaired is going to cost a lot so you might as well get a new iPod if that is the case. Rather than asking to speak to the rep's supervisor you would probably benefit more from going into an actual store and talking to a genus about it.

I had a problem with my out of warranty iPod. I went to http://www.ipodshop.ca and got it fixed very quickly and for an amazing price.

Apple will refuse to fix out of warranty iPods. iPods are considered "non-serviceable" and the Genius told me if there's a problem with an iPod in warranty, they just swap you out a new one.

This place that I went to will take iPods over the world and I can vouch that they're good. There's other "3rd party" fixers, if you do a google search you may find someone that's closer to you. There's a few of them out there, you may be surprised at the price to fix it (as in -- affordable)

 

[nbaker756]

same problem

i had the same problem. i got mine at best buy with the 4 year plan and they fixed it, even though it took a month. i got a bigger HD out of it too!

 

[ipodloser]

No!!!!! Don't Lose Hope!!! He'll Survive!!! God Bless America!!