iPod Dead 3G iPod?

[GFLPraxis]

A friend of mine who is leaving on a trip soon found a discarded (or lost?) 3rd gen 40 GB iPod. She brought it to me to see if there was any way I could get it working.

Pressing any button causes it to turn on. The Apple logo shows up, then a picture of a folder and an exclamation mark, then it shuts off.

I plugged it in to my MacBook via the USB iPod connector that came with my 5G video iPod. The same thing happens when I start it up; apple logo, folder with exclamation mark. Only after a brief moment, it pops up "OK to Disconnect" then quickly switches to a check mark and "Do not disconnect", holds that for a second, and shuts off.

The hard drive spinning noise is not erratic, but it is louder than I remember my sister's 2G iPod being and notably louder than my nearly silent 5G.

Any suggestions as to how to resurrect it?

 

[Nermal]

So it's shutting off before you can do a Restore?

 

[DUde3]

Sounds like it needs to be plugged into a firewire adapter. My 4th gen has the exact same problem when the battery is totally dead, it doesn't charge/sync via USB. Needs to be either plugged via firewire or power adapter for it to work.

Give that a go.

 

[GFLPraxis]

Thanks guys, I picked up a FireWire iPod cable. I still have the same problem, but I managed to access all the files on the iPod. Doesn't seem to be anything wrong with the hardware, it just shuts off when I try to boot it.

I figure a restore will work. I found the owner's iTunes account email address though, so I'll be contacting him.

From an ethical perspective, should I try to fix his iPod with a restore, or leave it broken (with files intact) until I've gotten a response?