iPod iPod only showing folder/exclamation point icon

[mcmillan]

Hi,

I have a 3 years old 1G 4Gb iPod Mini. It turns on, showing the Apple logo, and then it displays a folder with an exclamation point. According to Apple, this is a software problem. I hace already tried almost everything, reseting, restoring via iTunes, restoring via Disk Utility, replacing the battery. iTunes recognizes it and even syncs the music and acts like it's charging, but it never finishes charging, not even with the new battery, and all I get is an Apple logo and the folder icon when I try to turn it on.

A new iPod is a bit expensive for me right now, and I don't think mine is dead since it's supposed to be a software problem.

Any suggestions?

 

[davedecay]

It can also be a hardware problem.
I've seen bad hard drive & logic board as the culprits.

 

[mcmillan]

It can also be a hardware problem.
I've seen bad hard drive & logic board as the culprits.

It's not the hard drive since I can play the synced songs on the iPod from my Mac by showing hidden files in disk mode.

Any suggestions?

 

[Eraserhead]

Logic Board? It wouldn't necessarily stop you playing music on your Mac.

 

[mcmillan]

Logic Board? It wouldn't necessarily stop you playing music on your Mac.

I don't know if I explained it right. I'm able to connect my iPod Mini, double-click the icon in the desktop, enable hidden files, find the songs, and play them. This means the iPod hard drive does work.