iPod – buggered
Author
Discussion

t1grm

Original Poster:

4,657 posts

314 months

Saturday 26th November 2005
quotequote all
Mods – please don’t move this to computers and stuff.

I think my iPod is shagged. Every time I click the on button it just makes a noise similar to a CD player when it can’t read the disk. i.e. a sort of whirring then a juddering/click and then stops. It does this 3 times then shuts down and I get an image of a folder with an exclamation mark on the screen. Anyone else had this? It was working last week. Is there a reset button?

It’s the 40GB full size iPod BTW

DennisTheMenace

15,605 posts

298 months

Saturday 26th November 2005
quotequote all
Could try downloading ipod updater from the apple site and reformat it .

t1grm

Original Poster:

4,657 posts

314 months

Saturday 26th November 2005
quotequote all
DennisTheMenace said:
Could try downloading ipod updater from the apple site and reformat it .


Is that the same is iTunes?

DennisTheMenace

15,605 posts

298 months

Saturday 26th November 2005
quotequote all
yep. www.apple.com/ipod/download

You need the updater , but with it you can also format the hd on the ipod .

sadako

7,080 posts

268 months

Saturday 26th November 2005
quotequote all
Ours did this a while back. The problem is it sounds exactly like the sound a hard disc drive makes when it breaks. After repeated attempts to fix it with software we sent it back to apple. It was returned with "no fault found" yet strangely working perfectly and has done so ever since...

ForeRight

1,092 posts

272 months

Saturday 26th November 2005
quotequote all
sadako said:
It was returned with "no fault found" yet strangely working perfectly and has done so ever since...


Sounds like 'engineers finger' to me (so to speak...). Seriously though, I had an iPod with the same symptoms and Apple replaced it.

Ribol

11,995 posts

288 months

Saturday 26th November 2005
quotequote all
You could try and reset it. This is done by holding down the centre button and top menu buttons at the same time. The screen goes blank, then when the Apple appears you let go of the buttons and it then cranks up on its own. No data lost.

Marshy

2,751 posts

314 months

Sunday 27th November 2005
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My 4th gen (just out of warranty wouldn't you know it) did this. The hard disc's shagged. In general, hard discs that make repeated clicking noises and spin up and down are plain shagged out. Not worth trying to format/verify around the errors, it'll just get worse.

They're easy to crack open so I'll eBay myself a new disc and throw it in the car I think.

Twincam16

27,647 posts

288 months

Sunday 27th November 2005
quotequote all
This is why I got myself an HI-MD player instead - if it breaks I won't lose all my music, but I can store 40 CDs worth on one minidisc so it's not like the memory's restricted. In fact, going off the fact that you can always just insert another disc, memory is infinite!

racefan_uk

2,935 posts

286 months

Sunday 27th November 2005
quotequote all
This is why I didn't buy an ipod, because they're crap.

I went for a Sony walkman MP3 player, but a small one, only 1GB in size. Fits all the music I want in one place, no moving parts to break or go faulty and the battery lasts for 50 hours at a time (and will last longer that the ipod one)

I looked at an ipod long and hard when making a choice for an MP3 player, in the end I decided they were really just not worth the money or the hassle.

ultimasimon

9,646 posts

288 months

Sunday 27th November 2005
quotequote all
racefan_uk said:
This is why I didn't buy an ipod, because they're crap.

I went for a Sony walkman MP3 player, but a small one, only 1GB in size. Fits all the music I want in one place, no moving parts to break or go faulty and the battery lasts for 50 hours at a time (and will last longer that the ipod one)

I looked at an ipod long and hard when making a choice for an MP3 player, in the end I decided they were really just not worth the money or the hassle.


Interesting point. I still want an iPod but being involved with computers and knowing that they have a laptop hard disk inside I was dubious about how long they would last, especially as har disks are so sensitive to being damaged by shock. Also hard disks use a lot of power so no wonder they have had so many problems with battery failures. Solid state mp3 players have no motors unlike iPods, so their battery life is much higher.

I still like the idea of having your entire mp3 music collection on one device though that is still very appealing. I am waiting for someone to release a player which accepts USB flash drives as I have several, the largest being 8 gigabytes.

james_j

3,996 posts

285 months

Sunday 27th November 2005
quotequote all
Yes, sounds like the hard disk's knackered. I've had three laptop hard disks go and they all sound like that, often while working for a while before they die. It only takes a slight knock. Personally, I'd never trust such a portable device with a hard disk, it's just too fragile and probe to jarring or dropping. A Nano is a better bet, though with smaller capacity.

carrera2

8,352 posts

262 months

Sunday 27th November 2005
quotequote all
Twincam16 said:
This is why I got myself an HI-MD player instead - if it breaks I won't lose all my music, but I can store 40 CDs worth on one minidisc so it's not like the memory's restricted. In fact, going off the fact that you can always just insert another disc, memory is infinite!


You dont' lose all your music if they break - it's all stored on itunes of course.

I had a minidisc player a couple of years ago but hated it because it took ages to make the discs and then you still have to carry other discs with you.

Ipods are better. Much much better.

Twincam16

27,647 posts

288 months

Wednesday 30th November 2005
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carrera2 said:
Twincam16 said:
This is why I got myself an HI-MD player instead - if it breaks I won't lose all my music, but I can store 40 CDs worth on one minidisc so it's not like the memory's restricted. In fact, going off the fact that you can always just insert another disc, memory is infinite!


You dont' lose all your music if they break - it's all stored on itunes of course.

I had a minidisc player a couple of years ago but hated it because it took ages to make the discs and then you still have to carry other discs with you.

Ipods are better. Much much better.


Hmm. I've got a new one (well, 11 months old now) and it burns the MDs almost immediately. And to me carrying one or two tiny discs is no hardship.

Also - what if your computer breaks, taking iTunes with it?

RobDickinson

31,343 posts

284 months

Wednesday 30th November 2005
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Twincam16 said:

Also - what if your computer breaks, taking iTunes with it?


Then you dump the music back onto it whe its fixed from your ipod....

Ribol

11,995 posts

288 months

Wednesday 30th November 2005
quotequote all
RobDickinson said:
Twincam16 said:

Also - what if your computer breaks, taking iTunes with it?


Then you dump the music back onto it whe its fixed from your ipod....