Ipod Video (5th Gen) No Sound / Heavy Static - Read This! - Quick Fix Found

Add another frustrated customer to the list. My 80 GB video iPod went kaput today. I constantly use mine and take very good care of it. I will try my luck with customer service tomorrow. I'm not looking forward to wasting precious time on the phone tomorrow and cannot go with another mp3 player since I've purchased two thousand songs as singles and albums from iTunes in the past four years. Man this is no fun.

add me to the list

mine gets NO action, it sits on my car seat onthe wayto and from work , and then my desk to dock and update etc.

and all the while in a nice rubber case!

and it died suddenly
it works, well sorta when i push on the corner bottom right of course

i called today to apple and was blown off. they did offer to sell me a refurb for $179 gee what a deal

ill call tomorrow and ask to speak to customer care and see if i get any further!

well i talked to ipod support manager
he is going to check with engineering on monday to see if theycan swap mine out

he said he couldn't see why not

he was knowledgeable about the problem and seemed to understand how frustrating it is

thanks MIKE

I would like everyone to know I had the same problem, no sound through earphone jack, and the only way it worked was to squeeze lower right hand corner. I bought my ipod in Feb. 2006. Well I called customer support, and explained the problem to them, and told them of all the others I have read about having the same problem. I had a terrific customer support person, he told me for the cost of shipping, they would either fix the problem, or replace my ipod. Well within 1 week, I sent my defective one in, and received a brand new one. The new one carries a 90 day warranty, which I thought was great. My customer support person was Tyler, and he did a great job. He even called me the day I received it, to see if I had in fact received it. Excellent Customer Service.

Thought I would add to this. I have the same problem with my 30g Ipod.

I tried cooling it in the fridge as suggested and it seems to work, but for how long????

Yeah, my ipod started doing this too. At first, I thought it was the headphones, and then I tried another pair, and it was the same thing. I tried to pinch the bottom corner, and the sound does come back even if i let go, but if I accidently move the jack it's the same problem again. I bought my ipod around December 2006, and 2 days ago it started to sound all scratchy and distorted from the right side. This is a really stupid problem. For the amount you pay for the thing, you'd think it last more than a year and a half, at most it should last atleast 3-5 years.

P.S. I have black 30gb 5th generation ipod.

Jim Here. As you may know, I have been posting on this forum for two months regarding this issue. I check day to day to see what kind of response people are getting when they call apple regarding their "out of warranty" Ipod. Well, feeling lucky today, I finally made the call. Here is how it went down:

I called AppleCare support and spoke to Candice. She was very friendly and listened to my entire presentation about my issue with "No Sound"and all of the postings on this forum. She then, as I expected, stated that my Ipod was no longer covered as it was purchased Christmas of 06. I then read a couple of posts to her from this thread and at that point she referred my to a customer specialist (Alex). Before I let Alex talk, I gave her a quick run-down of the whole situation. She immediately told me that she (apple) was aware of this situation but their was a protocal she must follow. She told me that my issue would be sent to engineering and that they need to make the call on it. They would respond to her and she would call me back in a couple of days.

So now I wait. Alex did say (multiple times) during our conversation that I don't need to worry about it and that Apple would take care of it. She said there is a 99% chance that they will just replace it, not fix it. She also said that the whole thing should be taken care of within a week or so.

I'll chime in as soon as I hear back from her.

Anxiously waiting, Jim

Hey everyone i am also having the exact same problem with my 22 month old gen5 video ipod. Same issue with sound working when ipod is cold in morning but alot of static then turning into a scratchy noise and then sound dissapearing. When i press the lower right corner i get sound for a few seconds like everyone else.

So after reading all the responses in this thread i phoned apple. After being on hold for 2.4 hours between all the different levels of tech support and then customer care i finally got to a Woman named Savannah who told me that this thread was noticed by apple and she would be sending my case to the engineers and they would decide what to do. This is after i was told 3 times there was nothing to be done and i would have to pay the 160 dollars to have it repaired.
I have no idea if this next level (engineers) will do anything for me but im crossing my fingers.
What i dont understand is why there is such a broad difference between the way all of us are treated. They cannot be blind to this thread and all the calls they have recieved. All we want is the same treatment others have recieved on this issue. It seems its a total crapshoot whether you get someone helpful who will offer to replace your ipod or whether you get no help at all. If i had not been very persistant i never would have made it past the first 2 tech people. They flat out told me they couldnt or wouldnt do anything for me and wouldnt even admit there was a huge thread with many people having the same issue.
Anyway i will update if i get anything solved, they told me it could be 5 to 7 days before someone from engineering reviews my case and gets back to me.

<Edited by Moderator>

Although is nice to know that I am not alone in this matter, I regret to see that Apple has not addressed this serious issue.

I am to attend a Genius Bar on Wednesday and I will be sure to share on the results.

Good Luck

I just put my ipod in the freezer and it totally worked!! When i tried to change songs, it freaked out a little bit, but when i warmed it up, it played for about 2 min. Then the sound went out again. I'm gonna call apple tomorrow and give them **** and see what i can do.

for the time being, ipod is back in the freezer for the night. this *****.

I have exactly the same problem with my iPod Video 30GB. Static experienced for a brief moment and then no sound at all. I firstly thought that my "car-kit" was faulty. Updated firmware and also done a reset but still no sound.

I had a read and tried the pressing on the right bottom corner and voalla the sound was back while holding REALLY firmly.

My unit is also about 20 months old and I guess I can count myself lucky that I only started to experience this problem now. I TOOK my unit in to see if I can also be lucky in a replacement, but doubt that the "service centre" will push to make me a happy customer.

Thus; I got hold of one of the warranty managers from Apple. He didn't want to hear about the forums, since he says that clients might have different diagnosis for the same issue.

I've been working on technology for my whole life and I'm pretty sure that we are all having the EXACT SAME ISSUE. Never the less; he didn't want to know about our forum(s).

He promised to look into the issue and get back to me; but I doubt that it will be positive for reason being I'm in South-Africa AND I baught my ipod from a dealer which I only found out now provides "gray products"

Never the less; I will keep you guys posted on my findings. I can be quite nagging and that should count for me.

Have a look at creative's new X-Fi player. I can promise you that the sound quality will be even better AND you don't have a harddrive which can fail AND you can "upgrade" the capacity using an SD memory card.

Good luck!
LAPD

<Edited by Moderator>

From my visit to the Genius Bar in Oakbrook, IL for my out-of-warranty 5th Generation 30G iPod.

I presented the incident were the video playback is no longer supported on my iPod 5th Generation after performing an Apple update to iTunes, then presented the case with the high static-no sound by describing the effect that you all know. As soon as I mentioned no video/static-no sound I saw the expression on the Genius change to an "another one" look, to which I was given the following conclusion: Hardware Failure.

Hardware Failure, and my options are:

For $129.00 dollars I can replace my 30G 5th Generation apple for the same model, which will come with a 90 days warranty or Trade-it in towards the purchase of a new iPod or iTouch where I would get a 10% discount.(close to $50.00 off if I go with the 32gig model)

Of course I feel demoralized for my unit is pristine although is "junked" by the iTunes update which freaked the video playback capability and the static matter which seems to be a piece of hardware which is not seating correctly. I inquired if Apple has issue a recall and was told that this is hardware and like all hardware there is a percentage that will fail.

Someone should update the subject on this thread to remove the "Read This-Quick Fix Found" and leave this as an unresolved problem that Apple needs to address. If we represent only the geek community that likes to keep informed about technology and that frequents this media to express issues with their beloved hardware, just imagine the number of people that are experiencing this same problem?. Which leaves Apple with the opportunity to downplay this issue and sell more units.

If the update to iTunes or update to your iPod via an Apple release stops your iPod from playing back video and provides no solution, just imagine the marketing potential they have where they could add an expiration age to their products.

Take your iPods out of the freezer...Apple has finally acknowledged this problem and are doing something about it!

After my first call to Apple almost a month ago, I was quite mad with Apple and their Customer Service Reps and resorted to dusting off my battery-eating CD/mp3 player. Today I finally decided to brave the hold music and try again, and actually got somewhere - I should be receiving an e-mail from a Product Specialist tomorrow with details on my replacement iPod.

As many people have seem to have reached dead ends after calling Customer Support (myself included!) I thought I would share the plan of attack that worked for me:

1. Call the Customer Support for iPod number: 1-800-275-2273. I just kept hitting 0 so I didn't have to listen to the automated iPod diagnosing junk.

2. Tell the first person you speak with that your iPod no longer has any sound. Explain that when you apply pressure to the lower right hand corner of the iPod the sound will return, but when pressure is released it goes away again. Tell them it is a manufacturing defect and that you would like to speak with a Representative who can refer your case to a Product Specialist. (If they tell you your product is no longer under warranty, let them know it does not matter in this case, and to please go ahead and transfer you).

3. The Customer Care Representative. Tell them everything you told the first person. MAKE SURE YOU TELL THEM ABOUT THE PRESSURE ON THE CORNER ISSUE! This is apparently key to them understanding/diagnosing the problem. If they say they have never heard of it being an issue, tell them it was only recently (within the past month or so) noted by Apple, and that the Product Specialist/Engineers should know exactly what the deal is.

4. At this point, they should be telling you that they see it is in fact a problem, and that there is something that can be done! If they are still giving you the run-around, let them know it has definitely been noted by Apple and that you would like the matter to be handled properly! If you need to, ask them to refer you someone else, and to refer you to the Product Specialist regardless of whether or not they are informed on the issue.

5. Hopefully by now you should have been either referred to the Product Specialists, or the Representative will have talked to them for you. The woman I spoke with just put me on hold for a few minutes while talking to them, and returned to tell me that I didn't even have to speak with them myself, and to just give her my address and E-Mail. She said someone would be contacting me shortly and that I should receive a new iPod within a week or so. She apologized for my treatment before and was very polite and helpful.

In all, I was on the phone for a little over 30 minutes, and most of it was holding before reaching the Customer Service Rep. Compared to the almost 1 1/2 hours before with no results, it was like night and day. Hopefully this can help some of you guys out, even if you've called before. The Rep even deleted my previous "case" and gave me a new one. Just be straight to the point and tell them exactly what the problem is, and what needs to be done. Good luck!!

Had the same problem. Phoned Apple, told them it was a know problem and I wanted it fixed. They are taking it back for repair.