Very Low Battery - Not Charging

Okay, so just so people are sure that they have the same problem I did, I'm giving a little background on my problem -

I have an iPod mini and I've had it for 2 and a half years now. About a couple of months ago, it would just stop midway through a song and say something like 'low battery, please re-charge' even though, there was more than enough battery time left. So I would go home, stick it into the charger and as long as it was in the charger, it worked just fine. Then as soon as I took it off, within a minute into hitting play, I would get the same error message again. I even went so far so as to charge it undisturbed for two days and nothing worked.

So after calling Apple and finding out I'd need to pay $77 just to get a new battery (!!!) and was considering getting a new one, I decided to do one last thing and try putting the iPod into disk mode. As soon as I put it in disk mode, I reset it... and it's been 3 days now and I haven't gotten that error message since.

See link below for how to put your iPod into disk mode:

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=93651

Hope this helps.

I am having the same issue. I am able to fully charge by going into disk mode, but the charge lasts only 1/2 hour. This just started happening last weekend. I also get a message that I need to restore my IPod when I plug into my 110 volt adapter and I cannot restore the IPod (I get a 1418 error).

That happened to me when I accidently drained the battery. Try resetting the ipod (doesn't wipe out data) by holding the menu, and the center button until the screen goes black, and you see the apple logo. Then try to charge again. Also keep in mind that if your computer goes to sleep while charging, it will stop giving power to the USB port, and therefore stop charging your ipod and draining it instead.

I'm having the same issue. I let my iPod battery run all the way down, and now the thing can't boot. When I connect it to USB, it displays the 'battery very low' message for awhile, then the screen lights and it tries to boot but it can't get any farther than the Apple screen.

I can hear the hard drive clicking as it tries to boot.

I've tried rebooting it both on and off the USB cable, but it won't start up. (I think I'm about to cry. No, really. I heart my iPod!)

Right now I'm about to plug it into my work machine to see if it will finish charging up.

I have a simliar problem with my 80GB. Every time I unplug it from my ac adapter it dies! I hooked it up to my computer and I get the same "very low battery" screen. When I plug it back into the wall charger the ipod resets and shows the battery is completely charged. I've put it into disk mode but like I said when I unplug it, it dies again so I can't get it hooked up to my computer to restore it! I have no idea what's wrong with it. The only thing I can think of is the battery is completely wasted somehow even though I've never let it drain completely. Anybody know the answer to this one??????

I have exactly the same problem too.

The Ipod is dead. When I connect to my computer it has the very low battery, swirling circle etc. which then changes to the dark screen and white apple logo but goes not further.

Have tried resetting it with the hold button and holding down the select and menu buttons but this has not work. Itunes does not recognise that the Ipod is connected so have been unable to do a a restore setting.

All very annoying

Well mine doesn't even get that far! I left it hooked up to my computer all yesterday evening. It never even loads the apple screen, it just sits there saying very low battery for hours! The funniest thing though is I listened to it all day at work today with it hooked up to the wall charger, but when I disconnect it dies!! I have no clue why it's doin that.

I brought my iPod to work and plugged it into my work machine's USB 2.0 port. The iPod charged - FINALLY - and has been fine since.

...I wonder what the root cause of this issue is. Is it a bug in the opsys that keeps the iPod from recharging if its run all the way down? Or is it due to using a USB 1.0 port? Or are our batteries failing? Thoughts, anyone?

I have the same problem. I have tried several different computers and different cables in an attempt to isolate the problem. However I was sucessful with and AC charger. I believe that this started after the last software update.

I'm having the exactly same problem that assholebynature and it started after the last software update like WaterKnut said, after I enabled the disk use. So I made this test, disabling the disk mode it works perfectly. So I enabled it again and the problem is back. Does anyone have the answer to this problem already?

And btw, sorry about any incorrect english use, I'm from brazil and it's not that good

I'm having the same problem!!! - It all started after my first sync on vista... I get the low battery message etc...and when i plug it into the wall, it just charges endlessly... I Left it charging for 24 hours and still it says low battery..... is my battery dead? Also even when its plugged into the wall - none of the buttons/click wheel work...

Just last week I began have this battery issue with my 5th gen 30 gig ipod. I had it fully charged, synced it and then when I went to go use it 30 minutes later I got the very low battery indicator. I have been able to charge it on various chargers - same result and extremely irritating when I was traveling over the holiday. I have tried all of the restore options including restoring to factory settings - same result.

Any ideas on what is causing this or how to fix it?

I seem to have a similar problem. The ipod starts to spin, and the apple is visible, but then it stops spinning, and the screen fragments, then goes blank. I've tried resetting it (menu + select) dozens of times. Connecting it to my computer doesn't seem to help - instead of going blank, it goes to the "Please wait - Very Low Battery" message. When it's connected, I am able to put it into disk mode and see the "OK To Disconnect" message just before it stops spinning and reverts back to apple, then the low battery message. About every 2 minutes it starts spinning again, and the apple logo appears, before the process starts over again. If it's not plugged in, it fragments at the apple screen, then slowly fades away and turns off. Any light anyone could shed about this would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Me too! Just started yesterday. I haven't synced in about a month but I have been charging at work. My iPod cycles through the "Low Battery" and the "Apple Logo" with HD clicks. Nothing works. I ordered a replacement battery. I hope that fixes things.

Is it just me or have there been a rash of reported events related to the 5th Gen and battery/lockup issues lately?

Gave up trying to getting things back to normal and made an appointment with a genius at the Dallas Northpark Apple Store Monday night. They tried getting it to work and within 15 minutes replaced it with another iPod.

They did not not give me a good explanation about what was wrong but he did say that it was NOT the battery. I was just glad that it was still under warranty.

So far so good.