iPod classic battery drains

Yeah man mine is doing the same thing. If you put it in sleep mode and don't use it for a couple of days, then the battery drains to DEAD!! I'm wondering if this is normal (ie., you are supposed to use sleep only for awhile). I noticed that when I pause a song and then go to the main menu and then shut it off that this doesn't happen. What a bummer I drained my battery three times already and with the iPod batteries (so it seems) every battery charge is one less you'll have when it finally doesn't hold a good charge (seemingly sooner rather than later, seems to be the complaint with the iPod batteries)

Yeah, I don't think the batteries are that great but there are a few ways to conserve a little energy ie., backlight, coverflow usage, bitrate that the songs are encoded to, EQ...etc. but you should get more than you say you're getting. This article may help a little...Eric
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=61434

Found this on the apple site in quotes " Even in sleep, iPod uses a small amount of current, and the battery slowly empties." The full article is here:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=61434

PS - and yes, it does shut down much faster than previous models (Don't see the problem there though, I found it rather nice 🙂 Whether at the main menu or sleep...Eric

As for what i've heard from others,it could be the Hard Disk SPINNING and the CoverFlow....

Make sure to have the iPod Classic to it's latest,1.0.2 version,disable ALL the CoverFlow options and EQ.

When you highlight a new song,BEFORE you select it,put the back of your iPod at ya ear and press the select button...you MUST heard the Hard Disk SPIN...if it KEEPS SPINNING ALL THE TIME press MENU 2 or 3 times slowly,then see if the HD stops spinning...if it does,great job!..if not,try opening a video and then press MENU...

Constant Hard Disk Spinning makes the batter Drain in nothing..so make sure to turn off your iPod MAKING SURE the HD is NOT spinning...then ya done.

I have a brand new 80G classic and after an over-night charge, it showed less than 10% charge after about 4 hours of listening to music.
I have used the off and hold features, but this is my first iPod...Any Suggestions?!

Your situation is not normal. I haven't used my classic 160gb in 3 days. I haven't recharged it in 3 days either. When I turned it on just now, it looks very full, just like the last time I charged it. Take it back and get a new one. If the classic does use power while it sleeps it should be a very small amount and should not drain it.

OH-NOooooo! It did it again...this thing is worse than Britney Spears! Fully charged last night and this morning the dreaded "please connect to power" screen!

I'll be taking mine back to the apple store today.

It isn't a problem of bad-battery, is a bug with last update using Coverflow that hold the HDD spinning endless. I have that issue and did a battery test, my iPod was playing music for 40 hours. So it's perfect.

Mine also did this. When I first got it , charged it for 4hours as to the manuals instructions...it ran out over night (haha). I ran it all the way down and have charged it, it says fully charged, and am following Apples suggetions for battery conservation.

I will write back when I have found out if it actually holds charge...

My 80gig classic has now done this 4 times since updating it to 1.02. It didn't do it once before. Fully chagred yesterday, Listened to it for maybe an hour of so last night. Turned it off. Then made sure it was turned off properly before i went to bed, so i know i did it correctly AGAIN!. battery was still showing as full. Checked first thing this morn and it said connect to power. This is SH!TE apple and it needs sorting immediatley! Even if it was left switched on and music playing for 8 hours over night the battery should not be anywhere near Dead!

With regards to the coverflow suggestion.. I read this before and on purposely didn't use coverflow once yesterday because of the know issue. It didn't make any difference. My battery has now had an extra 4 full cycles wasted. Apple im dissappointed you could let such a flawed product into the public domain. I love IPOD's but its really REALLY P!ssing me off!

Oh yeah... I've already heard about this HD-Spinning issue when using coverflow...

I can assure that, but to prevent myself from plugging the iPod every now and then to charge the battery, I quit using coverflow for a while...

Still praying for a new firmware, asap!

Try downgrading the firmware. I had a corruption with the database using an ipod sync program so i seized the opportunity to install the 1.0.1 The iPod works a bit slower but...

Using 1.0.2 only had problems with spinning using Coverflow.