iPod classic battery drains

Solutions for ya iPod Classic:

1.Disable ALL CoverFlow options at the configuration screen
2.Disable the EQ option
3.Customize your iPod Classic's menus,so it only shows what you mostly use (also disable CoverFlow!)

4.When charging the battery with a PC,put the iPod Classic to your ear and you'll hear the hard drive spinning..keep it on ya ear while in ya PC you remove the hardware securely..not from iTunes,eh!..Windows/Mac way..Then still hold the iPod on ya ear till you hear the iPod's Hard drive stop spinning..when done,leave the iPod slowly somewhere while it charges..funny fact is that instead of the "Do not disconnect" symbol you'll see "Battery charging" icon. Whenever ya ready to go,just disconnect it and go listen to music!

5.Whenever ya going to stop ya iPod while listening to music,press MENU till you come back to the main menu and listen to the hard drive again till it stops spinning for 5 seconds..then hold PAUSE/PLAY and instantly the iPod Classic will shut off..then PUT HOLD to block the clickwheel n stuff to evade the iPod for starting by itself..

There ya go,hope this helps till new firmware comes..

I know everyone means well but I think it would be easier to just get out my "Sony Walkman", locate my cassette tapes, and use this until apple releases a new firmware to fix this problem and cause others. Here's a metaphor: I buy a new car and the dealer tells me I have to turn the car off in reverse while the windshield wipers are on and the radio is on but the volume can't be higher than 5 but no lower than 3. I can't use the "new highly anticipated feature of automatic ignition, I have to use the old method of winding up the starter when the reason I bought the car to begin with is for the automatic ignition. Then I have to get out and make sure the engine isn't still running but this is no gurantee that my battery won't be dead in the morning. Would we stand for it?? LET'S GO APPLE, BILL GATES COULD'VE DONE BETTER!!!

*addition*

All the steps listed below my original post (also above in others) seem to have worked. I have noticed it with no problem with using coverflow to kind of test to see if I can hear the HD spinning and have experienced no problems with it but mostly just use artist selection for now. I'd rather not risk a horrible day at work without music.

I did however notice that my HD wouldn't turn off just once after putting it to sleep. I noticed they have a sleep option to add to the main menu in settings and put that on my main menu. I don't know what effect that has if any but it hasn't stayed awake when putting it to sleep that way... yet..

80gb classic. I've only had problems since upgrading to 1.0.2.

After turning off (i've tried both holding "play" and using the "Sleep" fxn in the main menu), the music stops, screen turns off.
The next morning my (still off) iPod is warm to the touch and the battery indicator is yellow / nearly empty.
Not to mention that my iPod refuses to turn off , sometimes for days on end.
(hold "play" or choose "Sleep," screen goes down, then pops back on after about 1sec)

I agree with a previous comment that even if I had been listening to music all night (10h to be generous - lord knows I rarely get the pleasure of sleeping THAT long), the battery should still be nowhere close to empty.

This surely suggests that the hard drive doesn't spin down for some reason.

PERSONAL COMMMENT:

Don't you folks think it's sad a bunch of CASH-PAYING CUSTOMERS are stuck here on the APPLE CORPORATION WEBSITE trying to figure out ON OUR OWN why our shiny new toys aren't working as promised, and we get NOT A PEEP FROM TECH SUPPORT to help us out.

I understand that email tech support, for whatever reason, may not be feasible (? volume of trivial questions from people who don't read instructions or FAQs...)
That said, you'd think Apple would monitor these discussions and jump in to offer some help.

Frustrating...

and very disappointing, to say the least.

Message was edited by: snowmonster

I bought my ipod Calssic (80 gb) in October. I thought I was doing all the wrong things.. not charging it enough, playing it too long (coupla hours) so on and so forth. But NOW my ipod refuses to even charge..As soon as the iPod is connected to a USB port on my machine (windows OS), the Apple logo appears on the screen and starts blinking non stop - it keeps going on and off. This takes about half an hour to 45 mins.. after which it displays the battery symbol with the red bar It says - 'Charging, Please wait'... and there is no indication of anything happening after that because its been 4 hours and NOTHING. I tried all the step by step instructions under the support menu too. What am I supposed to do now?! And do the Apple guys reply to these posts at all.. if not where am I supposed to get real 'support'?

You get 90 days free phone tech support. Maybe those guys could help you. The phone number is on the apple website as well as the back of the instruction manual. It sounds like your iPod is defective though if it won't charge at all; maybe a replacement is a good idea.

Has anyone noticed that the new iTunes now has a little battery indicator next to your iPods name in iTunes. Is this a kick in the face for classic owners or what? You have to remind me that your firmware causes my battery to aimlessly deplete. *** !! Instead of wasting your time incorporating cute little icons into iTunes how about a firmware release that lets me use my DEFECTIVE iPod the way it was meant!!

I had exactly the same problem: Battery looked like it was fully charged, listened music for an hour or so and then I realized the battery was a quarter down. Interesting I found this problem only happened when my iPod classic was formatted with fat32, if I format the iPod with mac's hfs+ the battery draining stops. This workaround kind of *** because I can't use the iPod as an external hard drive to move stuff between my windows and mac computers but if you have a mac computer is worth to give it a try.

Can anyone else confirm that the battery draining stops when the iPod is formatted with hfs?

ive been comparing my ipod with my sister's (both are 80gb 6g classics with the 1.0.2 update, mine is black and hers is silver) and i noticed that the hard drives sound very different. and she doesnt have any battery drain problems with her ipod.
another thing that i noticed is that going to the games list will trigger the hard drive bug. i dont even select a game, i just see the list, turn the ipod off, and the hard drive keeps on spinning. this didnt happen with my sister's ipod, the hard drive stopped spinning a few seconds after turning it off while in the games list.

id really like to know if it is a hardware or firmware problem. cause if its hardware related i could just go and exchange it for a new one. anyways, im extremely disappointed with apple.

Yeah I noticed when I recently upgraded to iTunes 7.5.. Talk about adding insult to injury.. I purchased an 80GB iPod Classic in mid October, had the thing for about 2 wks and returned it due to the battery drain issue. I upgraded to a 160GB Classic which had a bad HD which I swapped for another 160GB. In all cases I allowed iTunes to upgrade the firmware to 1.0.2.. I've decided to keep mine and have noted that sometimes its dead and sometimes it is alive, and it seems that advice to make sure the iPod is not playing or paused when shut off is the hot tip.

I had a 1st gen iPod until I purchased a Classic, and I have to say I am stunned at the lack of information Apple has provided on this issue. I think Apple has become very arrogant and complacent in regards to customer relations. They should have 'fessed up to the FW glitch and posted a temporary work around until the next version is released.

This battery drain problem is really frustrating, my four week old 80gb Classic is my first venture into the ipod and I am seriously regreting my purchase and contemplating returning it never to purchase one again. You get no help from Apple at all, you would think that with the amount of BAD publicity that the Classic is receiving they would be doing their upmost to resolve the problem, but they do not seem to respond to anyone. Come on Apple you will have had enough complaints now to know that there is something wrong with either the Classic or the software.
Please let us know what is happening, surely this is the decent thing to do to keep your customers in the know or do we all just not count anymore.

yes, the battery dain just broke my morning, as i was completely sure i turned it off when i went to sleep, and this morning i found it empty, as it never occured before. after 30 minutes to go by bike to school, it ruined my bikeride of 50 minutes without music and makes you pay attention how long the trip actually takes:'(

I have the same trouble with my 2weeks old 80GB classic. Battery drains overnight. I use Sennheiser in-ear ear plugs, and I can notice that there is noise in the ear plugs even though the Classic has been turned off (with the play/pause at least). Perhaps this is caused by a spinning hard drive. I do not know. Peculiar that Apple seems to lay low with this problem, which seems as a major bug...

When you put the back of your ipod to your ear you can also hear the harddisk spinning.

I have a 160 GB classic and since a few weeks also the Red 8GB new nano. I find it very remarkable that the nano does not have this problem. So is it software related????

Ries_ wrote:
When you put the back of your ipod to your ear you can also hear the harddisk spinning.

I have a 160 GB classic and since a few weeks also the Red 8GB new nano. I find it very remarkable that the nano does not have this problem.

I would find it remarkable if it did given the nano has flash memory and not a hard drive.