Can't play songs on iPod 80Gb Classic.

I got the replacement on Saturday. Same problem. The whole range must be lemons. I'm going to do battle today and will report back on the results. Bought 28 December and have not had one day's use from either the original item or its replacement. Thanks Apple.....

Changed back to unanswered as my problem is not yet solved. Let it be in Apple's face!

Latest episode on thie epic farce. Have now taken back my THIRD ipod with the same problem. The people at the shop say all they can do is send it back and that another wil be returned. No diagnosis, no nothing. If I want to demand any other action, I have to do it via customer relations. I'd prefer to tell them to put it where the sun don't shine and get a Zen, but when I purchased this lemon I also bought a Tune Stick and various other accessories, so I realy need one that works. Afraid this is my first and last foray into the Apple world. Let's hope this 4th item produces the goods.

Any one else here suffer similar problems?

I now have my fourth iPod. After many visits to the Apple centre and speaking to people with varying levels of competence, I finally have to admit that the problem is at my end, not theirs. I got a tech that knew what he was doing, who did a software restore on the iPod using and WinXP machine and iTunes. They put a song on the iPod and I heard it playing. Went home and synched my iPod using Winamp. No songs would play, but the one they put on still did.

I went into Windows Explorer and looked at the directory structure. Under iPod_Control, there are 50 folders labelled F00 to F49. The song they put on has the file name SIFX.m4a, in folder F48. The songs that Winamp put on are in folders F00 to F19 and are named ml_pmp00111.M4A (note the capitals). The numbers advance sequentially in each folder, rather in a single folder, if my meaning is clear. Does anyone know if this could be part of my problem??

Just got his on the Winamp tech support forums, at

http://forums.winamp.com/showthread.php?s=&postid=2315117#post2315117

"sorry to be the bringer of sad news

after doing lots of research, ive discovered that IPOD classics are not compatible with any other mp3 software than itunes.

using winamp or anapod just mashes up the database files on the ipod itself, and prevents u from being able to access the files except thru a computer

(if you dont believe me google 'ipod classic 3rd party software' )

the only way to reverse this is to restore the ipod using itunes

it ***

i only bought an ipod cos they are the only music player that holds more than 30gb and doesnt have a big stupid screen. i'm not inot watching videos on the move cos my eyes are already mashed up enough without go0ing more short sighted peering at a small screen.

i just want a player to hold my entire music collection when i'm travelling.

but i have faith that someone will reverse engineer the database files and give us the ability to use ipod classic with 3rd party software

its so stupid cos itunes wont even run on my main computer!!!! so i'm running it off a laptop with an external drive. this is a common problem - u try to start itunes, the hourglass symbol shows, then nothing happens.

what can i say. itunes ***. i never liked it."

Can anyone verify/dispute this?

One very unhappy Apple customer....