Bricked ipod Touch?

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Level 1

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Bricked ipod Touch?

First things first. I just purchased an ipod Touch 2G 32GB (Firmware 2.2 - out of the box). Bought it 6 days ago. All in all I have loved it. Everything on it workes great and it is a joy to play with. Fast forward 5 days later (last night). I plug the unit into my system and it states that my data is corrupt and that I need to restore. Not a big deal, I am a PC user and I am used to things getting corrupt...;). I plug the thing in, hit restore in iTunes (v8.0.2.20) and walk away. Come back and nothing. No errors, no messages. Just iTunes and a ipod which is off. When I say off I mean off. No backlight, no Slide to proceed, nothing. Ok, once again I am used to these things. I go to the support page. Hmmm, not much about an ipod that does nothing following a restore (Note: iTunes does not even see my ipod anymore. Windows tells me an "Unrecognized Device" is attached). Ok, I find a reference to pressing the Home button for 6 sec to unfreeze an app. Sure, I'm game. I even give it 30 seconds. Nothing. Ok, how about a reset (Power+Home). Give it another 30 seconds. Nothing. Bricked.

Ok, at this point it's after midnight. No one at apple support (after hours). Well I'll call back in the morning. Call this morning and all I get is an automated service (The robot apparently wasn't accepting calls last night?). Now I must say at this point I am a bit frustrated (I am a PC geek - been building/breaking/fixing PCs 10+ years) and my first Apple experence isn't going to well. I must say I don't appreacited being treated like an idiot by a machine (Automated voice: Did you plug it in? -Duh-). After all is said and done (and 5+ minutes of my life wasted) the machine doesn't offer a real person, what does it offer....a box. A box so that I can send it to Apple.

Now, I have 2 problems with this:
1) I don't even know what happened to my ipod and they want me to return it and hope that this doesn't happen again?
2) The unit is 6 days old, can we say return? ----> Let's go back to Best Buy.

Ok so I exchange the unit this morning at Best Buy. Get home, boot it up, plug it in (See above reference to the Automated Voice), and note that this unit has Firmware 2.1.1. Ok, before I re-sync my unit let's get this bad boy up to Firmware 2.2. Before I do anything I unplug every USB device except my keyboard and mouse (kinda need those). Go to iTunes, shut down every other program, and hit "Update". Tick, tock....Update running. Bam! "We sorry, an error occured in the update process. You need to Restore". Oh boy, that's what got me into this mess to begin with. Well, I see no other choice. I move the USB connection from the front of my computer to the USB ports directly attached to the motherboard on the back (Now granted the ones on the front are also "directly" connected, but at this point I just wanted this thing to work), click restore, and say my prayers. Everything looks good. Process goes all the way through and them "Error (9)". What?!? Bricked! What's error (9). I can't find any reference and I still don't know what I did wrong.

Well, I returned the ipod to Best Buy and I have called it quits for now. I really liked it and would buy another in a heart beat if I knew that I could fix the thing if it breaks. If anyone knows what happened, please let me know so that I can either avoid future bricks if I buy another ipod.

Also, a word to Apple. I know that Apple prides themselves in creating solid products which "work", but let's face it when your product fails, it FAILS. There is no middle ground, and I an not the only person in this boat. Standing in the return line I spoke with a woman who had to return her ipod touch 1 month after buying it and she told me her boyfriend's unit failed after 5 months. Please don't misunderstand me. I am not PC-Centeric (It's just what I know), PC's are as much a pain between all of the incompatable products, but at least I know that I can eventually get it to work...

Once again, I will state, I still LOVE the product, I still want the ipod touch, but I want one that I know that I won't brick...

ipod Touch 2G 32GB, Other OS

Posted on Dec 21, 2008 8:13 PM

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Answer 1

F Shippey

Level 7

21,500 points

Dec 21, 2008 8:27 PM in response to Dr. Shadow

When 2 'out of the box' touches won't work with your computer system, I suspect I see a pattern: your computer system.

You need to go to an Apple Store in Toledo and talk to them. It doesn't sound like Best Buy really is able to offer you any technical support.

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Answer 2

Dec 21, 2008 8:40 PM in response to F Shippey

F Shippey wrote:
When 2 'out of the box' touches won't work with your computer system, I suspect I see a pattern: your computer system.

. . . including the cables/ports.

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Answer 3

Dr. Shadow Author

Level 1

0 points

Dec 21, 2008 10:00 PM in response to F Shippey

Perhaps it is my computer, but if that is the case I am not sure I am willing to buy another computer just to get the touch to work. Also, it's not that they did not work. Out of the box they connected and worked/synced fine. It was when I tried to update the firmware/restore the ipod that they broke. For 5 days my computer and the first ipod worked great. I had loaded ~2650 songs, installed ~10 apps without any problems. In fact I was using iTunes to update all of my album art to high res images (500x500). It wasn't until the iTunes told me that the first one had bad data and needed a Restore (of note I had just installed Black RSS Reader and The Complete Works of Shakespere prior to the data corruption). Following the Restore it "bricked". The second one connected fine, registered fine, worked great in iTunes (it even wanted to re-sync all of my old data), but as soon as I tired to update the firmware to 2.2 it went to pieces. The firmware failed on install and iTunes told me that because of the failed install I needed to restore. That is when I got Error (9).

An an aside, my computer is as follows (Custom Build):

Core2 Duo e8400
Gigabyte GA-X38-DQ6 Mainboard
4GB Corsair DDR2 Memory
Nvidia GeForce 8800GT 512MB
3 Seagate HD SATA2 (1 Main - 320GB , 2 Raid 500GB X 2)
Vista Business SP1

Antivirus/Anti-Spam running -> Clean system, currently no virus detected.

The main question I have is why did two ipods "brick". Granted I know that this is a tough question to answer. Perhaps a better question is how to fix them without having to send them back to Apple? I tried to hold the power/home for a re-boot without sucess. Is there a "service mode"? Is there other software to restore an ipod? I couldn't find anything like this.

Granted I do have alternate computers (A server and 3 laptops), but one of the computers (My wife's laptop) I am sure is riddled with crap (she surfs and downloads with no regard). One laptop is a business laptop. The third is clean, but my music is on my raid. Granted I could try to "maintain" the ipod on that laptop and "load" the ipod on my desktop, but that doesn't seem right. My desktop I keep very clean. I typically use it just for gaming. I install most programs on the server to make sure that they run ok prior to installing them on my main computer. I typically re-format my computer(s) every 3-6 months (I know, I am a bit anal rententive). I guess I have a hard time accepting that my computer "can't" be compatable with the ipod. It's not like I have components from companies no one has ever heard of. I will look into a local Apple store, but I am not sure that's the answer I am looking for...it still seems to me a problem with the firmware/restore process, not my computer...

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Answer 4

Stormsys

Level 1

0 points

Dec 28, 2008 10:06 AM in response to Dr. Shadow

:/ your not alone... Exactly the same situation. i crashed on the music app at an airport. got home restored = bricked. goto store wait 2 hours to get a replacment, guy says go home update it to 2.2 so what i do? go home and update... error either (9) like above or (8) ipod once again bricked.... booked appointment for tomorrow to see why the **** this is happening.

Windows Vista Home Premium SP1
Alienware
AMD Athlon X2 Dual core 4600+ 2.6Ghz
2GB DDR2 800Mhz Ram
250GB HDD
Latest iTunes.

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Answer 5

Dec 31, 2008 7:45 AM in response to Dr. Shadow

It is possible to you are perma DFU'd. Try holding the home & the power button for 10 seconds, then let go of the power button but keep holding the home button for 30 seconds. It should go into force DFU mode allowing you to plug it into the computer and have itunes recognize it. (Do this while unplugged.) once you finish holding the home button for 30 seconds plug it in. DFU MODE WILL FORCE YOU TO DELETE EVERYTHING.

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Answer 6

Dr. Shadow Author

Level 1

0 points

Jan 6, 2009 7:35 PM in response to Triselleyxx

Sorry, I have to admit that I am not fimilar with the term "perma DFU'd" (Mac Term?). I am fimilar with the Linux term => "Data File Utility". I assume that we are talking about the same thing. Anyway, as mentioned I returned the second unit along with all of my accessories. However, I really do love the ipod touch, so I went back and bought my third. I still love it, but it is buggy as ****. The third unit I got had an issue with the battery (draining while off overnight). I installed iTunes on a old Gateway laptop I have around and restored. This time it worked. I apprecited the recomendation regarding how to enter into DFU mode (I did find reference to this after I returned the second unit, but it is poorly documented on Apple's webside). Since picking up my third unit I have had to restore it twice. Once for the battery issue (fixed with restore), the second when the unit was unable to read any of my music (it was on the unit - reported as 20GB of file space used, but 0 songs). Both times I was able to restore using my laptop. Clearly the unit is incompatable with my desktop, but I have found a work around. Once again, thanks for the info regarding DFU, I am sure that I will need it in the future...;)

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Answer 7

Jan 6, 2009 9:26 PM in response to Dr. Shadow

Device Firmware Upgrade

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1808

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