My ipod is broke-- shows apple sign then turns off

well if thats happening, then chances are that your hard drive has crashed or the cable connected to your hard drive is loose. if ur a technical person pry open you ipod and unconnect the cable and reconnect it. if ur not a technical person, find some one who is.

Welcome to Apple Discussions.

You may want to check out Apple knowledge base article:

iPod touch: Hardware troubleshooting

http://support.apple.com/kb/TS2771#whitescreen

this happened to me as well. last night i was listening to music, fell asleep and it was still on. when i woke up my ipod was turned off, turning it on showed the apple sign for a couple of seconds and then turned off. i tried syncing it but it will not regocnize. plz help me too

Welcome to the discussions,
if your ipod battery has run down, charge your device at least 10-15min using the adapter before you connect again to your computer or try to switch it on. It will not start up if the battery is empty.
You even have to connect in recovery mode: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1808

Welcome to the discussions,
charge it using the adapter for at least 10-15min, then connect in recovery mode: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1808

Plug it in your computer , it should naturally turn on but before pluging it in hold the home button and keep it held throu the apple logo, you should get the atciveta immage (iTunes+USB cable)
If when plugging it in it doesn't turn on on it's own, then turn it on manually but don't forget to hold the home button just after !
(and it could help to do as told just before ; charge 10-15 minutes before , so that it has the juice to turn on)