iPod click wheel + buttons not working
I purchased a 16GB iPod nano (5th Generation) just over a year ago, and it has worked without fault up until now. I’ve been looking for help for this for a week now, and haven’t had any luck. I’d like to see what other people think before I contact Apple, however.
Last week, when I went to turn the device on by switching the hold switch to off, the screen lit up, but the click wheel and buttons were totally unresponsive. The device is not frozen, as the clock at the top of the screen changes over time and the backlight turns itself off after its set time.
The hold switch works fine (I can see the little padlock icon change at the top of the screen) and when I connected a pair of Apple earbuds (with the play/pause/volume control) I could play, pause, skip and adjust the volume via those with no problems. The device is behaving exactly as it would in normal conditions, except I can not scroll, play etc. using the click wheel and buttons.
Furthermore, I can reset the iPod when it is in this state using the menu/centre button procedure, but this does nothing to fix the problem. The device loads up again, but again I can not scroll/press buttons. The device also does not go into Diagnostic Mode and Disk Mode when it is in this state.
I tried the 5 Rs, as described on your website. Eventually, I had to Restore the iPod through iTunes. After syncing everything across again, the iPod worked as normal. I could scroll and play/pause exactly as before. I could even go into Diagnostic Mode and run a test on the click wheel and buttons, which the device passed. This suggests to me that the problem is software based and not hardware based, since the click wheel/buttons work perfectly after a Restore.
However, the problem persists. After being switched off for a long period of time (usually overnight), when the iPod is turned on again, it locks up exactly as before. What this means is that every morning, the iPod has to be Restored (and subsequently, all its content has to be synced across again) in order for it to work again.
As I have owned it for just over a year, the warranty is not likely to still be in effect, and it is not an option for me to simply purchase another iPod. I get the feeling that this is a software issue that could probably be solved quite easily if software updates continued to be supplied for recent obsolete generations. Any advice as to what to do next?
Last week, when I went to turn the device on by switching the hold switch to off, the screen lit up, but the click wheel and buttons were totally unresponsive. The device is not frozen, as the clock at the top of the screen changes over time and the backlight turns itself off after its set time.
The hold switch works fine (I can see the little padlock icon change at the top of the screen) and when I connected a pair of Apple earbuds (with the play/pause/volume control) I could play, pause, skip and adjust the volume via those with no problems. The device is behaving exactly as it would in normal conditions, except I can not scroll, play etc. using the click wheel and buttons.
Furthermore, I can reset the iPod when it is in this state using the menu/centre button procedure, but this does nothing to fix the problem. The device loads up again, but again I can not scroll/press buttons. The device also does not go into Diagnostic Mode and Disk Mode when it is in this state.
I tried the 5 Rs, as described on your website. Eventually, I had to Restore the iPod through iTunes. After syncing everything across again, the iPod worked as normal. I could scroll and play/pause exactly as before. I could even go into Diagnostic Mode and run a test on the click wheel and buttons, which the device passed. This suggests to me that the problem is software based and not hardware based, since the click wheel/buttons work perfectly after a Restore.
However, the problem persists. After being switched off for a long period of time (usually overnight), when the iPod is turned on again, it locks up exactly as before. What this means is that every morning, the iPod has to be Restored (and subsequently, all its content has to be synced across again) in order for it to work again.
As I have owned it for just over a year, the warranty is not likely to still be in effect, and it is not an option for me to simply purchase another iPod. I get the feeling that this is a software issue that could probably be solved quite easily if software updates continued to be supplied for recent obsolete generations. Any advice as to what to do next?
Mac OS X (10.6.5)
