Q: iPod Classic

T1blade wrote:

 

According to what I read so far I’m pretty sure my drive is dead but I thought

it will be interesting to show how screwed my numbers are.

This iPod Classic 80GB is seven years old.

Check this out!

Well that certainly isn't a healthy state of affairs!

tt2

Hi TT2,

I am looking for some help with my Ipod classic video 5th gen, hope you can assist!

Its a 2005 model and has given no problems until recently. It started not going past the black apple logo or coming up with the sad ipod instead so I restored the ipod which seems to have solved most issues. It occasionally comes up with the sad ipod but resetting it solves that.

Everthing works/syncs fine but when you select a song to play it takes a good 20/30 seconds to begin! the Ipod freezes until you hear the hard drive start spinning then it works fine, even when playing other songs. If you leave it a while then select another song the same thing happens! It will also freeze during playing songs for 30 seconds. Maybe longer.

I did the test for the hard drive:

Retracts: 25

Reallocs: 0

Pending sectors: 0

Power on hours: 64

Start/Stops: 15060

Temp current: 22c

Min: 245c

Max: 62c

The results don't look too bad really.

Do you think the hard drive is at fault or could it be something else?

I am not too concerned about replacing the hard drive but I don't want to if the logic board or something else is at fault?

Is there any way to test the Logic board?

Any help you can provide is much appreciated! Thanks.

That min temperature doesn't make a lot of sense, and the max is higher than it ought to be, but it sounds like the drive is having a hard time spinning up and reading data once it has stopped and then has to restart for the next track. I would suspect hard drive over any other component as it has moving parts and is more likely to wear out. I don't know what you could do to determine the cause with certainty. I'd try replacing the drive if you can find one at a reasonable price that you won't mind losing if you still cannot get it to work properly.

tt2

The min is a bit odd yes... What temperature should the drive not be exceeding as a maximum? I think I'll try a new drive for now and see anyway.

Thanks again!

My recollection is a safe operating range from 0°C to 50°C.

tt2

Howdy there,

I am having trouble with a second hand 160GB iPod classic I have bought recently (very good condition, not showing any damages, light usual scratches on the back, mint screen due to use of case). For the first few days it worked perfectly, after having synchronized my 8900+ songs via iTunes 12.0.1.26. However, things got bad since few days. I couldn't get the iPod to start as usual, by touching Play, Menu, or any other button; it could only be switched on by a Hard Reset (Menu+Select), but otherwise worked fine, including when plugged in iTunes.

Then things got more complicated:

1. The iPod would not start at all, even with Hard Reset. When I plugged into iTunes, it said that it could not recognize the iPod. Eventually I had to do a Recovery via iTunes, then synchronize again the 8900+ songs.

2. The next day however, it was impossible again to have it start again. I had apparently entered a Recovery Loop: after a first Recovery, iTunes asked me to do another one, etc. I somehow managed to exit the loop, but had the same issue again (i.e. not starting even with Hard Reset), although I had started to fraction synchronization (i.e. going 300 songs by 300 songs). Scan via Disk Utility indicated no error, nothing to repair. I had changed the name.

3. Eventually, yesterday, I have chosen to reformat the iPod via Disk Utility, with a zero-out single pass which has taken 9 hours. This morning, I performed a scan via Disk Utility, all fine. I have changed the name again. Then I started to fraction-synchronize the iPod up until 1500+ songs. However, when I returned a few hours later, the iPod would not start again, only in Hard Reset. Then it is recognized by iTunes, and I can still transfer songs.

4. So I have decided to run a S.M.A.R.T. diagnosis, and the numbers I go by seem perfectly normal given what I have read here:

Retracts: 174

Reallocs: 1

Pending sectors: 0

PowerOn Hours: 142

Start/Stops: 52

Temp: Current 23c

Temp: Min 11c

Temp: Max 52c

So I am beginning to be a bit lost… Even if the iPod starts only in Hard Reset mode (i.e. it will not switch on when pressing any keys such as Play, Menu, Hold on/off, etc.), it is not a convenient process, and I am not sure the HD will always like so many reboots. What is even weirder is that if I eject the iPod now, it will perfectly play songs, and also be switched off and on (as usual). But a few hours later, it is likely to only be switched on again through a Hard Reset.

Any ideas, suggestions, etc. ? Thanks a lot

TL; DR: 160GB iPod Classic can only be switched on via Hard Reset (Menu+Select) although SMART data seems OK and works fine with iTunes once rebooted, already tried name change twice + zero-out format via Disk Utility.

160GB iPod Classic / Mac OS X Yosemite 10.10 / iTunes 12.0.1.26.

The stats look fine. There could be some other hardware issue, relating to the standby circuit that is supposed to wake the device up out of sleep. Do you have earbuds with the volume control? If so does pressing the centre switch wake up the iPod? Not a problem I've run into before so I don't have anything to suggest.

tt2

Thanks for your quick reply. The stats looked fine to me too. I have a pair of iPhone headphones back at home that I can try.

I am puzzled too, as the issue I am having is not exactly reported as such in the forum (I have browsed Apple Support for 3+ hours), but rather a mix of different things. But as you confirmed, HD seems fine (which would corroborate its normal functioning when playing music as of right now, and also when plugged into iTunes).

However, reading your suggestion on the standby circuit, I doubt so because the switch has worked fine just after a Recovery, and as of now. But I am pretty sure that if I manually switch off the iPod tonight (i.e. through switchoff command in the menu, or pressing Play), tomorrow it will only be switched on through Hard Reset. Maybe I should let it go to sleep by its own, i.e. leaving it on Pause…

I don't have a classic these days, but I would rarely do anything other than pause it.

tt2

I bought my iPod in 2006.  It says on the back that it's a model A1137.  (I think that's right -- I needed a magnifying glass to read it.)  It has 1G of memory.  That's right.  One.  Unique.  Singular.  Lonely. 1G.  Must be a generation -8 or -13 or something, right?    The About claims its capacity is actually only 895M.  Is that right?  Over 100M of system overhead to manage 895M?  Seems a bit inefficient.  Anyway . . .

This thing has always worked perfectly.  Today, the battery ran down to 0.  Never had a problem with that in the past.  I went to plug it in to charge it and I noticed that there was something in the display window.  It was really hard to read because there was no backlight, there being no juice left in the battery.  I'm surprised I even noticed.  I had to tilt it just so to get the right lighting to fall on it & the magnifying glass was needed again.  I discovered it was in Disk Mode.  Say wot?  Never in all these years seen that before.  No amount of button pushing made it do anything at all.  So I shrugged my shoulders & thought oh it will go away once the battery gets a few sips.  And that would be from a USB charger, not from plugging the iPod into my computer.

Wrong.  After charging for a while, I could see (barely) a little battery level indicator in the upper right corner of the display & it seemed like it had some charge.  But all my button pushing accomplished squat.  So I thought let's see what iTunes has to say about this.  So I unplugged the iPod from the charger & plugged it into a USB port on the PC.  Then I launched iTunes.  Recognized the iPod.  OK.  Encouraging.  Played bits of 3 or 4 tracks off the iPod.  No problem.  Great.  Did the Eject routine, closed iTunes, unplugged the iPod from the PC.  Still in Disk Mode.  Well how am I ever going to listen to my tunes next time I go to the gym?

So I plugged it back into the charger & started the Google hunt.  Landed here.  Fascinating thread.  Impressive service from our pal TT2.  I salute you!  So I learned that there's a magic two-button spell I have to cast to get out of Disk Mode.  So I'm sitting here with my thumbs on the 2 buttons for like a minute, and there is nothing happening with the iPod.  What the . . . ?  For reasons I can't fathom, I decided to unplug the iPod from the charger.  That was the missing part of the magic spell.  My contribution to posterity: unplug the iPod from power, either a charger or a computer.

So now I'm seeing stuff in the iPod screen.  And it's backlit, so I can actually see it easily.  Merci beaucoup.  And what I'm seeing is NOTHING like anything you guys have been talking about for the past . . . what is it? . . . two years now?  Retracts?  Reallocs?  Pending sectors?  None of that here.  I do get this really retro DOS-looking diagnostic menu.  I ran through all the tests & the thing seems to be, to quote everybody's favorite android, Data, functioning within normal parameters.  My second contribution to posterity: there is another version of the diagnostics and they don't list any of the data items you all have been posting for the last 2 years.

At the bottom of the diagnostics there's an entry that says Reset and thank goodness, that puts the iPod back into standard music playing mode.  And thank goodness again, all my music is there, undisturbed.  But how and why did it go into Disk Mode in the first place?  Maybe I accidentally fat-fingered the magic spell without realizing there was even a magic spell to fat-finger.  I'm sure going to be careful from now on.

Well that's all.  I just wanted to thank you for telling me about the magic spell & in return, recount my own insignificant saga.

Thanks, I hope it continues to give you loyal service.

I'm fairly sure the options and menus I've mentioned are valid from 5th Gen. onwards. I haven't had much call to seek out those for older models.

tt2

Help!

Ipod Classic readings

Retracts: 822
Reallocs: 2632
Pending Sectors: 56
PowerOn Hours: 860
Start/Stops: 12341
Temp: Current 30c
Temp: Min 60c
Temp: Max 241c

When I connect the ipod to my macbook pro (late 2011, running current 12.1 itunes) it does not show up it iTunes, but it does show up in finder as a hard drive.

on the ipod, it says it has 0kb of 0kb available, but on my macbook in finder, it says it's a 120gb hard drive.  Is it time to replace the hard drive, or is there a way to fix this?

I suspect the hard drive has had it, but you could try the DFU restore steps from Corrupt iPod classic to see if you can clear those pending sectors and then the break up large transfers method to put things back on.

tt2

It worked. Thank you. It's been driving me crazy since I downloaded the new itunes. You are a man amongst children.

Glad to hear you've got things working again.

tt2