iPod touch 4th gen (restore problem, unknown error 9)

So I was using an app on my iPod touch, but then suddenly the screen froze and turned white. Then it would shut off and get to the apple logo, then slowly fade out to all white and restart. This happened continuously and I couldn't get it to stop when I pressed the home and lock buttons.

I've had this ipod for almost two months now. My last experience with my 3rd generation iPod touch, I had never come across a situation like this.

Somehow I was able to get the screen to show the iTunes logo & the iPod USB pointing at it. I assume this is what you would call going into restore mode? I cannot get out of that screen no matter what I press.

What's more disturbing is that when I inserted the USB cable from my iPod to my laptop, the info I get from iTunes shows "n/a" for the name, capacity, software version, and serial number. I have the latest iTunes installed

I tried to restore it and went through the following steps over and over again, but I keep getting the same response, "The iPod 'iPod' could not be restored because of an unknown error (9)."

- Extracting software

- Verifying iPod restore with Apple

- Preparing iPod for Restore (at this point the iPod turns off and back on for the next step, if I'm not mistaken)

Once a progress bar shows up on my iPod touch screen, a few seconds later the screen turns white (freezes) and a notice from iTunes pops up with the response that I got an error and iPod could not be restored because of unknown error 9.

I've tried this repeatedly so many times already, but I'm getting no luck on how this problem should be solved.

Should I bring this to an Apple store for their help?