4th Gen iPod Users - are we all having the same problem?

Apparently we all have it, but this is nothing to what I had to go through:
I bought my first ipod in December 2004. It worked well, was formatted for Mac. Then, after about 1/2 year, it froze up, I got the sad Apple logo, tried everthing, no dice, and sent it in for repair under warranty.
The replacement I got seemed to work at first, but when I connected it to my PMG5, it froze up and died instantly.
So I phoned again and got another replacement.
That one lasted for about 3 months, then died. I send it in, and got it back working, with the message that "no problems were found".
Three months later, it died again. This time, I was out of warranty, but Apple sent me another one anyway. That was nice.
This one has now died on me as well.
The symptoms are always the same: It freezes, I reset it, the harddisk tries to spin up, and almost immediately stops again with a click. When I restore it, it works again, but as soon as I start syncing it with iTunes, it starts to slow down, then dies.

I'm not into conspiracy theories much, but to me this sounds like Apple has been sending me rotten refurbs they couldn't sell, knowing that my warranty is running out and they can walk away from it painlessly.

Some users may blame that this is a faulty design of an iPod, but I disagree with it. However, I suggest you to take a careful read of the following

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=61937

Some users may blame that this is a faulty design of
an iPod, but I disagree with it. However, I suggest
you to take a careful read of the following

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=61937

I can see the usefulness of this article if the iPod doesn't appear on the computer, but I fail to see what this has to do with obvious harddrive crashes.

The reason of causing the sad iPod is still have not clear yet. It can be caused by a corrupted or bad system files, unmatched version of iTunes and iPod updater, faulty cables or USB hubs etc. Imagine when you are updating your iPod with your iTunes, doing an update version of latest version of iPod updater, an unstable signal transmitting may stop the head of the HD of the iPod and stuck at a certain position, which will causes the bad sector on the HD. Therefore I suggest you to read the article and try to find something which may cause the problem. I have more than 10 iPod (included friends and family members), only 1 60G iPod Photo had the sad iPod icon. In case you want to solve this problem have a read of the following

The Sad iPods icon, clicking sound or folder with an exclamation mark are the toughest problems to deal with, and must do a Restore in order to fix it. However, when your iPod is showing this icon, it is probably too late for your computer to recognize the iPod.

1. Try these five steps (known as the five Rs) and it would conquer most iPod issues.
http://www.apple.com/support/ipod/five_rs/

2. Try to put the iPod into Disk Mode if it fails to appear on the desktop
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=93651

Still can't see your iPod?

Several things could keep iPod from appearing in iTunes or in the Desktop/Finder when you connect it to your PC/Mac. The most likely causes are listed below in logical order. Check from the top of the list to see if that is what's keeping iPod from appearing.

3. Try to wait 30 minutes while iPod is charging.

4. Try another known-good FireWire or USB through Dock Connector cable.

5. Try another known-good FireWire or USB port on your computer .

6. Try to disconnect all devices from your computer's FireWire and USB ports.

7. Windows users having trouble with their iPods should locate a Mac user. We've found that in many cases when an iPod won't show up on a PC that it will show up on the Mac. Then it can be restored. When the PC user returns to his computer the iPod will be recognized by the PC, reformatted for the PC, and usable again. By the way, it works in reverse too. A Mac user often can get his iPod back by connecting it to a PC and restoring it.
There are also some cases being reported that some unrecognized iPod being able to be erased with Linux, then reconnect the iPod with the original computer and do a Restore there.


8. Try to do an Erase (Disk Utility) on a Mac computer or a format with a PC (Disk Management tool) but ensure you choose the right Drive (your iPod not your Hard Disk of your computer). You may need to plug and unplug your iPod with the computer for several attempts, and switching around Format and Restore, and hope out of sudden, it will get recognized.

9. Diagnostic mode solution – which I copied from a thread of a post from thinktwice
“Then I cam across this special Diganostics Mode that you can get to by resetting and then while the Apple is showing pressing the Select and backwards keys simultaneously. It bring up and weird Diagnostic utility witha a abunch of tests. Here is what I did
- I tried the 5in1 test and got and error on Firewire.
- I did the HDD R/W and surprisingly it passed.
- I went on to the HDD scan. This supposedly tkaes acouple of minute so I waited. I think 4-5 dots appeared then nothing. The iPod started to get hot. THe disk was spinning away. After a while the battery got very low. THis test chews up the battery. So I escaped out by resetting and went to connect it to a power source.

My USB was dangling out of my computer and I was too lazy to get the Firewire AC adapter thing going so I connected expecting the whole lockup thing with iTunes. Surprise. IT was recognized immediately and has been working like a champ. So go figure.


Details on Diag mode can be found at http://www.methodshop.com/mp3/ipodsupport/diagnosticmode/index.shtml



10. Let me ask you a question, if an iPod with no iPod software with it. When your connect it with a computer, what would happen?
Yeah, the computer will treat it as a fresh external hard disk, which will get force mounted, the computer will ask you to format the iPod. It does not really matter the format is completed or not, the key is to erase (or partly) the corrupted iPod software on the iPod, after that the computer will recognize it.
Once it has been completed, eject your iPod, open the iPod updater and interestingly, you will able to do the Restore this time.
Base on the above, that's why I suggest Windows users who experience trouble with their iPods should locate a Mac machine or vice versa. PC computer will not recognize a Mac formatted iPod, but it will get mounted in an attempt to format your iPod.

11. Put your iPod in disk mode and plug with a computer, and have a boot of your computer using the Mac OS or XP startup disks, hope that your iPod will be seen on Mac's Disk utility and allow you to do a Erase there. Or, under the XP, you will be able to find your iPod there for you to do a Restore.


But, if none of these steps address the issue, your iPod may need to be repaired. You can arrange for service at the iPod Service Website.

I have just read an interesting solution about the Sad iPod, it does make sense but the warranty will be waived once you open the iPod, I would not do it myself as I am not good on doing this

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=412033&tstart=0

Pictures and instructions of how to open the iPod case for battery replacement

http://www.kokopellimusic.us/KM_instructions.htm

Raleigh or anyone:

Has there been a solution to this found yet? My 4th gen IPod started acting exactly like yours did yesterday - now its a doorstop.

I've gone through all of the usual help steps - restored it numerous times, reinstalled ipod updater and itunes, but it continues to freeze.

I'm going to try to zero out the partition in disk utility, but that caused it to freeze yesterday.

Have you found if this is a hardware or software issue yet?

-brad

Hello BradH

Please try the following

1. Find a window base PC with iPod updater pre-installed, plug your iPod with it
2. Open the iPod update and click Restore
3. Does not matter whether the Restore is successfully done or not
4. Wait for a few minutes, eject your iPod
5. Plug it back with your Mac, your Mac will treat it as a fresh external HD
6. Open the disk utility, go to Tab "ERASE" and click Erase with security option of zero out data, which will take around 1-2 hours
7. Once it has been done, open the iPod updater and click Restore

Ok, I zeroed the entire Ipod using Disk Utility and it is now (sorta) up and running.

The Ipod is now randomly skipping songs - which it ALSO did before this situation, but is now doing it much more excessively.

I think this must be a firmware problem - when you regress to earlier IpodUpdates it does NOT replace your ipod software (firmware) if you have the latest version (3.1.1) - is there anyway to flash the old firmware? That seems to be the only common variable, and there are WAY too many people with this issue for it to actually be a hardware problem, in my opinion.

Does anyone have any thoughts?

I'm having a similiar problem with my 4th generation ipod. It started to skip songs a couple of months ago. I restored my ipod and it started to work again. A few weeks ago it started to skip songs again. I decided to update my ipod with the new update, but kept getting error messages. I tried to fix the problem by using the 5 r's but then my computer stopped recognizing my ipod. It is kinda hard to restore if the computer doesn't recognize it. My ipod was showing the do not disconnect sign, but the computer wasn't recognizing it, so I couldn't eject it. I finally just left it and it eventually told me it was okay to disconnect. When I turned it back on the sad ipod face was there, followed by the folder with exclamation point. Then the apple sign apeared and the ipod started to continually turn itself on and off while making a high pitched noise. Now I can't play any of my songs. Anyone got any suggestions?



HP Windows XP

HP Windows XP

Thanks for your explanation, very usefull suggestions!
I tried to restore my ipod with girlfriends mac, with her cables, so to rule out any component of my own mac completely. I worked like a charm, until I tried to fill it with all mp3's from her library. All went well until about 5 gig of music was on it, then it froze.
I'm going to try completely erase and repartition and reformat the HDD of my ipod, to see if it's just a bad block or cluster on it.
If all that doesn't work, I will have a very serous talk with Apple to have them explain to me how they manage to send me 5 faulty ipods and how I can justify spending more money in their hardware.

To all of you who experience huge problems after updating, have a look at my thread where I explain how I could fully recover the iPod after messy 2006-03-23 update
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=453931&tstart=45
It's likely to be successful if:
- your HD does not make any abnormal noise
- you succeed to pass the HD check-up in disk utility after a quick erase
- you thereafter erase zeroying out data
- you restore using the previous software version 2006-01-10 NOT 2006-03-23
I truly thought my iPod was lost for good and believe me I now have my 20Go back on it and it works 100%
This is just what I wish you to enjoy asap
Cheers

PowerBook G4 Mac OS X (10.4.6) iPod 40G 4th gen

Yesterday I tried everything. I reformatted and repartitioned my ipod, reinstalled the ipod updater and itunes. I then restored my ipod with another mac and tried to fill it with that mac. It stalled after 800 mp3s. Then I tried all that again, and tried to fill it with my own mac. It started out well, until after 1800 mp3s. Then it stalled, and I couldn't remove my ipod. iTunes froze, Finder froze.
This is the 5th time my ipod broke in 15 months, and I've had it. I'm going to have a very, very angry phonecall with Apple today, and if they can't come with something really good, my Powermac will be for sale at ebay soon. [angry smiley]

Hello Gerwin,

Allow me to ask you a question, did you format (Erase) your iPod with the security option of ZERO OUT DATA?

No, I admit I did not do that. Will try tonight before phonecall. Will be the last thing I try though. I want to save my ipod, but I didn't buy Apple stuff to tinker with it this way. Feels like windows again 🙂 Anyway, thanks.

I resuscitated my iPod after zeroing ou data as Mitch suggests so I really recommand you do it (make sure your iPod passes the check-up in the SOS panel before and after zeroing) and don't use the last software update to restore

My ipod is definitely dead. And I'm definitely furious! Goodbye!