First have a look at the Apple Support site for your iPod version, here is the link: http://www.apple.com/support/ipodtouch/assistant/ Choose the appropriate link according to your iPod model and follow their instructions, if that does not work google the web using your problem explanation above and someone might have a solution that will work for you. Fixing this kind of issue is not that straighforward as the problem can be from many possible sources and isolating it could become quite a task. The most common problem assuming you have no hardware issues would be that that firmware that was originally copied onto the iPod could have become currupted, usually by connecting to iTunes in Windows or Mac would allow you to restore your iPod so that it can boot from it and show you the usual welcome screen.
Good luck.