4th Gen "Clickwheel" iPod: switching on again does not bring up Apple icon after drive swap

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seele2015au Author

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4th Gen "Clickwheel" iPod: switching on again does not bring up Apple icon after drive swap

I have this Clickwheel iPod I got from a family member which had been quite erratic, the hard drive was at the verge of caving in completely. After the umpteenth time I decided to put in a new drive (solid state) and it seemed to synch properly at the first attempt, but afterwards the display switched between the Apple icon and the folder icon indicating some sort of corruption inside. A few rounds of tinkering and resetting later I got it to work, but after switching off by pressing and holding the Play/Pause button, pressing it again to switch it on does not bring up the Apple icon, but straight to the screen previously displayed.

I feel quite stumped by this phenomenon and hope to rectify it completely; I do prefer this iPod for its Firewire connection that goes well with the earlier Macs which I prefer, for my line of work. Thank you.

4th Gen iPod Clickwheel-OTHER, Other OS

Posted on Apr 2, 2013 10:49 PM

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Answer 1

Apr 3, 2013 3:00 AM in response to seele2015au

I actually have a 4th gen iPod with a Compact Flash card inside. It's on an adapter that I bought on eBay. It's only 8GB, but it was a test to see if it would work reliably. And it does seem to work reliable. I also use FireWire to connect it

What are your "solid state drive" specifics? Is there actually an SSD in the 1.8-inch Toshiba "1G to 4G iPod drive" form factor?

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Answer 2

seele2015au Author

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Apr 3, 2013 6:14 AM in response to Kenichi Watanabe

Kenichi,

I went the CF route too, but after I put the original drive back into the iPod, it's still the same, the last screen displayed came right up again, so there's probably something odd happening too.

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Answer 3

Apr 3, 2013 11:31 AM in response to seele2015au

Since the hard drive was already about to fail, putting it back in may not be a good test.

There is a ribbon cable that connects the drive to the logic board. The end that connects to the logic board is covered by a thin film. In case that end of the connection became dislodged, peel back the film. On the connector, side next to battery, is a thin bar that you "flip up" to loosen the connection. Do that and pull out the connection. Visually examine the connector for corrosion and any other problems. FULLY reinsert and push down the thin bar to reconnect.

Connect your flash assembly (or the hard drive) and try it again.

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Answer 4

seele2015au Author

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Apr 4, 2013 8:40 PM in response to Kenichi Watanabe

Kenichi,

I attempted to do what you suggested, the "flip up bar" seemed not wanting to get flipped up and I did not wish to force it, but the connection appeared to be secure.

I also want to add that I disconnected power to work on the innards, but when I connected up the power and switched on again, the Apple icon appeared and then the iPod menu followed. So it seems like the iPod does not get fully switched off. Sometimes I wish everything had that CUDA switch!

By the way, there really exist SSD in that 1.8 form factor.

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Answer 5

Apr 4, 2013 8:56 PM in response to seele2015au

I hope you didn't try to move it the long way. This online guide has pictures

http://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Installing+iPod+4th+Generation+or+Photo+Hard+Drive+C able/392/1

Step 11 is what I called "flip up the bar."

I think you should disconnect it anyways. There may be some corrosion or oxidation at the points of connection. Taking it out and putting it back in will reseat the cable.

the Apple icon appeared and then the iPod menu followed.

So, it's working now. That sounds like what it's supposed to do...

I guess there are some 1.8-inch SSDs, but they seem to use the ZIF (zero insertion force) connector, so it may work in the 5th gen iPod and current iPod classic. The original MacBook Air models also used the iPod hard drive with the ZIF connector on base models.

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Answer 6

seele2015au Author

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Apr 5, 2013 12:06 AM in response to Kenichi Watanabe

Kenichi,

Thanks again for the lead, and I did the procedure as described, cleaned the contacts, reassembled, still the same.

While it works after a fashion I guess it is still not quite right:

Normally when you switch on using the Play/Pause button, the Apple icon appears as it boots up, and then the Menu appears. As it is now, this iPod goes right to how the display was when it was switched off immediately, bypassing the Apple icon altogether. But the first time I switch it on after I had the power disconnected and reconnected, the Apple icon appears, just this once. This leads me to believe that it does not get switched off completely by holding down the Play/Pause button until the display goes blank.

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Answer 7

Apr 5, 2013 12:27 AM in response to seele2015au

Well, that's actually how it's supposed to work. While you are listening to a song, if you power it off by holding the Play/Pause button, and then press a button to turn it back on, it goes back to the same song, to the exact spot where you stopped listening. If you are at the main menu screen and powered off, that's where it would "resume." The iPod is basically in "sleep" mode, like computer sleep.

If you power it off for an extended period, then it will save battery power by turning completely off. Then, when you press a button, you see the Apple logo as the iPod starts up. I don't know what the cut-off time is for sleep versus shut off. If you disconnect the battery, that's a shut off.

So, sounds like it's working properly to me... 🙂

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Answer 8

seele2015au Author

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Apr 5, 2013 4:06 AM in response to Kenichi Watanabe

Kenichi,

Food for thought, certainly.

When the hard drive was working, even after shutting down by holding the Play/Pause button until the display blanks out, pressing it again right away would've brought up the Apple icon and then the iPod booted up again. After the transplant, I have since tried doing that with an overnight pause, and the display immediately turns on again showing previously displayed screen. This might have something to do with the flash memory not having to spin up, but it is of course totally conjectural. It would be interesting to hear from those who have done the same modification!

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Answer 9

Apr 5, 2013 5:25 AM in response to seele2015au

I'm telling you, the way I described it is the way iPods work, from the very first iPod. 🙂 From a design perspective, doesn't it make sense for the iPod to resume where you left off? As a user, that's what I would want. Every time I turn it on, I don't want to wait until the Apple logo goes away, and have to navigate to the audiobook I was listening to, and find the spot where I left off. When I said "extended period," it could be a few days before the complete shut off to maximize power conservation.

If your iPod did present the Apple logo every time, after being powerd off, that is actually the problem. It should not do that. Because it's hard drive was becoming unreliable, that may have been the reason it was not working properly and not holding its "resume to" state. And now that you've replaced the drive, it's working properly...

As I've said, I've done the same modification. For this particular behavior, my 4th gen iPod works the same before (with hard drive) and after (with compact flash card).

FYI - I found I can get a 64GB compact flash card for less than $60, and a 32GB one for about about $25. I might get one soon and replace the 8GB "tester."

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Answer 10

seele2015au Author

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Apr 5, 2013 5:49 AM in response to Kenichi Watanabe

Kenichi,

That's most reassuring indeed, I did not know you are not meant to see the Apple logo after powering it up for the first time! It seems like I can close it up properly now and not to worry about it from now on. My iPod experience has been limited, as you might have figured out; I just played with a few display-less Shuffles and newer styles like the Touch, that would explain it somewhat.

Being in Australia things are much costlier; I have not been able to find a 32GB CompactFlash card for anything near US$25, the 16GB in this one is the least costly one that has a high probability to work properly, and it's about US$22.35 including shipping on eBay. I better look for another, perhaps smaller one, to put into my digital camera! I am also aware that there are some CF cards which are not compatible; a Brit maintains a database on compatibility issues.

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Answer 11

Apr 5, 2013 1:29 PM in response to seele2015au

You'll see that Apple logo at other times... such as:

If the iPod is powered off for a LONG time

When you do a Reset (reboot) by pressing and holding the Menu and Center buttons

After doing a Restore on the iPod

The prices for the 64GB Compact Flash cards on Amazon are mostly much higher, except for this one brand called "Dolgix," which is half as costly (or even less). It's not that "fast" compared to most of the others, but it's replacing a relatively slow hard drive, so speed should not be a big issue (it's 133x). In the customer comments, a lot of people are using it for iPod upgrades, so it must work, but a lot of them have 5th gen iPods.

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Answer 12

seele2015au Author

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Apr 5, 2013 6:22 PM in response to Kenichi Watanabe

Before I put in my iTunes music into the iPod I thought I'd just be as well test it out further, so I did the Menu & Centre button reset, and...

the whole thing caved in. 😟

First it kept alternating between Apple icon and the bad folder icon, I tried to connect it to the Mac - and it displayed the "do not disconnect" screen, but it was not recognized in both OS and iTunes. I tried to use Disk Utility to format the drive but it failed to be formatted due to I/O problems. Further fiddling got it to do several things such as not showing the "do not disconnect" alert on the screen when connected to the Mac, and now it displays the Apple icon only after pressing the Centre button and the Play/Pause button cannot switch it off.

I hope I did not comprehensively fried the iPod... 😕

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Answer 13

Apr 6, 2013 4:25 AM in response to seele2015au

If doing a Reset caused it become non-functional, there is obviously a problem with the iPod. It's probably related to storage.

On my adapter for the compact flash card, I recall that there is a "jumper" for setting it to master/slave. You put a jumper over the pair of pins to set it to master. No jumper is the slave setting. For use in an iPod, it needs to be set to master.

Do you remember something for setting it to master on the adapter you used?

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