Made HDD, Battery and case upgrades to my ipod video 5th Gen and now I am told "Connect to your computer. Use iTunes to restore."

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194 points

Made HDD, Battery and case upgrades to my ipod video 5th Gen and now I am told "Connect to your computer. Use iTunes to restore."

I have a 5th Gen iPod Video that I have had many years now. It has worked faithfully until about 2 weeks ago and the HDD totally died on me.

So I decided to upgrade from a 30 to 60 gb HDD, replaced the battery for the appropriate HDD and bought a new back shell for the unit. I made incremental installations as parts arrived. First the HDD itself and the next day the battery. Both went in with no problem and I have been running them in a jerry rigged case (basically the 30gb back case has been taped together to make sure it was going to work OK. I have been taking it to work with absolutely no issues, great response and great battery life. Synching is fabulous.

Here is the issue, I hope this makes sense...

Today I received my 60 GB silver back cover and moved all of my parts over. It seems to fit fine. Headphone jack is working fine. However, now the hold button is unresponsive (which is not a big loss to me but still just so you know). I can play music and I can sync. However, if I restart the unit, or I try synching a second time, I get screen saying "Connect to your computer. Use iTunes to restore." It does not matter if I snap it shut or leave the case loose, this happens.

I have this error until I open my case up again and do nothing else. At that time, the error goes away, and my ipod is fine again. Then, the screen comes back after restarting to a normal boot. But, if I sync or restart without doing anything else, we go through the motions again until I open the case back up.

I have disconnected the battery as well as the HDD, but still have the problem. I have also disconnected the cable coming from the hold button/earphone jack to the M/B,

Has anyone else ever experienced this issue or have any suggestions.

Posted on Nov 6, 2013 7:27 PM

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Answer 1

Nov 6, 2013 8:02 PM in response to Randy Traylor

It seems to be related to the back cover, since it worked fine with the "jerry rigged case" using the old back cover. The Hold switch not working also makes me suspicious. Visually check the ribbon cable that connects the the back cover parts to the motherboard; there may be damage along that cable.

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Answer 2

Randy Traylor Author

Level 2

194 points

Nov 6, 2013 8:16 PM in response to Kenichi Watanabe

I already looked for the damage on this cable. Could not find anything. I was wondering the same thing, if there was damage to this. I was thinking about going ahead and find a replacement part. But I do not know what it would be called. Do you have any idea?

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Answer 3

Nov 6, 2013 9:26 PM in response to Randy Traylor

Shouldn't you contact the vendor or person who sold the back cover? At the very least, it has a Hold switch that doesn't work.

This web site has repair guides

http://www.ifixit.com/Device/iPod_Original

and they call it "Headphone Jack & Hold Switch"

http://www.ifixit.com/Guide/iPod+5th+Generation+%28Video%29+Headphone+Jack+%26+H old+Switch+Replacement/604

Under Relevant Parts, they seem to list separate parts for the thick and thin back cover.

On a side note, another way to fix your iPod is to use a compact flash card instead of a hard drive. This web page has details

http://www.instructables.com/id/Convert-your-5th-Gen-iPod-Video-to-use-Flash-Mem or/

Then, you can use your existing thin profile back cover that works. I replaced the hard drive in my 4th gen iPod with a CF card. Currently, it is only 8GB, but with lower prices these days, I may soon upgrade it with a 64GB CF card. But it works great with the 8GB card. The iPod is noticeably lighter. There is no hard drive spin-up delay. The battery lasts longer per charge. And it is no doubt more shock-resistant.

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Answer 4

Randy Traylor Author

Level 2

194 points

Nov 7, 2013 3:56 AM in response to Kenichi Watanabe

normally, I would agree about contacting Vender. However the back case was just that, the back case. There was no Jack or lock switch that came with it. I use the original from the original iPod. It is possible that it got damaged when I moved it to the new case. Even when the case is open, the lock switch will not work.

I did investigate using a CF card instead of a hard drive, but I chose to go the original HDD.

do you think it is possible that the battery could be sending out a signal that is messing things up? Although it is designed for this iPod it has a different cable then what I had in like 30 gigabyte. Its straight instead of curveD.

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Answer 5

Nov 7, 2013 2:41 PM in response to Randy Traylor

A battery is just a power source, so I don't think it would cause this problem (no signals). Also, didn't it work properly when you had the case "jerry rigged"?

If you can find a used broken iPod 5th gen for a good price on eBay (with the thick profile case), you may want to buy it. Get one that seems to be described as having a broken hard drive, since that is the most common failure. The other parts are probably working. Look for a seller that appears to be a "person" selling their personal iPod, not a iPod parts scavenging shop.

You can then swap parts to figure out the exact cause. If it has a thick back cover, you can use the complete assembly (instead of moving over the delicate headphones jack and hold swtich part). And you'll have a few extra spare parts, like screen, logic board, and click wheel.

My 4th gen iPod is a working iPod that I assembled from broken iPods. It was hard to find one with a reliable working hard drive (that was broken for something else). That wouldn't be a problem today, because I'm using the compact flash substitute.

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Answer 6

Randy Traylor Author

Level 2

194 points

Nov 7, 2013 5:54 PM in response to Kenichi Watanabe

That is a great idea, I have been playing with this thing all day, frustrating the crap out of me! Thanks for the great advice!

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