Screen error message showing Ipod with sad face

Screen error message showing Ipod with sad face and a note to visit apple Ipod support, its a 5th Gen Classic.

I suspect it is a connectivity issue as I have had on going problems when trying to hook ipod upto a PC, in particular an older PC but I then used it on the daughters Windows 8 machine and everything locked and I had to physically disconnect.

Can anyone shed any light on this error ?

cheers

Shaun