'Please Wait. Very Low Battery.'

Alright, I just ran the Diagnostics function on iTunes and it gave me the "No IEEE 1394 Host Controller found." message. What does this mean? I have found out that even when the iPod show the "Please Wait. Very Low Battery." it still charges so it is connecting somehow. I also looked around to see if it was possibly the drivers but these were not found. suggestions?

I'm having the same problem as well. I tried some of the methods that were listed, but still no resolve. Anyways, the problem still occurs and I'm wondering if a straight battery replacement is the sollution in itself. Looking forward to hear what sollutions people come up with.

I also have this problem now. It started when my iPod was nearly fully charged (I'd estimate 80% charged). I loaded a video as normal, ejected, pressed play, and click, black screen. Since then, cycles between "Please Wait. Very Low Battery." and trying to boot every 2 minutes.

I figured the battery fried, and ***** the USB voltage down below the threshold for iPod operation. Say the iPod requires 4 V to operate. The control system shuts the iPod down when it senses voltage below that level.

The question is: During boot does the iPod run from DC input voltage or battery only? If there is a power bus where the battery and USB line voltage are shared, then my battery must be nearly shorted out to drag down the USB supply below the limit.

Reading this thread, there appear to many variations of this behavior. Perhaps all are explained by crapped out batteries. Bad batteries can cause all sorts of odd and intermittent behavior, because occasionally they supply enough power to halfway run the electronics.

The puzzler is that KevR replaced his battery and still had the same problem afterwards. So would that make it a software problem? Whatever, this *****.

After reading all that I could find on this forum, I finally made it down to the Apple store with the iPod Bar. The guy tried a few things and then got someone else to look at it, then gave me the crappy diagnosis. My iPod has either a failed hard drive or a logic port. Since my iPod is a mere 70 days out of warranty I have three options: trade in my unit for a reconditioned unit with a 90 day warranty for $129, recycle my unit with Apple and get 10% off of a new iPod, or send it to a third party shop for repair. Needless to say I was not happy with this diagnosis since I have "taken impeccably good care of the iPod" as my girlfriend states. Hope this doesn't happen to you.

Recently my G5 ipod started exhibiting all of the problem mentioned in this forum. Showing a full charge then going dead, not communicating with the computer just whirring and clicking and so on. from reading the other posts here I have concluded the the problem begins because the battery is allowed to drain to an extreme low and this for some reason gives the iPod a brain cramp from which it has great difficulty recovering.
This is a very frustrating situation because even if you can get your iPod fully charged it doesn't seem to realize it has a charge and hence all the other problems. I am convinced that it is charging but the HD refuses to recognize that the battery is charged. I have found a solution that worked for me but you will need an external charger to get the process started. Any sort of charger will do so if you don't particularly want to buy an adapter any iPod accessory with a charging base, like an iPod clock radio or car charger will do if those are items you are more inclined to purchase.
All you need to do is get the iPod functioning well enough to be able to do a reset and then put it into disk mode. I did this while the iPod was attached to the charger. Instructions on how to do the reset and set it to disk mode are here http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=93651. I then dashed over to the computer and while the iPod screen was still lit I plugged it in to the computer by USB. You need just enough power so that your computer will recognize the iPod when you attach it and then the USB will take over powering the iPod.
When iTunes starts up and begins to sync the iPod select Restore. In my case when that process was completed the iPod returned to the old "low battery please wait" message ( because it had restarted ) and no longer showed up on the computer so I disconnected it from the USB. I then turned the iPod off and on again, the apple screen came up and then I did a reset. Up she came nice and clean and with a full charge. Then all that was left was to re-connect to the computer and sync with iTunes since the iPod at this point is just as it came out of the box with no files on it. I think the crucial point is to get the iPod reset to factory and disconnected from the computer before it begins to sync your files automatically. If you don't get the "low battery" message as I did perhaps you should eject the iPod as soon as the restore is complete and before syncing begins in order to emulate the steps as I did them. I don't know for sure if prematurely ejecting the iPod is harmful so consider that step thoroughly before you proceed with it. My guess is that if iTunes will let you do it then it is probably OK.
I chose to sync only my audio files and not my movies at this point to save time and I will test for a few days to see if the problem is truly solved and report back.
I have no technical basis on which to explain why this series of steps worked for me I just know that it did. When you don't know why your iPod suddenly went mental it's bad enough but when the so called "experts" can't tell you what to do ( or care for that matter ) it can feel pretty bleak so I hope this information is helpful to someone.

Sorry everyone, I thought I was on to something but today it is back to the same old thing so I guess I have fixed nothing. I suppose this is a matter for the Apple technicians.
This iPod is only 10 months old and this sort of thing simply should not happen. Being a long long time Mac fan this sort of shoddy engineering or manufacture is extremely upsetting to me. Perhaps if Jobs was to have the iPods built in the USA instead of some third world sweatshop for $5.00 a piece then Apple would be able to keep it's reputation but unfortunately that is not likely to happen. Thank god it is still under warrantee or I would be raging. That extended Apple Care is starting to look pretty good but why should you have to buy insurance on a high priced product like this just to ensure that you will get 2 years out of it. Shameful.

I am having the exact same problem for a week. I have tried some of the things mentioned, I even tried to technique of detaching the ribbon in the Ipod. I am able to get it to disk mode for a few seconds but then it goes back to the "please wait battery very low." Is there something that i should be doing to the itunes program once I have the ipod in disk mode. thanks

I'm having the same "Please wait, very low battery" problem and have tried some of the suggestions presented here without success. I have a wall charger that has a red light that goes on when you plug it into the wall, and a green light that goes on when you connect the iPod. When I connect the iPod, the green light goes on, but it flickers. It's as though the iPod doesn't really want to receive the charge. I've tried connecting other iPods without a problem, so it's not the charger, cable, computer, or iTunes - all are fine - it's just this one iPod with a severely drained battery that just doesn't want to wake up and go back to work. This is a fairly new iPod, so I share the frustration expressed here and look forward to more suggestions from folks who have successfully dealt with this problem.

Well like all of us here, im having the exact same issue, only it happened a little bit differnt:
Just as a note, i use my ipod a LOT, its almost on all day, so usually when i get home the battery is like one quarter from being drained but its never completely drained, since i read that its not very good to leave it that way,i turn it off usually when the battery is in "yellow".
So when i go to sleep i leave my ipod connected to the ac charger, i also leave it playing music, when i wake up its completely charged and ready to go, everything was working fine until one day i woke up and disconnected it from the charger, the battery seemed to be full(as i expected it to be), so i went ahead and tried to play some music, and i got a message saying that the battery was low and it needed to be charged, something weird i tought since i had just left the ipod charging for the night, anyways i guessed it might be some sort og glitch so i connected it to the power outlet, and as soon as i connected it i tried to play some music and it worked, also i noticed that that the battery showed to be completely charged, in other words the ipod wasnt charging because its battery was full, so i disconnected it from the AC and tried to play some music and still the same problem, telling me it had low battery and it needed to be charged, i had to leave, so i just left it like that for the day.
When i got home, i tried connecting it to the PC, but it gave that evil message of "Please Wait, Very Low Battery", with the same rebooting symptomes everyone has, i reconnected it to the AC and reset it and it turned on, still showing me that it was fully charged, when i disconnected it from the AC i noticed that the battery showed three quarters and as i moved trough the menu it began to go down very quicly, instead of trying to play music(because i figured out that would kill it again) i connected it to the PC, this time it was able to comunicate with the PC, again showing me the battery was fully charged, and as before when it was connected to the AC i could play my music just fine,as soon as i disconnected it and tried to play music on its own it went dead.
So here are some tips that might help,some of these are already posted, but here they are just in case you want to try them:
1-If you get the message "please wait...", connect it to an AC charger, that should get the ipod out of its coma, also it might seem like its charging, but it really isnt, so disconnect and reconnect it from the charger just to make sure.
2-once the ipod is operational, connect it to the PC, it should be able to comunicate with it.
3-Put attention on the battery signs to make sure you notice what does it tell you, when you get the ipod up and running dont try to play anything on it, as it will most problably just freeze the ipod again.
4-Try to restore it.
For me finnally, it didnt work, not even restoring it, it just went back to the same behaviour, so im guessing the battery must be fried or something, because this also happens with cellphones, when the battery dies, the cellphone will only turn on with the charger connected to it.
It seems that the ipods battery is very fragile, so i reccomend you to be very carefull with it, not letting it be completely dried and also charging it the necesary time.
Good luck.

Thanks for the bold "REEEAAAD MEEEE!!!" Mr. Orange. That was the answer for me.

All other discussions seemed to point to restarting the iPod with the "Menu+select" buttons, but "Menu+play" did the trick.

Thanks!

I've been having the same issues with mine. For some reason it would not boot passed the "low battery" screen and would keep reseting. After giving up, I left the ipod alone for a couple weeks, came back, and shook it. I heard a small click, which I think could have been the hard drive arm, and plugged the usb cable into it, and bingo, it went passed the boot screen and charged just fine.

So, if any of you haven't-try shaking it! (Not totally recommended)

I've had TWO 40 Gb iPods DIE on me, BOTH just out of warranty! Must be an inbuilt PLANNED OBSOLESCENCE chip! Now I have a 5G 60 Gb unit and when I get the dreaded 'low battery' display, I use a mains adaptor to plug it into power, it resets and CHARGES - the I plug into my PowerBook and sync it as per normal... SHEESH!

Thank you for your advice since I had the same problem.

This has allowed me to get to the Disk Mode and it appears to be letting the iPod charge - butit has been charging (through the USB on my computer) for over two hours now and still is not complete. How long can it take before nvestigating possibility of another issue?

Thanks.

Hey Guys, you saved my day. My iPod 60 Go had the same problem. Reseted it a lot, pluged and unpluged it. Finaly it started, I plugged it to my mac and boom, iTunes recognized it. Now it's Charging.

*TRY THIS IT WORKED FOR ME TRY THIS IT WORKED FOR ME TRY THIS IT WORKED FOR ME*

Hi, I've had the same problem where I would get the message 'Please wait very low battery' then a picture of a sad ipod with an explanation mark and a address for the ipod support site would come up.

Ive tried everything but nothing worked. A friend told me an ipod can charge itself if left on a heater( not too hot). So i put the ipod on the central heating for some hours and presto it was fine.