Help me fix 3rd Gen iPod 40GB

Question

Help me fix 3rd Gen iPod 40GB

I've got an 3rd Generation iPod 40 GB that is 3 1/2 years old. It has given me some low battery/directory corruption problems in the past year and a half...but since I mainly use it in my car while CONSTANTLY being charged....it has always been re-settable or just works again after leaving it alone.

well it finally died on me last night. to make a long story short, I was booted up from an old version of my itunes library and didn't want to wait for the thing to sync as I accidentally launched itunes....so I just took the iPod out of its dock before iTunes had a chance to launch

and ever since, it won't fully boot or show up on my desktop. I have tried rebooting it holding menu and play DOZENS of times...either it shows the battery icon with the yield sign, or the apple logo just disappears and it does not ever fully boot.

to further diagnose it, I opened it up, and while open, I disconnected the battery, but still plugged it into a firewire port while the battery was disconnected. (the hard drive I made sure was still connected too.

and it continued to show the same behavior...it should show the apple logo...and then nothing

I figured bypassing the battery would tell me if it was just the battery that was dead and not the hard drive (I can hear and feel the hard drive spinning as I always could with my hear to it/close to it)

but does the battery HAVE to be in in order to properly get power from the firewire cable?

I am wondering if I have one of those crazy unfortunate cases where BOTH the hard drive AND the battery are dead...but then why would it continually give me nothing but dead battery icon, but STILL not work when I disconnect the battery and plug it in directly?

help me fix diagnose?? where is the cheapest place to order both a new 3rd gen iPod hard drive 40 GB or more and/or ipod battery???

Dual 2 GHz G5 (first generation), Mac OS X (10.4.8)

Posted on May 24, 2007 12:46 AM

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Answer 1

May 24, 2007 5:32 AM in response to David Lawrence4

Hard drives are the most expensive part in an iPod. A new one, especially 40GB, will run you at least $100, even on eBay. Batteries you can get on eBay. I have heard nothing but great things about ipodjuice.com batteries and they have a 10 year warrenty, but some batteries on eBay may be a few bucks cheaper.

I really hate to say this, but it could be that your logic board is bad and THINKS your battery is dead.

In all seriousness, when I have similar problems, Apple wants $272 to send me a refurbished one (I have a 4th gen but similar thing) and buying a hard drive, battery, and possibly a logic board may be expensive. You'd probably be best off buying a new video iPod if you want to continue having a large capacity of space.

If you choose to do this, be sure to send me your broken one 😀

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Answer 2

May 24, 2007 5:33 AM in response to AquaStreak

Also, if you choose to fix it yourself, the hard drive you're looking for will be either MK4004GAH (probably whats currently in there), MK4006GAH or MK4008GAH (slightly newer versions of the same thing that fit an iPod).

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Answer 3

May 24, 2007 5:39 AM in response to David Lawrence4

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=60999

It says if you can't reset it, you need repairs.

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Answer 4

May 24, 2007 12:17 PM in response to AquaStreak

thank you for responding

I have another Video iPod but don't like using it as my car stereo.

If it really is something as bad as the logic board is broken, I just wish I could access the hard drive to take a look at my files on there because I used it as an external drive for some backup

The battery in this iPod had been running low for a very very long time. It couldn't operate on it's own for more than a few minutes. But like I said, I ended up only using it in my car w/ a TransPod FM charger/transmitter. So since it was always getting power, it wasn't a problem. But that is why it wouldn't surprise me if it was the battery.

yesterday it would try to boot, give the apple logo, then immediately go to the bad battery icon if not plugged into an outlet or computer.

While opened up, I tried turning it on while disconnecting the hard drive, and that resulted in the can't find hard drive icon which is the pic of a folder with an exclamation mark. But reconnecting the hard drive makes that hard drive icon not come back. Which leads me to believe that the hard drive is actually okay.

Now that I let it charge all of last night, when all assembled, it now stays on with the Apple logo for a very very long time....no longer and error messages like battery OR hard drive.

that would suck if it really is the logic board.

does anyone know if the battery is necessary for it to work if you have it connected directly to an outlet??? because I unplugged the battery but then plugged it into an outlet and I experience the same behavior, which could mean it's not a battery issue and I THINK my hard drive test above means the hard drive is recognized when plugged in so probably not that either.

damnit

I wish there was a store in LA I could walk into and have them diagnose and tell me what it really needs before I spend money to ship it off somewhere

help!

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Answer 5

May 27, 2007 3:30 PM in response to David Lawrence4

I FIXED IT!!

First, I went into a store that sold the battery, bought it and tried it right there in the store. The new battery didn't change the behavior at all...still would not get past the apple logo on bootup. So I returned the battery for a 20% restocking fee (was $5, well worth the price for a battery diagnosis)

The guy in the store thought the hard drive was a problem because you could hear it click off whenever it tried to boot and then would shut off after the apple logo.

So for the **** of it last night, I took the hard drive out completely, sealed it into a plastic ziplock bag, and put it IN THE FREEZER for the entire night.

This morning, I reassembled the thing, plugged it in and IT BOOTED UP!! it made the little beep chimy thing is makes when you plug it into the dog and showed up on my desktop without issue!! I proceeded to copy my data off of it and hopped in the shower. It froze halfway through copying the data off, and I had to unplug and replug it into my computer. BUT IT HAS BEEN WORKING EVER SINCE!!

I took it for a drive in my car
it played just fine and it continuing to work just fine....if the hard drive fails AGAIN, then I know it's got a more permanent problem.

I think that, as much as I have yanked the iPod out of it's dock while still connected to the computer a million times without issue, that this time, it just happened to freeze something in the hard drive in a position that it couldn't get out of and thus, couldn't fully boot.

Putting it in the freezer probably contracted the parts a bit and allowed whatever part was hungup to free itself and is thus, probably just fine and fixed.

I ran a disc repair on the volume with disc utility, it fixed a few things, and it's still rolling along!

Hope this info helps someone someday

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Answer 6

May 28, 2007 6:56 AM in response to David Lawrence4

...I don't know what inspired you to put it in the freezer... but lets hope you just helped me out.

I am going to go put my 40GB HDD in the freezer right after this post.

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