Mysterious iPod Video death

Why did you have to die?

Hubby got me a 30mb video iPod for Xmas 2005. I loved it and took care of it and walked it and generally babied it. This past weekend I noticed something was wrong when I tried to turn it on and it was dead. I had charged it just the day before so it was odd that it was dead. Nonetheless, I used my car charger to juice it up again and it worked fine. My brother even remarked how awesome the video was on it. But when I tried to turn it off, it would turn black then would mysteriously switch back on, dimly, with the words “Charging” on it. I tried re-setting it a few times, but it kept doing it. I knew something was dreadfully wrong with it but I was in our lake house, which doesn’t have access to much of anything save water and trees, so I put it in my purse and hoped for the best.

On the ride home, I played it via a new gadget that my SIL told me about. You attach it to your iPod via a cord that goes into the earbud slot. On the other end is a fake cassette that you pop into your tape deck and somehow you’re able to play your IPod through it. It worked like a charm. I wonder if it somehow killed my iPod.

I tried charging it today and it’s deader than a doornail. I tried the car charger, the computer and the wall outlet. I switched out cords. No go. My computer won’t even recognize it.

Crap.

P.S. Will iTunes count my replacement iPod as one of the 5 machines I’m allowed to download songs to? I have a few hundred dollars invested in these songs and it’s not fair that my iPod bit the bullet.

It sounds to me like your battery’s dead, certainly the tape adapter didn’t kill it. You might check here for tips to diagnose and fix it. Oh, and it doesn’t count as one of your machines as far as iTunes is concerned. iTunes only worries about computers, not iPods.

Well that stinks. Acc to Apple, it’ll cost me $70 to replace the battery. I’d do it on my own but i’m afraid I’ll kill it.

Rats!

It’s really not that difficult to do it yourself. When you order a new battery online they send you the special tool and step-by-step instructions.

There might even be an independent 3rd party repair shop in your city that would do it for cheaper. My 4G iPod mysteriously died out on me about a year ago, I took to these guys, they replaced the logic board (I think) and it’s been acting brand new ever since.

Saved me a couple of hundred bucks that I would’ve spent on something new.

Yeah, PL, you might check with these guys to see if they can do it for you. They’ve certainly got the batteries.

Thanks Uncle, Kid and Tucker. The BatteriesPlus link you gave me showed a store is in my area, so I’ll give them a shot.

I appreciate it. I do hope it’s just the battery. For some reason, I assumed it was something far more sinister.