Filed under: iPod Family, How-tos, Tips and tricks
iPod troubleshooting: Remember the five R's
I'd bet that many
of us are familiar with the scenario that Don
Foy describes at Macsimum News: You're listening to your iPod when it inexplicably freezes up. No amount of button
pushing will get it to do anything. Or, you plug it into your Mac and nothing happens. It doesn't show up on the
desktop and iTunes does not see it. How do you remedy the situation? As Don suggests, remember the five R's:- Reset your
iPod Find out how to reset your model here.
- Retry with a different port. Perhaps the iPod itself isn't to blame?
- Restart your computer
- Reinstall the iPod software and iTunes
- Restore your iPod Caution: This wipes everything!
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
kerimeton said 2:33PM on 4-13-2006
how about:
Replace your hardrive
Replace your battery
Rebuy a new ipod
re-smashagagainstwall
re- update
im serious about some, :)
this will not always slove your problems,
at www.ipodwizard.net.
we've had a lot worse cases
Reply
Jimmy said 4:38PM on 4-13-2006
Another important step is to REMEMBER to not always believe what the folks at the Genius Bar tell you.
I got the sadface ipod on my 4G Color ipod last week - an ipod that was about 31 days past the 1yr warranty deadline. (yeah, yeah, I shoud've bought applecare, I know.) Countless resets failed to clear the problem nor could I boot into disk mode. I made an appt. at the local Apple store and went in the next day.
After about 5 minutes of tinkering with my ipod, the Apple guy told me the unit was dead and my choices were to either recycle it (and get an oh-so-generous 10% off coupon on the purchase of a new ipod) or pay Apple a boatload of money to repair it. He was shocked when I decided to NOT take him up on his gracious offers, and instead took my expensive paperweight and went home.
Once my frustration level had gone down a little, I spent part of the next day scouring the net for ideas. I finally found a suggestion and flipped the ipod over, gave it a tap on its backside, and my ipod is back and working perfectly.
Bottom line: Don't give in too early - I'd be out a bunch of extra cash at this point if I'd have listened to this Apple "Genius" and bought a new ipod.
Reply
CJ said 7:19PM on 4-13-2006
I was in a similar situation. I was 40 or so days past my Applecare cut-off when my 60GB Photo died. I did everything I could to get it well again but it wouldn't boot into disk mode or do anything but sad-face me. :'( Then a couple days later I told my friend about my busted iPod and he wanted to see the sad face, so I grabbed the iPod and booted it up but magically it was working again -- it didn't sad-face for him.
After another few dying/resurrection cycles I noticed that one thing seemed to cure my problem right away... If the 'pod was having trouble seeking I'd just give it a quick shake. Usually clears it right up, and that's kept my iPod going for about 8 months now.
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headphonaught said 8:13AM on 4-16-2006
Just want to say thanks to TUAW and JIMMY for helping me fix my 4th gen 40gb iPod "photo"... a wee smack on the bum (actually a couple...) help unstick the iPod after getting the sad face (it was whining like a broken record)
I then let it discharge and reset it while plugged in... Works fine again.
Thanks - Peace!
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