iPod Help Please!

[djw1981]

Depends why it is dead. If the battery has become dislodged or mechanically damaged through use/abuse then they can refuse it. Sometimes smashing it and claiming on home insurance (especially if you have protected no claims) is easier, if potentially fraudulent.

I dropped then volleyed (as I tried to catch it) my old mp3 player across a road, and my insurance company paid up (as it was over the excess). They didn't bump up the premium either, saying that with people carrying more stuff of them, accidental damage and theft were increasing at a rate that they just increased everyones premiums.

 

[Gizmogle]

Well, we have progress! I've managed to get it to the Apple logo screen!
If I can get enough charge into it to get it to boot, then it should be okay, right?

I'm still taking it to the genuis bar anyway.

If there's problems after that, I'll go bitch to them about it.

The iPod has had 11 months use. The battery should not be dead by now.
As for abuse, the iPod has had none. I'm always really careful with my stuff, and it has never been bashed around or anything.

 

[me123]

The most common problem I know of, for future reference, is the iPod freezing. The best option here is to let the battery run dry and recharge then.

 

[Gizmogle]

The iPod has frozen on me a few times, but that just requires a hard reset and it's fine.
There aren't many problems where you need to fully discharge the iPod.
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Progress I've now gotten my iPod to boot.

(Told you bastards I'd fix it!)

It's not responding to my USB yet, even though that's what it took the charge to boot from.

It's just sat in my AC adapter, hopefully gathering some charge.

Gotta go to college though and then I'm off to Ash Vale...what do I do? I have an appoinment with the genuis bar (I'd like them to explain what the **** my iPod just did to me) and I need to keep my iPod charged enough throughout the day to not get stuck back in this problem again.

Also, it seems to be stuck on the "charging" screen. But this is acceptable cause it's progress If it doesn't charge itself out of that then I'll give it a reset, but this is what caused the problem last time...

 

[Jordy]

Good to hear that theres progress! Make sure you don't overcharge it though!

 

[Gizmogle]

Well, I'm not sure what to do now, cause it doesn't respond to unplugging!
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
I gave in and reset it...which sent it straight back to the monochrome battery screen, as I ****ing thought it would.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
If the Apple guys at the genius bar don't fix it then I'm seriously gonna rip their heads of!
If they can't get it to boot then I'm gonna rip the **** outta them, cause I can get it to boot!

 

[Bighat]

Yes.

It's f**ked.

Ah....thats Apple products for you!

 

[Gizmogle]

Gah! Shuttup!

I can get it to boot now...but it doens't see to respond to USB. Plug it into mains and the "Charging" icon comes up on the screen, and then soon after "Charged", which is quite obviously isnt. If I unplug it, then the icon stays on the screen. Press menu and it goes to the main menus and stuff, but still has the small plug icon over the battery, suggesting that it's plugged into something...

Resetting it puts it straight back to square one with the "Please wait, very low battery" screen.

****ing****ing****ing Apple!

I'm seriously reconsidering this MacBook if it's going to go the same way...

 

[Tom]

Gizzy - just leave it until you get it to the Apple store. Doing anything more to it is just likely to f*ck it up even more and you don't really want that do you?

The battery is definately dead and I can guarantee that batteries going is pretty rare after only 12 months of usage. Every product on the market will have the rogue product in the batch.

And to Bighat, how many Apple products have you used to make such a vague statement?

 

[djw1981]

The simple fact is that all products have a failure rate. Big companies like to keep it down to about 0.5% maximum.That means 1 in every 200 iPod's will fail before the component lifespan is reached.

To reduce the component failure rate costs more, so the unit cost goes up and they sell less. Thus replacing faulty units is better economics and also makes their customer services look good.

The alternative of extending the component life would result in a) less sales each year and also b) increased cost and c) increasing component failures before the lifespan was reached, and cost more in replacement units.

For most people the issue is not that it failed, but that they paid £xxx and it has failed. If they only paid £20 and it failed after a year, they'd just buy a new one.

 

[Gizmogle]

Well, the iPod isn't really doing anything that it wasn't doing before, and it's definately gotten better rather than worse, but I am going to leave it now anyway.

Only 11 months use. But surely if the battery had died from use, then it would have slowly decreased in life until it finally gave in, right? But the battery has been fine until now. It was holding a good charge and lasting for plenty of time between charges.

 

[Tom]

Nah - batteries can completely collapse randomly from prolonged overcharging then just die at once while only being able to retain about 5 to 10 cycles of charging.

 

[djw1981]

Batteries and switches and solder joints are the 3 weakest areas of any product.

 

[Gizmogle]

I think it's likely that it has been overcharged then.

Any tips on how to avoid overcharging? I've read the Apple battery stuff about maximising the life, but can't remember anything about overcharging.

I would usually play it all day and then leave it on charge until the next morning when I would play it again.

But if I didn't go out at weekends, the iPod would stay plugged in.

But then, if I didn't charge it every night...it wouldn't have any charge for the next day! So surely I was doing nothing wrong?

 

[djw1981]

Depends on the battery life.

If the battery playing time is say 20 hours, but you only listen to it ten hours a day, then it lasts 2 days. Charging it every night means you are charging from 50% to 100% repeatedly and not doing a full discharge of the battery. The easiest way to do a full discharge is at the weekend - just leave it playing on a Friday, with headphones removed and when it is flat and turns itself off, start charging it. Also they don't take all night to charge - in most cases, even on USB, 3-4hours is more than enough - so either charge it the evening, or use a wall timer to turn the power off after 5 hours....Of course, YMMV!

 

[Gizmogle]

But surely the more discharges it does, the more strain it puts on the battery to charge it back up again?

 

[Tom]

No - most types of battery like to be discharged fully before recharging.

 

[mbonwick]

Because if they'er only partly discharged, when they're charged, some of the cells "die" and therefore cannot hold any charge.

 

[Tom]

Gizzy has just been to the Apple Genius Bar at Regent Street.

They gave her a new iPod.

 

[Gizmogle]

They gave me another iPod!! Even though mine was out of warranty Oh yesss!!!

 

[Craig]

Nice one.

Did they tell you anyone about what was wrong with it?

 

[me123]

They gave me another iPod!! Even though mine was out of warranty Oh yesss!!!

Congratulations! Hope it brings you more happiness than the last one did!

 

[laseandre]

Congratulations! Hope it brings you more happiness than the last one did!

That's quite easy.