dead ipods

macflymacfly
Posted:
in iPod + iTunes + AppleTV edited January 2014
out of nowhere today while listening to some sven vath, my ipod stopped. i figured it just hung and when i went to reset it just got a folder with exclamation point. later on plugging it into the powerbook i just got a disc with a magnifying glass and then a "sad ipod" pic. on diagnostic mode the hard drive scan failed. WTF?! it was a 20 gb that i got 6 months ago. no problems except this one. luckily apple gave me a break as i was one day over 6 months ( they charge u $30 for "shipping" if over 6 months).

anyone else have their hard drive fail that soon?

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 15
    overhopeoverhope Posts: 1,123member
    Mine did exactly the same thing, but not until literally a few days after its first birthday. Original 5-gig, bought the day of release in the UK, and there I was listening along quite happily when it went splat, came up with the Sad iPod icon and made a nasty ticking noise.



    My diagnosis: crashed hard drive (possibly related to the nasty knock on the floor it had about an hour previously). Anyway, I did the box'n'DHL thing, and a few weeks later a nice shiny new iPod turned up, although I've yet to be convinced I was still within warranty.



    Yes, it's a pain to be iPodless for a while, but on the bright side, look at it as opportunity to get rid of the scratches.
  • Reply 2 of 15
    macflymacfly Posts: 256member
    get rid of the scratches? do they just replace the whole unit or put a new drive in? i was worried about using apple's warranty since i bought the 2year one from compusa where i bought the pod. compusa told me that if apple gave me a new unit they could just swap the serial numbers on the receipt ....perfect. now if they come out with something new in the next few weeks i can still "upgrade" with my compusa warranty.

    its amazing to realize just how much i listen to that thing.. taking the subway in new york city sure gets boring without it!
  • Reply 3 of 15
    overhopeoverhope Posts: 1,123member
    The official line is that you get a "refurbished" product, which you can take to mean any number of things: definitely the serial number was different, and definitely a year's worth of scratches had miraculously disappeared (even the funny littles ones where I took it apart...).
  • Reply 4 of 15
    macflymacfly Posts: 256member
    was wondering what would happen once this was out of warranty. for people to spen $500 on something that dies within in year or maybe 2 seems pretty expensive. if it is a matter of the HDD dying would it be possible to order a new drive and replace it yourself? how much are they and can you buy them at all?
  • Reply 5 of 15
    overhopeoverhope Posts: 1,123member
    This is the relevant part: MK2003GAH, but I don't know if anyone's had any luck with making them work properly, and since they're intended for embedded applications, they're pretty hard to get hold of in consumer channels, not to mention probably exhorbitantly expensive.



    Certainly a quick search on my part doesn't show up anyone who's selling them...



    Maybe some folks on dedicated iPod sites would have more info.
  • Reply 6 of 15
    grimsongrimson Posts: 108member
    "for people to spen $500 on something that dies within in year or maybe 2 seems pretty expensive."



    It sure does seem like they die a lot. Reading the postings on iPodlounge make sit seem as if it's almost guaranteed that you'll have serious problems within the first year. Surely this can't be the case? Are there people out there who are having no problems whatsoever?
  • Reply 7 of 15
    overhopeoverhope Posts: 1,123member
    As long as you break it within the warranty period, Apple gets to carry the cost... can't be doing much for the bottom line, though.
  • Reply 8 of 15
    macflymacfly Posts: 256member
    well, airborne express dude just brought my box and took back my dead pod. apple also sent a replacement remote which had died. sure glad i got the 2 year warranty from comp usa.. seems this thing is sure to crap out in 2 years... i only know one other person with one and his died days after the one year apple warranty. nothing they would do for him...
  • Reply 9 of 15
    magicfingersmagicfingers Posts: 703member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by macfly

    seems this thing is sure to crap out in 2 years... i only know one other person with one and his died days after the one year apple warranty. nothing they would do for him...



    i have an original ipod 5gig from dec2001 and other than the battery problem(which update 1.2.6 has fixed, 9 hours of life now) I haven't had any other problems.

    I work in construction and like to mountain bike and it has spent alot of time with me, this ipod is the toughest electronics unit I have ever owned.

    Love my iPod
  • Reply 10 of 15
    macflymacfly Posts: 256member
    thats the funny thing about them....in daily life they actually do seem incredibly tough. simple jostling and such never did anything to mine. it seems completely unpredictable when they will crap out on you. has anyone found that having your home user folder on the drive causes any problems? i thought i remembered seeing something about this in an apple support comment
  • Reply 11 of 15
    macsrgood4umacsrgood4u Posts: 3,007member
    My original 5Gig iPod was just one month short of a year old when the battery wouldnt charge anymore and I got those mysterious images on the screen. I confirmed the buy date with MacMall (I lost the receipt) and emailed Apple about my problem. They sent me a pre-paid mailer and I returned the unit to them. 5 days later I received a "new" one. Different serial numer and pristine - no scratches. It was not the model with a door over the firewire port but seemed to be brand-new nevertheless. That was 3 months ago and with the recent update things are working great.
  • Reply 12 of 15
    jante99jante99 Posts: 539member
    My iPod died the last day of the warrenty (Christmas day). I called Apple the next day but of course since the warrenty is only one year they would have to charge me 280 dollars to fix it.



    I am still waiting for the new ones to come out since a new one costs about the same as getting mine fixed.



    I think this is a pretty stupid system. Who would pay to have an iPod fixed when you can get a brand new one for the same price?
  • Reply 13 of 15
    overhopeoverhope Posts: 1,123member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by jante99

    Who would pay to have an iPod fixed when you can get a brand new one for the same price?



    And therein lies the nub of Apple's cunning plan...
  • Reply 14 of 15
    filmmaker2002filmmaker2002 Posts: 686member
    Get the CompUSA warranty if you can! It's for two years and they are pretty easy to deal with as far as iPods go. When the 20 GBs came out, I brought my 10GB in, said it kept crashing on me, and I was able to upgrade to the 20GB. Yeah, we all hate CompUSA, but this is definitley worth it since the warranty is only $30.
  • Reply 15 of 15
    myahmacmyahmac Posts: 222member
    this happened to me but i dont know when my dad bought it or from where. it was a graduation present last year and he got the 10 gb for me. i really dont want to have to egt it replaced, it just did that to me one day. song played then kept skipping then it restarted itself and the little folder came up.
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