Bricked 1G Nano 4gb. Suggestions? (FIXED!)

[sadffffff]

Ok, my fault, but I’m not convinced it’s completely dead.

I was riding along listening to music on my rockboxed nano and the battery went low. Since I couldn't find my usb cable to plug it into the usb car charger, I used my wall charger and power inverter, fine. I pulled in to get gas and, of course, turned off my car. After I filled up I started my car with the nano still plugged in, OOPS! Realizing that doing this bumps the 12v powerpoint's voltage up momentarily as the car starts, I looked down at my nano and unplugged it from the adaptor. I thought it was ok and it just got reset since the boot loader said it was loading original firmware (the hold switch was on). But it just stayed there no matter what button I pressed. So I hard restarted it, and the screen faded out BUT it didn’t turn back on no matter what button press. I tried to hard restart again and got no activity.

So here I am, my nano does nothing. I took it to my computer and it isn’t recognized. I opened its shell and don’t see anything obviously burned or anything, which was doubtful anyway since it was on until I did a hard reset..

Any ideas to bring it back to life?

[blueskip]

I think you may have used the wrong term.  It's probably not bricked, it's probably fried.    As in toast, never fixable unfortunately.

I could always be wrong but I seriously doubt it can be fixed.  I would keep it and see if I could do a memory mod on another one though and get twice the memory.  

I would invest in a more expesive car adapter next time.  If it surges the nano it doesn't have a built in voltage regulator.  This is a MUST for any car adapter.  Good ones convert extra voltage to extra available current.  

Sorry I can't be more help.

[GodEater]

Actually I think this is one of the few times when I've read the word "bricked" in association with an iPod and it's actually accurate.

Not that that's good news of course

[sadffffff]

yeah, im getting the feeling it's done for. I had a small ammount of hope considering it was still alive after the surge. But I think it was breathing it's final breath.

I do have a better car charger, I was just too lazy to get the usb cable for it. so I foolishly used my cheapo wall charger+inverter.

About that mod. (4GB nano + the 4gb from a dead nano = 8gb nano). does it work? Is it actually possible? I've been looking at it but all I can find is skepticism. I think I'm proficient enough with a soldering iron to pull it off.

[blueskip]

I've heard that it does work, but I've never tried.  I would look around for others that were successful on google or elsewhere before I would try it though.

[sadffffff]

more life signs showing. stuck again.

I dissasembled and de-soldered the battery. I partially put it back together (without the battery) and plugged it into the computer. It starts up, but it's in an endless boot cycle and wont be detected by the computer. If i boot into disk mode it stays for half a second and then reboots there as well. I can boot into diagnostic mode. the flash scan causes it to reboot.

Any ideas?

[sadffffff]

more progress! I plugged in a wall charger that provides the 12v firewire connection. The ipod boots! it even plays music in the OF. rockbox says low battery and shuts down (theres no battery attached).

I think the surge had the ipod stuck in a state where not even the reset keys worked. so disconnecting the battery was necessary (or let the battery die, how ever long that would have taken).

Next i'm going to try to re-solder the battery and see what happens.

[sadffffff]

SUCESS! battery soldered back on and the ipod boots and works. I'll make sure the battery charges before I reassemble.

Edit: should this be moved to "Repairing broken players"?

[AlexP]

I'm glad you have it working, but please note the forum guidelines and do not double (let alone triple) post in future.