Need to reset ipod to turn on????????

[Elias_Maluco]

I have rockbox installed on my iPod Video 30gb 5.5G for a few days, and I noticed that sometimes (several times, actually), it will just not turn on. It is turned off, I press a button, it should turn on, but it just doenst (nothing appears on the screen, no error, no apple, no sound).. Then I have to try the reset procedure a few times until it actually works, and then it turns on and boots into rockbox as normal.

Any clue on what can be going on here? Is a new iPod, by the way.

[Chronon]

I believe that is a bug in Apple's bootloader code.  The player appears to hang at startup before any Rockbox code gets executed and seems to just be off and unresponsive to key presses.  A hard reset usually allows it to boot normally.  I don't know why it only hangs like this sometimes.  It would be nice if we could get to the point of understanding the hardware enough to replace Apple's bootloader with our own.  Presumably, that would prevent this sort of behavior.

[Elias_Maluco]

I see. Do you think that using IPL instead of the official rockbox loader would change anything?

[Chronon]

If it's what I suggested in the previous post then it doesn't seem that that would make a difference.  I have seen some claims that it happens less in iPL, but I don't tend to place much trust in such claims without some statistics to back it up.  I just don't see how code that runs after Apple's code would affect the functioning of their bootloader.

Another alternative is that it might be hanging at shutdown.  I recall this happening on my Gigabeat about a year ago, though I don't remember the circumstances that caused it to happen.  This also required a hard reset (for the Gigabeat this means disconnecting then reconnecting the battery via the switch at the bottom of the player).

However, the existence of this behavior on even unmodified iPods makes me doubt that this would be the sole reason.  Of course anything you can do to track down what affects this behavior would be helpful.  Unfortunately I don't have any quick fixes for this.  This problem is endemic to the iPods.

[Elias_Maluco]

Good to know Im not the only one with this problem. At the other hand, that also means that there is no solution for this, which suks. I will try the IPL anyway. I actually had installed it right after I installed rockbox, but I dint get it to show rockbox on the list, so I uninstalled. Now Ive read some tips here and I will try again. Thanks for your awnsers anyway.

[vamsimohan_6]

I have recently started using rockbox for my ipod 30g video. Its great but occasionally it doesn't turn on and i have to hold the center button and menu button for a while to turn it on. Is there any problem with the installation or the boot loader?


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*Chronon: fixed typo in the title.

[Elias_Maluco]

EDIT: By the way: have you used the original firmware for a long time before switching to rockbox? If you did, the problem started only after you installed rockbox or it had happened before?



*Chronon edited this post to remove the (now) extraneous reference to another thread.

[Chronon]

Please note that the Apple firmware does not shut down the hardware so this behavior can be much harder to notice.  Rockbox doesn't have a sleep function so each time it is shut down there's a chance of this hang happening.  You will tend to notice it a lot more with Rockbox because the hardware gets shut down much more frequently.  This is my current hypothesis to explain this behavior.  

[Elias_Maluco]

Hmm. So, there is any way (using a patch, or a plugin, or something) to make rockbox go in sleep mode instead of shutting down every time? I guess that would pretty much solve our problem.

[Chronon]

Yes, a sleep function should allow you to avoid this behavior in the same way that Apple's firmware does.  In principle it's possible.  But no one has done it yet and I don't know what the impediments are to implementing that. 

*Edit:  I merged the two topics and edited a post.

[vamsimohan_6]

thanks a lot chronon. That was exactly what i needed to know. That isn't much of a problem but just wanted to know if it could be corrected. thanks a lot

[nicks23]

Elias_Maluco

I do have the same problem with you with my 80GB ipod Video 5.5 Gen. and i posted before on this forum about it to get some help. I sent it for repair in Greece to "Rainbow" company (Authorized Apple Dealers) because i thought it was a hardware problem but hey said there was nothing wrong with it.

The only think i could say that i noticed is that sometimes some daily builts may cause the ipod not to start up normally so i'm not updating my ipod so often now as i did before. The reason im saying this is because once when i updated my ipod i noticed that everytime i was tring to turn it on i was always have to reboot it. Then i put back a previews built and it was turning on ok.

But dont take this for granded though because it might not be the real reason. Only the rockbox experts can give us an answer. What happened to me it may was just a matter of luck. I hope this could be solved one day and i dont think you should worry about your ipod because reboot it everytime i dont think you could cause it a damage.
 

[GodEater]

As has been repeatedly stated on these forums, whenever it's brought up - this is not a Rockbox issue. It's an issue with the apple bootloader which runs before any of the Rockbox code runs.

[DancemasterGlenn]

I haven't seen the other threads related to this, but I just thought I would mention something no one else seems to have mentioned... whenever my ipod won't start up, something does in fact flash on the screen for the smallest fraction of a second. I still to this day am not exactly sure what it is, but I know that it's not backlit, it's smallish (about the size of the fallback do not disconnect icon that shows up when plugged in through rockbox), and it's dark grey (probably similar to the fallback charging screen in color, but not backlit). I've always thought it looked like a battery or something, but that might be my mind playing tricks on me. Someone with a camera or sharper eyes than me might be able to find out what it is.

That's of course assuming that knowing what the picture was would help shed any light on this situation.

[robin0800]

whenever my ipod won't start up, something does in fact flash on the screen for the smallest fraction of a second.

Its the apple low battery warning you are seeing.
A second bug in the apple bootloader as it can appear even when the ipods fully charged.