ipod color (4th gen) unable to boot

[v1n54n1ty]

Hi there,

I came across Rockbox about two weeks ago and it's been working fine on my 4th gen color up until yesterday. Here's what happened:

I had my ipod docked in my ihome playing some shuffle and it froze. I held down the play button to shut down the device, but after about three seconds the song started playing again. The device did not shutdown or reboot. About five minutes later, the ipod froze again. I held down the play button for ten seconds, but nothing happened. At that point, I held down the menu and selection button to reset the device.

Since I've done this the ipod will no longer boot. The apple logo displays for a couple seconds, then it shows me a 'sad ipod' with a support URL [http://www.apple.com/support/ipod]. Here are some of the troubleshooting steps I have tried:

- Reset the device about a dozen times
- Tried to boot into the ipod firmware (using the hold button)
- Ensured the battery is charged
- Plugged the device into a wall charger
- Plugged the device into my computer (Windows Vista)
- Plugged the device into my girlfriend's Macbook


All of the above steps do not change the behavior of the device. When plugging the device into my computer, windows does not detect a new device in windows explorer or the finder on my girlfriend's macbook.

I have rebooted my computer, and have tried detecting the ipod in itunes without any luck. When opening the rockbox utility (1.0.7b) I am greeted with a configuration error, which claims the path to the device has changed. The 'auto detect' feature fails, and it asks me to select a mount point manually. My device does not show up as an available option.

I decided at this point that it would be best to read over the manual again and to go through the support forums. I came across a few other posts with other Rockbox users experiencing the same problem, and the responses typically point to a disk failure. My device is no longer under warranty, and I'm not sure it's worth it to replace the drive.

A couple notes about the ipod:

- When booting, I cannot feel the disk spin like it usually does.
- There is no 'click of death' or other noises, which is normal.
- I replaced the battery myself in the spring.
- My ipod froze once on New Years, but otherwise I can't recall it ever freezing with the original firmware.
- The ipod usually just sits in my ihome, and is rarely moved.

I'm hoping someone out there has some other suggestions, as I'm not quite sure what to do next. I work in a data-center, and come across failed or flaky drives on a daily basis, so I am familiar with the symptoms of a hard drive that's about to die. My device has been working without issue since the freeze on New Years, and is rarely moved, which is why I'm hoping my disk didn't decide to die one day without warning.

Any help is appreciated. If anyone is aware of other support articles or documentation, it would be greatly appreciated as well.

Thanks!

=v=

[LambdaCalculus]

There's only problem I can think of right now: your iPod's hard drive may have unseated itself from the pin connection. I had a similar problem with my 4th gen color some months ago, and I was able to fix it by opening the iPod and reseating the hard drive.

Try that out and see if it fixes anything. If not, come back and we'll look for another solution.

[v1n54n1ty]

Thanks for the prompt reply.

So I went ahead an took apart the device, but found nothing wrong with the physical connections. There was a piece of black tape (about a square inch) covering the connector to on the board, so I peeled that back but found no trouble.

I then decided to power on the device to see if I could feel the hard-drive spin, and it booted without issue! I put the cover back on, and now it has booted five consecutive times without failure.

I'm not exactly sure what caused the failure. I didn't touch the connector on the drive or the board, I only peeled back the factory tape, and the device was stationary when these problems started, so I don't believe it's a physical issue.

Does anyone have any diagnostic tips to suggest? Is there a utility I could use to check the health of the disk?

Thanks again!

[GodEater]

I've seen this happen to an iPod colour before as well - and the same as you, when dismantling it, I found nothing obviously wrong inside, but disconnecting the hard drive, and then reconnecting it fixed the problem.

Obviously there are some iPod colour hating gremlins out there