Need to know my 80GB 5.5g is a lost cause before I order replacement hdd

[kvnknrd]

So last week I turn my ipod on in the morning to see a sad ipod face.. thought it was issues with booting so I find the bootloader thread figured that was my problem and restored my ipod a few times.. figured I have one of those "special" ipods since I have that kinda luck...  (I have to use the 30gb firmware because I have 32mb of ram on my motherboard...) successfully booted into both firmwares after a bunch of odd finger presses and odd combinations (definitely did not boot how it should but I was just happy to get it working when I did). In fact the apple firmware seemed to be running a little better than rockbox but it would hang onto menu's at certain points. The only way for me to boot into rockbox at a certain point was where I'd have to get to the "plug into computer to restore" then press play+pause so the screen blanked out for it to then go to the do not disconnect screen by itself right after and then immediately reboot into rockbox by itself after a reset... all without ever plugging in a cable!! Magic stuff..

So anyway, I've tried restoring and resyncing and reinstalling so many different regular, unreleased, and patched versions of rockbox and the bootloader many many times and still I had problems booting but what kept me going was that when rockbox WAS booted and running, it ran pretty ok for the most part. This made me think that the ipods hardware itself was fine and I figured I must have flubbed somewhere with the software. I was able to view my file tree and all my folders music, etc. It played fine when it was on, but if I turned it off normally or even a hard reset... the chances of it turning back on successfully and booting successful were slim to none. So I'm at the point now that when I hit select the ipod turns on... apple screen comes on... sad face. I can get it into disk mode if I hold play and select for about 30 seconds but when I get it plugged into my computer it takes really long to recognize it. When I plug it in I hear a USB device sound so my computer does recognize I plugged in a device, but like I said the ipod never gets detected. Only when the ipod restarts itself while in disk mode does it SOMETIMES pop up a window that says "Your ipod needs to be restored, open itunes? etc." but at that point it's too late and even plugging it back in after I hit open itunes does nothing. So yes, despite any damage this player may or may not have, I CAN get it into disk mode but it dies before I ever have the chance to restore it or before my computer can recognize it as an ipod. So this is where I'm left at, with an ipod I bought to replace an X5... both of which I used rock box on... and I really don't wanna dip money into this thing right now but I have to do what I have to do. Any help or pointers would be much appreciated and just to let you guys know I am pretty computer savvy so I tried a lot of things but I'm definitely open to any suggestions on how I can get my pc to format this bad boy. I also tried OEM apple cables and aftermarket, they both yield the same results.

edit: if i go to the apple store do they have the ability to restore this, some kind of way that consumers cannot? keep in mind i have an ivue case on this custom music box.

edit 2: disk mode entered... plugged in... put my head up to ipod, hear hard drive on but a click every now and then, not many at all... no sign of disk usage in the corner of the screen... ipod stayed on for about a minute until the screen blanked out and went back to the apple logo... at this point dialog pops up "your ipod needs to be restored to be used on windows open itunes"... open it up... on the ipod screen at this point was an apple, that went to sad ipod face now it's at please wait very low battery.. fter this screen it will reboot to an apple and go to the sad ipod face again.. endless loop.. disk mode is my only chance it seems, but how to get it to stay on??? or rather, why does it turn off??? is this all because it didn't finish i canceled a format before it finished?? Could this be as simple as a poorly seated zif cable? I've opened it up a handful of times before and I even opened it up in an attempt to reseat everything properly..

edit 3: plugged it into another computer, the computer was running windows 7 and it recognized ipod driver support right away which it successfully installed.. same thing though, by the time it could install it the ipod shut itself off and was back at the apple screen, then the exclamation point screen... is it possible that the ipod just has a bad battery? I am just really hesitant to believe its the hard drive because I've run a checkdisk on the ipod several times... some times it found errors and fixed them, other times it took a really long time and found no errors. then, some other times it decides when it wants to show up or not show up in the disk degragger that's built into windows which i did run a couple times, which went rather quickly. i've never had problems syncing up until recently too which i should also note. trying to copy over my entire music library after multiple restores... sometimes it would all successfully transfer over but i'd get an error saying there is not enough free space... but if i go to properties and view the size of my library on my disk compared to the library on the ipod.. it is the same. strange problems, i've had.. this ipod sure is a headache but its worth it because when it is working 100% there is no substitute

[kvnknrd]

Well I found out the culprit of problems or at least what I think it was... was a poorly seated ZIF cable. No idea how I could have made this mistake, i guess it REALLY needs to be JAMMED into the slot..

Mods you may delete this thread or keep it for future help references, etc

[kvnknrd]

Question: Can Rockbox run better or worse depending on the type of motherboard you have?? I only ask because I am very picky and I have to run the 30gb version of rockbox on my 120gb ipod 5.5. I am pulling out my hair trying to diagnose my problem(s). It's so retarded, the iPod literally stops working when I snap the case shut. I have no idea what to do at this point but rebuild the ipod from the ground up. What should I do???

[Chronon]

The board will determine how much RAM you have, and thus which build you should use.

This doesn't seem related to your issue, however, which seems to be due to a short or a break in your cable that leads to a flaky connection.

[kvnknrd]

Thank you for your input, any helps at this point.

I have purchased and already replaced the battery (w cable attached) and the zif hd cable. Both yield similar results. Could it be a different cable??? Which cable could cause a sad face?

[NiHaoMike]

I am pulling out my hair trying to diagnose my problem(s). It's so retarded, the iPod literally stops working when I snap the case shut. I have no idea what to do at this point but rebuild the ipod from the ground up. What should I do???

Does it stop working if you apply a little pressure to the connectors? Also make sure you have not misplaced an insulator sheet.

[kvnknrd]

I've tried with the insulator sheets I've tried without... I've tried the "folded card" trick although I may have not done it correctly.  I've tried using foam rubber pads to add pressure to the back of the hard drive against the black plate. Nothing. The only way I can get the ipod to work is if I have it all "assembled" with the battery contacts in and what not but as soon as I clip the right side of the case down while looking at it it locks up and I hard reset to a long apple screen then sad face

I already bought an upgraded hard drive now and if I buy another mother board to "fix" this problem and it happens again after putting it back together I'd be really pissed

[gevaerts]

Are you sure you're inserting the ZIF cable correctly?

[kvnknrd]

Yes because the iPod is functional when it's not snapped together. But somehow it has trouble when it's snapped back together...

[gevaerts]

That means you have contact on all leads, it doesn't mean the cable is connected properly

[kvnknrd]

honestly if I had a nickel for every time I took this thing a apart I could buy everyone here a starbucks but I'll try once again when I get home. If I jam the cables into their respective slots any more i'll probably break something. What is your professional opinion that I do?

[torne]

I don't think anybody here is a professional iPod repair engineer, so we don't have professional opinions.

[kvnknrd]

I was kind of being generous in applying a title to you fellow "developers" but thanks anyway

[soap]

Are you following an iPod repair tutorial or going off of experience and gut instincts?

[kvnknrd]

I've done both to be honest but I'm trying to use logic here and logic tells me something is touching or out of place when I snap it together but my knowledge of the inside of an ipod (literally, like the parts and what they do) is scarce. There could be a bad ribbon cable or perhaps one thats getting pinched but I cant see that either. What interested me was hearing about the folded paper shim trick, do any of you know what that is or how to do it?