iPod mini 2G (6 GB) (partly) unresponsive/strange behaviour

[fuchfe97]

Hi!

I am having a bit of a trouble with my iPod mini, because it doesn't boot/react properly anymore. First I will describe how it came to these problems (probably a bit too wordy), and then I will describe the problems themselves.

I bought this iPod mini 2G (6 GB version) in Spring 2005, and always used it with the integrated WinAmp plug-in, and only used iTunes to update it to Firmware v 1.4.1. I never had problems with it, but in the last year the ever shrinking battery capacity made me look into the possibility to replace the battery. Anyway. Four weeks ago I installed Rockbox 3.7.1 via the Automation, and two weeks ago I replaced the original battery with a 750mAh battery I got from Amazon.
I had no problems until yesterday: I was running (~45 mins) with my iPod and later that day it shut down due to low battery (as I expected it would do). When I came back home about two hours later, I connected it to the charger, and it seemed to boot properly, but there was a persistent black line across the screen (when being turned on, not when the power was off), so I rebooted again, and the line was still there, but it faded a little, so I botted again, etc. After five or six reboots, the line was gone. I was not sure what that was or why, but I didn't bother to look into it further, so I let the device connect to the wall socket over night to charge, then unplugged it in the morning, but it didn't boot properly, so I left it at home (unplugged), planning to look into it in the evening.

Now to the symptoms:
When being unplugged, and booting (only works by hard reset MENU + SELECT) it shows the "Battery with exclamation point" (see http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1378). The symbol disappears after five seconds, and nothing further happens.
When connecting it to the PC via USB, nothing happens, until I make a hard reboot. But then it shows the "Monochrome low battery" symbol, which does not disappear after any timespan. (Ipod is not being recognised by the PC). When I then disconnect the USB cable, the symbol disappears after approx. 5 sec.

Up until now, it might be just a low battery... However, if I connect it to the power adapter it doesn't do anything, until it do a hard reboot, which makes the iPod boot into Rockbox.
However, it doesn't behave normally in Rockbox either:
-) It only shows --:-- instead of the clock.
-) The controls are extremely slow (I have to press the buttons 2-5 seconds, so that it registers it (or it doesn't register it at all); the scrollwheel is similarly slow, only scrolling very very slowly - unless I turn the HOLD on, and off - then it scrolls normally for a split second, and then reverts back to the slow scrolling).
-) It can go to the WPS, shows the song it played when it shut down, and it shows the "Play" triangle, but it does not play any music, it is just stuck at this song, does not fast forward or rewind, or skip tracks, but it changes the volume when turning the scroll wheel (but only in the described slow speed).
-) It also takes an awfully long time to load a new song via the "File"-menu, or to boot, or to recognise anything (e.g. whether I turned on/off the HOLD, or connected/disconnected it to the power adapter, etc.)
-) When I disconnect it from the mains, it keeps running, and it shows a full battery.
-) When I then connect it to the computer, it is recognised as a hard drive and by Winamp (unless when in the WPS when I connect it) and I can transfer files normally.

When the device is connected to the mains, I reboot and quickly turn on HOLD (to boot the original firmware) the Apple logo shows, the light flashes up shortly, then the screen goes blank, the Apple logo shows, light flashes, screen goes blank.... Here, the iPod is being caught in a booting loop. Un-holding, has it boot up into Rockbox, behaving just as described above.

So, now it's up to you guys, if you can help me. I will leave the iPod as it is (just out of curiosity), because I believe that I could format the hard drive in the status as it is, and set it up again.

Anyway, I am looking forward to any suggestions/explanations.

[fuchfe97]

So, what does the lack of responses mean?

Is my iPod beyond repair? Have I just posted in the wrong forum (please move it then)? Do you need more information?

Any reaction is better than none, so please.... say something.

[bluebrother]

Give it a long charge (24 hours or so), preferrably using a charger. Don't expect much reaction from the Ipod and stop resetting it all the time. Afterwards, if you still have those slowness issues check the filesystem (chkdsk /f on Windows). If the system is still slow it sounds like a broken hard disk.

[fuchfe97]

Thank you for your response.

I doubt that the battery is empty, because I charged it over night before the troubles started (roughly 10 hours) but I will give it a try anyway.
How should I charge it (with Rockbox running or not)? Because I don't think it actually charges when I just plug it in a power source (irrespective of whether it's the charger or a USB port, that it's plugged into), or should I plug it in and start Rockbox (it definitely is charging while Rockbox is running).

I will check the filesystem when I come home (in about 3 hours) and post any irregular findings. And then plug it in to charge.

PS: I am not resetting it just for fun, but because it's the only way I can illicit any response from the device.

[bluebrother]

How should I charge it (with Rockbox running or not)?

I would set the Ipod into emergency disk mode for that. By doing so you have Apple code running which should be able to charge reliably and also works even if the disk is damaged.

PS: I am not resetting it just for fun, but because it's the only way I can illicit any response from the device.

In that case this sounds pretty much like a hardware failure. My first guess would be the hard disk, and if you have a CF card lying around you can try replacing it and see if that fixes the issues.

[fuchfe97]

Odd.

I came home, wanting to check the filesystem (before charging it for an extended amount of time), so the plan was to get the iPod into Rockbox (by connecting it to the charger and doing a hard reset, as described in my first post) and then connecting it to the PC; so I plugged it in the charger, did the hard reset and Rockbock booted (just as expected), but when I tried, if the clickwheel still reacted sluggish, it didn't! (but the iPod shut down soon, because the battery was depleted from lying around...) So I booted it up again, fast and responsive and everything; and shut down. I let it charge for a couple of minutes and tried to boot into the original firmware, which also worked, clickwheel (and all the other buttons) worked there as well, so I connected it to my laptop (in Rockbox) to perform the diskcheck, and it returned no errors.

Now the iPod seems to work fine again, I can get into Rockbox, and the original firmware, both being fully functional. Connecting it to the PC also works.
It looks to be all good now, making the whole "incident" even stranger. As if having it lie around solved the problem.
(Which sounds quite similar to the problems/solution reported in these threads (all relating to a iPod Nano, whereas it's a Mini in my case; and the symptoms were a little different as well):
http://forums.rockbox.org/index.php/topic,16880.0.html
http://forums.rockbox.org/index.php/topic,25671.0.html
http://forums.rockbox.org/index.php/topic,25973.0.html

It all seems very odd to me, especially the part where just waiting solves the problem (whatever the actual problem is...)
It does appear to be a problem (or a set of problems with similar symptoms) that crops up sporadically and no real diagnose (let alone solution) has been found. If I can be of any help, just let me know (whether it's providing information, or trying to get my Mini into the same state again.)