Bricked Ipod Video 5.5gen after rockbox install?

[ayden40]

I loaded Rev 3.13 Rockbox on my Ipod Video 5.5gen. Had the ipod since new and never had a single issue with it. Ipod was(is) fully charged.

 The ipod with Rockbox worked for about 10 minutes. I tried to find a track in database and it started to rebuild the database. Then it locked up. I did a reset and Apple's white screen of death appeared. Now I always end up at the WSOD when I do a reset regardless of it the hold SW position, connection to my computer, hold on + hard reset + hold left side of keypad, etc.

Can someone please help?

[soap]

I don't understand all the buttons you're pressing trying to escape this "WSOD".  None of them are how one enters Emergency Disk Mode.  http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1363

Get it into EDM, check the file system, replace rockbox for good measure, and start again.  The system crashing during database scanning is not unheard of but should not result in disk (or hardware) corruption which would prevent a boot.

[ayden40]

Someone with the same issue after a Rockbox firmware install let their ipod completely die then connected it to their computer and successfully restored their device. That didn't work for me.

I can now get into EMD but Itunes and the Rockbox utility can't access the ipod. I see the ipod disc in Explorer but it has a question mark beside it and it's not accessible. Rockbox Util gives me an "unable to write" message from the configuration window. The ipod still eventually ends up at the WSOD.

I think the disk has been corrupted. I hear it spinning up but it emits sounds that I had never heard before I installed Rockbox. I've read other describing it as a series of "tones".

How do I restore the ipod back to the original configuration(reformat the disk) and remove Rockbox?

[saratoga]

Try a different PC.

 emd will always work unless the iPod is physically broken.

[ayden40]

I tried it on two more PCs. The results were similar. The only difference was that the ipod drive didn't show up in Explorer when connected to the two laptops.

I tried to right-click and format on my desktop where I did see the drive in explorer. I get a "drive can't be found" error.

Spent hours and hours researching and trying to get this working again. Still can't fix it.

If EDM will always work, and my drive appears to be spinning, why doesn't it work?

[saratoga]

As I said before, if it doesn't mount in EMD then its physically broken. 

I'd double check that you were really in EMD, then look for a new MP3 player. 

[ayden40]

I've traveled all over the world with this ipod over the last 7 years and it's never missed a beat. I install Rockbox software and while it's updating the database, it becomes bricked.

There was no physical damage. Sounds like Rockbox firmware ruined the HD. But of course according to the programmers, rockbox has never bricked anything.  Wrong.  I can't use it after installing rockbox. It's a brick to me. Thanks for ruining my ipod.

[saratoga]

If the hard drive is 7 years old and making a weird noise when it tries to spin up that sounds like the disk crashed.  They do have a limited lifespan.

I don't think it's possible for a software crash to cause physical damage to an ipods disk, or at least no one has reported that before. it is possible to brick many other devices, but not ipods. Thry are quite well designed.

[soap]

ayden40, you have perfectly described a dead HDD - saratoga stressed the word "physically broken" not to imply you played football with the iPod but rather to emphasize every symptom you describe is emblematic of hardware failure - not software.

And while the timing may be coincidental I rather suspect an honest evaluation would lead one to conclude that it is far more plausible that you had a hardware failure coincidental with your attempted install of Rockbox (as improbable as that may be) than to believe that tens of thousands of people have (and do!) run this firmware daily on iPods for years and years but that you are the first to suffer the consequences!