Bad battery or rockbox problem?

[Frankenpod]

I'm not at all sure whether this is a failed battery or something to do with Rockbox.  Just wondering if anyone could shed light on that question.

Have a battery in 7th gen ipod, it seems to be completely discharged.  When turned on rockbox just says battery is discharged and turns off again.  But I can't charge it because even when connected to a firewire wall charger it will just come on, say the battery is discharged, and turn off again.  I don't know how to get it to charge.

With a different battery that isn't fully drained it works and charges (but the battery I want to charge is a 2000mah one - which used to work, but possibly it might have died due to being out of the ipod lying around for a while).

If I had another ipod opened, with OF, I could try the battery in that, but unfortunately I don't at the moment.

Any ideas, as to whether its just a duff battery or if its something to do with how rockbox reacts to completely drained batteries?

[Mohawk]

Have you tried booting up into the original firmware?
Check the instructions for your exact model, but I believe you have to switch on the hold button as soon as you power up the unit, then it will boot into the Apple software.
See what happens in the Apple firmware.  Will it boot?  If it does, what does the battery charge indicator say?

If it boots and runs fine in the Apple firmware, then it's probably a Rockbox issue.  I think I've seen somewhere that there is a way to re-calibrate the battery in Rockbox.

[Frankenpod]

Sorry, didn't notice there'd been a reply!
In meantime I established that the battery is indeed kaput (can't dual boot with 7th gen ipod anyway).  Got a new one.

There is something a bit confusing about charging 7th gen rockboxed ipods though.  At least, if its with firewire rather than usb the ui doesn't seem to acknowledge that there's any charging going on.  Also the ipod shuts down with inactivity while charging, and I'm not 100% sure if it is still charging after it does that.    Still, it does seem to get charged anyway.