Nano 2 will not boot + connection problems

[Andrea77]

Hi there.
I'm pretty much stuck! I bought an used Nano 2 and wanted to install Rockbox, but I am a complete newbie in the world of Ipod and Rockbox as well.

The Nano was previously discovered under win10 and Itunes, so it worked. I downloaded the Rockbox setup from this page and started the program. The Nano was discoverd, I chose it as the device in the drop-down-menu and pressed the start button, when then suddenly a problem occured and rockbox shut down - I have no idea what the problem was or still is. Since then I have major trouble because my Nano isn't detected anymore neither from windows nor from itunes, the attempt to continue the installation doesn't work, because in the rockbox menue my device isn't found anymore, it tells me something like the mounting point is missing (I'm German and trying to translate the messages best as possible). But I can't also change something from D: to another drive letter, because there is no option or access to it in the programm.

When I check the device manager for not recognizing the nano, I see that there is an unknown usb device, which has a "device deskriptor failure" and when I right click on that unknown device and check the properites I can read that "the device is stopped, because of an error 43" (or pretty similar in words).

The Nano itself shows the following screen:
Rockbox boot loader
Version 1.0
Loading Rockbox...
Error!
Can't load rockbox.ipod:
File not found
Hold Menu+Select to reboot then SELECT+Play for disk mode

I can set the nano into the diskmode, but the device is still not found under win or itunes. I can also set it back to the ipod mode, so i can "switch" sreens, but so far that didn't help me.
The Nano also doesn't charge any more... it shows the loading symbol for a while but doesn't load, as the battery does not appear in a full mode, only in a half loaded mode.

When I put the nano into disk mode the screen says "ok to disconnect", but doesn't connect to the pc. So even in the disk mode my pc won't recognize it... it has problem "identyfying" the usb. In the device manager there is the unkown device with the error message I posted in the beginning.

I can boot into iPod Diagnostics. Does that help in any way?? And - I have no idea how I did that - was once able to get into the "normal" menu.

Can you help me? I would be happy if I could start using the device again - with or without rockbox...
Thank you in advance!

[saratoga]

It is a little unclear to me what state the iPod is in.  Does the Apple firmware work?  If so, you can probably just install rockbox itself (bootloader is already present) from inside the Apple firmware.

If the Apple firmware is not working, and the bootloader is reporting that it can't access the rockbox.ipod file, then probably the filesystem or NAND FTL got screwed.  I think in that case you need to restore it with iTunes. 

[Andrea77]

How do I find out if the firmware works? I can use the iPod Diagnostics and I can get a mode, that seems to be the "normal player" mode, where I can choose between musik, photos, interprets etc or an "about" field, where I can see for example the serial number, the model, the capacity, etc. But I can't move any files on it, because of the lost connection between pc and the nano.

[saratoga]

You can see if the Apple firmware works by booting into it:

https://download.rockbox.org/daily/manual/rockbox-ipodnano2g/rockbox-buildch3.html#x4-280003.1.3

[Andrea77]

Then I would say that I can boot into the apple firmware. How does that help?

But I think the biggest problem will be that I cant connect the nano to the PC because of the USB problem. The device won't appear in my list of connected usb drives. So I won't be able to load any files onto it or it will not be discovered either in rockbox utility or in any other programme.

[saratoga]

I'm not sure how to troubleshoot USB problems in the apple firmware, it's always worked fine for me.  You could try restoring the device in iTunes or using a different PC.

[Andrea77]

It is not possible to access the nano in iTunes as the device itself is not mounted. A different PC doesn't help as well.

[fennectech]

Sounds to me like your nano has croaked  :/   sorry man   This exact problem took my first nano    Id sugest trying disk mode and a new cable    https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201544  Good luck