R.I.P - my ipod is broken - those were 2 great years we spent together..

Mine lasted four years, which was pretty cool I think.

My first one died after 13 months and now I'm on my second shuffle.

What do you mean? You can get more storage and feature for less money now than 2 years ago!

And "loading all those files again" - you mean you didn't keep a copy on your PC/Mac? If you did, no sweat.

that is true, about the upgrading,reason to be optimistic..though i always used like half of the memory capacity anyway..
about the 2nd question:no i didnt,for most of them..

your iPod went to a better place...

What saddens me is that when I'll decide to get a new one, I'll lose all the play counts, which I like to look at in my nerdier days.

Your new one will show you album covers. Or even better, bizarre jpgs which you assign to be album covers.

How does an iPod die? Is it just the battery? I thought those were replaceable?

these things have a lifespan of 2-4 years?!? wtf why did I ever buy one... goddamned tech sector and its hyper-planned-obsolescence wastefulness...

mine was actually broken - i put it in my bag, and the screen was crashed somehow during all those carrying around.
i think it can be fixed, but for that price - i'd be better buying a new one

They die for all the reasons a full size computer dies, only more so.

Seems the 40GB click wheel (pre-color) was a dud model. I went through 3 free Apple Care replacements in 2 years. All the same irreparable hard-disk brain death phenomenon. When replacement #3 died after my Apple Care had waned, I upgraded to the 60GB video, which has held up very well so far.

Good god, the above makes me sound like a total Brand Sucka.

I bought the 60GB after research seemed to suggest that the generation I owned was particularly bad and newer ones were much hardier.

What saddens me is that when I'll decide to get a new one, I'll lose all the play counts, which I like to look at in my nerdier days.

Do you sync your iPod to a computer with iTunes? cuz if you do, all your play counts are stores in iTunes and you won't lose them with a new iPod.

I have the 40G one too, and I had to have it replaced/fixed twice as well. Coasting without applecare now, but it seems to be ok, esp. now that I only use half the space. If it dies, I'd probably do what Jon did.
(play counts seem to be an even bigger lie than "random")

My sort of old skool 20GB died about 2 weeks ago, after a little over 2 1/2 years of use.

So long, sucka. I don't think I'm going to get a new mp3 player until there's some sort of iPhone-esque model with at least 40GB of hard drive space for mp3s, all for under $300, AKA maybe 2 years from now.

PS this thread is going to be hilarious in 10 years.

All the same irreparable hard-disk brain death phenomenon.
Yep, my 40G has done this. I read that it's often actually to do with the seating of the cable that connects the HD to the motherboard, so I opened it up and sure enough, it was a bit loose. Shoved it in, and it worked fine. Click of death vanished.

Damn you and your mechanical competency!

I would have been so proud of myself if I'd done that.

BTW my wife's 20GB, from the same generation as all of my shit 40GBs, is still bright eyed and bushy tailed after 3 years. Curious.

pays to stay trim

You want a headache? Have the hard drive that holds all your music crash on your. I'm still raising the cash to have it all restored. *To top it off, this was after I wiped my 20GB zen clean too*

Yep, my 40G has done this. I read that it's often actually to do with the seating of the cable that connects the HD to the motherboard

Huh. I went to the trouble of buying and fitting a replacement hard drive. Which then died within two months - or seemed to... no matter, I have an 80G now. Which is no. 3, my first was a 20G which I replaced when it filled up. AND THERE ARE CHILDREN STARVING IN AFRICA.

My original PJB-100 (upgraded to 60G), the first MP3 player, is still going strong after 4.5 years. But that wasn't enough space so I got an Archos 100G player which has served me well. Looking forward to getting the 160G model this year. Yes - I want that much music at my fingertips at all times.

i guess i have 3, all currently working: 1st gen ipod mini (never gets used), 5G 60GB (use all the time), iphone 8GB (suspect i will use quite a lot). my wife has 3, too. we also currently have 10 cellphones between us, which seems a little excessive.

I bought a new 5G 60GB one of ebay about a year ago from some dodge guy who was selling them really cheaply. The audio started to get crackly and fucked up, so i mailed it to apple and i got back a "new or refurbished" one. No dramas with this one. And I use it all the time.

Do you sync your iPod to a computer with iTunes? cuz if you do, all your play counts are stores in iTunes and you won't lose them with a new iPod.

I can't sync since my library is way larger than my ipod..

I've had my 3g since January 2004. I fitted a new battery about a month ago as mine had dwindled to only about an hour or so in life, but other than that it's still going strong. The LCD screen can be very faint sometimes (especially when it's cold, wtf?), but it's viewable.

Mine got used almost EVERY DAY for between one and two hours for its first two, maybe even three years, too. I think it's held up pretty well.

I can't sync since my library is way larger than my ipod..

Trick is to set up playlists then sync those.

My 6GB mini is 2 years old now, and has shown signs of being on its way out at various points over the last year but then seems to recover itself. Thought the battery was gone about 6 months ago, magically got a new lease of life and now is fine again. However it has an annoying habit of losing the playlist index (or something) after connecting to the PC to charge up, which means the Ipod thinks there is no music on it. All the music is still there, if I reconnect it to the PC and actually go in and edit the playlist, it works again.

I think we had a conversation about this in a pub, Colonel P - good news being MY IPod has had a new lease of life too, altho it has it's bad days, poor old chap.

I'm sure you've seen a lot of tech-savvy people smugly showing off that new hunk of entertainment hardware, the iPod personal stereo. Well, I might not have the scratch to get one, but frankly, I don't want the white-corded wonder. I have my very own iPod -- in my mind.

I hear those little things carry up to a month's worth of music. Well, so does my mind. I can call up any song I've ever heard, any time I want. And I never have to load software or charge batteries. There are no firewire cords or docks to mess with. I just put my hands behind my head, lean back, and select a tune from the extensive music-library folder inside my brain.

Thirty gigabytes? So what? I know 7,500 songs, maybe more. Some songs, I forget I even have until they come around on shuffle. Why, just the other day, my mind started playing David Naughton's "Makin' It," a song I hadn't heard in years. And the sound quality was great!

Easy downloads? You don't know the meaning of the word "easy." And I don't have to know the meaning of the word "download." You may get MP3s off the Internet, you smug scenester, but I can get music off the television, the radio, even a passing ice-cream truck. If I don't want to waste the memory space on a high-fidelity copy, I just don't pay very close attention. Now, that's what I call convenience.

All I have to do is hear a song once or twice, and it's stored forever. I can call it up any time I want. Beach Boys. Beatles. How about some Bach? Or some Billy Joel? Sing me a song, piano man of my mind! And those are just the artists whose names begin with "B."

I can browse by artist, album, song, or music genre. Boom! I'm doing it right now! The "repeat" feature? Heck, songs from my iPod don't ever have to end. I swear, I had "Music Box Dancer" going through my head for three days straight last week.

You say those iPods have customizable playlists that allow you to line up songs of your choosing? Primitive! I can put together a playlist, say "Best-Ever Heavy Metal Anthems," while I'm sitting in traffic. My mind is light-years beyond that, though. Does your iPod have the "That Reminds Me Of Another Great Song" feature? Well, my mind does!

Does your iPod have a powerful feature that can play back the great songs of summer 1993, as they sounded coming out of Mike Tollefson's boombox in the back of the school bus? Of course not. That particular playlist is in my brain, which your pitiful iPod will never be able to autosync with.

But wait, you say that my iPod isn't wrapped up in a pretty little white case? Oh, I guess you haven't heard of a pretty little white case I like to call my skull. There's plenty of room for all of my contacts, too. Check this out: Paula, 398-9172, 195 Webster Place. Ha! Take that, Apple.

Sure, it doesn't hold all the music I've ever heard, but if I can't remember a song, it's usually not worth having anyway. Except, I'll admit, that one by The Tubes that I think was called "She's One In A Million Girls." The file somehow got corrupted with part of that J. Geils Band song about the centerfold. But every product has its bugs, right?

Even so, my mind has features your iPod will never have. Does your iPod have real-time remixing? No?! Well, if I don't like the original lyrics to Kansas' "Carry On Wayward Son" -- zip, zip, zing -- my mind can change them! Adding a cool bass line or a rocking keyboard flourish to any piece of music? No problem! Adding images of myself performing on stage with the band? Done!

Does your iPod turn you from just another bus-rider into a lonely figure finding his way down Baker Street? Guess what? My mind can! And it does it all with no moving parts, man. None. 'Cause it's my mind.

Kansas decided they didn't like the original lyrics to "Carry On My Wayward Son" either, and changed them to be about jeeeeeeeeezus.

tracer it should be noted, never leaves his room, he just imagines he has. reason being that last time he looked the world was not as good as the one he had imagined in its place.

The 40Gb pre-colour model was a shocker. My first one lasted about 6 months before its hard drive made the click of death and I had to re-rip my entire CD collection. I kept getting replacements for it that lasted at most a couple of days - usually making that click of death sound as soon as I connected to it.

It's exactly a year since I got my 60 Gb video iPod and it's fine so far except for one time when it froze for no reason and another time sound wasn't coming out for no reason.

Yep my 40Gb died the click of death last summer at 18 months old, but I found a way to make it recover temporarily by bashing it hard and sort of shocking it into life. Then the hard-disk became half-destroyed, so that it would only hold 20Gb - any attempt to get more music on there would result in it crashing and doing the click of death again. Finally it totally crapped out, so I got a 80Gb new one (5th Gen?) which is so far totally excellent. I took a 3 year extended warranty just in case.

My 60gig pre-video ipod finally died after a bit over three years- JUST outside the extended warranty period. Had to replace it twice within that time, once for a click of death and once after an overnight charge session left it with a cracked screen and extremely hot-to-the-touch metal backing (something was seriously wrong with that one). It looks like it's going to be nearly as expensive to replace this as it is to get a brand-new one with color screen and video and such, not to mention getting a new warranty, which is definitely worth the money.

Oh I had that hot backing thing too! It didn't crack the screen though.

I'm finding it hard to understand the folk who aren't syncing playlists with the iPod (seems pretty fundamental to its use) and also those who don't have a copy of their files on a computer somewhere. How can you trust having all the files just on the iPod given how flaky they can be?

I have the dodgy 40Gb model and it's been going for a couple of years. A couple of times I've had the clicky hard drive problem but taking the back off and rummaging around a little seems to have sorted it, at least temporarily. Similar affect to Dr C's banging I suspect.

I'm finding it hard to understand the folk who aren't syncing playlists with the iPod (seems pretty fundamental to its use) and also those who don't have a copy of their files on a computer somewhere. How can you trust having all the files just on the iPod given how flaky they can be?

With my first ipod, I had no local backups because the ipod's hard drive was over twice the size of my laptop's.

Seems the 40GB click wheel (pre-color) was a dud model.

Yup, mine died about 15 months after buying. Bastard. Never particularly fond of it like I was the touch sensitve 20GB I had. With the next one i get I'm gonna hit it with a hammer eleven months and 29 days after buying it so the fuckers at apple can't make my life difficult and will just replace it.

I'm finding it hard to understand the folk who aren't syncing playlists with the iPod (seems pretty fundamental to its use) and also those who don't have a copy of their files on a computer somewhere. How can you trust having all the files just on the iPod given how flaky they can be?

As for this, I went to America for a year without my computer and ripped quite a lot of music off other people's computers so lost all that when it died after I came back.

I've had the 40GB, 4th gen, pre-color model for over two and a half years now, and no problems so far. I've never even heard of this "click of death" you all speak of. My battery was flaky for two separate weeks when it would only last for about 5 hours but then it went right back to lasting at least 10 hours per charge for no particular reason.

I'm hoping mine can last until they make a new one with an iPhone-like touchscreen and a big hard drive, because I'm reaching capacity on my 40GB. Plus I want to watch movies on buses.

How do you know it's time to let go? This morning my 3 y.o iPod showed me a sad ipod face and a link to apple support. Is there anything else I can do?

http://www.recovermyipod.com/ipod-sad-face-icon.php

That's a commercial thing, though. Google ipod sad face and you'll find lots of tips and hints.

Thanks - what's that a programme you need to purchase?

xp

It's still bad news - all of those tips are about recovering your files from the almost dead drive and how to replace the hard drive and so on, not about pressing two buttons at the same time and have it completely healed for free :-(((

How does an iPod die? Is it just the battery? I thought those were replaceable?

I don't know if its been fully explained, but the reason why a lot of iPods have died other than the frustrating battery bit, is the fact that until recently the larger ones were solely hard drive based. 2 or 3 little discs, in a tiny space, running at 5400 or maybe 7200 RPM, in your pocket, pressed against the seat, etc, being slowly knocked out of good rotation. The new Touch ones have flash memory, which has no moving parts, and should last quite a bit longer. My 30GB video just died, under warrantee though.

Seems a lot of people are advising to open the ipod and play around with the cables

Seems a lot of people are advising to open the ipod and play around with the cables

Cut the red wire? No.. The blue wire? The clock is ticking. I'm not taking a chance, this is a fucking ipod.

xpost:
I think the idea is: it's dead and out of warranty, nothing you do can make it any worse, let's see if some magical coincidence ("tap the screen three times, move the cables around a little, blow the dust from under the button, eat an apple, close the cover, put it in the fridge for two days, turn it on and voila!") won't help us get our data back.

If people are having screen and not hard drive problems, and there isn't already, there needs to be an app that controls the ipod hard drive alone from the computer. I've had a lot of stuff work again because of the random fiddling, I just think such a huge product ought to have more support available, esp. in terms of repair shops knowing how to fix the damn things.

<I>I just think such a huge product ought to have more support available, esp. in terms of repair shops knowing how to fix the damn things.</I>

On the software side, the problem is that Apple is very stingy about its code (No iTunes for Linux!), so hacks and workarounds have to be discovered... Then Apple goes and changes everything up with the new revisions, and it's back to square 1 again.

On the hardware side, fixing an iPod's hard drive isn't that difficult if you've got a hard drive that'll fit the iPod's form factor. Pop it open, pull out the old one, plug in the new one, format, and you're off. 'Course, this doesn't help recover your data, but if a hard drive dies, it's dead, and if you don't have a backup, it's gone. Doesn't matter if it's an iPod or a laptop computer. It's basically the same technology.

I imagine the flash-based iPods will be both more robust in this sense (no moving parts, harder to break) and even more difficult, if not impossible, to recover data if it ever gets wiped. But I'm not entirely sure on that score.

motherfucker.

dropped it in the bathtub and now the touch screen won't respond.

Was it a Classic and you mistook it for a bar of soap?

Ha, no.

I am pissed that it costs 3/4 of the retail price to get it fixed. I'm pissed that the nearest Mac store is in Germantown fucking, Tennessee. I'm pissed that the first thing I did was turn it on to "see if it still worked." (That's what did the fucker in.)

And I'm pissed at myself for ruining like the third pda gadget I've had. Average life span in my hands -- eight weeks.

ahah, I've lost/broken so many of these. my latest is a 16g nano. Love it even more knowing sometime soon it will be gone !

not got a new one since my 40gb one broke. too pricey :( just gone back to my discman (and unbelievably, my walkman) instead. inconvenient cos it means i cant listen to podcasts unless i burn them but itll do for now!

What I'm going to replace this one with:

http://www.greenlightoffice.com/images/EJ003053.jpg

http://www.americankelco.com/calendarpocmed.jpg

http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/images/x1/x6207.jpg

http://blogpix.millerslab.com/blogs/LargeAccordionBooks.jpg

A bit bulkier, but about 90% cheaper.

I didn't have any music loaded on this ipod, except for Low in its 8-track sequence. I listen to everything off of my home or office computers.

why do you bother with an ipod, then ?
I think you could have mobile phones or else who do exactly what you need for cheaper !

it was v v pretty.

ahah. fair enough ! (I also find my nano beautiful...)

what's the 8-track sequence of Low?

David Bowie - LOW

program 1
Speed of Life
Be my Wife
Art Decade

program 2
Breaking Glass
What in the World
Subterraneans

program 3
Always Crashing in the Same Car
A New Career in a New Town
Warszawa (begin)

program 4
Warszawa (concl)
Sound and Vision
Weeping Wall

(from this thread: C/D: Eight-track alternate sequencing?)

Wasn't an Apple, but I crippled my own (first) player - a gift - a year ago before even using it by smashing it repeatedly against the floor in sheer frustration at not being able to properly install the software. My tortured anti-logic was "Destroy this fucker, get my frustrations out, and then buy a new one that'll WORK!" Found I couldn't even smash the casing satisfactorily, so I tried installing it again - and it worked, but the display was (and is) practically useless, virtually invisible. I refuse to replace it until it quits working entirely. It'll probably continue playing for years. (Serves me right.)