Bought iPod 4th Gen - Nothing going.

[LaPorta]

So, I took a chance and ordered a "functional" iPod 4th gen off eBay. Only realized later on that it was a Chinese reseller. It apparently worked according to photos. So, I get it here today, looks to be in OK shape. I hook it to my computer. I get the Apple logo startup screen. Then, I get a sad iPod and the instructions to "Go to www.apple.com/support" It then shut down. Now, no matter what I do, I cannot get it to do anything at all. Won't start, won't do anything. Left it plugged in for a few hours to see if it was a totally dead battery. Zero.

No idea what to do now if anything. Do I just suck it up and say "oh well?"

 

[finkmac]

"oh well?" ???
I really hope you don't give up that easily Imagine if we all gave up when our old macs didn't power on....

Crack that sucker up, yoink the battery for a while, plug it back in, see if that changes anything.

 

[LaPorta]

Not gonna just give up! Just looking for pointers since I have never been in these things.

 

[finkmac]

Bad battery and or bad disk are the most likely issues I'd say.
Sad iPod is basically the same as the ? disk on MacOS by the way, just means it wasn't able to boot an operating system.

 

[LaPorta]

But the fact that it won’t even power on now?

 

[Phipli]

But the fact that it won’t even power on now?

Battery might have gone under the minimum charging voltage. If the voltage goes too low, many protection circuits refuse to charge a lithium battery.

For now, grab something cheap and small from something else to see if it comes back to life - verify if the protection circuit is on the battery, or the PCB first, then put something similar (same voltage, has or does not have protection) in.

 

[Daniël]

Do you have a 30 pin to FireWire cable? These iPods get way more juice on FW than USB, charging over FW can sometimes bring deeply discharged iPods back. That said, if the battery's cooked, modern replacements are available, as are flash based storage solutions if the hard drive conked out. The iPod is in a bit of a renaissance era for tinkerers, with plenty of aftermarket parts being available, so there's definitely enough reason to keep going!

 

[LaPorta]

Yes I’ve been using the FW cable, so that isn’t it. So I’d assume then that if the thing worked enough to give me an error message that the logic board isn’t toast. Maybe it is indeed just the battery then.

 

[finkmac]

don't forget the hard drive uses quite a bit of power. if it's stuck or something it could be overdrawing.

 

[LaPorta]

Ok, well...I got a US-based one that actually works. Next, I would probably like to change out the battery and possibly go to SD or a new HD.

What do people recommend as far as batteries? Any higher-than-original spec ones out there that anyone has used? As far as the HD...use it till its dead? Put in a higher capacity? Are there any higher capacity ones that people have used? How about changing out for SD?

 

[3lectr1cPPC]

The FireWire cable should be able to boot an iPod with an even totally dead battery, but you never know. I just bought cheap eBay batteries for mine, and they're working fine a couple years on. Extended capacity batteries are much larger and will only fit if you install an SSD in the iPod (which gives extra space). This will give insane battery life though, so it could be worth it. Mine go a few days on a charge anyway though with new standard batteries.

 

[LaPorta]

That's fair, I think i'll just go with standard since this won't be heavy use anyway. Indeed, this one starts right up and is charging nicely with the FW adapter I had before...so the other one really must have something up. I think I may make a Part II of my G4-panel polishing video and make an iPod polishing one .

@3lectr1cPPC ...while I have you here...do you have the STI file for that plastic 1400 hinge fix? I am trying to figure out just how far raised the screw bosses are from the flat part of the panel in their standoffs.

 

[3lectr1cPPC]

1400 STL is linked here on this thread: https://68kmla.org/bb/index.php?threads/powerbook-1400-hinge-fix-shim.39921/

While polishing the original panels is certainly an option - I've used Mother's Mag and Aluminum polish with some pretty decent effects on the backs of mine, there are actually new replacements still being made: eoe.works
There's a HUGE aftermarket market for iPod parts.

 

[bigmessowires]

Did you give up on the first one with the sad iPod? Let's see some glamor photos of this thing! What's the first album you're loading on?

 

[LaPorta]

1400 STL is linked here on this thread: https://68kmla.org/bb/index.php?threads/powerbook-1400-hinge-fix-shim.39921/

While polishing the original panels is certainly an option - I've used Mother's Mag and Aluminum polish with some pretty decent effects on the backs of mine, there are actually new replacements still being made: eoe.works
There's a HUGE aftermarket market for iPod parts.

I was actually more interested in the acrylic front panel: getting all those fine scratches out more than anything. I did see the new-make back panels! Unreal!

 

[3lectr1cPPC]

I believe Brasso can have good results on the front panels. But yeah, a bit hard to justify polishing old parts up when you can get new ones in any color you want.

 

[LaPorta]

Did you give up on the first one with the sad iPod? Let's see some glamor photos of this thing! What's the first album you're loading on?

Sure, I'll get some photos. I did give up for now just because 1. I really want that just works to use, and 2. These things are like $40....it wasn't a big loss. I may yet fool around and try to get it working.

My goal is to do what I usually do: just dump all my music on it at once

 

[3lectr1cPPC]

If the motherboard is bad a new one is cheaper than getting another iPod, so you can always go that route as well to get your dead one working.

 

[LaPorta]

Thanks! I appreciate that...might well look into it. There's also a sort of..."dent" on the bottom of the metal near the dock connector. Might have to look into a new back as well, I suppose.

 

[greystash]

I've been restoring a few of my iPods recently and found that all of them get stuck in boot loops when either the HD is bad or I've installed a new SSD. To fix this I formatted the new drive before putting it in the iPod, and if it still gets stuck I'd restore the drive from an iPod disk image I made earlier. Formatting an SSD while inside the iPod seems to not work properly depending on the adapter, and restoring won't work at all if the original drive is bad.

I've got restore images for the iPod Mini and Classic 4th generation here, and will soon be adding 5th generation.
Good luck!