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As you’ll see this coming Friday, I like U2. Call my taste in rock’n’roll mediocre, call me a sell-out, or just an old geezer (all are true to some degree), but I’ve been following the band loyally since their first album 102 years ago.
But I don’t like the band as much as I used to, and it has nothing to do with the direction they’ve gone in. Here’s why:
In 2004 I bought my first iPod. For a couple months the thing worked just fine. Then one day I was at the gym, listening to U2’s “Walk On” and the thing froze right in the middle of the song.
I tried all the fancy reset instructions in the manual, but alas, the thing wouldn’t unfreeze and the battery eventually lost its charge because I couldn’t turn it off, either.
I took it to Apple and, after confirming that it was, indeed, stuck on “Walk On” they replaced the iPod on the spot. (Luckily, it was still under warranty.) I was able to walk on out of the store with a brand new iPod, which, after syncing to my Mac back home, was a mirror image of the old one. No harm, no foul.
But cut to this past weekend, three years later, and I’m at the gym once again, this time listening to U2’s “Where the Streets Have No Name” and ONCE AGAIN the iPod freezes in the middle of the song – something it never did before.
Now, you’re either thinking all I listen to is U2 or I should stop going to the gym so much. But verily I say unto thee, my 40 GB iPod is nearly full, so even if I had every U2 album on there (and I think I do), that still leaves space for thousands upon thousands of songs.
So, once again I go through all the rebooting steps in the manual and this time it seems like it works, but then suddenly, as it’s rebooting, boing! I get a sad-face iPod on the screen basically telling me there’s been a meltdown.
So I take it to the Apple iPod Bar near me, just to confirm. And, indeed, the hard drive is kaput (it’s the 4th Generation version, pre-flash at this size HD) and the warranty is out-of-date. With no special Apple Care, I can do nothing at this point short of buy another (I’ll buy an iPhone this time and kill two birds with one stone because I’m not into my BlackBerry, which is only slightly better than my old Treo.)
There’s a lot of irony nesting here, if you care to look. First, as you might know, U2 has a deal with Apple. Some have even suggested that in shuffle mode, the iPod will even play U2 songs (and other bands) more often than other songs (Apple jiggered the algorithm to favor certain bands, some say). More than that, there was, at one point, a U2 iPod – a 4th Generation version, that had all the band mate’s signatures etched into the back cover.
So here are my questions:
1. Have any of you had issues with U2 and an iPod?
2. Anyone know if there’s a way to save an iPod that’s “fried”?
3. Have any of you had to trash an iPod? What happened to yours?
[update! - my dead iPod is now working again, thanks to one very helpful comment from you readers. tune in thursday for your chance to win a special thank-you gift from me to one lucky reader who can correctly identify the cure!]
My sister had the same model IPOD as you and it too would freeze on certain songs. I think it was “Across the Universe” soundtrack that finally killed it once and for all.
posted by Joe on 4-15-2008 at 4:42 am
You could take it apart and turn it into a wallet.
posted by aron on 4-15-2008 at 5:42 am
I have had several problems along these lines.
The first time my 4G ipod died in the middle of a John Denver song (fair enough I say), resetting only brought me back to a sad face. I took it back to a store and got a replacement, thankfully at a reduced price if I remember correctly (of course it was just out of warranty).
The next time the hard drive gave up, about a year later, I actually replaced the hard drive myself. Using a website now seemingly unavailable (just google “replacing ipod hard drive” - there’s even some excellent instructional videos available) and a new hard drive at a price much lower than a new ipod, everything got back on track pretty quickly.
Another year on the drive still locks up on the odd occasion, clicking clicking clicking until the sad face appears, but a good solid knock on the corner of the ipod gets it up and running again. Getting rid of the old John Denver tracks would probably have the same effect.
It certainly is a fine art keeping these things running! Roll on SSDs!
posted by Andrew on 4-15-2008 at 7:05 am
I had a couple of dead iPods (it took a few years). One was a 2G with a bad battery, one was a 3G with a bad hard drive (dropped it).
One day, while going through my box of fun, I decided I had nothing to lose, and moved the good drive to the 3G. Now I have a 3G with a 10 Gb HD. I consider it my emergency iPod, as I’m also the proud owner of a 30 Gb 5G.
My advice: look into getting a replacement drive. They’re all over Google.
posted by Andy on 4-15-2008 at 7:06 am
I’ve had 2 ipods melt down. First, was one of the minis…which in the beginning stages of melt-down I was able to sell…(sorry!) The second, was a glorious 60G, the big bulky one with Photo. Keep in mind here that I had no computer at the time, and still don’t. The battery died 2 times, each time I replaced it by myself (opening your ipod in an amateur fashion is much like performing brain surgery on yourself…it can be very devastating.) Alas, that died too, and now I’m sporting the 30G video, which has given me no problems for a good time now. Even if I had to replace it every year, it would be worth it to me…try carrying around a CD player again, running out of batteries every two days…you’ll agree.
posted by Andrew on 4-15-2008 at 7:20 am
I have had similar problems with my ipod nano. Very occasionaly, it will freeze mid song. Like yourself, there was nothing I could do but wait for the battery to die and then recharge it. Luckily for me, once it was charged up again there was no further problems with it - it worked as normal.
I would think the whole U2 thing is a mere coincidence rather than some elaborate conspiracy involving apple & bono. Fair play though, you just never can tell when it comes to bono!
If after your ipod freezes its completely broken I would say you’ve probably been more unlucky with them than anything.
Hope this helps.
posted by Ben on 4-15-2008 at 7:22 am
I gotta say, I’ve been pretty lucky with my ipods.
Being a college kid, two years ago my dad bought me an iPod G1 Nano as an early bday gift. At the time it cost $250 and we paid the extra money for the Best Buy 2 year extended warrenty (my dad didn’t trust something that small that was that expensive). A year in a half later (this past December), I noticed the battery wasn’t holding its charge as long as it should and that it had frozen a few times. I brought it to the customer service desk and they told me to grab a new one. The new video nano cost $200, so with the new warrenty, the total cost was $230. Best Buy then gave me the difference of $20 in gift cards, and then gave me another $20 because they had a deal going that when you bought an iPod they gave you $20. Overall, I got the new iPod and was paid $40 to get it. Sweet deal.
Moral of the story: buy the extended warrenty.
posted by Amy on 4-15-2008 at 7:43 am
I had a buddy in college who would microwave his iPizzle every few month so he could get a new one. He went through about three generations doing this. Thank God for Apple care.
posted by Gary on 4-15-2008 at 8:40 am
I have a 30G… I think it’s a 5th generation ipod and I only have one problem with it… Every so often (when it’s in shuffle) it plays the first 5-10 seconds of a song and then skips to the next song. Very annoying. Just recently I sent my ipod to Apple regarding this problem and they sent it back saying there was nothing wrong with it. Initially my ipod didn’t skip, but just last night it played the first 10 seconds of a song and went right into the next one. Grrr. I highly recommend taking the plunge and purchasing the Apple Care. It’s very useful.
posted by Sarah on 4-15-2008 at 8:51 am
I have the U2-branded iPod and I don’t care how fancy-schmancy the newer generations get, I am not giving it up for anything. I have never had a problem with it, and, despite some 540 out of 4997 songs (I checked), I don’t find that it plays U2 as much as it should, given that kind of ratio. In fact, I would say that Neil Diamond (36 songs) comes up with alarming regularity.
Now I’m in nerd-mode and I want to figure out the ratios of each artist to the total and try to predict how often their songs should play!
posted by Rachel on 4-15-2008 at 9:04 am
I bought my 20G 4th gen in June 2005. About 6 months ago, it didn’t freeze, but it just stopped synching to my computer. It would charge, but the computer wouldn’t read it. Didn’t even recognize it as a drive. Took it to Best Buy (yay for the 3 year extended warranty) and had it back within a week with a new hard drive.
About a month a go, it just stopped. Dead. Wouldn’t click, wouldn’t read, wouldn’t do anything but frown at me. Back to Best Buy again and whaddaya know - needed a new hard drive!
Not quite sure how I kept killing hard drives - I kept it in my purse or on my desk for the most part, so there really wasn’t any blunt force trauma.
Anyhow - bought a new 80G classic a few weeks ago and LOVE it. Since there’s a few months left on the warranty for the old one I gave it to the momma till she can get her own. (Not exactly the most technically up to date person in the world.)
If anyone knows what might’ve killed the hard drive on the old one, let me know - I’d like to make sure the new one lives a long happy life too…
posted by Sarah on 4-15-2008 at 9:31 am
I had owned my iPod, one of the 60g- video ones that was discontinued shortly after their creation (which I should have taken as a sign) for a little over the expiry date of the original warranty when mine had similar symptoms — the freeze and stuck on, not resetting until after the battery died.
Mine, however, was ironically (I thought) stuck on “Sympathy for the Devil.” The Aerosmith version.
The only thing that brought it back from the burning pit - so to speak - was plugging it into either my computer or a dock and attempting to do all of the reset stuff after the battery was most certainly dead.
I have on occasion since had freezes, but never to that level. More like burps, really. They usually are sortable without calling Apple, who hadn’t been of much help in the first.
And I still have “Sympathy” on the thing, although I do hold my breath every time it plays through — and try to avoid turning off the machine on that song.
Call me superstitious…..
posted by ACute Angle on 4-15-2008 at 9:34 am
I’ve had my ipod for about 3 years now. When I first got it, I noticed that te battery wouldn’t hold a charge for very long. I took it in to apple and they said they’d have to send it out but I didn’t want to because I was leaving on a trip the next day. So I’ve just been adjusting the backlight timer to off and putting it on hold.
Here recently though its been feezing and I’ve had to reboot it twice. Also, its not keeping the videos on it.
I bought the episode of Fosters Home for Imaginary Friends where they introduce Cheese, but its now gone from my ipod even though its still on my computer.
posted by Emily on 4-15-2008 at 9:45 am
Knock on Wood….but i have had my 20 GB going on 5 years and it is still running strong. The only problem is that it is pretty much full, so when i add new stuff to it, i sometimes have to delete other stuff i dont listen to very often. Hopefully i’ll get one of those huge 160 GB ipods and never have to erase again.
posted by Andy on 4-15-2008 at 9:46 am
I listen to U2 all the time on my Zune and it has never coused a problem.
Just another point for the Zune, I suppose.
posted by EEB on 4-15-2008 at 9:52 am
I know I misspelled ’caused’. Don’t say a word and/or words about it.
Zunes still rule.
posted by EEB on 4-15-2008 at 9:54 am
I have had 3 such experiences with Ipods, so needless to say, I am done with Ipods, and I would suggest all of you do the same, my reasoning is this, if you can kill an ipod by playing a song, which is what the thing does, then it is not a very good product.
posted by ryan on 4-15-2008 at 10:11 am
My first iPod, the 20G classic, did freeze once on “Sunday, Bloody Sunday”, but it usually decided to have issues when it attempted to play Coldplay. I’d constantly have to reboot it and it was kind of annoying.
I got the 2nd Gen Nano for Christmas last year and I really like, but it freezes quite a bit. Either that or it just kind of pauses and then shuts itself down. I can’t figure that one out, but it’s still a nice little size.
posted by Pam on 4-15-2008 at 10:19 am
i have a little red Sansa MP3 player. never had a problem. (and it is ridiculously easy to use-i like that)
it is half stuffed full of Dave Matthews Band tunes though. yay!
posted by the creature on 4-15-2008 at 10:42 am
Ugh. I bought a 30GB video iPod with the 2 yrs of extended warranty. within the warranty it got a “screen bleed” and I was told that I dropped it or something (I DIDN’T) so no warranty. no videos but it plays music if you can determine which song you are playing from the forst 3 letters. I should have got the $50 model not the $300.
posted by Hannah on 4-15-2008 at 10:43 am
I get made fun of all the time for having an Ipod the size of a VHS tape (remember those?), but my 30g 3rd gen Ipod is a freakin’ TANK! I inherited it from my sister, and that thing is still going strong! I replaced the battery a while back for $10 off the internet, and that thing is nearly full, and performing like a champ. I’m not at all ashamed of all the buttons or its size. Size doesn’t matter… or, that’s what I’m told.
posted by Justin on 4-15-2008 at 10:44 am
i have an ipod mini and about a year ago i knocked over a glass picture frame on my bookshelf and it fell corner down, putting a nice little hole in the wheel. the buttons were messed up and wouldn’t do what they were supposed to. i put it away thinking it was a goner but i took it out a few months later and it works fine now. i use it everyday with no problems!
posted by mnd on 4-15-2008 at 11:04 am
I have had the same problem with my 40g iPod. Actually I had the same problem four times (I remember because I was becoming so irritated that upon recieving my fourth iPod I named it iPod #4 which pops up to remind me every time I sync it to my PC) After trading it in three times previously my warrenty was out of date. I took a trip to Mexico where the iPod decided to give me the iPod face of death. With no Apple support to be found for hundreds of miles I became so frustrated that I did what anybody would do to fix a broken piece of electronics: I threw it on the ground. =) Low and behold the jolt from the impact jumpstarted my iPod haha. I’ve gotten the screen many times afterwards and now I just kind of hit it with the palm of my hand and put my ear to it to see if the hard drive is spinning on the inside. I haven’t had to replace my iPod since. Thank you random acts of anger!
posted by Reub on 4-15-2008 at 11:22 am
So far, I’ve never gotten the sad face of death, but my ipod has a crush on norah jones. In particular, song #3 from her Come Away With Me album. I’ll be listening to something totally different, and suddenly a song will randomly stop, and restart with “Cold Cold Heart.” It’s really jarring if you’re listening to Black Rebel Motorcycle Club or Gorillaz. Happens about once a month. No good reason. it’s strange.
posted by Jenny on 4-15-2008 at 11:32 am
I have two iPods - the 30G and a 1G shuffle. I haven’t had anything happen to my 30G iPod so far (knock wood) and I’ve had it for 2 years. The only songs I’ve noticed my iPod favoring are Beatles songs but that could be because I have about 500 Beatles tracks on there…
The only beef I have is that the 30G doesn’t hold its charge anymore, so I have to keep it on the dock in my office or in my car. I’ll probably end up getting a new one within the next year and leave the old one at my office.
I love my iPods and have to have one with me at all times.
posted by Melodye on 4-15-2008 at 12:16 pm
David, i got 2 things for you:
1.) Stop listening to U2. They are not good. 1, 2, 3, 14!
2.) I might be mistaken but i think in my ipod owner’s manual it says to not run, jog, or use the ipod in “bumpy” conditions… something like that. If you run consistently at the gym, this might be your problem. I would suggest getting a cheap mp3 player that has an SSD hard-drive with no moving parts to exercise with. You can get one cheap for ~$50-60.
posted by Jeff on 4-15-2008 at 12:22 pm
My first iPod was a Mini. I had it for six months when the battery crapped out. Called Apple (this was before there were any Apple stores in the vicinity), and they said I would have to cough up $30 for shipping. I told them I was still under warranty. They said since I was six months into it, I would have to pay shipping.
So I went online and spent $20 on a battery kit, and the thing still works great (I gave it to my sister when I got my 5gen 30G iPod).
Have had no problems (knock on wood) with my 30G. I also have an iPhone, which is a friggin’ tank (it has been submerged in water- another story), and a Shuffle.
Oh- and if you’re looking to buy a new iPod- recycle your dead one at the Apple Store, and they’ll give you 10% off your purchase of a new one. That’s pretty decent considering they never reduce the price of their products unless on Black Friday.
posted by Holly on 4-15-2008 at 12:25 pm
Oh Melodye! Me too! I’ve got every original Beatles album on my 30G iPod, plus most of the other stuff that came later (all the Anthology albums, Live at the Star Club, etc, etc….)
The only complaint I have is some of the songs I notice aren’t clear - kinda fuzzy sounding. But the same downloaded songs are clear on my daughter’s nano for some reason.
posted by Sheila on 4-15-2008 at 12:41 pm
My boyfriend’s 4th gen iPod just stopped working - the hard-drive just crashed.
We had fun taking it apart once we were sure we couldn’t save it. He’s going to put a big magnet inside, put it back together, and stick it on the fridge.
posted by Stephanie on 4-15-2008 at 1:11 pm
I recently got a 3G Nano for my birthday, about a month ago. I have had it freeze up once, but I was testing how fast I could flip through menus. A simple reset was all it needed.
This iPod was a replacement for my 1st gen shuffle, which broke when my husband dropped the laptop to which it was plugged in. The usb connector snapped right off, and the ribbon broke as well.
posted by Amy on 4-15-2008 at 1:31 pm
My iPod was 4th gen, 30G and beyond repair.
Lucky for me I found a website that bought useless iPods, and sold it for 60 bucks.
Not bad.
posted by Tsunade on 4-15-2008 at 6:43 pm
I’m on my 3rd iPod!
My first one, an iPod 30g photo, had a bad hard drive… and went to the iPod hospital. The hard drive went again.
I’m on my 3rd iPod, a 80g iPod classic, and the thing is giving me problems yet again.
all I can say is… thank goodness for warranties!
posted by nicole on 4-15-2008 at 6:59 pm
ifixit.com has replacement hard drives.
posted by Steve on 4-15-2008 at 8:35 pm
I have a really stupid 4gb ipod nano that constantly freezes up and/or restarts itself. A reset will always fix it, but this happens CONSTANTLY–sometimes it freezes 3 or 4 times in 20 minutes.
I paid thirty bucks shipping to send it back to apple to get it repaired, and they sent it BACK to me and insisted that there was nothing wrong with it.
posted by Rose on 4-15-2008 at 9:05 pm
My Creative Zen went down for a while not too long ago… on a U2 song (It’s a Beautiful Day… it wasn’t).
So, judging from that…
I’d say it’s a conspiracy. ;)
posted by Stephanie on 4-15-2008 at 9:49 pm
I inherited a 30G Creative Zen Touch 3 years ago, and it’s still going, so I’m no help, BUT do you have In the Name of Love- Africa Celebrates U2? I felt very guilty about purchasing that one.
posted by Miss Kiki on 4-15-2008 at 9:57 pm
I’ve had my 60g video for little over two years now and up until about three months ago it was all smooth sailing… Not one skip or freeze to be heard of…
So one day I go to plug it into the computer as I have so many times and what happens? The entire thing freakin’ resets… All of my music and pictures, gone… Normally that wouldn’t be a bad thing, but I had replaced my computer in the past year so I didn’t have all of my music anymore… almost 20gs of music gone :(
So now I’m working on rebuilding my music collection… This is going to take me a while because most of my old music had been taken from my now ex boyfriend’s computer… Clearly, I won’t be getting it back that easily…
posted by Christine on 4-15-2008 at 10:29 pm
Word of advice. Don’t max out the capacity of whatever iPod model you have. A good rule of thumb is to leave at least 5% of the hard drive or memory unused. The software that runs these things needs a little room to work correctly. You’ll see a lot fewer freezes if you don’t stuff your iPod totally full.
posted by Sitruc on 4-15-2008 at 11:05 pm
I have a second-generation 10G iPod! It works perfectly and only has a few scratches from the single time I dropped it on gravel. And its battery life is fairly okay.
Whacking your iPod on something hard sounds like a good suggestion to me. Have you also tried a hard reset? The manuals explain how to do this (or at least they used to. . . I haven’t bought an iPod in about 5 years).
posted by Harlequin on 4-16-2008 at 12:09 am
My iPod loves to play Tom Petty while in shuffle, mostly when my husband is in earshot.
posted by Sara on 4-16-2008 at 7:52 am
Go with Sansa! They’re so much better, cheaper, easy to use, and NOT proprietary! Mine is TINY. Way smaller than any IPod I’ve ever seen.
posted by Amber on 4-16-2008 at 7:58 am
I have a 5G 60gb; it was a birthday gift in January 2006. I took it with me to China (I was there on a two-month work assignment). I don’t keep any photos on mine, but I have ALL of our music collections, podcasts, TV series episodes, plus Mandarin language instruction on it. I would be lost without it. It has frozen up a few times, though never in the middle of a song. Since I can’t shut it off, I just let it go until the battery dies, then plug it into my laptop and re-sync everything.
posted by Mama9cats on 4-16-2008 at 12:49 pm