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My iPod has stopped producing any sound via the earphone socket or from the socket on the bottom of the player - either through my ipod trip auto or from the ipod speaker system I have.
Please any ideas - is there a mute button I don't know about.
I've tried multiple songs which previously played.
However the songs still can be shown and played via iTunes.
5th Gen 30Gb Video
Please help
Thanks in advance

either restor your ipod using itunes and re add all your music, or hold the center circle button plus the play/pause button at the same time for 5 seconds and restart it and see if that works

Hey. My ipod just did the same sorta thing. Yesterday it sounded a little scratchy and then it went silent. It's still isn't playing anything. This is for both the headphones and when plugged in from the bottom. So, I just wanted to know if restoring the ipod worked for you.

~Thanks

Same exact thing happened to me. I was watching a video and the sound got scratchy and disappeared. I plugged it into my DLO FM transmitter, nothing. After playing with the bottom jack a bit I have gotten momentary blips of sound. I have a 5th generation Ipod Video. Other people have said to take it in, but my 1 year warranty is up. Is there any home solutions for this, I really don't want to shill out $250 for a new ipod. I tried the 5 R's, still nothing. Thanks in advance for any help.
-Also thought I would add that the Ipod easily connects to the computer and I can play audio files off of it. I am completely baffled, I thought it was just a communication error between the ports, but after reformatting it nothing has changed. I think the thing broken

Ok, to make things more bizarre, it works now. I have no idea why, or how long it will last, can anyone help?

-- Ok, so on a whim I put the Ipod in front of my cars A/C vent and when it got cold it started playing like nothing was wrong, but when it warmed back up the music stopped. If the other people with this problem wanna try getting it cold it would be interesting to see the results. It could be a manufacturer defect.

Hi All, looking at similar threads, there doese seem to be a common fault with a lot of video pods, no sound from headphones or docking connector, some find that pinching bottom right of the ipod brings sound back, but only while you have pressure there, did not work on my pod :-(
As for drakunis that is a typical sign of contact failure, when unit warms up a bad contact will open up (no sound) and contract when cold (sound again). i have heard of this with another when someone had to put his unit in a fridge for it to work.

The only solution for this i think is new logic board, (will let you know as i have one in the post)

P.S opening up th ipod is easy, start opposite end of screen and slide an old credit card type thingie between the seam and work your way round it.

Hey!

I think the same thing has happened to my 30GB video iPod. It was in my bag while I was having lunch out in the sun. My iPod got really hot and when I tried to listen to music afterwards the earphones gave a steady clicking noise. Cooling down didn't help and ever since then (almost a week now) the iPod doesn't work.

Does anyone know how to fix it? Is it worth bringing it to Apple?

Same sort of problem. Started hearing crackling noises for about one minute, then the sound completely shut off. Can still hear the clicker sound, just not the music. Obviously nothing wrong with the jack, must be a software problem? Any help would be appreciated.

soooo I tried the fridge and it worked! Wierd and obviously a concern that something is indeed awry inside that opens a gate cutting off sound.

Had left it in there for 3 hrs. Actually forgot aobut it but needed another beer. Beer, pizza and now ipods.

THERE IS HOPE!

the pod has become people's life line. its a way of saying who you are and what you listen to. believe it or not, the freezer trick WORKS!!! i have a 5th gen video ipod that quit playing sound one day. it showed it was playing but i heard no sound. i read tons of threads and feeds with much concern. just when i was gonna give up, i said what the "h" and tried it with a slight variation. instead of putting it the freezer with the possiblity of forgeting it, i use a flexible gel ice pack and wrapped the ipod in it for about 5 minutes. to my suprise, the ipod PLAYS WITH SOUND again!!! if you've lost hope and all else has failed, give this method a try. what do you have to lose other than your temper. try it, it saved me money and heartache!

the principle behind this is expansion and contraction of the metal surfaces in the bearings of the ipods hdd, if the bearings have seized up freezing could help free up the bearings and let the hdd platters spin again, plus this is only a temporary fix or so i've been told.

How long does this temporary fix last? My 5th gen iPod was experiencing the same problem. I popped it in the freezer for 10 mins and now everything works fine.

I had the same thing happen to my iPod yesterday and cooling it down made it work temporarily. I am wondering if anyone has found a permanent solution. Please let me know. Thanks

That worries me... the only other time I've heard use of a freezer trick is in the case of dying hard drives.

Does your ipod still work or was it just a temporary fix?

Temporary fix. I was able to use it for about an hour until the sound went again. I'll try it one more time when I get home tonight.

Hey, same problem -- no sound, but i had just dropped my ipod flat on the floor from waist height before ...

So i took it apart, pulled apart the back plate connector from the logic board, removed the harddrive, checked all the other connections, put it back together and .... nothing.

So i turned it on and was just moving it around, when I noticed if I held it between my thumb and forefinger and squeezed gently in the left middle of the screen sound started to sputter and there was static-y popping sounds. About a minute of pressing and releasing (gently) the sound came back.

BTW, lrdraper489's explanations about bearings in the hd makes no sense. If you had a harddrive problem it wouldn't just be that sound wasn't coming out -- nothing would be happening and you would see a sad little ipod icon.

BTW, hard driv

I have an 80 gig Video that is 18 months old. After a long itunes session (USB 1.0 on my PowerBook) I plugged into my BMW iPod cable, scratchy noise, then no audio.

After trying amny other things I tried this freezer trick, and it worked for only a short while as well.

This is indicative of a bad solder connection on the board. As the unit heats up, the connection breaks, and when the unit gets cold, the connection is better.

But with an iPod, I suspect finding such a bad connection is not easy.

Anyone know of a good source for such a repair? My iPod is pristine other than the fact that it doesn't work as an audio player

Hey, this is exactly what happened to my 30GB ipod speakers, it broke playing while I was listening jazz music and both the ear phones stopped functioning. The crazy part was that after I restarted it working automatically.

Last week, I fell asleep on the couch with my 30 gig iPod video playing. When I awoke, I found that the exterior protective case was steamed up and the sound from the iPod was scratchy. I pulled the headphone jack out, tested the headphones in my laptop, and found they were OK. Upon inserting the headphone jack into the iPod again, I found that the sound was completely gone. The hard drive was still playing and new songs could be selected, but no sound was forthcoming. I then tested the iPod in my car, where I have an adapter that takes sound from the port on the bottom of the iPod, and found no sound there either. I restored the iPod successfully and resynched it to iTunes, but it still offered no sound. I discovered that cooling the iPod in the refrigerator restored the sound, but only until the iPod warmed back up (10 minutes or so). I also discovered that running a finger up and down the front face, just to the right of the click wheel, would generate brief bursts of music and loud pops. I took it to my local Apple Store, but they were unable to help (it was out of warrantee by a few months) and they referred me to a third-party repair company, iResQ! I sent it off to iResQ!, hoping it was a bad cable connection or the like. This afternoon, they called back to tell me that this problem arose from a malfunctioning main circuit board and was essentially irreparable (given the cost of replacing that board). I don't wish to discourage those of you who are having similar symptoms, but my iPod is a goner. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news.

I popped open my 80GB video iPod with the "No Sound" problem and took a look around. I found that if I cooled a specific part or placed pressure on it, the iPod would play. Here is a picture showing the part (excuse the size):

Believe it or not, I think I just fixed my iPod with the "No Sound" problem. I'll explain what I did.

My hypothesis was that there was a bad solder joint on that component. That's why cooling it (compression/expansion) or pressure on it made the iPod work. So the solution would be to reflow the solder enough to reestablish a solid connection.

I actually performed this fix with the iPod powered on and running. Repeat this exercise at your own risk. I used a Panavise to hold the hard drive and metal backplate out of my way. I used the wooden end of a Q-tip style dowel to put pressure on the device. I used a heat gun to heat the device and the solder around it. While placing pressure on the device -- more specifically, the left edge of the device which seemed more sensitive during my probing -- I heated the left area of the device with a heat gun. These heat guns get very hot; there is a fine line between just enough heat and too much heat. I heated it up for just a short period (maybe 5-10 seconds). I started to smell something (good signal to stop [or you went too far]) and removed the heat while still maintaining as much pressure as I could get on the device. I allowed the device and solder to cool for about 20-30 seconds while maintaining pressure. I even blew on it some to speed the process.

The whole time I did this, I was listening to it play with my earbuds. It continued to play. It's still playing now. I hope it continues to play for a long time.

Here's a picture of me repairing the iPod: