A friend of mine was about to throw out his 3G 15GB iPod because it wasn't working, so I offered him $50 to take it. He snatched up my offer, and so now I'm left with this iPod. Here are the symptoms:
-Connected it to iMac G5 via Firewire Cable. Apple logo shows up, the folder with an exclamation point next to it appears, and after a while, the check mark with the 'OK to disconnect' message will appear. At the top, it says Disk Mode.
-The iPod is charging as we speak. The battery level indicator at the top right is moving, so I suppose that's good.
-It will not mount to my Mac. I have the latest iPod updater software installed.
-It makes a lot of wonderful noises. It will spin for a while upon initial connection, then make a series of scratching noises internally. Within this cycle, you can also hear a faint hissing/frying noise that sounds like a frying pan with some nice pieces of chicken sizzling on it. It will do this for an extended period of time, and eventually stop.
-The iPod is quite hot after all of this. It's on my desk right now and I can't say my 20GB w/ color display has ever been that hot.
Before I connected it to my computer, I fumbled around with it on it's own. Here's what it did:
-Apple logo would appear, followed by the battery level indicator graphic flashing with an exclamation point next to it. A few seconds later (while spinning, churning, and scratching along) it would shut down.
I just now unplugged it from my computer, and tried to reset it again. It did the following:
-Apple logo appears, followed by the exclamation point/folder icon. Spin/gargle/scratch... followed by a restart. It will then go through the process again, followed by another restart. It's still doing it right now as I type this.
The iPod doesn't have a warranty left. I bought it for the possibility of repairing it and ripping open an iPod, since I've always wanted to. Not to mention, this is only the second time I've ever touched, handled, or seen a 3G iPod.. so it's kind of interesting to see the history of this machine. Anyway, what are my options? I'm guessing the hard-drive is pretty much dead.. how hard would it be to replace it myself? Or should I try to send it to Apple and let them deal with it? I could also stop by my Apple store later today if I needed to... if that would do me any good.
Oh, and for the record, I've tried everything button-wise to help this iPod out.
I have tried:
-Resetting it (menu/select)
-Invoking disk mode (menu/select buttons followed by previous/next buttons)
-Scanning the disk (menu/select buttons followed by previous/menu/select/next buttons)
-Restoring it (it won't work unless I can mount the thing, but I looked it up anyway)
I think that covers everything. Help and insight would be appreciated.
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