My 6GB iPod Mini isn't dead, but it does do something very annoying. Occasionally it will spontaneously reboot itself while I'm listening to something, usually a podcast. It'll complain the battery is low even if it's just recently been charged.
It started doing this a few months ago when I was at job that let us play music the entire shift. I can usually go 8-9 hours without needing to recharge.
Sometimes it'll do this several times in a row, and often at the very same place in the recording. It doesn't tend to do this so much with music MP3s/AACs, just podcasts. The only thing I can think of is that the podcasts fill the buffer memory and perhaps there's a problem with the RAM? Or maybe it keeps the hard drive spinning and makes the OS think the battery is too low?
Usually after a reset, it'll read low on the battery, but it'll play fine for a few hours at least (if I can get it to play the podcast I was listening to.)
I've tried reseting it manually, and even formatting it and reinstalling the latest iPod software. I just tried the diagnostic mode (hold previous + select during reboot) and ran all tests and passed.
Any ideas?