[Luca]

I'm not sure if this iPod is dead or not. I have a 15 GB, 3G iPod that I bought used. It's been a trooper up until now. I even replaced the battery successfully just a few months ago. Well, it's been in storage for a while and now that I'm trying to start using it again it seems to have died.

When I connect it to my Mac, it will be recognized. I can format it, run the iPod software updater, and so on. I can even open iTunes and see it... for a while. The iPod's only 15 GB but I have about 25 GB of music, so it'll tell me I don't have enough space to fit everything on there. iTunes will ask if I would like to have the computer automatically select some music to put on the iPod. I say no because I want to select my own music, but as soon as I do that the iPod disappears and iTunes says it can't transfer because the iPod can't be found.

I tried again, and this time I decided to say yes to the question and allow iTunes to pick some random music to transfer. It started transferring and got to about 4 GB before I decided to manually stop the transfer (to see if it had worked; I didn't want to wait that much longer). I manually stopped the transfer and the iPod again disappeared from the desktop and from iTunes. I unplugged the iPod and it wouldn't leave the "It's okay to disconnect your iPod" screen, so I reset it.

Uh-oh. Now it's giving me the folder icon of death. It kept turning on, spinning up the hard disk, giving the icon, turning off, turning back on again, and so on. I couldn't get it to stop so I just put it in a drawer overnight and now the battery's dead (indicating that it kept resetting itself until the battery died).

Now, here's what I've done. This iPod was in storage, so I don't know if it worked perfectly before I started monkeying with it. The reason I got it out is because my brother needed to rescue some of his stuff from a dead hard drive. We used the iPod, among other things, to back up his data. In order to do this, I formatted the iPod. I probably should have hooked it up to iTunes and deleted the music there, but I must not have been thinking. Besides, after that was over I ran the iPod software restore to get the latest version of the software, 2.3, onto it. That ought to have fixed it, right? Well, that didn't work. I tried zeroing the drive to no effect. What kills me is that it'll show up and start working, but it can't stay working, and it doesn't work when it's disconnected.

Do I have any options here or is it dead? Which brings me to my travel question. With all this ridiculous and stupid paranoia, I have no idea what is and isn't allowed on planes. I don't even know if there are any rules anywhere... they probably just let each individual customs official just confiscate any shiny gadget that he'd like to add to his collection, or something like that, with the excuse of "terrorism threats." Okay, political ranting aside, would I even be able to bring an MP3 player onto a plane? I really want a working one (preferably one with 30+ GB of storage) because I'm flying to China and that's a long flight. If this iPod would have been restricted to checked baggage anyway, then I don't care so much, but if I'm allowed to bring an MP3 player with me I'd really like to. I want to either fix mine or get a new one.

[chinesebear]

Originally Posted by Luca Which brings me to my travel question. With all this ridiculous and stupid paranoia, I have no idea what is and isn't allowed on planes. I don't even know if there are any rules anywhere... they probably just let each individual customs official just confiscate any shiny gadget that he'd like to add to his collection, or something like that, with the excuse of "terrorism threats." Okay, political ranting aside, would I even be able to bring an MP3 player onto a plane? I really want a working one (preferably one with 30+ GB of storage) because I'm flying to China and that's a long flight. If this iPod would have been restricted to checked baggage anyway, then I don't care so much, but if I'm allowed to bring an MP3 player with me I'd really like to. I want to either fix mine or get a new one.

Well, I can't help on the iPod question, but I can help on the travelling one.

I just came back to China from the US (about 3 days after the whole flying mess) and i can say that it is absolutely no problem to take electronics on the plane. Actually, we stopped in Korea and were able to carry on liquids once we were leaving from there. As far as customs...the right answer on those forms is always NO. i've never been stopped by Chinese customs (because i've never had anything to declare). Don't be paranoid about that...you're in more danger of leaving your iPod in the taxi or being stolen by someone than by getting it swiped by a customs official...especially in an airport.

So don't worry...and enjoy your trip! Customs in China is actually a fairly pleasant experience...especially when compared to the US experience.

[Luca]

I'm not surprised at that, but what I'm really concerned about is leaving the US. They might be kinda lax at a Chinese airport, but at an American one I don't know what to expect.

[chinesebear]

Originally Posted by Luca I'm not surprised at that, but what I'm really concerned about is leaving the US. They might be kinda lax at a Chinese airport, but at an American one I don't know what to expect.

Yeah, I was really worried about that too, especially since my wife and I were carrying on both our powerbook and an iMac, plus iPod and all kinds of fun accessories. They didn't say anything other than "what is that machine?" when i said "an iMac," the response was just "ooooh." Again, I've flown to China out of many different airports...LAX has been the worst, Seattle the best. It all ended up not being a big deal...and like I said, that was 3 days after the recent scare.

[PKIDelirium]

According to the TSA, electronics such as laptops, MP3 players and camera equipment are fine carryon.

http://www.tsa.gov/travelers/airtrav...ted-items.shtm

[BlueRabbit]

iPods are allowed in US airports as carry-ons, so you don't have to worry about that. I flew from Seattle to Burbank and back last week, and on both ends my PowerBook and iPod weren't a problem at all.

[Luca]

Anyone have an opinion on the iPod's life or lack thereof? Is it a lost cause?

[naashraf]

Originally Posted by Luca I manually stopped the transfer and the iPod again disappeared from the desktop and from iTunes. I unplugged the iPod and it wouldn't leave the "It's okay to disconnect your iPod" screen, so I reset it.

Well, I had if not the exact problem but almost same. I too was transfering the music through iTunes (auto update) and moving some files (around 4GB) via finder. I have 4G 20GB.

I realised it was getting very hot so I stopped the transfering of the files in finder manually before it was completed and there it went wrong. The finder will not show it and iTunes will not show either. When I plug the iPod the message showed DO NOT DISCONNECT but there was nothing in Finder or in iTunes. I was using Firewire. I did not had the USB at home so could not try the other ports as suggested by Apple. Anyways, The next day I brought it to my office and there I connected it to Windows via USB and it showed up in My Computer and in iTunes. To avoid further triuble I restored it there on Windows and brought it home and it was OK with Mac now.

Since then I hav restored it on Mac with Firewire cable and it seems OK now. But I guess I will not transfer the large files via Finder now as it produces lot of heat and I am worried I will toast it.

HTH.

[MCQ]

No opinion on the iPod life expectancy, but you probably won't want to accidentally drop the iPod in the toilet, and cause a repeat of this (whether this account is true or not, I don't know... but the plane was diverted early because of the iPod being stuck).

http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/th...11211166&sid=1