iPod Scare
byI’ve had my little pink iPod Mini for 2 years. It’s always been faithful, always been full of musical treats and has never failed me. But today, I feared the worst when my trusty little Mini would not turn on.
I’ve had a few scares, then with a quick online search I found out how to reboot the sucker without losing and information [reboot]. Sweet. That little trick has saved me many times. But today, it wouldn’t start at all. The reboot wouldn’t work and when I plugged it in via a USB cable, I got the lightning bolt battery symbol that wasn’t animated. It was just stuck, not charging, not playing, not rebooting.
Everyone in the office jumped to the conclusion that iPod Mini batteries suck and that mine is probably totally gone. Yes, they’ve had battery issues and some people have had some really crummy luck. But before I jump to conclusions, spazz, run over to Future Shop and start yelling for them to send it away, fix it or give me a new one… before I do any of that, I Google.
I’ve been told I could be a professional Google master. You need to find something? I can get it for you faster than anyone else. I have special Googling powers. Well, those ‘powers’ came in handy this morning but the search lead me to a pretty common site, one I could have even started with – Apple support said the following:
When you plug your iPod into a power source, the charging icon appears—it’s a lightning bolt over a battery. If the battery is fully discharged, you won’t see an animated icon. Instead, you’ll see the icon pictured below (even on a color screen). The icon indicates the battery is charging successfully, but it doesn’t have enough charge to power up. When connecting an iPod with a fully discharged battery, it may take up to 30 minutes for iPod to have enough charge to turn on and be recognized by the computer and iTunes [apple]
The still image of the lightning bolt over a battery was creeping me out so I had to try something. The advice was really, ‘plug it in and do nothing’ so that’s what I did. Every couple of minutes someone would come up and talk about how I need to buy a new player now that this was one dead. I covered my ears and refused to give up. I left it plugged in and after 45 minutes, iTunes popped up and the screen of the Mini screen turned on the animated do not disconnect logo. “Success! It’s not dead!” I shouted, which is good, cause I can’t afford a new, cute, pink, little Nano.
14 Comments — Comments Are Closed
I find if something doesn’t turn on just whisper naughty words to it ..works like a charm everytime !
I hear you about the googling. Anytime someone says something that I think sounds incorrect or if I don’t know the answer for anything I can think of, google it baby.
Hey I didn’t keep telling you had to buy a new one I just said you might have too get a new “battery”. Granted it’s 2 years old and with technology, it’s old now and you need a new shiny pink nano 🙂
Oh there were other people present 😛 And yes, I wanna shiney new Nano, too bad I just had a birthday.
If you love your Nano that much, then I’m taking it you use it all the time. My expertise is with notebooks, but the technology for the batteries is would be basically the same. If you were escalated to my desk because you demanded to talk to someone about the fact that your battery in one of our notebooks only lasted 2 years, and you told me you used it all the time, I’d have to tell you that is pretty well normal as it’s a limit of the current technology.
That said… good work on fixing it! I also wouldn’t let you off the phone before telling you how to attempt to recalibrate your notebook battery, as we’re not just out to sell you another one.
I’m newbie to iPods, need to remember this little tidbit though.
The coloured Nanos are sooo ugly though! I was really hoping the pink Nano would be like the 1st gen ones, but they’re ugly. 🙁 I’m holding out for the possibility that they change the Nano style again this year.
I think you just passed the Bollwitt Geek test.
Mon in law just took the words out of my mout……err fingers
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I had the very same thing happen to my iPod Mini.
I took it to a place on Bay St in Toronto called ishoprepair.ca which I read about on msn.
They tested out my iPod for free on the spot and found I needed a new battery. They installed a new one for me right there. Great service. Got to love Toronto!
http://www.ishoprepair.ca