Its only sat on a shelf for a while!!!!!

February 26, 2006 11:29 AM

What happens when an Ipod battery dies?

I have aquired my sisters old 3g ipod, she got a video one for christmas. It has been sat on a shelf for 2 months whilst I tried to get hold of a USB cable for it.

Last week I folded and bought a USB cable from ebay.

Now...

Nothing.

Nothing at all. I plugged it in and nothing happens. No Charging icon nothing. If the battery was dead would this happen? Or would It get charge from the USB and boot?

It was working fine when she discarded it for her shiny new video. All it has done is sit on a shelf for 2 months. And now it wont take a charge! Opening it and fitting a new battery wont be a problem. But I am loathe to buy one before I know more.

Help me metafilter youre my only hope.

posted by gergtreble to technology (18 comments total)

Have you checked Apple iPod Support?
posted by cellphone at 11:36 AM on February 26, 2006

Yeah had a look on there but didnt find a solution. The problem is I'm not familiar with ipods. Its completely drained out, due to being left on a shelf for 2 months. And now it wont even take a charge. Simply nothing at all happens when I plug it in....
posted by gergtreble at 11:41 AM on February 26, 2006

or iLounge?
posted by terrapin at 11:42 AM on February 26, 2006

Are you plugging it into an AC adapter? A laptop? A USB hub? There's a chance the port you're trying to use doesn't deliver power.
posted by mmcg at 11:43 AM on February 26, 2006

Ok ill check out Ilounge. But it would be handy if someone could tell me if an ipod with a dead battey will boot up if attached to a USB power supply?
posted by gergtreble at 11:45 AM on February 26, 2006

The 3g iPod won't charge from USB. You need a firewire cable. Once it's charged, then you can connect via USB, but it'll drain battery as it does it's communication. USB charging came about with the mini and the 4g.
posted by GreenTentacle at 11:47 AM on February 26, 2006

Woops, forgot there is also a split cable that has a firewire lead and a USB lead. Firewire plugs into the wall charger that should've come with the iPod, and the USB talks to the computer.
posted by GreenTentacle at 11:48 AM on February 26, 2006

Have you reset it?

I was able to power up an ipod off of a desktop usb connection but not a laptop one.
posted by mrendon at 11:50 AM on February 26, 2006

The device I bought uses a USB cable that plugs into an AC adaper and plugs into the wall. Are you saying that this is useless? That would explain the complete lack of activity....
posted by gergtreble at 11:50 AM on February 26, 2006

Yeah the 3g doesn't have the pins on it's dock connector (the female part, inside the iPod itself) to pull power from USB. No iPod younger than 4g/mini can pull power from USB.
posted by GreenTentacle at 11:54 AM on February 26, 2006

Right so ill be needing a firewire cable then! Cheers! Ill put the battery back in it then!
posted by gergtreble at 11:55 AM on February 26, 2006

Also, for owners of 4 & 5G iPods, the PCs I've encountered appearantly don't provide the appropriate power to charge the things over USB. This includes both USB on the motherboard, and via add in cards.
posted by Good Brain at 12:12 PM on February 26, 2006

the PCs I've encountered appearantly don't provide the appropriate power to charge the things over USB

I've charged several dozen iPods over USB with many different PCs. Are you sure you aren't thinking of 4-pin Firewire?
posted by meehawl at 12:46 PM on February 26, 2006

I believe the type of USB you use, also is a factor into iPod charging from your computer.
posted by Atreides at 1:10 PM on February 26, 2006

God bless you, Ask.Meta! You just resuscitated an old iPod I recently inherited that I assumed was completely dead.
posted by thomascrown at 1:14 PM on February 26, 2006

In answer to your next question (as yet unasked): Yes, you can get a new battery for your iPod, since this one isn't carrying the charge anymore.

I went with the kit from here.
It took about 15 minutes to swap out the batteries, and the new one really does last longer than the original ever did.
There are other retailers, so be sure to google around for the best price.
posted by Eddie Mars at 2:31 PM on February 26, 2006

For more bystander benefit: I had a customer with an iPod Shuffle that failed when connected via USB to own computer, failed when connected to mine, but worked fine (naturally) on all the computers we tried back at the original supplier's shop.

When it failed, it would sometimes do nothing at all, sometimes provoke the usual Windows XP USB-device-inserted "ding", followed sometimes by the appearance of the safely-remove-hardware icon in the system tray, and sometimes would repeatedly and rapidly disconnect and reconnect until Windows got stuck and needed a reboot to recover.

It came good on my machine after I cleaned the contacts inside the USB plug (using a little bit of bicycle inner tube rubber stretched over the end of a small screwdriver) but still failed on his.

Turned out the +5V power supply rail on his machine only delivers +4.7V, and that's apparently not quite good enough for an iPod Shuffle. It works fine if connected via a powered USB hub.
posted by flabdablet at 3:55 AM on February 27, 2006

Thanks mrendon. You're resetting advice helped me. I don't know what February your comment is from but it helped me in 2006.
posted by eighth_excerpt at 6:09 PM on March 23, 2006