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

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

gergtreble — Sun, 26 Feb 2006 11:29:30 -0800

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.

By: cellphone

cellphone — Sun, 26 Feb 2006 11:36:38 -0800

Have you checked Apple iPod Support?

By: gergtreble

gergtreble — Sun, 26 Feb 2006 11:41:22 -0800

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....

By: terrapin

terrapin — Sun, 26 Feb 2006 11:42:53 -0800

or iLounge?

By: mmcg

mmcg — Sun, 26 Feb 2006 11:43:33 -0800

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.

By: gergtreble

gergtreble — Sun, 26 Feb 2006 11:45:25 -0800

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?

By: GreenTentacle

GreenTentacle — Sun, 26 Feb 2006 11:47:10 -0800

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.

By: GreenTentacle

GreenTentacle — Sun, 26 Feb 2006 11:48:25 -0800

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.

By: mrendon

mrendon — Sun, 26 Feb 2006 11:50:17 -0800

Have you reset it?

I was able to power up an ipod off of a desktop usb connection but not a laptop one.

By: gergtreble

gergtreble — Sun, 26 Feb 2006 11:50:43 -0800

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....

By: GreenTentacle

GreenTentacle — Sun, 26 Feb 2006 11:54:14 -0800

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.

By: gergtreble

gergtreble — Sun, 26 Feb 2006 11:55:39 -0800

Right so ill be needing a firewire cable then! Cheers! Ill put the battery back in it then!

By: Good Brain

Good Brain — Sun, 26 Feb 2006 12:12:06 -0800

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.

By: meehawl

meehawl — Sun, 26 Feb 2006 12:46:38 -0800

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?

By: Atreides

Atreides — Sun, 26 Feb 2006 13:10:29 -0800

I believe the type of USB you use, also is a factor into iPod charging from your computer.

By: thomascrown

thomascrown — Sun, 26 Feb 2006 13:14:31 -0800

God bless you, Ask.Meta! You just resuscitated an old iPod I recently inherited that I assumed was completely dead.

By: Eddie Mars

Eddie Mars — Sun, 26 Feb 2006 14:31:14 -0800

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.

By: flabdablet

flabdablet — Mon, 27 Feb 2006 03:55:36 -0800

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.

By: eighth_excerpt

eighth_excerpt — Thu, 23 Mar 2006 18:09:34 -0800

Thanks mrendon. You're resetting advice helped me. I don't know what February your comment is from but it helped me in 2006.