Apple Hardware Problems
iPod Serial: JQ51914FS4D
I received it on May 18, 2005 and it was probably purchased a week before.
My iPod Mini is getting flaky. I'm starting to get "Delayed write failed" errors in Windows, followed by iTunes telling me it "Can't update songs on iPod." The Windows error is one my experience tells me is the result of a dying hard drive.
I updated the iPod to the most recent version of the iPod firmware, and used Apple's "restore" functionality to wipe it clean, but the errors persist.
When Playing songs and Podcasts, the iPod will skip several minutes of a song, even the entirety of the track. Playback often consists of 30 seconds of a track, followed by some silence, and finally audio from another track. Many tracks fail to play all together.
I'd heard that the device has a Disk Check mode, but my searches have lead me to conclude that it's been removed from the Mini.
Out of curiosity I priced replacing the microdrive in the guts myself. $180 for one that's the same size (6GB) as the current drive.
So I tried a Chkdsk through "My Computer" on the drive. No love. The Chkdsk dies in both W2K and XP.
So now I'm running Chkdsk from the command line with /F /R, and it's finding bad sectors. This means the drive is on a death march. :(
What annoys me, is the lack of useful technical details on the Apple web site. None of the directions on putting the iPod into Disk check mode were on Apple's site. The diagnostic capabilities of the non-Mini iPods seem to be undocumented as far as Apple is concerned.
What's more, the Apple restore software made no attempt to check the surface of the disk for errors. The only option Apple seems to offer is sending the sucker in for service, for which they want about $35.00 just to look at it.
I'll let the Chkdsk finish, and see how things work out from there. When I have to send it in for service, I'll do as one friend recommended and drop it off at an Apple store so I can avoid the shipping costs. Replacing the hard drive myself isn't worth the expense, when I could get a different MP3 Player for a little bit more.
I received it on May 18, 2005 and it was probably purchased a week before.
My iPod Mini is getting flaky. I'm starting to get "Delayed write failed" errors in Windows, followed by iTunes telling me it "Can't update songs on iPod." The Windows error is one my experience tells me is the result of a dying hard drive.
I updated the iPod to the most recent version of the iPod firmware, and used Apple's "restore" functionality to wipe it clean, but the errors persist.
When Playing songs and Podcasts, the iPod will skip several minutes of a song, even the entirety of the track. Playback often consists of 30 seconds of a track, followed by some silence, and finally audio from another track. Many tracks fail to play all together.
I'd heard that the device has a Disk Check mode, but my searches have lead me to conclude that it's been removed from the Mini.
Out of curiosity I priced replacing the microdrive in the guts myself. $180 for one that's the same size (6GB) as the current drive.
So I tried a Chkdsk through "My Computer" on the drive. No love. The Chkdsk dies in both W2K and XP.
So now I'm running Chkdsk from the command line with /F /R, and it's finding bad sectors. This means the drive is on a death march. :(
What annoys me, is the lack of useful technical details on the Apple web site. None of the directions on putting the iPod into Disk check mode were on Apple's site. The diagnostic capabilities of the non-Mini iPods seem to be undocumented as far as Apple is concerned.
What's more, the Apple restore software made no attempt to check the surface of the disk for errors. The only option Apple seems to offer is sending the sucker in for service, for which they want about $35.00 just to look at it.
I'll let the Chkdsk finish, and see how things work out from there. When I have to send it in for service, I'll do as one friend recommended and drop it off at an Apple store so I can avoid the shipping costs. Replacing the hard drive myself isn't worth the expense, when I could get a different MP3 Player for a little bit more.