iPod problem

[Brandon Burke]

Hey folks. I have a question that one or many of you might be able to answer. My iPod has decided against charging up when I plug it in. When I plug it into the wall it doesn't recognize that...well...it's plugged into the wall. And when I plug it into my computer it does everything it's supposed to do as a quasi-hard drive--i.e. it loads up as a directory in iTunes and shows up as an icon on my desktop--but it doesn't charge up.

I understand that when batteries get low on cell phones they still charge but they die pretty quickly. (I should know because my phone is doing this right now.) The situation with the iPod I don't get at all, though. Even more baffling is the fact that I have two altogether different cords with which to plug in/charge the iPod and I have the same problem with both of them. In both cases, they function as a hard drive cable but the iPod itself doesn't get juiced.

My guess is it's not the battery because I just bought the darned thing in May. Granted, I've used it a LOT but c'mon...

Any ideas?

-- Brandon

[alankin]

Sounds like a battery problem. Does it still have a warranty?

[Jim Alfredson]

The batteries on the original iPods die and you have to send it back to Apple to get a new one and they cost $$$.

[7/4]

The batteries on the original iPods die and you have to send it back to Apple to get a new one and they cost $$$.

Thank You for shopping Apple!

[Brandon Burke]

Jesus man... I just bought the damned thing in May of this year!

Could it seriously be spent already? That's ridiculous.

As for the warranty...yeah I have it somewhere. Can't remember how long it is on the iPod but I bought an iBook the same day and paid extra for the Applecare package. (Always a good idea.)

Unfortunately, my file cabinet is in public storage and probably hidden beneath an assortment of lampshades, records, etc.

[Claude]

It could also be a broken connection problem within the iPod.

[Jim Dye]

You have a year warranty on the battery, I believe. Do you have an Apple store near by?

[.:.impossible]

You won't have any problem dealing with Apple Brandon. We've had to send computers in before and they've been very easy to deal with.

Have you seen the new ipod, just introduced? Go to www.apple.com.

[J Larsen]

Warning: If you send your iPod back to apple to get the battery replaced, they send you back a replacement iPod w/ a clean harddrive. I.e., you lose all your songs. The service is $99.

You can also replace the battery yourself for far less. I've opened up my iPod to investigate the possibility of various hacks. It's very easy. Here is a site that sells the batteries:

http://www.ipodbattery.com/

[wulfman]

Even if the battery was not in great shape it should still show that it is charging when plugged in. It seems like your problem may be related to a faulty connection or a problem with the power management system that determines whether or not the battery is full.

Before you go and return the iPod to Apple, you may want to reset the iPod by reinstalling the system software. I did this with my first generation iPod when I had battery problems and it helped to improve my battery life back to 3 or 4 hours which is not bad considering I've had the thing for close to 3 years now. If you have all your songs backed up on your computer, you have nothing to lose by trying this.

[Brandon Burke]

Warning: If you send your iPod back to apple to get the battery replaced, they send you back a replacement iPod w/ a clean harddrive. I.e., you lose all your songs. The service is $99.

You can also replace the battery yourself for far less. I've opened up my iPod to investigate the possibility of various hacks. It's very easy. Here is a site that sells the batteries:

http://www.ipodbattery.com/

I ended up going to the Apple shop downtown and swapping it out for a fresh one. I'm still under warranty so this service was free.

[bertrand]

I'm having a strange problem too, but it does not sound like the one Brandon was having.

Last week, I finally got it set up. I charged the battery as said in the book, no problem. Then, in the past week, I bought some tunes on itunes, imported some CDs, and loaded the whole thing. No problem.

Last night, I bought an adapter for the car. I noticed the battery was low (90% gone), I figured, it's been a week, time to recharge, and did so overnight.

I imported some more CDs, and reloaded with my USB port this morning.

Now here's the problem: granted, I have been listening a lot today (in the car, in the subway, at work), but I noticed the battery was already about 80% gone. Does it really get used up in 2-3 hours? Should I recharge every night (like I do with my cell phone)?

What worried me is a couple of people at work said that rechargeable batteries can be messed up if you recharge before the battery is totally empty. After that, it never recharges all the way again and quickly dies out.

Is this true? Do you really need to wait until the battery is 100% gone before recharging? Or is it just that you have to recharge every night? Have I messed up my battery? My wife just got this for me in August, but I don't know where she put the paperwork.

Other less crucial thing: I accidentally clicked yes so that the when I enter a CD, my PC immediately brings up itunes and starts importing. I used to have a choice between realone player and itunes. I tried unchecking the 'default to itunes' option, to no avail. Is there anything else I need to do?

Bertrand.

P.S. Otherwise, I love the thing. Listening to George Russell's Jazz In The Space Age, purchased from Verve as part of their OOP special. What a killer album!

Edited November 19, 2004 by bertrand

[Brandon Burke]

Hey Bertrand,

Yeah, the battery goes rather quickly with a lot of use. I'm just like you are, by the way. Any chance I get (subway, bus, out to get coffee, etc) I get mine up and running. I think an iPod battery wearing down like that on a daily basis is normal. Mine always have. And yes I charge mine every night. Well...more accurately I charge it for about 3-4 hous in the evening after work. That's usually all it needs.

BTW: You know that having the illuminated screen function on all the time will drain your battery, right?

The other problem I can't help you with, though I have to assume it's something you can change in your preferences/options.

Brandon

[alejo]

Here is an interesting site that discusses iPod battery FAQs. Oddly enough it's called:

iPod Battery FAQ

[Leeway]

Every time I think of getting an iPod, threads like this put a stop to it.

There are some other iPod-like players out there by other companies that don't seem to have battery problems. Maybe that's the way to go? Is the iPod that superior to its competitors?

[Bluerein]

Bertrand: I hope you are using a Apple Mac?

Here's the way to change your default settings with entering a CD/DVD.

Go to System preferences, click CD/DVDs in the Hardware section and the pop up menue will let you change everything you need.

[John L]

I'll join the misery here. I bought my iPod in September. At that time, the fully charged iPod had about 11 hours of battery life. It is now down to 2 hours. I have been very careful not to charge it when the battery is not dead, although I don't know if that does any good in this case. Every time I charge it, it gets weaker and weaker.

In short, this battery thing really sucks.

[Stefan Wood]

Here is a link to apple that tells customers how to get the most out of their battery life:

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=61434

A little elf told me that an ipod might be coming my way this winter. Ho boy!

[Stefan Wood]

iPod batteries

Several users have experienced a problem where the iPod's battery becomes drained while the host Mac (charger) is sleeping. The fact that batteries are routinely being completely discharged then recharged (a full, or "deep" cycle) in this manner may have something to do with the large number of short-lived (16-18 months) iPod battery complaints.

Some precursors regarding this issue:

As previously mentioned, Apple's documentation merely states that the iPod will not charge while the connected Mac is sleeping, not that the unit will discharge during this period of time. Knowledge Base article #61127 says "To charge iPod's battery, simply connect iPod to your Macintosh. The computer must be turned on, and iPod won't charge if the computer goes into sleep mode."

Most readers report that the iPod drains more quickly when it is connected to an off or sleeping Mac than if it is not connected and sitting idle (however, these measurements may be inaccurate - see below). Some have noticed that the iPod's hard drive sometimes spins while connected to a sleeping Mac. Thus it would appear that the iPod remains active while connected to a sleeping Mac, and is perhaps using more power to stay active than is being drawn from the FireWire port.

What's odd is that some readers have reported that the drain occurs even while an iPod is dock-connected to a Mac that is turned off. This would appear to indicate that the iPod is constantly "listening" for a signal from the Dock, depleting its battery in the process. This notion is reinforced by the fact that it is not necessary to turn the iPod on when docking it for an update; even if the "hold" switch is active and the iPod is off, placing the unit in the dock will cause an automatic transfer.

For most, the discharge problem is not persistent, occurring once every few sleep sessions.

Some older models not affected Several readers have reported an absence of this problem with older (first and second generation) iPods connected via a FireWire cable; not the dock.

Ryan La Riviere writes: "I have a second generation (non-dock-based) 10GB iPod. I have, on several occasions, actually used my sleeping (and plugged into an outlet) TiBook to charge my iPod via Firewire. If I wanted to charge the iPod while the TiBook was not plugged into an outlet, the TiBook would have to be awake."

John Merritt writes "I have this problem with my wife's newer 10 GB iPod, but not with my older 10 GB, (pre-dock) iPod."

Another reader writes "I have noticed the same problem with my latest generation iPod but not my second generation iPod."

Using an external FireWire hub allows sleep charging Aside from simply using the AC adapter, the only way to continue charging some iPods while your Mac sleeps is to use an externally powered FireWire hub. This way you can still use a single connection for power and data transfer.

MacFixIt reader Eric Westby writes "I ended up using a powered FireWire hub to solve the problem -- since the hub continues to send power to the iPod/dock even when my G4 is asleep, the iPod is fully charged in the morning even though my G4 has spent the night asleep."

AC adaptor may more fully charge iPod batteries Besides not discharging, the iPod AC adaptor may be able to more fully charge an iPod battery relative to the dock in some cases.

"I have a 10GB second generation iPod. I normally charge by hooking the iPod to my laptop or desktop. Around early Jan of this year it would appear that my iPod would not hold a charge. When hooked up to a computer it would seem like it could never reach full charge on the display. If it did, then it wouldn't hold its charge for more than a couple of hours. I thought the battery was toast. On a fluke, I connected it to the wall charger. After it reached full charge, I was again able to get about 8 hours of playing time. Its like having a new iPod!"

Setting startup time to three hours prior for maximum charge Knowledge Base article #61127 also notes that the iPod is "80 percent charged in about an hour, and fully charged in about 3 hours."

If you want to keep your iPod docked overnight (or for another long, unattended period of time), you can use a utility like iBeeZz to automatically wake your Mac up three hours before you'd like to begin using the iPod. This will provide a full charge - based on Apple's claims - in spite of discharging.

Slow charging because of other devices Several users have noticed slow charging when other FireWire devices are connected. Bob Sutryk writes:

"One other issue that frustrated me for months: Shortly after I put Mac OS X 10.3 on my computer the iPod seemed outrageously slow to charge. After months of dealing with this and sending the iPod in to be fixed, a sharp Apple tech finally discovered that my iSight camera was pulling too much power for both Firewire appliances to handle. Once I unhooked the iSight, the iPod ran like new."

Some iPods display an inaccurate battery measurement, though MacFixIt Jed and points out that this phenomenon is common with other devices as well:

"The battery meter is often inaccurate. I've found this to be true on my Palm as well: after charging, the battery meter continues to show low charge for a while, gradually increasing over time.’

Meanwhile, Ron Skinner notes that, typical of Li-Ion batteries, inaccuracy may increase with time and the constant use of "shallow charges" :

"Devices equipped with Li-Ion charge indicators--such as the iPod--become increasingly inaccurate when they are shallow charged. All that is required to re-calibrate the gauges is to fully discharge the battery before recharging. However, routinely fully discharging these batteries should be avoided. Their useful life is greatest when subjected to shallow charge cycles."

Apple explains how to extend battery life Apple has updated its Knowledge Base article (#61434) explaining how to extend the life of your iPod's battery to the maximum. Among the tips:

Pause iPod when unattended If you leave iPod unattended, press Play/Pause to pause the song. If left playing, iPod will continue to play songs until the battery is drained--particularly if the repeat setting is set to One or All.

Backlighting Backlighting can use a lot of battery power. If you don't need to use backlighting, turn it off. Choose: Settings > Backlight Timer > Off.