Disclaimer: I don't guarantee that I am correct in my assessment of what happened, but the circumstances point towards it.

I was syncing (synching?) my empeg with Emplode when I had the bright idea of syncing my iPod (with completely unrelated files) at the same time. It appears that the moment I started iTunes, emplode locked up and trashed the empeg's database, while at the same time iTunes wouldn't recognize the iPod.

I could not get the iPod to unmount, I had to use Windows Task Manger to shut down Emplode, and the end result was two non-functioning players. I was able to revive the empeg by disconnecting the USB connection and waiting for it to time out, then re-booted, cleaned up the orphans, and re-synced.

The iPod is bricked. I can force a reset, get the Apple logo, then a warning symbol and message "www/apple.com/support/ipod", but there is nothing at that site that helps me.

SWMBO has one of those Apple service deals where they will fix anything wrong with your Apple product for free, so maybe tomorrow we'll go and visit them. Meanwhile, I think I won't run emplode and iTunes at the same time anymore.

tanstaafl.

You should be able to fix it yourself but if you can get the Apple tech do it anyway then just do that.

Start iTunes and plug the turned on iPod in. It should detect that an iPod has been connected and offer to do a restore. You'll probably have to resync everything that was on there though.

The majority of the firmware files in an iPods are actually kept on the HD and there is a recovery mechanism so if it does get corrupted you can fix it.

I don't see how there is a conflict between iTunes and Emplode though. Maybe if iTunes moved files into its own directory structure whilst Emplode was running...

Restoring iPod to factory settings

I don't think file locking or moving has anything to do with it. But the thing where he hinted that both devices were connected via USB? *That* wouldn't surprise me. You mess up the USB bus mid-transfer, I could see how things could go pear-shaped in a hurry.

How would you mess up the USB bus by starting iTunes or plugging in an iPod? It was designed to be hot pluggable and I've not had any out of spec or badly behaved USB devices in years now.

There are a few problems with that scenario. I can't turn the iPod on. All I can get is (briefly) the Apple logo, then a warning message (Triangle with an exclamation mark in it superimposed on a stylized iPod) saying "www.apple.com/support/ipod".

iTunes does not see the iPod.

The "Enable disk use" repair routine does not work.

Forcing a reset (lock-unlock-menu+select) resets, but only to the Apple logo which then goes to the above warning message.

It is well and truly bricked.

It might be hardware trouble. It was working perfectly half an hour before it failed when I did a small sync, and it wasn't dropped or bumped or anything afterward. But now if I click Menu, I hear a steady click-click-click from the hard drive while the Apple logo us up. The clicks are at a rate of exactly four per second.

Wasn't there a repair technique for the Karma in similar circumstances that involved rapping it sharply on the table or something?

Sigh...

tanstaafl.

edit: I can verify that the Karma repair technique works on the iPod as well. After banging it fairly hard on the edge of a table (harder than cracking an egg on the edge of a skillet; not hard enough to drive a nail unless into very soft wood) the hard drive spun up, iTunes would talk to it, I did two syncs to test it, and everything seems fine. Banging the back of it was what did it -- banging the edges did nothing.

Whether it is a permanent repair, time will tell.

db

So the iPod had a hardware problem, and simultaneously running Emplode was just a red herring?

With USB being an interrupt-driven and driver-driven system, there are million things that could go wrong there. True, it *shouldn't* mess up, and true, that kind of problem is rare these days, but it's not unheard of.

I don't know. It seems unlikely that iTunes vs Emplode was responsible, yet it is also unlikely that both problems would occur at exactly the same time.

Here's the chronology as best I can remember. Emplode was synchronizing, writing the second of a trio of large (60+ mins. each) files to the empeg (the first had completed) when I started iTunes and then plugged the iPod into the computer. That was as far as Emplode ever got, and iTunes refused to recognize the player even though the red "Do Not Disconnect" warning was lit up on the iPod, and both iTunes and the iPod had synced without problem just minutes before.

Things went downhill from there. Is it possible that some sort of improper signal went to the heads of the iPod's hard drive forcing them to an incorrect position that jammed them? I don't know what other problem could be solved by banging the iPod sharply against the edge of a table.

If it's all right with you, I'd just as soon not repeat this experiment.

tanstaafl.

I'd imagine that you got it backwards. It seems more likely to me that the iPod failed in an unexpected way and hosed the USB bus, which, in turn, killed the emplode session.

No.

There are lots of things that could have gone wrong to cause the iPod to brick from a software/firmware standpoint. But I don't think there's anything you could send down that USB cable that would physically jam the heads of its hard drive, or cause any other sort of hardware problem.

I mean, I suppose a large electric shock coming down the cable could fry components on the iPod, but I don't think that's what you were asking.