iPod Gen 4 Self Diagnostics:

Symptom: My iPod is appears dead and nothing shows up on the screen.

Possible problems:

1. The battery is dead.

Steps to resolve:

Your Charger or Cable may be bad and even though you think you have charged it up, the iPod does not have enough power to boot up. Connect to a high power USB port on a computer or try a friend’s wall charger or car charger.

2. The LCD screen is not working

If your LCD has a visible crack or looks like liquid has spilled under the surface, the LCD screen is broken and needs to be replaced.

If it is not visibly broken, the LCD screen still may be bad or you may have some other related problem.

Steps to resolve:

Hook the iPod to your computer and see if you can load and delete music from your iTunes. If you can, then the iPod is working but the screen is either bad or the contrast is turned down so low nothing is showing up. To reset the iPod to its factory settings run the Apple “Updater” program and select the “Restore” option. (Caution: This will also wipe out all of you music so make sure you have it all backed up in iTunes) This will set the Contrast back to the mid-range and fix the problem if it is just the contrast.

3. You have a defective LCD screen, Motherboard, or Hard Drive.

If none of these steps work then you likely have a hardware problem such as a bad LCD screen, Motherboard, or Hard Drive. The iPod has some self diagnostic capability but if you can not get your iPod to boot up, then there is not anything else you can do yourself. We recommend that you take advantage of our Free iPod Diagnostics and send your iPod to us and we will give you a free quote on the repair. You can get an idea how much the repair will cost by checking out the prices for our parts Gen. 4 iPod Replacement Parts.  The price for your repair will be the same as listed for the part, we will install all of these iPod repair parts for FREE at www.iPodpartsonline.com.

Symptom: My iPod is getting the “iPod Sad Face Icon” or the “Folder Icon”.

Possible problems:

1. Corrupted software

Steps to resolve:

Run the Apple “Updater” program and select the “Restore” option (make sure you have the latest verison from Apple, http://www.apple.com/itunes/download/) . If this will successfully run, the software will be fixed and the iPod should work if this is the only problem. Sometimes corrupted software is actually caused by a hardware problem. If that is the case, the iPod may work for a while and then the problem will eventually come back.

2. Bad Hard Drive

Steps to resolve:

A bad iPod Hard Drive is the most common hardware problem. About 75% of the time when you can not get your iPod to boot up and it will not run Apple’s “Updater” program, the Hard Drive is bad. To confirm that your Hard Drive is good or bad you need to run the iPod internal diagnostics.

Hold down Menu/Select and then when the Apple symbol comes up hold down Rev/Select. The iPod should show a reverse Apple symbol as it goes into diagnostics mode. Push the Play button to scroll down the "HD W/R" and select. You should get either a pass or fail. “Fail” indicates that you have a bad Hard Drive. If you get “HD Pass” on this test scroll down to the "HD Scan" and select. Plug the iPod in because this takes a while and may run the battery down before it is finished. You should get either a pass of Scan Pass or Fail. “Fail” indicates that your Hard Drive has bad sectors. It is not usual for an iPod to run even if the Hard Drive fails the scan but it will often have intermittent problems.

If your Hard Drive fails either of these tests then you need a new Hard Drive. You can find various iPod hard drives sizes here-iPod Hard Drives. For Minis there are two sizes available 4 GB and 6 GB Hard Drives. 3rd Gen, 4th Gen, and Photo can use either a 10 GB, 15 GB, 20 GB, 30 GB. If you have a thick case you can use a 40GB or 60GB. If you want to upgrade to a 40GB or 60 GB Hard Drive but have a regular case, we can switch to a thicker case if we do the Hard Drive installation.

The Hard Drive tests are pretty reliable but occasionally a Hard Drive will pass the internal diagnostics but still will not properly load and play songs.

One other frequent symptom of a bad Hard Drive is that your iPod will load songs from iTunes but when you go to play them they do not show up under the song list.

For the iPod to run the internal diagnostics the Hard Drive has to at least be running. If the Hard Drive is totally dead it will not run the internal diagnostics. This does not always mean that you have a bad Hard Drive. A bad Motherboard can also cause the iPod to not run the internal diagnostics.

If you can not get it to run the internal diagnostics then there is not anything else you can do on your own to diagnose the problem. You will need to send it in for our Free iPod Diagnostics and we will check it out and let you know what is wrong with it for FREE. We will send you an estimate of what it will cost to fix usually within 24 hrs of receiving your iPod.

3. Bad Motherboard

Since the Motherboard controls everything in the iPod, a bad Motherboard can cause a number of different problems and symptoms. The following are some of the most common symptoms when the Motherboard is bad:

-iPod is totally dead and will not reboot or mount to your computer.

-iPod displays the “File Folder” or the “Sad iPod” error symbols and will not go into diagnostics mode. These error symbols also can represent a bad Hard Drive but if the Motherboard is good, the iPod may go into diagnostics mode and you can run the Hard Drive tests mentioned above.

-iPod will not charge the battery and will only run when connected to an external power source.

Motherboard problems are also frequently intermittent. When your iPod will work one time and hang up the next time you go to use it, you may have a Motherboard problem.

iPod Motherboard problems are not easy to self diagnose. If you can not isolate whether you have a Hard Drive problem or a Motherboard problem it is best to send it in for our Free iPod Diagnostics. We can test both the Motherboard and Hard Drive and isolate the problem and give you an estimate of what it will cost to fix for FREE.

Symptom: The iPod boots up normally but I can’t get the Clickwheel/Scrollwheel, or Buttons to do anything or the Clickwheel/Scrollwheel works but it is not as sensitive as when it was new.

Possible Problems:

There are two fairly common problems with the 4th Generation iPod Clickwheels. First, the Clickwheels sometimes will lose there sensitivity. They will often work, but are difficult to scroll. Second, the connectors that connect the Clickwheel to the Motherboard can be damaged. This is most common on iPods that have been taken apart to be worked or have had the original Clickwheel replaced.

The Gen 4, Photo, Mini, Nano, and Video iPods have separate Clickwheels that can be replaced independently from the case.

Summary:

If you can determine which component is bad in your iPod, whether a Hard Drive, Motherboard, LCD Screen, or Clickwheel you can purchase that part from www.ipodpartsonline.com and with our free iPod repair part installation guide, install it yourself. You can also take advantage of our free profession installation if you would rather not do the repair yourself. Just select “Free Installation” at check out and we will email you shipping instructions. We will have your iPod repaired and on its way back to you usually within 24 Hours of receiving it.

Feel free to email us at ipodparts@hotmail.com if you have any questions or suggestions to improve our website!

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