I have an 80 GB iPod Classic. I just went back into Windows a couple days ago so that I could copy some TV shows to it to watch on the airplane as I flew from South Dakota to Florida.

I was previously running the 1.1.1 firmware, though iTunes told me there was a new version. This must be a good thing, I upgraded (despite my previous position of never upgrading firmware if everything works fine).

I immediately had a host of problems:

• Album art, which I originally had for my 900ish albums, is mostly gone. When the art is still there, it is incorrect.

• Videos stop playing after about 30 minutes. Fine for "normal" TV shows, bad for Star Trek, which is all I watch.

• This just today: the iPod no longer works.

Perhaps it was just coincidental, and these issues were a sign of impending hardware failure. I used it about ten hours ago and it was working fine (as in, as it was before with missing album art). There was more than half the battery bar left. I turned it off and went about my normal daily activities. Then I went back to turn it on fifteen minutes ago and it didn't turn on. I connected it to my computer (in Windows). Windows knows there is an iPod connected, but iTunes doesn't.

Does anybody have any insights? I figure I'll go the Apple store and ask one of their "genius" high school kids what to do with it. It is still under warranty at least.

(An interesting side note is that my fiancee has been having similar issues with her first generation Nano not turning on at all. Maybe her house is cursed? Hers, however, turns on when she plugs it in to the computer.)

Didn't Apple send out an update for Windows? That may be the problem, I always keep up with updates, and I've had no problems.

Oh dear.. It's not turning on at all? Have you hit the menu button and the round select button to reboot your ipod(hold it down for a few seconds)? Maybe that would work. It does for my iPod nano when it decides not to turn on. As for firmware, maybe if iTunes decides to recognize it you can click the restore button on it to go back to the firmware you were using before. Maybe that would help?

If the constructive solutions of bamccaig and jhuuskon — i.e. either just buy a new player every time you have issues with one or go back in time to when you bought this one — aren't helpful then have you tried restoring it's original settings via the 'Restore' button in iTunes? I'm not sure what that does re:firmware since I've never used it, but it might be worth a shot. I don't have a Classic so I can't directly comment on the particular model.

In the alternative, it's probably worth getting to an Apple Store if you can. But now that they're always really busy you often have to book a genius if you want to get one.

Luckily, Apple are number one in customer support, according to customers, so I'm sure you'll find a solution if you go asking.

EDIT: My iPod is 2 years and 7 months old. It still works 'as new'. The main thing that fails in iPods is the battery. Apple will replace the battery for roughly US$67 (including postage).

Oh, this site tells you how to downgrade from firmware 1.0.2 to 1.0.1, presumably if you could find a download of 1.1.1 somewhere then you could generalise from those to step back from 1.1.2?