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.)

Apple sucks. I have had countless problems with my iPod. And Apple forces software on you that you don't use and don't want. Every time I upgrade iTunes, I have to update QuickTime too, then I have to remove it from the registry to prevent it from automatically running on startup. Microsoft is far from perfect, but I'll take Microsoft over Apple ANY DAY.

It's fairly common for iTunes to not know my iPod is connected. Usually iTunes will recognize it the first time after a reboot, but after that it no longer detects it. If you haven't yet, try rebooting. Even when my iPod is detected iTunes has given me a lot of problems. As for the album art, the iTunes library should remain intact even if you do upgrade the iPod firmware so it may be enough to restore and re-sync your iPod from iTunes. I've had to do that a number of times.

Actually, today I received an order from Japan of 3 FFVII soundtracks (Original, Piano Collection, Advent Children) (earlier than expected, even ) which I've been attempting to rip into WMP and iTunes for my iPod. iTunes has been giving me problems with my iPod so I may be due for another restore...

FUCK. APPLE.

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.

All portable media players not supporting USB Mass Storage Class are evil and no-one should every pay money for them. Your ipods are busteds, go aheads and buys yourselves some decent equipments insteads.

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?

Weird version number. Almost a month ago I updated my 80GB iPod Classic to 1.3. No problems so far.

Just curious: how long it takes for an iPod to die? Mine has almost one year old. Maybe I should start making a backup... a huge boring backup.

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).

Interesting. After holding the menu and circle button for like ten seconds, it did indeed reset the device and it turns on once again.

The "restore" option in iTunes doesn't restore firmware, just all the settings. (Clears your disk, too.) As I suspected, resyncing brought back all my album art. The issue with video playback is still present, however.

Thank you for your very helpful advice.

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?

Yay! I'm glad I helped at least a little bit! Hopefully Apple can help the video part.