Unresponsive, disconnecting, nothing works- I have two days to resolve this!

[stressedspouse]

I'm leaving on Monday for Germany and need to resolve my husbands iPod problem before I go! There is an Apple symbol, then the folder with the exclamation point, and that's about it. Can't even turn it off. When plugging into my laptop computer or my desktop, it only connects for a few seconds, says not to disconnect, goes back to the Apple, the folder, and repeats. I've spent all day searching the troubleshooting sights and questions here, and nothing seems to work. I can't reset it or anything else. It is a 40gb iPod and we are using it with Windows xp home, or Windows 2000 (those are our choices), with usb 2.0 connections. I've downloaded the updater, but the iPod can't mount. Poor husband - I got this for his birthday only to find out we didn't have a computer it would work with. Now we have three that it should work with, one that he has been able to use it with, and then suddenly there is nothing there. It's caused him so much frustration that I feel bad that I ever got it for him. How likely is it that this is an iPod hardware problem? It will be months before one of us will be back here again if it needs to be sent in.

[yinyang]

welcome to the lounge though not under the best of circumstances...!?

have you tried putting it into disk mode at all...

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=93651

[stressedspouse]

I've followed the steps for putting it into disk mode, but it does not respond to those steps.

One limitation I have right now which may make a difference in doing this is that I do not have the battery charger here and the battery is very low. I went to Best Buy and they didn't have the charger, so they had me buy the Charge n' Sync Retractable Cable Kit for iPod, which is suppose to charge the iPod while it is plugged into the computer (usb). I'm not convinced that it's charging, although I have it plugged into my desktop instead of my laptop now. But I can't plug it into the wall and use it without it being plugged into the computer. Do I need to go to the Apple store and buy a wall charger first?

[stressedspouse]

I took my iPod into an Apple store today so they could at least tell me if it was the hardware or not before I leave town. Turned out that the harddrive was dead, so they gave me a new one. If we have problems when I get to Germany trying to get this one up and running on hubby's new computer, I'll be back here for help! By the way, I purchased the Applecare protection plan while I was there. I can see that this is something it will probably be worthwile for. One help call about pays for it.