If your iPod is sad there’s little you can do. Hopefully it’s still under warranty. If not, as a last ditch effort you can try what this guy did:
I held it and slammed it onto a pad of paper on my desk (providing some cushion so I didn’t crack the case), charging port down. And like mana falling from heaven, the tunes started playing.
[Via]
Rajiv said:
i really wanted to thank you for your post. i had the same problem with my ipod and i had a sad ipod symbol which freaked me out. I tried in vain to fix it and it just won’t restart. Finally as if my godsend i came across your post on the internet and followed your que and hit my ipod against my mousepad and voila its working again! thank you very very much
Posted on November 20, 2006 at 12:18 am
ipod man said:
When you get a sad ipod usually it is a loose or damaged harddrive connector. Carefully pry open your ipod using either the softtools or a screwdriver or I found that a pop can tab works well too. work the cover off easily and open slowly and make note of witch side the ribbon wire is on . make siru to hinge it to that side so as not to damage the ribbon wire. then press the connector into the harddrive firmly . then carefully lift the harddrive up and find the small black plastic film under it and run your finge along it to press the ribbonwire into the board. then press a button on your ipod to see if you have made your ipod happy. carefully place everything right back where it was and snap together your ipod again.
Before starting make sure your ipod is charged . this is not a permannt fix . the actual fix is to reattach the ribbn wire to the board with adhesive .
Hope this helps . One other note ONLY OPEN YOUR IPOD YOUR SELF IF IT IS OUT OF WARRANTY ! OTHERWISE APPLE WILL LAUGH AT YOU AND YOU WILL BE S.O.L.
Posted on December 11, 2006 at 10:31 am
Shawn said:
Thanks for the added info ipod man.
Posted on December 11, 2006 at 11:24 am
Yannick said:
I thought it was stupid to hit my ipod but actually it worked
Posted on January 16, 2007 at 7:09 pm
Brittany said:
Omg!!!!!!!!! Thank you so much. My ipod showed me a sad ipod icon and i went a moth tryin to fix. I even took it to the place where i got it from but there was nothing they could not do they said that i have to get a new 300 dollar ipod. I was surfing the internet and can upon your site. I try it in my pillow that is really thin and omg it worked. I scream thank so oh so very much. I don’t know how i could ever repay you but Thanks again.
Posted on March 26, 2007 at 6:20 pm
Dr Kris said:
fantastic!!..all i can say is 20 sec..4 hits and I’m running again
Posted on April 12, 2007 at 9:15 am
howard adams said:
im not going to say thats the most practical fix but believe it or not a couple good smacks on the mouse pad and …. no more sad face! its alive once more.
Posted on June 16, 2007 at 10:57 am
mike said:
well ive tried banging it, it worked once before, but now the sad face stays on, im really bummed out, any other ideas? I just want to get all my songs off, but I cant see that happening till it lives again
Mike
Posted on August 1, 2007 at 1:41 am
{Shawn} said:
@ Mike: I have no other ideas. Sorry bro. Hopefully your songs were on your computer.
Posted on August 1, 2007 at 2:58 am
mike said:
nope :/ over 5000 songs no back up :/
it randomly is now trying to restart, but then goes dead.
do you know how to open them?
thanks buddy
Posted on August 1, 2007 at 3:02 am
{Shawn} said:
I don’t. Do you have Apple Care? Also, try Google.
Posted on August 1, 2007 at 3:22 am