So, you woke up this morning to find your iPod with a sad face. “Poor little guy” you say, “what happened?” iPods who upon being turned on flash either the Sad iPod face, or the folder icon usually have suffered from either hard drive failure, or a bad motherboard (logic board). But how can you tell which?
Well, when iPod hard drives fail, they usually exhibit certain symptoms. The best way to check for these symptoms is to turn on the iPod and quickly hold it up to your ear. If your iPods drive is functioning properly you should hear a steady, “clean” sounding whirring. A malfunctioning drive will make scratching and clicking noises, or no noise at all. If the drive sounds ok, the problem may be with your logic board, or your iPod may need to be restored (check my entry about restoring your iPod). Unfortunately when your iPod shows either the sad face or the folder icon it means that some sort of servicing is required. Sometimes your iPod may begin to work fine again, however this will likely be short lived. Once your iPod begins displaying these symbols, its only a matter of time before it dies completely. We recommend that before using your iPod any further, you send it in to us so that we can try to remove your music before it is lost forever (remember this is not always possible, but is worth a try). We have fixed literally thousands of iPods with faulty hard drives, send yours in to us today and have it running like new again in no time! As always please continue to check back regularly for more articles on keeping your iPods in tip top shape, preventing problems, and fixing issues when they do occur.