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132 Comments
- grammarpolice, on 10/12/2007, -0/+22You can always open it up and shake the hard drive. I have had two Ipods where the sad face comes out and I am out of warranty, I simply shake the hard drive like it owes me money and like magic the dam thing works for an extended 8 months. Then I shake it again. :D
- ja1217, on 10/12/2007, -4/+24wtf?
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+18That's how I fix people who don't agree with me.
- nTensify, on 10/12/2007, -0/+12Most of the time in my experience, it's caused by the iPod's harddrive cable becoming unseated on one side, even partially. Reseating the cable has 4/4 times been successful for me.
- briansalo, on 10/12/2007, -1/+11Because lots of people have iPods maybe?
+ an ever expanding userbase as well :) - DomZy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8As mentioned above, I have got rid of this icon by opening up the iPod (real easy to do, and lots of guides on the net) and then unplugging/replugging the hard drive cable.
"Banging" it on a desk and stuff may break other parts of the iPod (I broke the head-jack assembly unit by dropping it on the floor [accident], but luckily got a replacement on eBay for £15) - topato, on 10/12/2007, -2/+10I fixed your mom's sad face by banging her on my desk.
- Flankk, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8You can.
- topato, on 10/12/2007, -1/+8You commented on the wrong story, a daunting task, which is attempted by few and reviled by many.
- PAJK, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6I always find it amazing that, usually, the best way to fix something is to wack it, or bang it. It's so ironic.
TV playing up? Give it a kick. iPod not working? Wack it on the table. Jukebox problems? Smack it with the back of your elbow. "Eyyy." - CedanticPunt, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7A friend tried the same trick with his Creative MP3 player when the drive became 'stuck'. It worked, but 6 months later it died completely... It was very old though (before the Creative fans think I'm having a go ;)
- ptrcd003, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5The nano users wouldn't have this problem in the first place..
- Ashra, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5I had this happen to me my second day in Iraq. Talk about a pissed off Marine. Apple replaced the iPod for me, including the engravig I had on the back, for free when I got back from Iraq. But thank God my buddy had an iRiver cause it took the heat just fine. Oh and the iPod was about 1.5 months old when it gave me that damn sad face.
- deohieu, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5Okay, now I need to bang my head on my laptop.
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About | Add To Favorites - danjal, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4my ipod mini died, and i was hecktic to fix it, after reading this i thought, sure it's dead now what do i have to loose, soon enough it worked! booya! is say this, If it's dead now, what else do you really have to loose?
- stratmancj, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5i love you ... just fixed my ipod ... warranty ran out at xmas and i haven't had it working since feb .... you are my hero
- biometricks, on 10/12/2007, -2/+6It is if it fixes it.
- thegreat59, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3It worked for me although I banged my dinky ipod mini on the floor because I was frustrated not because I saw it on the web. lol I took it firmly and a small wap sound occured when it struck the floor I was just about to take it and throw it against the wall when I saw something in the corner of my eye. A functioning ipod. Happened 6 months ago and it is still going strong.
- ngageguy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3I believe this type of problem has been on digg before and around the net it is called click of death, similar to old zip drives. I got a iPod on eBay that was in need of repair for $40 and the seller listed the issue as just showing the apple logo and rebooting, this is similar to the sad face. After working on it for about 20 hours reformatting and such, I found the click of death forum threads and tapped it on the counter like a hard boiled egg and it worked. Couldn't believe it. Still working today.
- SVPirate, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2For one thing stiction (as I understand it - hard disk refuses to spin) is caused by the lubericant in the SPINDLE MOTOR caking up (stops the platters spining). For another it has been more or less elimitaed by Fluid Dynamic Bearings as far as I know.
As for your whine about disk cables, I hear ya and SATA cables fall out far to easily, but we have USB and Firewire connectors that do all that pretty well already - i.e. they don't fall out easily, only go in one way etc.
I would not bother to use an iPod if the hard disk ceased to work, unlessi could get in and replace it. Hard disks that die once and come back to life invariably die again a few months/weeks later much more permanantly and just at the wrong moment. - yellowmello, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Anyone got any links on how to open up a G4 ipod and replug in the hard drive.
- JoshHendo, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4http://duggmirror.com/apple/How_To_Fix_an_Ipod_with_the_Sad_iPod_Icon
- Terc, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4The banging does not fix the iPod hard drive, it simply reseats the hard drive cable on the connector. A much more insightful way to repair this would be to open it up and reseat the cable yourself. The only reason I can see it making any sense to try smashing your expensive electronic device against anything is if you know why and how it is working and are still under warranty (and therefore don't want to end the warranty by opening it up)
- electrichamster, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2This really does work - it takes 15 minutes and resurrected my 4G ipod that had been dead and out of warranty for months.
Unlike most people, I didn't get the sad ipod icon, but it locked solid whenever I wrote more than about ~700meg of data to the disk. - scsnoballs, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2And I thought iPods were just for playing music. Seems they inadvertantly made them a stress reliever ;)
- ptrcd003, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Once again, people posting on a tech website that know nothing about anything to do with electronics. Just wondering, you say it works on the 4G but you're not sure about the 5G. Between the two models, did a new type of hard drive get invented? Besides, these aren't actual fixes, these are people too stupid or lazy to open their iPod and fix the problem, so they hit the iPod.
- blackbelt88, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2My iPod used to give me the sad icon and folder with an exclamation point icon a lot, so i stuck it in a freezer for an hour and now it works perfectly. This was about 9 months ago.
- tsupersonic, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I dropped my iPod from about 10 feet up in the air, and it stopped working. The clicking HDD was there and then came the sad face. I dropped it about 2 or 3 times, and voila! It started working again, and hasn't stopped yet. My warranty just expired, and I have been telling this to everyone w/ the sad face. Tough luck for the Nano users.
- piratescare, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2violence and technology? not good bedfellows. just open up the ipod and check the connections manually. it a lot smarter then breaking other parts trying to restore a cable connection by banging it against something like an impatient gorilla.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Banging on stuff works for certain things. My starter motor in my car wouldn't engage sometimes and I'd just have to whack it with a hammer (sometimes with great enthusiasm) to rattle the gears around inside it and make them mesh into each other so the starter motor would turn.
- alceria, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I'm not being clumsy when I drop my iPod on the floor, I'm doing preventative maintenance.
Has anyone ever tried removing the harddrive, loading it as a slave and running spinrite on it? I'm curious if that would work. - Budkin, on 06/30/2008, -0/+1Holy crap his just worked for me! Hot damn!
- markbosky, on 05/23/2008, -0/+1The same thing happened to me. It was in my car and I got pissed so I banged the hell out of it on the steering wheel and whoala, it worked!
- damagemanual, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1No this is not a fix. A fix would be taking the iPod to an Apple store and having them plug the cable back in.
This is as much a fix as me smashing my car into a tree to turn of my car alarm. - giveaphuk, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1ok, so if your ipod hard drive makes a 'whir click' sound, then bang the top right hand side of it against somthing..
my friend had 3 diff. ppl look @ his sad ipod & all told him it was truely broken..
thanks to this article, i gave it a good wack, & it is now fully functioning..
the look on his face when i gave it back to him, & then told him how i fixed it was priceless!!
thanks digg & whoever wrote this article! - joshHighland, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1some times the connection to the harddrive can come loose. I learned this when I replaced my ipods harddrive
http://www.notpopular.com/blog/comments.php?blogID=63 - wormdood, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I had the same issue about 2 weeks ago. I also read about dropping it or baging it and that made it work for another day or 2 until I got the sad face again. I found another site that suggested opening the iPod and making sure the HD cable was fastened well. I did this and my iPod has been working fine the last 2 weeks.
- grammarpolice, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2This shows you how to open up a 4G ipod.
http://www.notpopular.com/blog/comments.php?blogID=63 - daload, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Heard the same thing actually the other day... Except that instead of a table it was a parking lot driveway and it worked like a charm... Apparently.
- extant59, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2that was stupid. i work with these all the time,and when you can hear the hard drive grinding or clicking smashing it isnt going to help. next time show how to replace a hard drive.
- thegreat59, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1That made me laugh. I imagined myself driving next to some crazy person banging an ipod on the steering wheel down the freeway and cursing.
- zbeast, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Banging your Ipod.. What you havent see all these posters about not shaking your baby.
- mmartin, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2I dunno, putting it in the washing machine works pretty well, makes it have 2 TB of space :D
- allarise, on 11/07/2007, -0/+1works.
- crashingechelon, on 10/16/2007, -2/+3That is really sad that no matter how technologically advanced we get, any problem can be fixed simply by hitting it.
- largobargo, on 10/16/2007, -5/+6You can fix women using the same method.
- yellowmello, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1This might help someone out!
http://flickr.com/photos/benward/sets/72157594163512613/ - rwoodford, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1My wife has had numerous problems with her 4G iPod ... and I finally figured out her problem.
I got the sad Mac icon, tried every suggestion to fix it, and finally took the thing apart as a last ditch effort to save it. The second I took the back off, the hard drive spun up and it worked perfectly. I put it back together and the hard drive stopped spinning ... weird.
I took it apart again and bent the back cover out a little in the center. Once back together, it worked perfectly and has for 6 months.
It seems that she was carrying the iPod in her backpack and it was being crushed by books, etc. I guess the back was putting enough pressure on the HDD to keep it from spinning properly. - jamiemcconnell, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Amazing! this actually worked! (the smacking it on a table i mean!)
- Hidekatsu, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1dude! I just banged my 4g ipod on my hand (side of the ipod) and now it's working!
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