Right after menu-select if you switch to select-play/pause, it will skip trying to boot and only load the emergency disk mode from the flash. This works even if the hard disk is really messed up.

The full steps would be:

1) plug into power 2) slide the lock switch to locked, then unlocked (resets the touch-controllers on iPods that have touch buttons) 3) Press and hold select and menu for 5 seconds 4) Keep select down but let go of menu and press play/pause.

Can you hear the hard disk making noise at all when you try to reset it?

Can you hear the hard disk making noise at all when you try to reset it?

Thanks for those clear instructions, Rob, but no, it's DOA. I hear/feel no hard disk action at all.

That sucks, Jon. More than once I've had friends' ipods just die for no intelligible reason.

I'm a little frustrated, because after dropping twenty USD and waiting two and half weeks for a replacement ipod battery (granted, from ebay) and replacing it without problems, it's not maintaining battery reserve for more than a couple days. Before, when I replaced a battery on my other ipod mini, it lasted for at least a week on more use before needing to be recharged than this one. Very frustrating, especially since I'm going to travel some more.

Heh. So yesterday I brought my sad sad Powerbook to the Genius Bar, and the one guy was v. nice (though sadly, nsm helpful, but not really his fault). The other guy was kind of a jackass, but I gave him bonus points for not smacking the woman next to me, who didn't understand what her .Mac account was, why Mail wasn't working (she hadn't set it up), and what the difference between her Yahoo Mail and the Mail program.

Er, which is to say, when they gave up and were checking the computer in to send it to the mysteriously-named "Depot", they scanned some barcode, and went "Um, are you Robert? This computer has Robert's name?". Took me a minute to realize they meant Rob, and it must've been because I got it through him. Heh.

Thanks Rob! :)

Huh?

It appears that there is a disconnect between Google and Comcast going on right now (breaking news?). We've gotten a number of field reports from users of Comcast's cable internet service across the state who are unable to connect to Gmail, Google, and Blogspot. One of our "internet outage spotters" chronicled a tech support conversation he had in which the Comcast operator told him it was a Firefox issue and he'd have to switch to IE. Apparently Comcast won't support Firefox as a browser, and if the user is requesting technical assistance it's only for IE browser questions. Another rep. indicated that the issue was with Google. Though it seems IE browsers can connect to Google, but not personalized pages or GMail, Firefox running on the same Comcast connected machine won't even connect to those.

We don't claim to have the technical knowledge to debunk either of these claims for sure – we do know that this post is going up using the Firefox connection we're using which does not rely on Comcast for anything. Connections are freely made to blogspot, google, and gmail using non-Comcast based internet connections, or IE on Comcast. While we'd like to blame the cable operator for the problems here, perhaps this could be a grudge held by Google. Is Google expressing a vendetta against Comcast for not supporting the opensource software?

[link]

WTF?

Reading the comments that follow the post, it seems as though it's just that Comcast is having some sort of large scale outage (in Boston), and that it's not limited to open source software or one particular site.

Thanks Rob! :)

You're welcome. Sadly, I can no longer offer Mac discounts. I'm not working at the fruit factory anymore.

Yeah - I can get to google and gmail fine.

Well, that 'explains' why I was having trouble this morning at home, which has Comcast, but not at work.

Me and many of my co-workers were having trouble specifically with gmail/google today, even though we're in NYC.

I guess it was a particular ISP: [link] though doubt it was necessarily comcast.