Nano Question

[Andrew Curnow]

We got Claudia an iPod Nano for Christmas, and I'm just getting a little concerned about whether it's working OK. It's been on charge (admittedly on and off) for probably 3-4 hours now today, but when we disconnect it, it still hasn't enough charge to turn on (or at least, it won't turn on, and I'm assuming it's because of lack of charge). Does anybody know/have any experience on how long it should take to charge first time out, and how charged it needs to be to enable the thing to switch on?

Ta!

[WhiteCrowNZ]

It used to be such things took about 8 hours on the first charge. Does sound unusual now though. Can you turn it on when it's on charge? Just to make sure it's working.

I had something similar with a TomTom, and you could operate it on charge, but the moment you unplugged it, it turned off as the battery didn't work - sound like this might be the problem here.

Just did a quick check - sounds like your battery is knackered and you need to take it back ...

http://forums.techguy.org/apple-maco...ot-charge.html

[Andrew Curnow]

Thanks for the help Mike - although as you can imagine I was hoping to get an "ah yes, they always take 18 hours to charge first time out" answer!! We're going to leave it charging today, but then if it's still no good then we'll have to take it back - I guess the first time the shop'll be open now will be Tuesday.

[Rob McCow]

I had a similar problem with a Creative Zen player a few years back. It just would not hold a charge. Turned out the battery was broken.

[Si Hunt]

You should be able to turn it on while it's charging, but I guess you will know by now - if it's not working after a days charging, it could be faulty.

I'm assuming it IS definately charging, right? There should be a symbol on the screen indicating it is charging up.

Si.

[Andrew Curnow]

We get the symbol, and while it's still plugged in it switches on and works fine - but the second we disconnect it, it goes dead. From which I can only conclude that the battery is not retaining the charge for some reason. We've tried it on different PCs, and with a different lead, so I think we've pretty much eliminated all the other possibilities.

Anyway, and on that basis, we took it back today. The guys in the shop were sympathetic enough, but were insistent that they could not do anything, we would have to deal direct with Apple. That definitely disgruntled us...

...and we were then further disgruntled when my brother pointed out that this is in fact breaking the law - and a cursory, 30 second internet search brings up the fact that, per the 1979 Sale of Goods Act, it is the seller's responsibility rather than the manufacturer's. I did, though, ring the Apple number that the shop gave us, and the lady there gave us a case number to quote to the shop so that they could in turn return it to Apple, so I guess it means another visit to the shop tomorrow. Stay Tuned!!

[Si Hunt]

Stay iTuned surely?

Si. :mobile

[SiHart]

Oh that's very good. I wish I'd thought of that!

Si xx

[Andrew Curnow]

Me too!

[Si Hunt]

Oh that's very good. I wish I'd thought of that!

Oh you will Doctor, you will!

Si.

[WhiteCrowNZ]

Having faulty goods is enough of a pain without people playing funny bastards with you.

[Andrew Curnow]

After three visits to the shop, two conversations with apple (one of which actually involved me getting angry, that's how serious it got), and one email to the shop's head office... we swapped the iPod for a new one at the shop on Saturday afternoon. The new one has two advantages over the previous one - first, it's a slightly newer model (it includes a camera I'm told) and second, this one actually works. Two/three hours of charging and it was good to go by Saturday night.

The irony is, now that she has a fully-functional player, capable of storing something like 2000 songs, Claudia's loaded a grand total of 6 songs onto it, and is perfectly happy with that!!!

[Philipnet]

Just wait Soon enough 2000 songs won't be enough!

[Jon Masters]

And just think how many PS audios you could still fit on.....

[WhiteCrowNZ]

It is sad how I had a 2GB MP3 player and that seemed massive - and now my 16GB player isn't big enough!

[Lord President]

My 120Gb Ipod is not big enough these days!

[Andrew Curnow]

Does anybody else here have an iPod? If so, have you ever had problems with (I think) the headphone jack - we're now getting the sound coming out the bottom of the iPod, rather than through the headphones. Bizarre.

[Andrew Curnow]

Ah-ha! There's a troubleshooting section on the Apple website for this very problem... Apparently it's a known 'feature' of this version of the iPod (bad news) but the website advice has solved it (good news)!

Move along, nothing to see here...

[WhiteCrowNZ]

Sounds like your iPod ownership has been fraught with issues. I've kind of never got around to getting an Apple thing yet, as I keep feeling they're slightly overhyped.

[Andrew Curnow]

It may sound stupid to say, but when it works it's absolutely fine. But having had an original one that didn't charge out of the box, and now this replacement that is exhibiting this fault after only six or seven weeks, has not impressed me.

I do wonder, though, what level Apple are pitching these things at. That is to say, in my terms, something which is almost £100 should be made to last; but maybe Apple's perception of it is as something more disposable.

Incidentally, before finding the troubleshooting section on their website last night, which helped solve the problem, I'd rung Apple. On the one hand they were perfectly friendly, but their policy is either take it to an Apple centre (our nearest one would be about an hour and a half away, in Exeter) or send it back - the latter option involves them sending out a 'courtesy iPod' and us then sending back the faulty one. Which is all well & good, except that they insist on taking credit or debit card details before doing that, in case we don't send back the faulty one (ie, and end up with two iPods). I can see the logic, and it's the same thing they told me at Christmas when I rang about the non-charging one... but it irritates me that they've manufactured something that's not 100% correct, have been paid for it by the customer, but then believe that any 'risk' should be taken by the customer, rather than Apple. I even offered to send the faulty one back, without them sending out a temporary replacement until they received it (and therefore not requiring card information) but they would not entertain that.

Don't get me wrong, it's fine now, but it annoys me that the onus, the risk, the element of trust, in the event of having to get a faulty product repaired, is all put on the customer.

Rant over!