Alternate reasons for iPod pausing???

Question

There have been many posts re: various models of iPods randomly pausing and almost as many solutions. Clearly there are multiple causes for the same result.
So far, though, I have seen no discussion on potential impact of file size or compression scheme in the discussions. There is an apple note related to battery life that mentions the cache is optimized for files 9MB or less (about one minute of uncompressed AIFF). In my case, with first generation architecture, it appears that with the combination of buffer, cpu and disk, uncompressed files are, in fact, not playable. I can watch the buffer refill by looking at the playing time and seeing it burp as the buffer flushes/fills. The playing time locks up when the playback pauses. It looks like some sort of buffer underrun problem. I'm not sure if the 1G models have disks that park on impact, but walking around does seem to make things worse. Sitting on a table is not enough to play through though.
I did the whole 5R thing, the 1g headphone jack is surrounded by plastic so the grounding issue does not appear relevent. I also turned off journaling in the iPod file system. The only fix that works is to compress the files as MP3s. Then, all is well.
So, at least in the case of old and battered 1g iPods. AIFF may not be a consitently playable format. Those with newer disk based units may actually have marginal drives or drives on the verge of failure - worth getting it checked out before the warranty sneaks by. I don't think this would apply to Flash based iPods, in fact, I may just try to hack mine to replace the drive with a CF socket.
YMMV

Answer 1

The colorful, brilliant screen is cheery! One can read it any where. I think it is magical just as it is! I used to have a palm from the old days that was just black and gray and so dim I couldn't read it in coffee shop lighting. Making it pretty useless. I had to be at a desk with a direct light or out side in the sun.
It took good notes though. With bold highlights etc.