Folder Icon, Tried Apple Solutions to no avail

Question

I've got the folder icon with an exclamation point problem on my 40G click-wheel iPod. It lies dormant until I press a button, then it shows the apple icon for a bit then gives me the folder icon w/ !. A few seconds later, the iPod turns off. The whole time it is on I can hear the hard drive revving up and then back down.
I checked the support page from apple for this problem and they recommended letting it charge, which I did for a long time, same issue. I can confirm that the battery is charged by forcing the Pod into disk mode, where I can see the fully charged battery icon.
The apple support page also recommends restoring the iPod and reformatting the iPod. I can do neither of these, even if I force it into disk mode. Once it is in disk mode, I plug it into my computer and the Do Not Disconnect logo appears for a bit (10-20 seconds) as windows sorts things out. Finally, the iPod appears in My Computer very briefly, and the iPod turns off for a second then reappears with the apple logo thus removing it from My Computer. I've loaded it up in a similar fashion after having opened the iPod Updater program, and I get the same problem, except with a "Can't Mount iPod" error. The same thing occurs with both firewire and USB2, in more than one port of each. I also saw to try disabling USB2 in device manager and try to restore/format through USB1.1, but this fails in the same way, computer sees the iPod for a second, then it turns off.
Thanks in advance for your help,
Jon
P.S. I've been scouring the forums lately looking for a solution to this problem, and it appears to be a stressful time for all of you who are trying to help us out. This combined with the fact that some people are giving some mean replies to these helpful souls has to be rather irritating. But please take solace in the fact that there are plenty of people out there who are extremely grateful (myself included) for all the problems in the past and future that you have and will solve. Keep up the good work.

Answer 1

Welcome to Apple Discussions, Patsy.
In the future please post your own thread even if you appear to be having an identical problem -- it isn't an issue here (since the original poster is sending his off for repair) but in other cases it may make it impossible for us to help you or them which is why it is against the forum rules.
Here's Otto's advice:
Key to solving all ! folder icon problems: Forced Disk Mode.
3G iPods: Hold RW and FF down as it boots up the Apple Logo. It should go directly to the screen with a big checkmark that says "OK to disconnect". Connecting it now should work.
4G iPods: Same thing, except hold down Play and Select while it boots.
Forced Disk Mode basically bypasses all the iPod software and puts it right into disk mode to talk to the PC. If you can't get it to connect to the PC in this mode, then either the iPod needs replacement, or the PC is badly broken.
To get out of Forced Disk Mode, first eject or otherwise disconnect the iPod from the PC. It needs to be showing the checkmark again.
3G: Hold Menu and Play for like 10 seconds, until the Apple logo appears.
4G: Hold Menu and Select for like 10 seconds, until the Apple logo appears.
Fixing 100% of all fixable iPod problems can be done as follows:
1. Forced Disk Mode.
2. On the PC, kill the iPodService.exe, iTunes.exe, and iTunesHelper.exe.
3. Connect the iPod. Wait for it to show up as a drive letter.
4. Format the iPod Drive as a FAT32 drive using the normal formatting methods. Do NOT do a quick format.
5. Start up the iPod Software Updater program. Restore the iPod.
6. When the iPod goes back to the check mark screen, reset the iPod manually.