Freezing at the apple logo; 5 R's failed; need help...

Question

4th gen ipod with color, only 7 mos old, used mostly in the car, been working fine until now abruptly :
1) playing different songs simultaneously (that is, you hear multiple songs overlayed on top of each other; the display showing only a single song playing fine)
2) playing a different song from another playlist - same result
3) trying #2 again - same result
4) holding the ipod in my hand, i can feel the whirring of the hard drive
5) putting the ipod next to my ear, heard a very familiar sound, the sound of a dying hard drive - sound like a disk read error and the hard drive just keep trying infinitely (those with failed external hard drives may know what i'm talking about)
6) tried to reset (i.e the first R) - got to the apple logo and froze
7) tried #6 again - same result
8) tried #6 again - a small folder with an exclamation point (not the big one, the small one) with www.apple.com/support/ipod beneath it flashed briefly (about 1 second) then the apple logo shows and it froze there
9) tried #6 again - same result as #8
10) plugged into the computer and reset ipod (i.e the second R) - same result as #8
11) at this point i gave up on the 5 R's as obviously the rest of the R's won't work
12) i scourged the discussions forum and googled the web but it seems like this is a rare problem and i turned up nothing
i'm considering sending it in for repair. if anyone thinks otherwise or have any tips for this particular problem, please speak up now. thanks in advance.
4th gen ipod with color 60gig   Windows XP   in warranty, has no problems till now

Answer 1

Hi Thanhvn,
Welcome to Apple Discussions
You gave up after 2 of the 5 Rs? If I did just 40% of everything, I would be in big trouble. Next year, I will only do 40% of my taxes and see what the government thinks. You missed the most important step after trying all other 4. It is restoring the iPod. You may want to look at Knowledge Base Document #60983 on Restoring iPod to factory settings and Knowledge Base Document #61003 on iPod shows a folder icon with exclamation point when you turn it on. I highly suggest going though every method; read it all, implement it all. Do you want to pay a fee if Apple doesn't find anything wrong with it? If they don't find anything wrong with it (and you ship it out) then they will most likely charge you a fee for something you could have done. Restoring your iPod to factory settings will erase all of the data on your iPod, but don't worry! As long as you have all of your media files on your computer; you shouldn't have a problem at all. If you want to just send in your iPod you may want to look at iPod - Service FAQ. You can also bring it to your local Apple Store.
Jon
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