Power button on iPod touch operates on its own

Question

Hello,
I have a 64 GB 3rd generation iPod touch.  I bought it new about four years ago.  It has NEVER given me any problems mechanically, and I know Apple has a good track record for this.  However, about a week ago, response of the power button became a little spotty.  I figured this was no big deal, as the device is four years old, it should be expected that every single button should not be as responsive as it was the day I got it.  I left it at that and enabled Assistive Touch to releive some of the stress of the power button.  This worked fine until three days ago, when the power button actually began to dictate to the device on its own.  I am getting the same spotty response of the button, but now it will wake up the device and put it back to sleep again all on its own.  I could be in the middle of selecting a new song or giving a voice command - then bam!  The device puts itself to sleep.  There are times when the device receives so much input from the power button it will flicker on and off from receiving so many spastic commands.  Then, at other times, the device behaves as normal.  A good way to describe this is electronic epilepsy.  The device will be functioning as normal - then the next moment - it literally appears to be having some sort of seizure.  It flickers on and off and sends all of the imaginable commands from the power button one could think of.  Sometimes the button sends the shutdown signal and I get the "Side to Power Off" pane.  I know this is an old device and that these mechanical altercations should be expected, but this makes it very, very difficult, and above all, irritating, to accomplish a task even as mundane as switching songs.  Like I said, this little iPod has been great and it has withstood many elements which should have done it in (like braving extreme sub-zero and above-100F temperatures multiple times).  So its life has not been a walk in the park, but it never displayed any signs of weakness, which is why I am baffled that in a perfect working enviromnent this odd quirck is occuring.  But I like to think of it as a workhorse, and I sure as heck wasn't looking to invest in another flagship iPod model just at the moment, so I would dearly love to get this issue resolved and get back to having this thing as my daily companion.  I have already done a factory reset and set it up as a new iPod.  This did not help.  Are there any suggestions as to what I can do to just get this device under control?  Any help is GREATLY appreciated.
Thanks

Answer 1

Some of the suggestions listed here like the alcohol one are applicable
fix for Home button