Charging an iPod that has 0% battery
I have a 3rd generation iPod which I bought in 2006. For the past 1.5 years, I actually left it at home and didn’t used much of it.
A few weeks ago, I decided to take it out and check out the songs I have inside. However, when I plugged the USB cable in and charged it with an external charger, it doesn’t even want to boot up. The same thing goes when I plugged it into the computer.
I decided that its the battery that had been fully depleted and I need to replace it. I was about to set my mind on buying a 3rd party replacement battery at $30 which I need to replace myself.
I decided to do a final query online to see if anyone got the same problem. Turns out that indeed there are some people who had the same problem.
I learned that the USB cable cannot really charge a fully depleted iPod. You need a firewire to do it. I am not sure whether its a normal firewire, but the cable that came with my iPod actually has a firewire and a USB connected to it.
According to one of the guys at the Genius Bar, the firewire will charge the iPod while the USB will add as a connection between the computer and the iPod.
Well, all in all, I am glad I managed to get the iPod charged up for me to copy out the songs inside.
I’ve had this problem before. Had an iPod (4th Gen) which was left lying around for awhile and the battery was totally depleted. I only found out when I tried to charge it with my car charger and found out it wouldn’t boot up. But since I was going to be in the car for awhile I thought I’d just leave the iPod there and hopefully it would eventually boot up if it had enough juice.
Eventually my iPod could boot up and perform all its intended functions, but it took much longer than I expected it to and in the end I brought it back home and hooked it up to my MacBook through USB. Bottomline is that you *can* charge a fully depleted iPod through USB, but I guess it does take a slightly longer time than through FireWire.