If your iPod is out of warranty, and nothing on the Apple support web site helps (to fix your iPod), try the following…

1. Open you iPod. This is tricky, and it voids your warranty, so I won’t explain it here (it’s a liability thing).

2. Disconnect the battery and hard drive.

3. Reconnect your hard drive and battery.

4. Reassemble your iPod.

5. Reformat your (iPod) hard drive and restore your iPod settings.

Queue up the Hallelujah Chorus… It’s alive! IT’S ALIVE!

Cross my fingers, knock on wood, and all that… I just hope it keeps on goin’.

Things break. It can be disappointing, but it’s a fact of high-tech life. What really hurts is when the occasional breakage points to a painful truth, I’m an idiot.

Two months ago my iPod started acting funny. My keen diagnostic senses deduced that it was a software problem. However, my honed procrastinating tendencies put off any attempt to fix the problem. After all, the odd behavior wasn’t that bad. And besides, even if it wasn’t a software problem, the warranty was up anyway.

Yeah, it turns out I was horribly wrong on both counts. Two months ago I had one month left on that warranty.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to get back to my self-loathing.

Palm Handheld, 90 day warranty.
Apple iPod, 365 day warranty.
Broken, 383 day old iPod, bundled with a broken, 496 day old Palm handheld, worthless.

According to the Apple web site, I could send in my iPod for “out of warranty” service, cost: $249 (plus $6.95 shipping and handling), warranty: 90 days.

According to the Apple web site, I could purchase a new iPod, cost: $299, warranty: 1 year.

According to my budget, I could go iPod and handheld free indefinitely.

Now that I’m well and truly depressed, I think I’ll burn a couple “old school” CDs for work tomorrow.

“Pardon me sir, would you like a little salt for your wound?”