Click Wheel (4th generation) iPod: Sudden resets (#3); static issues (#5)

Sudden resets On Monday we began covering reader reports of spontaneous "resets" while listening to music on new iPods-- the music will suddenly stop playing and the iPod will reset, displaying the Apple logo on the screen. Readers continue to submit confirmations of this issue. Although Apple's technical support personal claim this is "normal" behavior with "active" iPod use -- and the problem does appear to be common among readers who use their iPods while jogging, running, etc. -- most readers who have submitted reports have indicated that the problem occurs even with sedentary iPods. For example, Michael Fryd notes:

"I also have a problem with my 4G 40GB iPod. On a long plane flight the unit will crash after an hour or so. The unit is completely non-responsive; blank screen, and no response to button presses. The solution is to hold the combination that resets the unit. Then it boots normally and works for a few more hours."

Similarly, Grant Tompkins writes:

"I was in my car listening to music when it suddenly stopped. I thought the battery had run out but it had been fully charged the night before. After looking i saw the black Apple logo and waited for it to reboot and everything was fine. That's the only time it's happened and i hope it's the last. Also, scrolling through menus at a consistant speed is interrupted by the lack of input by the click wheel after it wakes up. It generally becomes fine after a few seconds, but still strange."

To be clear, the specific behavior we're investigating is different from resets when jogging/running/etc., which appear to be fairly common. (As a side note, although Apple claims that this behavior is to be expected during active use, a number of readers have expressed frustration with such assertions, considering that Apple markets the iPod as a player for "active" users, even touting the ability to jog/exercise during use.)

Older iPods also affected Reader reports demonstrate that this issue isn't limited to the latest iPod models; since we started coverage, we've received a significant number of reports from readers involving all iPod models from the first generation through the latest Click Wheel versions. Reader Mark Weikert's report is representative:

"I have had this same issue happen on my [2nd-generation] 10Gig iPod. I will be playing a song and it just stops. By the time I check it (get it off my belt clip), I see the Apple logo while it's restarting. It is different songs every time and has happened at least 2 dozen times. I have also had issues with the iPod just locking up in general, forcing me to manually reset the iPod. Again, no similarities in songs or play lists. It's completely random. I have tried restoring several times with no luck. The issue happens about once a week with an average of 2 hours of the iPod playing every day."

Static We continue to receive reports of "static" -- audible through headphones -- when the iPod is accessing its hard drive. (In general, the better the headphones, the more apparent the static.) Reader Brent Green, who submitted a few useful comments earlier in the week, provided a follow-up report that includes detailed measurements of the static phenomenon:

"I had a 40G 4G iPod with the audible feedback in the headphones when the hard drive is caching. The noise is very clear in both the left and right channels. I picked up another 4G 40GB unit yesterday in hopes of finding one without the problem. Unfortunately, this one is also affected. I was curious to find that with this iPod I could only detect the noise in the left channel.

"I downloaded a little spectrum analyzer program from the Internet and ran the audio output from each iPod into the line-in on my PC's soundcard. With this software I could clearly see the bump in noise intensity when the hard drive would cache the iPod's RAM. I could also measure the difference between the two iPods. While playing music with the volume all the way down, I would typically register ~-80dB when the hard drive was inactive. With the first iPod, I would get bumps to -50dB when the hard drive was active. With the second, the sound would only bump to ~-65dB.

"I could also visually see a difference in the frequencies measured. The first unit would get a bump at 2.5kHz when the hard drive first started up. There was a general elevation between 2.5kHz and 8kHz during the entire hard drive access. When the drive shut down, there would be a spike at 8kHz. With the second unit, there was no initial spike of any kind. Overall, sound intensity would still increase between 2.5 and 8kHz, but less so than the other unit. Then at the end of the hard drive access, there would again be a spike at 8kHz.

"All of this really proves nothing new, except that this really isn't a black and white issue. Rather than iPods being either affected or not, it seems that there may be a range in severity of the problem. Due to this nature, it is possible that the problem is common, with some iPods being 'better' and therefore less bothersome."

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