Is my ipod completely dead?
An update for those who will later refer to this thread: I let the battery die completely and then plugged the iPod into my computer. It mounted and everything. So I tried to restore the iPod with the iPod Updater application. It hung twice and nothing happened. So I unplugged and re-connected the iPod, manually deleted the library in iTunes and tried the update again. It still hung. One more disconnect and reconnect and I fired up the Disk Utility and wiped the entire volume. After doing that, the iPod Updater fired up from the Disk Utility and I went for a full restoration. That did it. The iPod seems to be fully functional now, though it hasn’t been fully charged and tested as of yet. That’ll have to wait until tomorrow. Also, as part of the process, I opened the case, pulled the battery and attempted to eyeball the state of the Firewire port solder joints. I could discern no damage to them, but they are very small.
I’m not sure from your description if you tried rebooting the iPod by holding down Play and Menu at the same time for a few minutes. But maybe “the keyboard being frozen” refers to the iPod buttons. Anyway, if you haven’t tried that, that would be your next tack. Then take it to your nearest Genius Bar. They might offer to fiddle with it for you for free.
