[ThinWalls]

Has it ever happened to any of you that the central button (select) after having disassemble an ipod classic to replace some part no longer works?

Yes. In that case it seemed to be a problem with the clickwheel. Don't know how that worked, as the button is obviously physically part of the logic board, not the clickwheel, but that particular third-party-replacement clickwheel would make the centre-button stop working when installed. With a different clickwheel it worked again.
I assume there are many other possible reasons why that might happen, including physical damage to the centre button microswitch, but if the clickwheel was what you just replaced, it might be worth trying a different one.

 

[Pitrus]

Many thanks for the reply.
I wanted to renew the ipod 7th 160gb because the original battery lasted very little.
I wanted to replace the front and back cover with new covers, the click wheel because it is very bad and scratched and of course the battery.
I had to disassemble everything to replace these parts using a good cleaning from dust and dust stuck in the clickweel area of the motherboard, but after reassembling the new parts I turned it on (without permanently closing the lids) the ipod did not show signs of life and nothing was visible (dead display) .... I was panicked, I put all the old parts back as they were originally (original battery and clickweel ring) to understand more.
The iPod turned on and resumed but the center button not work out.
Reassembling part of the device I checked with a tester if the central button makes contact and conducts the impulse by pressing it ... and it works; I tried to open and close the fixing hook of the flat several times that brings the impulses from the clickweel to the motherboard by slightly moving back and forth the original flat connection but no improvement.
Practically it is possible to scroll the information vertically but it is not possible to confirm anything because the central button does not work yet.
Should I think and believe that iPods are assembled so empirically and precariously that it is enough to touch or replace something that 5 times out of 10 cannot work? I'm afraid so.
On the net there are few or few indications and all unsolvable on this problem.

 

[ThinWalls]

Many thanks for the reply.
I wanted to renew the ipod 7th 160gb because the original battery lasted very little.
I wanted to replace the front and back cover with new covers, the click wheel because it is very bad and scratched and of course the battery.
I had to disassemble everything to replace these parts using a good cleaning from dust and dust stuck in the clickweel area of the motherboard, but after reassembling the new parts I turned it on (without permanently closing the lids) the ipod did not show signs of life and nothing was visible (dead display) .... I was panicked, I put all the old parts back as they were originally (original battery and clickweel ring) to understand more.
The iPod turned on and resumed but the center button not work out.
Reassembling part of the device I checked with a tester if the central button makes contact and conducts the impulse by pressing it ... and it works; I tried to open and close the fixing hook of the flat several times that brings the impulses from the clickweel to the motherboard by slightly moving back and forth the original flat connection but no improvement.
Practically it is possible to scroll the information vertically but it is not possible to confirm anything because the central button does not work yet.
Should I think and believe that iPods are assembled so empirically and precariously that it is enough to touch or replace something that 5 times out of 10 cannot work? I'm afraid so.
On the net there are few or few indications and all unsolvable on this problem.

Afraid I don't know then. As I say, the one-and-only-only time I had that issue it was due to a faulty clickwheel - I presume the electrical connections it made somehow interfered with the circuit the centre button used. If you've already tried disconnecting and reconnecting the clickwheel cable I don't have any other suggestions. Maybe try putting your new clickwheel in again?

 

[Pitrus]

Maybe try putting your new clickwheel in again?

The problem arose after I have restored everything as it was originallyI and tried with the original clickweel.
Now I would no longer want to touch or replace anything to try ... by intervening inside an ipod 5 times out of 10 I am terrified that something no longer works, but I can try .... if everything remains unaltered I will be forced to sell it for repair or spare parts.

 

[ThinWalls]

The problem arose after I have restored everything as it was originallyI and tried with the original clickweel.
Now I would no longer want to touch or replace anything to try ... by intervening inside an ipod 5 times out of 10 I am terrified that something no longer works, but I can try .... if everything remains unaltered I will be forced to sell it for repair or spare parts.

I can only suggest it's perhaps worth trying rebuilding it again and going back to the new clickwheel before giving up on it. Because after tinkering with, and flash modding loads of ipods (probably getting on for 100), I've never yet encountered one that had a non-functioning centre-button as its only fault (other than that one single case where it was a bad - third-party - clickwheel causing it). So it seems to me as if therefore there's a chance it's not a permanent problem with yours.

 

[Pitrus]

I can only suggest it's perhaps worth trying

Well, with great caution last Tuesday I put back the original click well but nothing has changed, the central confirmation button launches the impulse but the motherboard does not carry out the given order; I should entrust it to some good repairman whom unfortunately I don't know.

 

[ThinWalls]

Well, with great caution last Tuesday I put back the original click well but nothing has changed, the central confirmation button launches the impulse but the motherboard does not carry out the given order; I should entrust it to some good repairman whom unfortunately I don't know.

Oh, just one last thought occured to me. Was going to suggest you put it in test mode to test the buttons, but to do that you have to hold down the centre-button and the back button simultaneously, and if it isn't detecting the centre button that won't work so you won't be able to get it into test mode.

Which does make me wonder - if you hold down centre button and menu button, does it reboot as it should? If so, that would suggest the button-press is being physically detected, but the firmware isn't reacting to it correctly. In that case restoring it with iTunes might help. If you can't get it to reboot, because the button isn't even being detected for that, then I guess it's a lost cause.

 

[Pitrus]

Oh, just one last thought occured to me. Was going to suggest you put it in test mode to test the buttons, but to do that you have to hold down the centre-button and the back button simultaneously, and if it isn't detecting the centre button that won't work so you won't be able to get it into test mode.

Which does make me wonder - if you hold down centre button and menu button, does it reboot as it should? If so, that would suggest the button-press is being physically detected, but the firmware isn't reacting to it correctly. In that case restoring it with iTunes might help. If you can't get it to reboot, because the button isn't even being detected for that, then I guess it's a lost cause.

Many thanks but it is a losing fight; last Tuesday I have already tried to do everything you indicated but the central button does not work.

 

[ThinWalls]

Just built yet another iflash ipod - using the collection of lower-capacity memory cards I have left over from upgrading other iflash ipods with larger cards.

I think something must be wonky with one of the cards, as it has 200+200+200+128 in there, but only restores to 475gb. Not sure how much space gets lost in formatting (and due to the difference between GB and GiB) but 475 seems much lower than it should be. The total of course adds to 728, and after allowing for formatting and Gib vs Gb, I would have expected 650 or so. Anyone have an idea of exactly what it should come out to with that collection of cards?

 

[ThinWalls]

D'oh!

Replaced one of the 200Gb cards with a 128Gb one (guessing that that was the bad card) and it restores to...475Gb, exactly the same as with the 200Gb card in there. So regardless of whether its 200+200+200+128 or 200+200+128+128 it comes out as exactly the same total size - in either case, less than it should be.

Iflash Ipods never work out in a way that makes sense.

 

[Pitrus]

Iflash Ipods never work out in a way that makes sense.

I had a similar problem with the sd, instead of windows formatting which read 64GB instead of 256GB I used a specific program to format (sd card formatter) sd and I had all the available capacity.

 

[ThinWalls]

This latest one has turned out to be far more effort than it was worth. Can't tell if it's a faulty memory card or a faulty iFlash or a faulty logic board, but spent much of a day struggling with it and every thing I tried ran into a different problem. It was only an afterthought, in order to try and make use of the left-over lower-capacity cards, anyway.

I restore it, it restores then immediately declares that it's corrupted and needs to be restored again. If I restore it a second time it seems to work, but if I try and write anything to it it claims there's no space on it.

I try to format the cards in a USB card-reader and AOMIEE claims the partition table is 'locked by another program'. Every third attempt at restoring I get that exasperating 'an unknown error occurred' message from iTunes. On-and-on it goes. Yet all these cards were previously working fine in other ipods, and the logic board works fine with the original HD. Even swapped the drive cable a few times.

The previous 2Tb iFlash ipod I made (that involved swapping out one of these 200Gb cards for a new 512Gb one) just restored immediately with no problems at all, and works perfectly. It's very weird how variable the experience of using iFlash mods is.

 

[ThinWalls]

And in general I really wish Windows would tell you what program or process it was referring to when it tells you a device is 'in use by another program' or a disk is 'locked by another program'. That problem comes up in so many different contexts.

 

[Pitrus]

or a disk is 'locked by another program'.

there are programs that detect what is working in the background, but now I don't remember the name.

Have you tried to remove the sd from the iflash and format directly from a pc or notebook if you have an sd port?

 

[ThinWalls]

there are programs that detect what is working in the background, but now I don't remember the name.

Have you tried to remove the sd from the iflash and format directly from a pc or notebook if you have an sd port?

Yes, that's what I was referring to - formatting the cards in a usb card-reader. Did that at least twice, though kept getting that 'partition table is locked by another program' error. No other programs were running, of course. Maybe it was the anti-virus software, or, conversely, a virus. Probably just windows being stupid as usual. Nine-times-out-of-ten if I try to eject an external device windows will complain that something is using it, when clearly nothing is. As I say, I do not understand why Windows isn't set up to, in such cases, simply tell you which program or process it's referring to. Why tell me something is being used 'by a program' but not tell me which program that is?

And ipod mods are _so_ variable, it's weird. Half of them just work immediately, but those that don't, give you no-end of problems, usually constantly changing errors, complaints that devices are in use, 'unknown error occurred' messages, or meaningless numerical error codes from iTunes, cards formatting to the wrong size, or "restore" processes that run to completion but turn out not to have done anything and leave the ipod unrestored, etc.

Hence sometimes a mod can be completed from opening the ipod housing to up-and-running in under an hour, other times it takes up the entire day and still won't work.