Fix your iPod

[ music ] ^M00:00:11 >> The iPod. A fantastic modern marvel. At least until it stops working, and then you want to beat it up with this. Wait, don't do that. I'm Tom Merritt, editor from CNET.com. On this edition of Insider Secrets I'll show you how to troubleshoot your iPod so you don't have to use this. ^M00:00:24 [ music ] ^M00:00:27 [ background music ] If your iPod stops working, Apple recommends something called the Five Rs. They're creative like that, I guess. They stand for reset, retry, restart, remove, and give up. Nah, give up doesn't start with an R, it's restore. Let's start with reset. Most people know this one, but it's kind of like the is it plugged in question. You have to ask. I've used it on about a half dozen freezes on my iPod, and it's worked every time. Slide the hold switch here at the op on, and then back to off. Hold down the menu button and the select button for about six seconds, until the iPod displays the Apple logo. It should reboot. If not, try connecting it to a power source, like a wall outlet or a USB port. Next is retry. If at first you don't succeed, try try again. Didn't work in one outlet? Try it in a different outlet, or in a USB port sometimes one port is lower powered than another. So changing the USB port really could help. Next up, restart. If neither of the USB ports work, try restarting your machine just to make sure that there's not an issue with the computer recognizing the USB port. You can check for updates to your iTunes and your iPod software. Sometimes that'll fix the problem. Start iTunes, and then choose help, and check for iTunes updates. If it tells you an update is available, press the Yes button and follow the onscreen instructions. If it says your version is current, you can try just reinstalling iTunes all over again. Back up your music, go to Apple.com, download iTunes, and install it from scratch. The next star is restore. This is the last resort, okay? It wipes the iPod disc clean and reinstalls the software. Now you're about to delete everything on your iPod, so make sure you back up your music. See our Insider Secret on backing up for more details. In the latest version of iTunes they make this quite easy. Plug in your iPod and go to the Summary page on iTunes. In the middle, under Version, there's a button called restore. Press it, and you can reset your iPod settings. These five Rs will only take you so far. If you're still having trouble, or having different trouble, you might try accessing the iPod's diagnostic tools. Toggle the hold switch on and off again, hold down the select button and the menu button, just like you did to reset, but this time when the Apple logo appears, hold down the previous and select buttons for a few seconds, until you see a reversed Apple logo, or it goes right into the diagnostic screen. In an iPod with video, like mine, you'll see the diag boot screen. Press the menu button to access the main iPod diagnostic screen. If you have the iPod Nano, you'll go straight to this screen right here. Now what you can do with these diagnostic tests depends on which version of the iPod firmware you have. So for instance in mine you can test the memory, the input output, the power, accessories, and the system configuration. To leave this diagnostics screen you can either run the reset option, or hold down the select and play and pause button for a few seconds. I want to thank our friends at McGraw-Hill, publishers of the CNET Do It Yourself series, where we lifted a bunch of this material. Hope this gets your iPod back in the game, and you can use this for nails. Okay? I'm Tom Merritt for CNET.com. Viva iPod. ^M00:03:47 [ music ]