I am currently experiencing severe and exasperating skipping problems with my iPod (1G from 2002/3). Is that due to the HD or the System Software? May it be fixable? Time for a new iPod? Advice anyone? Time for an iPod support forum?

Hey there. First of all, a iPod support forum is definitely coming.

I would think that skipping would be a software issue, but I definitely don’t know that for sure.  Does it have the latest firmware?  If not, see if that helps.

If the problem persists, it could well be a hardware issue.

In fact, let’s dig a bit deeper: Does the skipping occur on every song, or is it just a specific song(s)?

Have you tried wiping your iPod and starting over?  Have you tried mounting the iPod as a hard drive and running a disk utility to see if it finds problems?

Good luck, and let us know how it goes.

Actually, the skipping actually began after I updated the software. Funny though: it’s running the latest firmware. The skipping happens on specific songs, and it doesn’s go away when I re-format the iPod. After a certain while, it stopps skipping on a song and starts on another… funny business. I don’t have any disk utilities though.

Do you have the same songs on your computer? do they play OK there? I have had problems ripping some CDs which weren’t completely flat and, although they played well on the CD player, couldn’t easily be converted into AAC on my Powerbook.

I also had some problems early on with my gen 1 iPod with tracks skipping, or mergeing together. This was fixed with a) an upgrade to the firmware (can’t remember which one it happened on - it was years ago!), and b) re-ripping the tracks.

Disk utilities are more useful than you could imagine, BTW, including Apple’s own.

Doesn’t sound like a drive issue, though. Really sounds software related. Might be worth a trip to an Apple Store to talk to a Genius,

If you want to check the drive, though, use Disk Utility, which is in your utilities folder in your application folder.

How’s this for a plot twist? I re-installed Windows (which crashed) and subsequently iTuned -yes I was using Win for my Tunes and iPod- and reimported the songs, the skipping stopped? Funny… I’m happy, but I can’t think of a logical reason. Another reason for the why-not-use-windows list.

Edited for spelling.

The song files were probably just corrupted, which caused them to skip. Re-ripping them gave you a fresh, uncorrupted file.

Why would they be corrupted? They’re just songs after all…

I just connected the iPod to a friends PC and am playing my songs from it (In a window with RealPlayer) and oh my, it does skip! Not if direclty from the iPod though…

It is possible that the file system, which contains pointers to where the parts of the files (which of course is all the songs are in computer terms) gets its knickers in a twist. It happened to me early on, on only a few songs, so I reformatted the drive and reloaded them (after ensuring that they sounded OK on the Cube-based source).

[quote author=“macinnerd”]I just connected the iPod to a friends PC and am playing my songs from it (In a window with RealPlayer) and oh my, it does skip! Not if direclty from the iPod though…

Maybe because the friends PC had 200 Mhz. of Processor power and was painfully funning the latest ver. of Real Player. Anyway, all’s well now  

Well, that would do it.

Thank you all for your generous advice and help.

Well, now that everything was going fine with my iPod, the battery cruelly decided to die. What would the best solution be: Get a replace-the-battery-yourself kit or send it in for the Apple Battery Replacement Program?

Depends on how much money and how much confidence in your ability to not mess it up you have. I replaced my battery without issues using one of the kits.

The kits are cheaper and provide more battery life. But you have to install them yourself.

The Apple method is slower and more expensive, although it’s safer to have them install it then yourself.

Battery replacement on the 1G is pretty easy. Takes about 5 minutes and a credit card or two (to open the case).