5th gen, apple logo frozen, will not restore.

I have an 80 gb pod video 5th gen. and run os x tiger on my macbook.
My ipod perpetually has the Apple logo with black background on the screen. When I put it into disk mode and hook it up to my macbook, the ipod shows in the finder and desktop but not in iTunes. When I try and restore it using 'Ipod Updater 2006-06-28' my ipod appears (with serial number and what not) but it shows a message stating "the selected ipod is not supported by this updater" and the 'update' and 'restore' tabs are grayed out.
From what I can find this is the most recent updater software available. I suspect that it's a hard drive issue and that I'm probably *ucked, but figured I'd see if anybody has come across this before.

Thanks.

Welcome to Mac-Forums!!

Now to your question:

How old is it? Anything more than 2-3 years probably means hard drive issues. Here are some things to try that I heard will work:

1. Wait for the battery to die, and then hook it hp to your pc.
2. If that doesn't work, put it in the freezer (yeah, i know it sounds funny, but it works). If after putting it in the freezer it works, it is probably a hard drive issue.
3. Take it to a genius at an apple store and see what they say.

Unfortunately, the ipod video (and other ipods with huge disk sizes) use platter hard drives, and unlike the nano's solid state drive, these platter drives don't last that long. One hard fall could screw up your drive too.

I know with an economy like this I shouldn't be suggesting this, but if you have the money, conisder buying a new ipod. They are cheap, and come with a lot of features.

Here's a question for you. Do you really need to store 80GB worth of stuff on your ipod? I personally have 1GB of my music collection and 3GB podcasts on my ipod touch, and the rest is for applications. I use youtube for videos lol.

Hope this helps.

Also, try this link for additional help. If you do what i said and it doesn't work, post back and i'll take it a step further. good luck.

I have let the battery die several times to no avail. This is the first I've heard about the freezer idea so I'll give it a try, not much to lose at this point.
"Need" is a strong word, but I have about 70 gb worth of audio on my macbook and like to have it all on me just to have it.
Is flash memory (nanos) more durable? I do bring my ipod mountain biking with me, which in hindsight is probably not the best thing to do with a hard drive with moving parts.
I've seen hard drive replacements for sale in the $100 range. If I try and replace it myself, do these fixes tend to work out?
I'll post back with the freezer results.
Thanks for the reply.

Also, how long should I keep it in the freezer? More like overnight or an hour or so?

try keeping it in the freezer for 30 minutes. If that won't work, do it overnight. I don't recommend doing the hard drive replacement unless u know what u are doing. Flash memory is way more durable than hard drives. Basically, if u take a flash based drive and vibrate it hard, it'll survive, unlike hard drives. Also, flash based iPods are faster. If u buy a new iPod, think about what matters more, storage space or durability. Let me know how it all goes.

Well I'll be jiggered! I put in the freezer for an hour then took it out and hooked it up. Itunes recognized it and let me restore and is synching as I type.
Thanks a bunch for the advice. Were did you get the idea to freeze it?

google. I'm glad it worked for you