why is that the problems we all have with electronic devices are never in the trouble shooting section of the manual? So i charge my iPod fully, and it says its charged, but then when i disconnect the chargy cord, the battery icon is only 3/4 full. Then i listen to it for about 2 hours and its almost empty...could i be doing anything wrong?

my battery meter is only tangentially connected with reality.

yeah...you bought an ipod.

also, when on shuffle it only ever plays the 'hit' singles from albums...strange

my ipod doesn't brush my fucking teeth.

Yeah, you got a shite battery. From what I read, it's pretty much a crap shoot with ipods batteries. I'd exchange it immediately for a new one. You shouldn't have a problem since it's a manufacturer problem.

Also, I think you're suppose to let it charge for a full 24 hrs. the first time. Did you read the manual? I think it says it somewhere in there.

ditto.

I got mine a month ago or so - after the 24-hr. first charge, it's all been gravy, baby...

ahh...you see i think i know everything about anything, even stuff i know nothing about. I've gone through one charge cycle....is it too late for the 24 hour thingy mo?

It's a common problem with lithium ion batteries. It's a good idea to let them battery drain completely (until the player automatically shuts off) every 30 charges or so. If you do that the battery meter should be more accurate.

this ruins EVERYTHING. I have to go on a five hour bus trip in six hours time to a basketball tournament....what am i s'posed to do!?

EDIT:

There isn't much you can do, I guess. You can run out and buy an external battery pack, like this one. Or charge it up and hope it lasts for the whole trip.

but in not doing the 24 hour chargy thing am i jeopardising the long term goodness of my iPod?

I think you'll be alright. I'd probably let it charge a full 24 hrs though before using it again. Also, I've read in several places where you DO NOT need to let it drain completely in order to conserve the memory of the battery. In fact it can harm your battery even more by letting it discharge. There is some great info here:

http://forums.ipodlounge.com/showthread.php?s=53e03abe650607a1fde484453629d0ff&threadid=19556&highlight=battery[/url]

From apple's website: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=61475

It says not to put too much confidence in the battery meter. In your case, though, it seems like the battery is fucked.

My ipod does this thing where it says it is fully charged, then I'll plug it into the computer to update it and it will say "charging" again. Don't understand why, but other than that it seems to work fine.

Mine does that as well....I thin it just uses the battery meter to imply a connection - once I "eject" it, the battery stops charging...

So let me get this straight-Once you unplug your ipod from a power source (aka your computer) it stops charging? How profound.

no...it's still in the dock, and will charge even if it is "ejected" from ITunes (a.k.a. not sharing files with). Maybe I should've explained it a bit better for someone who wouldn't understand that an IPod does not connect to a computer in the same way a cartridge connects to an Atari 2600...

Mmmmmm....Atari 2600.....

Sorry, I have to stop being angry online and get to a Pitfall simulator, Stat!

Read a book.

What if the battery meter is the only thing connected to reality and the rest of us are disconnected? Discuss.

Well, it depends on what you're doing. Are you using the backlight a lot (or have it on all the time)? Using one of the EQ settings? Are you skipping songs frequently? Anything that causes the hard drive to spin up eats up the battery. But yes, the battery meter is extremely unreliable, and you can replace it with a numbered' one using euPod. I did that a couple weeks ago and have been much happier. It reads around 500 full, and I've not seen it dip below about 250 during a very heavy day of use at work (I'd say about 5 hours of play time) where I'd normally have seen the battery indicator showing just a little sliver.

Also, if you're concerned about your battery life, be sure to run the Ipod battery test. Basically, you find an album that is about one hour long with songs 3-8 minutes long, clear out the playcounts for those songs, and put it on repeat, making sure you've turned off SoundCheck, the backlight, and any EQ settings and the alarm. Let it go until your Ipod dies. Charge it up and then plug it back into your computer. Check the playcounts for that album. If it's significantly less than 10-12, you've got a bad battery. Keep in mind that Apple won't do anything for you until your battery life dips below 6 hours.

I give my Creative Zen a 4 hour charge and it lasts me all week.

Yeah, that is a smarmy grin.