I have 20 gig i-pod and when I attempt to turn it on it displays an icon of a folder and and exclamation mark and then turns off again. I went to the apple i-pod site and tired all the things it suggested to help the problem, but none of it worked. I'm really stressing about this because nothing seems to help. Can anyone help me out with this one?

I think that happened to my dads ipod too!! but he went to the apple store and they fixed it??

Whats up with the question mark? You don't even know if he got it fixed?

You know what you SHOULD have done? Not bought something from Apple.

I think that means that it has no battery. Charge it.
They have a 20 gig one?

I tried charging it. Nothing works.

Oh, do shut up. Their customer service is amazing, and my ipod far outlasted my mom's Zen micro.

Anyway, do you have a warrenty? If you do, then you should use the phone number on it to call Apple, who will walk you through some stuff to try to recover is. They'll probably have you do things you already did, but from the phone conversation, you'll either wind up with it working again or with them sending you a box to send the ipod back to Apple with. Now, this is the part that's really nice. I was pissed I'd have to send mine back, because I didn't want to go ipodless for that long, but the box arrived the next day, they recieved it a day or two after I sent it back to them, and then I got a new one sent back sooner than expected after that. As long as you have a warrenty, don't worry about it.

Have you reinstalled the system software with the iPod Updater Utility? The flashing question mark indicates that the system software cannot be found. You might also have a problem with the drive—you can possibly run a repair utility to see if it needs to be repaired.

Recently, I had the file folder with the exclamation mark as well. I took it into the Apple store and had to make an appointment at the Genius counter. The guy I talked with said that the symbol I was getting meant that I had missing files. He had me try a software update, which didn't fix the problem. I went into the Apple store once more, explained the problem. The harddrive had crashed and couldn't be fixed, so they replaced my (40 GB) iPod, for free (since it was still in it's waranty period). The downside was having to re-import all of my music - but I now know how to prevent the problem and have learned that their customer service is great.

I'd try calling, or walking in, setting up an appointment, and talking to someone for help. After getting my new (which is completely new - no used or worn parts) iPod, they gave me a 90-day waranty.

Good luck [:.

i experienced a problem where the sad face ipod came up and i followed the instructions and it worked but my friend had the problem and went to the store and they said they couldnt fix it so he sold it on ebay (broken), and had to buy a new one. i hope you can get it fixed at the store. i think if you have warranty, it should be ok! good luck with that.