I’ve seen a number of questions on the web related to frozen iPods which either get stuck on or off. Holding the Hard Reset buttons indicated in the previous post will — if the iPod is accepting any input at all — force it to do a full reboot. In most cases, the freeze is a one-time issue, and this solution will get you out of the situation.

However, if the iPod reboots and gets stuck again, try resetting it yet again and holding the Disk Mode buttons to force the iPod to become a simple external hard drive. When connected via USB or FireWire, it can be Restored with Apple’s latest iPod Updater software. Sometimes a Restore is the best way to get your iPod working again, as it wipes the device clean and reloads all the factory settings. The Restore function is so deep that it will even fix an iPod hard drive which has been completely written over with zeroes!

If the iPod is still locking up, it may be the result of a more serious problem that can be determined by thoroughly testing the hard drive. Stay tuned for more iPod fixing tips in the very near future.

I grew tired of Googling each time I needed the correct button sequence to put iPods into their various modes, so I’ve put together this little interactive display. Click on one of the three darkened buttons above to display the key presses necessary to put the iPod in the selected mode. To use, Reset the iPod using the first combination, then use the Diagnostic Mode or Disk Mode combination as soon as the Apple logo appears.

I work at a small but fantastic place in the middle of Montana fixing up computer hardware of all kinds. Most of the time, this involves desktop PCs, laptops, and rackmount servers, but every so often a unique item comes by that makes you wonder what all it’s capable of. Today, this item was a state lottery ticket machine — the kind you’d find on the checkout counter of any Quick-E-Mart style establishment. While the machines used ancient computer hardware and had no trace of lottery related data (who wouldn’t look?), I did spend a couple minutes testing it and, naturally, launching Doom! The LCD on the machine was monochrome and only used the top left quarter of the video output, meaning the lottery system was a pretty big hack itself. With some configuration, video could probably be sized to use the available space, but I didn’t want to put more than a couple minutes into hacking, as this is work, after all.

Tonight’s winning numbers are: I, D, D, Q — and the PowerBall number — D. (huh?) Click below for larger images at Flickr.

For those who own a shiny new Intel Mac and a copy of Windows XP, it’s now possible to install Mac OS X and Windows on different partitions and pick a system at startup. Driver support is, not surprisingly, still lacking, but should be brought up to par in the next few weeks. Apple’s transition to the Intel architecture has opened the door both ways — Windows can run on Macs, and Mac OS X can run on PCs. Choice is good.