Fix for iPod Nano that resets over and over...

Yesterday, my iPod Nano began to auto reset over and over. 

So, I checked the Apple website for help.  The only fix I found were the instructions on how to do a "Hard Reset".  I already knew how to do this from a previous incident on the first day I owned my iPod Nano.

Needless to say, the "Hard Reset" technique didnt work, because my problem wasnt a lockup, instead it was a continuous reset.  Adding yet another reset wasnt gonna fix the problem.

Now what?

The earlier article on the Apple Support website mentioned doing a full "System Restore" via the iPod Updater software utility.  So, I download the latest version of this utility

However, it kept saying to plugin my iPod device and wouldnt let me update it because it was continously resetting!!  Ugh!

I recalled hearing about another technique for entering into "Diagnostic Mode" and decided to lookup how to do this.  After visiting a couple of websites, I soon learned how to do this and went exploring.

"Diagnostic Mode" only tests for hardware issues, and "unfortunately" after running every test, everything checked-out fine.

But, this gave me an idea.  There is one other mode you can use, called "DiskMode".  This is mostly for people who want to use their device as an expensive USB storage device, but the nice thing about it is that it boots up in a different mode than the normal audio-player mode.

So, again, I consulted this handy site to find the correct button sequence to push to change to "Disk Mode".  Once I was in disk mode, I was able to reconnect the USB cable and run the iPod Updater utility again.  Hooray! It connected!

Unfortunately, the "Update" option didnt fix the problem, however the more extreme "Restore" option was able to reapply factory defaults and get my iPod back to a clean stable state.  Yaay!

I hope this helps someone else who runs into this problem and saves you from having to spend the $29.95+ to have Apple Support fix the problem.