Unbrick a iPod Touch 2G (Second Generation) That Appears to Not Work Or Appears Bricked

I recently got into some trouble while playing around with my iPod Touch 2G in which I thought the device was bricked. It was not recognized when plugged into the USB port on a Windows XP computer and it appeared no matter what I did it was not able to power on. When restoring some firmware onto the iPod Touch 2G the device never came back from a reboot. Even worse yet was the fact that the power button was not fully operational so I was never sure if I was actually getting the correct button press to put the device into DFU mode. Below are some tips that could assist you to recover the device from this step.

The first thing to do is simply attempt to get the device into DFU mode. This can be done following the steps below.

Put iPod Touch 2G Into DFU Mode:

1. Plug Into USB Port: First make sure your Touch is plugged into your computer via the USB port even if it doesn’t appear to be recognized.
2. Hold Power Button: First hold the iPod Touch Power button for 3 seconds.
3. Hold Power Button & Home Button: While still holding the Power button begin to hold the Home button for 10 seconds. In this second step you will have not let go of the Power button from step one and you will also be holding the Home button at the same time.
4. Continue To Hold Home Button: Let go of the Power button but still hold the Home button for 30 seconds. Make sure to continue to hold the Home button for 30 seconds.
5. Verify Device Recognized: Verify the device is now recognized by checking the USB devices or via iTunes. It should now show up in iTunes but will request that you Restore the device.

I still was unable to get the above working because the Power Button was not working correctly. Luckily I had already taken the glass off of the iPhone and it was still fairly loose. So to resolve the issue I removed the glass again and then removed the Power Button itself. This can be done by removing the two screws holding the metal that holds the plastic button itself in place. Once you remove these two screws the plastic piece will actually fall out once the screws of the metal bracket are removed and the bracket itself moved out of the way. I left the plastic button itself removed and then screwed the metal bracket back in place. On the bracket is a small metal circle that is what gets pressed when using the plastic button. You will need to use a small screwdriver or something like that to press the button now but I was able to get the power to consistantly turn on and turn off now with the plastic piece removed. Obviously this makes the phone more fragile because there is a hole in the outer shell of the iPhone so be careful. This is only recommended to do if your iPod Touch is out of warranty and you have exhausted all other possibilities. I wrote this because I saw many people asking this question online and very few answers so I hope this helps someone else that thought their Touch was useless. From my experience it is basically impossible to brick your iPod Touch 2G.

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