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andyh2008

macrumors newbie
Apr 24, 2008
5
0
would an interference with an input device really cause software crashes? Thats like me taking my mouse and smashing it with a hammer. Sure, it won't work anymore, but shouldn't the computer still be fine?
I'm a PC technician. I've seen faulty mice screwing up the PC. New mouse = problem gone!
 

Insulin Junkie

macrumors 65816
May 5, 2008
1,184
0
Mainland Europe
I can relate...

Hmm good for the people who are not experiencing any troubles!

I have a weird problem not described but I do think it may have something to do with the magnet in the iPod touch case I bought today in the morning.

I have a 32GB iPod I bought last friday, no problems at all. I bought a Xspect leather case with a clasp magnet and put the iPod in. A minute afterwards the screen shrinks slightly (a small white frame appears around the edges of the screen), and the iPod flashes when I turn the screen off.

I took the iPod out of the case, and after a few minutes (and a reboot) the white frame was gone, though I still get a small minor flash when I turn the screen off.

Faulty iPod? Coincidence? I don't know, just thought I'd share.
 

davidy

macrumors 6502
Jan 28, 2008
338
0
Even though I've not had any problem with my case - cheap, Chinese, with magnet catch - I've followed this thread with interest. Apparently those of you who are having problems have narrowed the cause down to the magnets in the cases. I accept that your experiences have been properly tested and are real. Those of you (us) who aren't having this problem should accept what the others are saying and back off with the negative comments.

To those of you who have the magnet problem, what has Apple done for you to rectify the problem? Do they acknowledge that the problem exists? Have they offered and solution?

As a relevant aside, moving a magnet past a wire will induce an electrical current in that wire. So it is entirely possible that moving a magnet over or past the iPod touch will induce a stray electrical signal somewhere in the device and cause unpredictable results. In a properly designed, grounded and shielded device, it shouldn't happen, but that's the only explanation in this case.
 

officerdick

macrumors regular
May 4, 2006
136
0
It has to be a hefty manget then. Capacity is of static force, sounds wierd that magnets would effect it much.
 

MacRy

macrumors 601
Apr 2, 2004
4,350
6,277
England
Chalk me up as another one who has had problems with the Griffin Elan Convertible for the iPod Touch. I purchased it when I first got my Touch and it kept having to be reset because it would lock up and become unresponsive. I thought it might have been because I had hacked my iPod but I stopped using the case and never had any further issues. I subsequently bought an iPhone and gave my wife the Touch and she put it back in the Elan Convertible and it kept locking up again (this is several months after I had the issues). This conclusively proved to me that the magnets were having some kind of adverse effect. I contacted Griffin in the US (what fantastic service by the way) and received the same email from Whit that someone posted earlier in the thread, explaining that they were aware of some people having these issues with certain iPod Touch's and that they would replace the case for any other model that I wanted.
 

okkine

macrumors newbie
Jun 15, 2008
6
0
I know it's been over a month since anyone posted here, but I thought I'd post anyway.

I received a 16 gig iPod Touch for Christmas. It has worked beautifully for the last six months. Then I purchased the same Griffin flip case, and soon noticed that it would start freezing up on me (I never made the connection between the case and the freezing until recently). It was fine as long as it was left sitting on the desk, but as soon as I would start walking, or even sitting in the car or bus, it would freeze, unable to turn it on. Doing a hard reboot of the device worked for a while, but after about a week I couldn't even reboot (nor would iTunes detect it when I attached it to the usb). I took it to Apple, and they replaced it.... but the very next day the new one started doing the same thing. After another week, it also stopped responding to the attempted reboots. This time I took it to apple, and iTunes could detect it, but it could not run the restore function on it. Again they replaced it. So far the new one is working great, but I haven't put it in the case yet. At this point, I'm not even 100% sure if it is the magnets, or just a bad coincidence. I'm planning on waiting for a few days (maybe a week) then placing it back in the case to see what happens.
 

Michaud68

macrumors member
Jun 10, 2008
59
0
I have the same Griffin Case no problems here but just to be on the safe side I think I'll get a new case better safe than sorry
 

Bichiliad

macrumors newbie
Apr 10, 2008
9
0
um, i use a pc for the most part... is that a BAD thing?

And anyone find a portfolio case WITHOUT magnets?
 

okkine

macrumors newbie
Jun 15, 2008
6
0
um, i use a pc for the most part... is that a BAD thing?

And anyone find a portfolio case WITHOUT magnets?

PC's are fine, it's the magnets that are causing the problem. They do have cases without the magnets, but I haven't seen any that cover the screen, which was the appeal of the ones with the magnets.
 

Quorlan

macrumors newbie
Jun 17, 2008
3
0
Same problems with Griffin case

I too have had the exact same problems. The moment I stopped using the case with magnets and went back to my old hard-shell case the problems vanished and my iPod Touch has not crashed, rebooted or done funky things on the screen since. Since the problems began within an hour of using the new case and stopped the moment I stopped using the case it HAS to be something with the case causing the problem. Perhaps it's time to take a trip to the apple store with my touch to get it replaced since this problem only seems to manifest itself with certain iPod touches.

Q
 

salvatorereda

macrumors member
May 25, 2007
75
0
plastic and leather cases kill the design of the iphone and touch
you dont need a case!

Take the case off, it feels better in your hand....

Its really hard to scratch the glass.
 

grapes911

Moderator emeritus
Jul 28, 2003
6,995
10
Citizens Bank Park
plastic and leather cases kill the design of the iphone and touch
you dont need a case!

Take the case off, it feels better in your hand....

Its really hard to scratch the glass.

But cases make the phone easier to carry, especially for a business user. My iPhone is connected to my belt at all times via a case. You shouldn't look at everything from one perspective.
 

Bwilky

macrumors regular
Jan 7, 2008
203
0
I'm pretty sure if you waved a magnet around a ipod with a HD it would start to screw it up. But seeing as the Ipod touch is flash memory that wouldn't be an issue. Or am I wrong?
 

Quorlan

macrumors newbie
Jun 17, 2008
3
0
Cases have their uses

I don't use a case to protect the screen (though the one I tried with the magnetic clasp was to help protect the screen when it was clipped to my belt) so much as it is to protect the device. I have a tendency to drop things. Things link iPods tend to crack or break when that happens, so the case is important.

Besides, the case I use now adds only a little bit of thickness to the Touch. Just enough that it no longer feels like I'm gonna break the thing if I hold on too tightly.

Q
 

grapes911

Moderator emeritus
Jul 28, 2003
6,995
10
Citizens Bank Park
I'm pretty sure if you waved a magnet around a ipod with a HD it would start to screw it up. But seeing as the Ipod touch is flash memory that wouldn't be an issue. Or am I wrong?

You are correct about the flash drive, you are incorrect about the HD (By HD, I'm assuming you mean traditional magnet based HD). There is a relatively powerful magnet built right on the HD and it doesn't effect the data unless it wants too. There is no way a normal magnet (especially a small one to close a case), will screw up the hard drive. An extremely powerful one will, but it would have to be way more powerful that anything you have lying around the house.

A magnet could (maybe, I've never done the research) screw up the touch screen or something, but definitely not the hard drive.
 

scialex

macrumors newbie
Jun 9, 2008
20
0
Norfolk, Massachusetts
A magnet could (maybe, I've never done the research) screw up the touch screen or something
probably not if this were the case apple would have noticed it anyway it might screwup the electric field which enables ouch sensitivity but:
1) the magnet is never right in front of the case
2) and when it is closest to it the cover is down and so the screen is inaccessible. as to the screen if magnets did mess them up people would have noticed a long time ago
 

andyh2008

macrumors newbie
Apr 24, 2008
5
0
plastic and leather cases kill the design of the iphone and touch
you dont need a case!

Take the case off, it feels better in your hand....

Its really hard to scratch the glass.

Yes but that polished metal back will scratch in about 5 minutes. It happened with my previous MP3 player (Rio Carbon). When it's polished to a mirror finish the tiniest mark will ruin it!
 

okkine

macrumors newbie
Jun 15, 2008
6
0
plastic and leather cases kill the design of the iphone and touch
you dont need a case!

Take the case off, it feels better in your hand....

Its really hard to scratch the glass.

Actually, it's not that hard to scratch the glass. I had a minor scratch in mine (fortunately that one got replaced because of the magnet issue), and another friend of mine has a huge scratch in it. That's why I wanted a case with a flip cover to begin with.
 

jimski

macrumors newbie
Jun 21, 2008
1
0
Add one more to the problem list. I bought mine two weeks ago Saturday. I put in the Griffin Convertible on Sunday and headed for the airport. I worked fine at the airport but was locked up when I got to Florida. I couldn't reboot it until the battery drained, which only took overnight (doesn't seem right). Charged it and it worked fine for a while. Repeated this for two days. Then I took the flip cover with the magnets off and it worked fine for the rest of the week. I put the cover back on Sunday to fly home and it was locked up when I arrived. I removed the cover and it's been fine ever since. So it seems mine was only affected after the battery drained a little not on a full charge.

Has anyone who had issues early on seen any long term effects?
 

okkine

macrumors newbie
Jun 15, 2008
6
0
Has anyone who had issues early on seen any long term effects?

2 of Mine did the same freezing up thing for a while, then crapped out completely after staying in the case for about a week. Wouldn't turn on at all. iTunes could detect it, but couldn't sync/restore it so apple replaced it. I don't know if there are long term problems once it is taken out of the case though.
 

Mal

macrumors 603
Jan 6, 2002
6,252
18
Orlando
And anyone find a portfolio case WITHOUT magnets?

I have a Belkin case that's velcro, but it wore out already (about 3 months now). The case itself is great, but the velcro barely holds anymore. I'm simply going to attach a snap in it's place though.

jW
 

/V\acpower

macrumors 6502a
Jul 31, 2007
628
498
Btw, i've bought a iPod Touch last week and recently a Case with magnet near the "round" button and really it is causing the unit to crash.

It's almost automatic when i start a song and put the iPod face down and flip closed (the face down probably just push a bit on the magnet so they are closer, since it doesn't crash when face up), the unit crash after 1-2 second.

Also when face down it never crash without the case. Clearly the case is causing the unit to crash.
 

Bichiliad

macrumors newbie
Apr 10, 2008
9
0
Btw, i've bought a iPod Touch last week and recently a Case with magnet near the "round" button and really it is causing the unit to crash.

It's almost automatic when i start a song and put the iPod face down and flip closed (the face down probably just push a bit on the magnet so they are closer, since it doesn't crash when face up), the unit crash after 1-2 second.

Also when face down it never crash without the case. Clearly the case is causing the unit to crash.

I KNOW! Lets line our cases with LEAD!
Seriously, anyone find a way around this? My iPod Touch is still case-less. And scratch-full. Ouch.
 
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