Ipod Nano 4G questions

[Lokrien]

Hi,

New member and a somewhat new ipod owner too. I recently picked up an 8 gig nano 4g on ebay with a cracked screen, i then found someone selling a used screen in good condition for very cheap. The guy also sent me the rest of his old ipod (a 16 gig nano!) in parts. I have a car head unit that can play ipods thru the usb connection and as such, it would be awesome to use the 16 gig nano as my car ipod and have the 8 gig one for around the house and at work. I think the 16gig one was dropped as it has a bit of scuff damage at the bottom corner and the jack looks a bit mashed up.

Here's my issue: just having the bare board (with battery still conected, but no click wheel or lcd) it USUALLY connects to the computer successfully. I have put a ton of music on it and can do with it what i please. If it doesnt connect, I can wait awhile (or a few hours) and try again and boom, it's back. If i try to put it back in it's case for use tho, it very rarely connects correctly. Is there any ground points or things like that to tell the ipod it's in/out of it's case? or something similar? I noticed to contact copper tabs separate about 1/2 cm apart just at the base of the battery, about where the top of the click wheel sits. Do those need to make a connection to work correctly? I want to be able to put it back in it's case (sans click wheel, screen, etc.) and use it just hooked up thru the usb cable in my glove box to my car stereo. Any help or advice would be great!

Thanks!
John

[Justin]

Sorry for the delay Lokrien!

There aren't any ground contacts to alert the MB that it's in a case, as far as I know at least. Have you tried hooking up the cw and lcd to see if that makes a difference on the connectivity? Anyone else on the forum have a comment on this?