iPod Touch 2nd Gen, iOS 4.2 acting strange

[space-time]

toddler got a hold of it today and may have dropped it. I cannot tell since there is no mark, it is pristine.

But it's like possessed, I press buttons, nothing happens, then 1 minute later it shuts off, now I press Safari (on the dock) and weather opens up, etc.

I am trying a restore, to see if that helps. Any other ideas? I already managed to power off and back on once, but now it's impossible.

[space-time]

software and firmware restored. No content on iPod. Naked empty.

Still the screen won't respond. I cannot drag the slider to unlock.

The Home button is the only one that works. The Power button (on top) is very erratic. The volume UP/DOWN used to work before restore, now nothing.

what do I do next?

[space-time]

peeled the protective film off. Wow, the screen is NEW.

But it still does not respond to anything now. About one hour ago I could still slide the unlock slider. Now NOTHING works except the home button.

[space-time]

as I am waiting for the second restore, and talking to myself (where is everybody BTW?), I think this may be a good excuse to get a Retina model.

[space-time]

I keep getting the "Slide to power off" dialog box, could it be the power button is stuck and always pressed?

[space-time]

OK, who wants iPod parts?

[Mike Johnson]

My wife's first iPhone was dropped, dented up near the top button, and it acted like that. I stuck it in a drawer after doing everything you did. A couple months later I fired it up our of curiosity, and it actually works okay now. It's not a phone anymore, and you can't use the top power button, but other than that it's fine. Now my son uses it to play Robot Wants Kitty.

[space-time]

I managed to reboot it one more time, but still not go. Sometimes it reacts to touchscreen, sometimes not, and in most cases it just shuts down by itself.

[space-time]

I managed to get into Settings and erase the whole iPod, it said this should take 2 hours and cannot be undone. I guess it must be different than restore since restore took like 5-10 minutes each time.

[Mike Johnson]

space-time wrote:
I managed to reboot it one more time, but still not go. Sometimes it reacts to touchscreen, sometimes not, and in most cases it just shuts down by itself.

I'd swear everything you're describing is what we went through. I suspect hard resets and restoring firmware weren't enough in our case, and letting the battery drain completely might have done the trick. But I also suspect voodoo.

So don't give up hope yet. But hey, if you're going to toss it, I'll pay to have you ship it to me, just because I think there's a chance it'll come back to life.