Troubleshooting Expensive Hardware

So today I have been struggling to maintain my alertness considering I went to bed at 0215 or something like that, being the person that I am, and surprise surprise, I didn't want to wake up this morning.

That's not really much of a surprise.

Anyway, yesterday, out of pure spite for my wallet and because it was just there, saying *buy me! Buy me!* i picked up an iPod at the PX. And then I got all excited about purchasing something that can take all of my music and I can just listen to at random whenever I feel like it, as my previous MP3 player only carried a paltry 128 Megs and it was a pain to switch those songs out regularly.

So anyway, I picked up this piece of hardware out of the blue and take it home with the excitement of thinking how cool it is and how brilliantly simple its design is.

Well, the thing doesn't work correctly.

I'll be sitting there typing posts at midnight or writing letters to people thanking them for all the schweet shtuff they keep sending me, and the song pauses. Right in the middle of one of the best parts. And there is no explanation as to why it pauses, it just does. I'm not even touching it, its just laying there, playing its music, and freezing. *grumble grumble*

I checked iPod's troubleshooting tips and reset it. Problem still happens. So I put the hold button on, and it still does it. I see if there is anything in the book about this, nothing.

This morning, I get online and check out iPod's website. Still nothing. I try to call Apple's tech support. They're in a different time zone. Apparently, to fix the problem, I have to mail it in.

Unfortunately, they don't mail back to APO addresses, so it would go home for my family to mail back to me.

I would predict that I wouldn't see my little iPod (which I have christianed Fuji) for over two months.

Kind of an overkill since I just bought it yesterday, don't you think?

So, that brings me to idea number two. Take the box and all the fixings, put the iPod back into it, find reciept, and exchange it for another iPod and hope the same problem doesn't surface. That seems to involve a whole lot less hassle.

The thing is, this iPod is now registered to me. Think that might make a difference?