iPod Issues - Lost power before disconnect

Question
OK, so my daughter mistakenly shut down the computer while her iPod was still charging. We tried to restart the computer but it wouldn't even load the Windows screen. It got stuck on a dark blue screen. After a couple repeat attempts, we decided to shut down and just unplug the iPod. She hasn't been here to test it yet. What's likely happened to the iPod? (The computer started up fine once we unplugged the iPod.) I get nervous about these iPods cuz I never buy the protection plan.

Answer
You are correct in the assumption that the USB device (in this case, the iPod) was causing the computer to not boot correctly. It's not a frequent issue; however, sometimes when USB devices are plugged into the computer that are active (meaning they are actively attempting to send/receive data to/from the computer) they can cause the computer to function a bit haywire. Whether this is because the USB drivers aren't loaded until after the POST (Power On Self Test) or not, I do not know. What I do know is that commonly removing the item until the Windows Start Screen has shown will allow you to plug them in and function normally again. If you are using an older computer, the hardware drivers seem to load later in the boot process (some of us tech guys remember having USB mice/keyboards that were useless until the machine booted which lead to us having to use USB-PS2 adapters to be able to control the devices during the boot process).

Note that the actually fact that the device was charging versus transmitting data should not affect the answer. USB devices charge over the cable much like a trickle-charger charges nickel-cadmium (NiCd) batteries. Not all USB ports are powered (many new computers come with the full four ports powered; however, if you are using an older computer/MB it was common for 2 of the four to be powered and 2 of them to not be powered). No need to worry. There shouldn't have any lasting effects on battery memory either that wouldn't have been there already should this have happened more frequently (partial chargings, that is).

As far as the iPod itself, there shouldn't have been any damage done to the hardware whatsoever. If the iPod was in the process of uploading, downloading or updating there could be glitches with whatever data it was processing (i.e. If it was uploading songs to the computer, likely the song(s) being transferred at the time would become corrupted as far as the files on the computer are concerned. Vice Versa for the downloading of songs onto the iPod from the computer. As for updating, this could cause an issue with the software that runs the device, called the Operating System (much like Windows, but the iPod Touch specifically runs a derivative of Apple's Mac OSX from my understanding) If this occurs, a device reset is usually in order if the device is functioning incorrectly (there is a description of how to do a reset on an iPod within the documentation if this is necessary).

Hope that helps answer your questions. :)

Take care.