seems to switch on and off on its own

steve durston, nope, it is not normal. You may have a power problem and should check, if it still gets recognized by iTunes or your computer. Also, try to place it in Disk mode to see if your computer can access the hard drive. Connect the iPod to an AC charger, place it in diagnostics mode and see which test it completes."Take your iPod and place your right thumb on the centre SELECT button and your left on the top MENU button. Press down both thumbs for about 6 seconds until your iPod reboots. Immediately move your left thumb around to the rewind button |<< on the left and hold this down together with SELECT for a further 6 seconds. Your iPod should now switch into Diagnostic Boot mode. Press MENU for Manual Test, then select IO > HardDrive > HDSMARTData to reveal your stats. once you have it completed, you press SELECT & MENU for 6 seconds to reset the iPod again. It is possible that you have either a hard drive issue, not very likely, or a power issue. You might want to think about replacing your battery and recheck after that. Here is the guide for the battery replacement. Hope this helps, good luck