ok so my problem is my black 30gb has decided to hate me. the one year warranty ran out a week ago, and for about a month or so i've been having some problems and it's just this past week or two it's gotten so ridiculous that i can't even see a point in trying to use the bloody thing.

1. The Battery = My Battery will be fully charged and will be done within 10mins to an hour (you'll see why in number 2.)

2. Songs Skipping/Freezing = This is the big problem, it started with a few songs like a month ago and i figured it was just the songs so i avoided listening to them, what would happen is i'd be listening and the thing would just stop playing and the iPod would just freeze and i'd have to reset the thing to get it back on and every time i did the battery would be nearly dead even if the thing was just off the bloody charger. As i said at first it started with a few songs, now it's 98% off the songs on my iPod and i have just over 3000 songs on it, it's now at the point where i can't even listen to the thing in fear of it just freezing straight away then me having to reset then when it comes on the battery is so dead it'll only last another 10minutes if i get a song that works.

3. Right ear = I've read so much on this place about the right ear going out, and well, that's happened aswell.

my main concern is how the hell this has all happened in such a short time and just before my bloody warranty runs out, i don't know if it's the battery or the hard drive or whatever, i mean you can hear the thing bloody spinning all the time. Even to turn the thing on everytime it needs to be restarted cause otherwise if i turn it on it will tell me to put it in the pc to restore it, which hasn't helped at all.

do you think if i sent it to Apple they would replace it anyway free of charge seeing as my warranty has just ran out? as i haven't dropped it or mistreated it in a way that would cause such problems.

any help would be appreciated big time.