I know at least one person with a bricked iPod. Perhaps this HOWTO on fixing an unbootable iPod can help. It describes several different fixes starting with the easiest (resetting) and moving right up to the really fun, warranty voiding stuff (cracking the case open).
Being the one person referred to above, I got out my unbootable iPod to attempt the fixes described in the referenced article. I had taken this iPod to Tekserve a few months ago where it was pronounced dead. Fortunately I couldn’t bring myself to throw the corpse out. Apparently another cure for dead iPods is a simply a long sleep or an iComa. When I plugged it in prior to working on it, it came to life all on its own – a miracle.