I had a similar problem with my internal CD/DVD drive. I haven't replaced it yet, but I purchased an external CD/DVD R/RW firewire drive for which I was able to boot the eMac. I solved a majority of my problems.

I've utilized iCab on my Pismo (OS 9.2.2) without any problems.

Have you tried a soft reset first to get back to the startup screen?

I haven't tried it yet, but I think you could boot from the external DVD drive, go through the regular installation process using the USB as the destination.

I would create a separate iTunes Library for the child for their audio files, then restore/reformat the iPod removing your old music files, then resync the new library

does it play when plugged into the charger? it may be the battery.

To add to the conversation ... I added OS 10.5 system to a USB flash drive (16GB) to utilize as a startup device for maintenance and repairs on my laptop ... its a bit slow to start up, but once up, it operates almost as fast as the regular system SW installed on the computer.

I had a very similar problem. The charge on my 4th Gen Photo battery would last less than 30 min. before completely depleted. In addition, I would plug in the firewire charger into a wall outlet noting that the date and time would reset to Jan 01, 2000 0000hrs. I did not lose any on my tunes. Thus I only listened to it if I was able to plug in in to an outlet somewhere. After seeing the replace battery suggestion noted above, I did just that. I disassembled my iPod and discovered that the battery within was bulging from the center --- (I had a similar problem with a cell phone battery that fail to maintain a charge) --- swapped out the batteries, charged it up and have not had a problem since. With the proper tools I had purchased here at iFixit (yes, you need the spudger to remove the old battery), my total repair time was less than one hour.