Mac Forums

i have an ipod nano (4th generation) for about 3 years now and yesterday afternoon it started playing up. When i unlock it to switch it on it doesnt come up with anything (the screen stays blank) for about 10 mins and then when it is turned on and i lock it while listening to a song it doesnt play anything else after that song is finished. when i unlock it, it freezes for about half an hour until it works again, i went into the apple shop in my town and they were no help at all, the person who was serving me just clicked all of the buttons and said that he couldn't do anything so he gave me the number of a place who could help me. When I called them they said it was a technical problem and that it was too expensive to fix :/
please answer my question with any ways of reparing it? This may sound sad but I cannot live without that thing.
thanks a bunch (:
p.s. when i plug it into the computer it works fine and doesnt freeze at all yet when i take it out it instantly freezes again, this is the same with my speakers too.