I hooked a rode videomic to a iriver T30...
 

and when I record, I can barely hear anything that I've recorded. Everything's so quiet

microphone preamp or a self powered mic

Make sure you don't have "line-in" input selected. Should be "ext. mic"

Adjust up the record volume level while you have your headphones jacked in so you can test the response. You'll have to turn it up quite a bit for one of these Rode mics.

Craig I think he has a T30 which according to reports so far does not have a mic in( no mic preamp) So I believe Pete is right ,your going need a peamp to bring the mic output level to line level

you guys really rock at this site- thanks for all the suggestions---- oh one more thing... if i get a 700 series i river... will it have a line in that will be adequate for the rodevideomic (i.e will I not need a preamp?)

As you can see the Rode videomic has a sensistivity of 15 mV
( http://www.rode.com.au/downloads/Vid...hite_Paper.pdf )
which is convenient for the 700/800 series of iRiver.
The Giant Squid has a sensitivity of +/- 17,7mV. so they are very close.
( http://www.giant-squid-audio-lab.com/gs/gs-mono1.htm )
I think setting the sensitivity somewehere between 45 and 50 ( 48?) will give very satisfying results.
Reported before has been:
a sensitivity of 45 ...with a noise level of -63dB and
a sensitivity of 51 ...with a noise level of -57dB.
( http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthrea...ghlight=iriver )
( my iRiver 790 did even 2 a 3 dB better)

Let us know how you will go!