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Don't Go Out On Me Now! (Fixing an iPod) |
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 I love my iPod. I wasn't sure I would really use one enough to justify the purchase, but my girlfriend was getting one and I just couldn't be left out (and we don't share very well). Besides, I had to know what the whole scene was all about. I was using my iBook in my car at the time, with an FM transmitter to listen to my music. What a drag!
Of course, anyone who has used an iPod will probably understand when I say that now I never want to live without one. That's why I was humbled and almost on the verge of tears when my iPod went out on me a few weeks ago.
I was at work, when I strapped my 3rd gen iPod to my hip and started blissfully sauntering to get coffee or something (see, I had my iPod, and didn't care where I was going!) I barely hit the corner of a hallway door and, while playing, the iPod ripped off my hip, the earbuds flew out of my ear, and the iPod bounced around on the ground. Now, I've dropped it before, but never this hard and never while it was playing. Sure enough, it wouldn't work.
I researched online, I asked in our forums, and while I found plenty of suggestions, nothing I could do would resurrect ye ole iPod. On bootup, the screen would just show an Apple, and I would hear a click about every 5 seconds. I booted into diagnostic mode, and did a hard drive scan, which failed.
So my options were to either buy a new iPod ($300 at the least, as an iPod mini just isn't enough storage for me), get a used one for $200-$300, or fix what I've got. Well, just throwing away something I paid $300 for didn't sound appealing to me. And obviously, I wouldn't get very much for an iPod with a busted hard drive on eBay (as the hard drive is the most expensive part).
So I went digging around online for a hard drive, and man are they hard to find. First, Apple doesn't list specs of the iPod online - at least what type of drives they use. Obviously, Apple doesn't want to tip off competitors, but it makes it really difficult for the consumer.
Well, eventually I dug up the model number of the hard drive and found a vendor that stocks them, WholesalePDAs.com. I managed to upgrade from 15GB to a 'tested' but not new 20GB model for US$135.
During my search, I found a Wired article that talks about a battery from Other World Computing that apparently gives the 1st or 2nd generation iPod a 70% boost in power! They have one for the 3rd gen models as well; it only gives a 30% boost, but I figured what the heck. My iPod had already begun to lose it's charge and it's only $25.99. (Plus the battery comes with tools that help you crack open the iPod and not scratch it as bad as you otherwise might)
So for about $170 buckaroos, my iPod (JoobliePod) has a bigger hard drive and much longer charge. Sure, I could have spent just over $100 more and gotten a brand new one, but that would mean giving up on the old one. And we've been through too much together for that.
But all personifications of iPods aside, I'm really happy I was able to fix it. Later this week I'll post a tutorial on how to actually swap out an iPod battery and hard drive, complete with pics.
Happy Poddin'!
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November 9 2004, 8:41 PM EDT, by
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Comments:
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| whatsinaname9000 |
11/9/04, 9:22 PM EDT |
Awesome; i'd love to give my 3rd gen 15g iPod a boost like that.
-Lookin foreward to that article
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| Macconvert |
11/10/04, 12:15 AM EDT |
I can't wait to see the article!
Glad you got yours up ;) (and running)
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| nhmacusr |
11/10/04, 9:21 AM EDT |
Interested to know how you got the drive to work. Great job!
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| sweetjimmyhugs |
11/10/04, 10:20 AM EDT |
You can fix all of the iPods in the world, Jonahan, but that won't bring back ol' Sparky, the dog you put in the microwave when you were nine.
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| rlhamon |
11/10/04, 5:03 PM EDT |
Yea that dog didn't know what hit him when 5 min passed. Kaboom !!
Hey who had to clean the Microwave after that anyway?
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| speedyrev |
11/10/04, 11:29 PM EDT |
You don't have to clean it. Just keep on nuke'n it untill it turns to a fine powder, then blow it out with a can of compressed air.
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| Jonahan |
11/12/04, 9:52 AM EDT |
Just like that Gremlin I cooked in there. Mmmm, gremlin is good eats!!!
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| ZackMac |
11/12/04, 3:14 PM EDT |
Bring on he iPod article... but I'd rather see a "Fix your iBook's fried logic board yourself for cheap!" because Apple is going to expire the Extended Logic Board Replacement program on Dec 18th :(
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| Jonahan |
11/29/04, 9:21 PM EDT |
Doh! Just saw this ZackMac .... Yeah I sold my iBook on ebay a few months ago thinking that someday in the future Apple would discontinue the program. I must be psychic, eh?
Or psychotic, whatever.
Still, you could probly eBay it yet and get a decent price, always a few rubes suckers er .... not so informed people out there.
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