Those who know me know that I have a lot of gadgets. Of those many gadgets, I have no fewer than three mp3 players; a 3rd generation iPod, a 5th generation iPod Video, and a 30 GB Zune. There are two more iPods in the household (and another Zune), but those are not under my direct control. Anyway, of my three pmp’s (personal music players for the tech un-savvy), I use one primarily for use in my car; the 3rd generation iPod. Why? ‘Cause it’s got a 40GB capacity, and it’s the oldest pmp I own (thus, logic holds that it should be the least valuable if stolen). However, in the past two months or so, I’ve noticed that the battery life went from decent to “Oh my GOD it’s already drained?!?!” in less than 45 minutes. Knowing that my iPod was out of warranty (it was replaced once already for a new battery while it was still in warranty), I wasn’t about to pay the $99 battery replacement fee to Apple.
I thought long and hard about what to do next. Give up a perfectly good iPod, or relegate it to the Sound Dock for powered-only use? That’s a waste of a good iPod, I thought to myself, and decided to go about the riskier route of replacing the battery myself. With no warranty to worry about, the worst that could happen is that I render the iPod useless. Without battery life, we were already there as far as I was concerned.
I went to Amazon and purchased a battery replacement “kit” and waited about a week for it to get here. Once my package from Amazon arrived, I opened the package to find a battery (1100 ma), two plastic tools (to separate the white plastic from the aluminum) and a URL to directions and videos showing how to get the iPod open to replace the battery.
With my new-found knowledge, I set to taking my iPod apart. For 45 minutes I struggled and made no (not even a little) progress. The only thing I had managed to do was work up a sweat, cut a finger (those little tools are sharp!), and make my fingers sore and shaky. Something had to give here, and it wasn’t about to be me. I was going to get this iPod open no matter what. The pictures and video made it look so easy; surely I was missing something fundamental.
I decided that I had to refer to something I learned in science class: expecting a different result with the same input is foolish. I was expecting the iPod to eventually open up for me even though I was doing something that obviously was not going to open it. I had to find another method. Not wanting to use a sledge hammer, I went to ilounge.com. I learned a lot about my iPods there in the past, and I remember seeing articles and how-to’s in the forums for opening up iPods, something I always avoided because my devices were under warranty, and I didn’t want to ruin them. Now that my fear of warranty was gone and my desire to open up my iPod strong, I quickly found the article I was looking for.
The how-to mentioned something I hadn’t seen in the directions given to me from the url provided with the battery I bought, as well as introducing me to a different tool used to open the iPod; a guitar pick. We have literally hundreds of guitar picks in the house, so finding one of these was no problem. Also, the instructions at ilounge.com gave me a new perspective on how to open up my iPod and within 10 minutes of monkeying with the guitar pick against the seam on the side of the device, it popped open. Literally, it just about flew open in my hands. Disconnecting the hard drive was a breeze, and getting the old battery out and new battery in was no more difficult than replacing a battery in a cordless telephone. Replacing the hard drive and then putting the iPod back together again was just as simple, and then came the long wait: three hours of charging before I could test it.
I waited and waited… and when the iPod indicated it was fully charged (just under three hours), I put in my headphones and turned it on and VOILA! it worked!!!
My advice to anyone in the same predicament; if you’re mechanically inclined, go for it and change the battery yourself. If you’re not mechanically inclined (and your microwave still blinks 12:00), then your choices are to find a friend who can do this for you (but who you will not hold liable if the iPod is rendered useless) or pay Apple the $99 to replace the battery.
Total cost of replacing the battery on my iPod myself: $14. Have a nice day, Apple.
