A small triumph

[resonant]

I have successfully replaced the battery in my iPod, and I'm only bleeding in one place. Go me.

(Oh, and by the way, if your iPod is out of warranty already? A third-party battery is much, much cheaper than the official Apple replacement.)

Comments

[isiscolo.livejournal.com]

Heh. I have an iRiver, which uses a standard AA battery. I use a rechargeable which lasts forEVER between charges. I am so happy I don't have to deal with weird special batteries.

[therienne.livejournal.com]

Gives you a sad, sad look. With aka_arduinna and merryish at my side, providing invaluable aide, I attempted to do just this on Tuesday. I now have no ipod.

I mean, I think we were close -- the first time we put it back together, we had power, but the scroll wheel wouldn't respond. But with each subsequent attempt to figure out *where* we went wrong, the situation deteriorated, until I'm pretty sure the connector was just too damaged from repeated re-openings. The ipod is now a sad little pile of parts.

That truly was one of my less successful computer-related operations.

[boniblithe.livejournal.com]

Ha! My battery is mostly dead. How does one find out how to do this oneself?

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

I Googled "ipod replacement battery" until I found someone who offered one for my antique 3rd-generation. They sent the battery, a "special four-way tool" which turned out to be four little itty bitty screwdriver heads with one handle, and reasonably detailed instructions.

[tazical.livejournal.com]

I'm thinking of getting an iPod, since I haven't got on with Sony's latest models, but the battery issue really puts me off.

Can I ask how long your batteries are usually lasting before needing a change? And how much your cheaper one was? And while I'm here, if you've heard of any problems with the units freezing or cracking screens? I'm totally on the fence between the iPod and the 30GB Creative Vision:M at the moment. *wobbles*

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

My iPod is two or three years old. When I first got it, I could get about five hours on a charge; by last week, my play time was zero -- it literally wouldn't hold a charge, though it worked just fine if I only played it while it was in the dock and plugged in.

I suspect the newer iPods won't have as much of a problem. I would actually have qualified for the lawsuit over false claims of battery life, except that by the time I found out there was a lawsuit, it was too late.

Apple replaces the battery for $70 including labor (if you're no longer under warranty). The third-party battery was $17, but I had to replace it myself, including prying the case open and making sure the hard drive was connected and all. It wasn't too difficult, and it took less than half an hour, but until I'd heard it play, I wasn't completely confident I'd done it right.

Too early to tell anything about the new battery's life, except that it's taking forever to charge; it's been in the dock for 20 hours and it's still only showing about a quarter of the way charged. This concerns me a bit; I'll see how it works.

I've never heard of the screen cracking, though I'm sure if you, like, ran over it or something, it would. My unit has frozen maybe twice, and both times all I did was connect them to the computer, and that fixed the problem.