open ipod surgery

Some of you may remember a year and a half ago when I posted about seeing this screen on my computer:


NOT a pretty site for anyone to see...EVER.

Yeah, that was NOT fun. If you want to refresh your memory, you can read about it here but the main point to remember was that yes, my ipod had somehow died.

I made a number of attempts to revive the trusted friend back to health, but nothing I could do seemed to fix the problem. At one point, I was able to get it to start and connect to my computer correctly, but it would freeze after adding perhaps a dozen or so songs. Then when I tried to play any of the songs on it, it would either lag horribly, start to stall out, or freeze altogether. And the whole time I could hear the hard drive spinning like a car engine about to explode.

I came to the conclusion that my little buddy needed more than a software fix; the root of his problem was definitely hardware-driven.

Thinking that I would, at some later time, attempt to open him up and see what was going on inside, I decided not to throw him away. After all, we had been through a lot together; I couldn't just discard him like some common piece of trash. I just knew that somehow I could either fix him, or find some other cool use for him.

In fact, I had been told that a common problem with aging ipods is that there's a thin "cushion" inside that has a tendency to become compressed over time and lose its spring. If you opened up the ipod and placed a folded business card or card-stock inside, it would provide just the right amount of spring to fix the problem. I couldn't just throw my friend to the curb without at least trying this procedure.

At some point shortly after that fateful day in August, I remember making a crude attempt to open him to see if this wouldn't fix our problem, but not having any clue how the ipod was actually sealed, I never got him open. All I really did was scrap up the seam between the metal backing and the white plastic front a little. :(

It wasn't until recently (yes, after a year and a half, a marriage, and a move to Queens I'm still carrying around a broken ipod that's got to be atleast 5 years old) that I decided it was time to try again. And not just try...I was determined that this would work. I told one of my coworkers before I left work on Friday that my goal for the weekend was to return to work on Monday owning not one, but two working ipods:
my 3rd generation ipod nano (courtesy of Christmas 2007)
and my resurrected 4th generation ipod "click wheel".

Well, I'm happy to say that (with a little help from the following two instructions) I reached my goal Friday night:

Simple Explanation of the fix:
http://www.instructables.com/id/DIY---Fix-Broken-iPod!/

Fairly detailed instructions on how to open the ipod:
http://www.portatronics.com/guide/iPod-4th-Gen-Repair/


I tried to take a couple pictures of the process, but most turned out really blurry. Here are a few that turned out ok.

Here we can see the operating table with a couple small flat head screwdrivers and old guitar picks of different stiffness (I ended up only really needing one of the smallest screwdrivers and the Village Voice guitar pick—it was the stiffest one I had.) The yellow thing is a strip I cut from a rubber glove. I used it to help protect my ipod when using the screwdriver.

Almost there.

You can see the hard drive there on the left (the blue layer underneath it is the foam cushion that had lost some of its spring), and the empty metal half of the case on the right. If you want to see good pictures of what the rest of the insides of an ipod look like, I suggest checking out that second link of instructions I included above.

My next goal for my newly working ipod is this. :)

I can't wait until I have a free evening. Hopefully it won't take another year and a half.