iPod battery change?

A

anomad

Joined
Nov 21, 2003
Messages
247
Has anyone changed an iPod battery?

My GF's is dead and she was getting ready to send it to (cr)apple to have it changed for 100 bucks. I see online at ipodbattery.com (part of laptops for less) they offer a kit with tools and destructions for 29.00. That sounds more like it to me.

Just thought I would see if anyone knows what I am getting myself into if I pop open the case?
 
You should be able to find an article on this in MacAddict from the last year. Check your library, or maybe a visit to their site?

The problem is cracking the case open. If you do it wrong it really cracks and doesn't go back together. If it works out well, you'll be glad you only spent $29, but if you screw it up you'll wish you spent the $100!

Also, why the comment of calling the company crapple? Apple makes consistently excellent products in my opinion (as a user for over 15 years). Good design, good quality production, good customer service, excellent usability. I don't see much crap there! Yeah, you have to change the battery on an iPod every few years. Big deal. They could've let you buy AA's and made it twice as big and force you to spend $100 on batteries every month for it.
 
No harm intended with the crapple joke. Its kind of like guys poking fun at each other over their truck ford/dodge/chevy. Some apples are junk, some PC's are junk.

I guess I will give cracking the case a try.
 
Do a little research over at www.ipodlounge.com and see what other users have had to say. There's a lot of experience over there.

If you pay the $100 they actually replace the ipod, not just the battery. I don't know if the replacement is refurbished or new, but I know they tell you it comes back without the music on it.

Let us know what you all decide to do, and how it works out, please.

Paul
 
I've done it.

It takes a little patience, a steady hand, and a fifth of gin. :)

Seriously... take your time with it. You can mar the finish on the back a little, but if you've used it enough that the battery's fux0red, it's not like you really want to resell it.

For the $50 for a new battery, it'll bring your 'Pod back to life. Not much more difficult than adding RAM to your computer. If you've ever disassembled an Emerson or Sebenza before, it's about as difficult, but you generally need a finer touch.

Well worth it.

-j
 
Oh yeah.

I forgot to mention.

I cracked mine with an old knife and a tape-wrapped screwdriver.

$29, my a$$. $50 for the battery... $3 of gin.

-j
 
I have done it as well and the instructions were fairly easy to follow. It is not very difficult and it will bring it back to life. Good luck.

Will
 
Chiro75 said:
Also, why the comment of calling the company crapple? Apple makes consistently excellent products in my opinion (as a user for over 15 years). Good design, good quality production, good customer service, excellent usability. I don't see much crap there! Yeah, you have to change the battery on an iPod every few years. Big deal. They could've let you buy AA's and made it twice as big and force you to spend $100 on batteries every month for it.
Click to expand...

Well, let's see, the iPod battery is not meant to be user replaceable, and the only reason Apple will replace the battery for $100 is because of numerous customer complaints. Apple was going to make you buy a new iPod every 18 months or so at $400 a pop, they're that arrogant. Now, if you're like me an take real good care of your stuff, you can send you dead iPod back to Apple with $100 and get back one that works, that is maybe (but probably not) as nice as the one you sent in. And if you take it upon yourself to change the battery and you mess up, then you are screwed, you even admitted that.

Yeah, they could've let you buy AAs, but how about a user replaceable Lithium Ion battery for $40 - $50? How hard could that be?

Crap? That's too nice a word.
 
I'm not sure the planned obsolescence was part of the strategy.

They couldn't make it user-replaceable because they use flat-pack lithium-ion polymer batteries to keep it as thin and moldable as possible, AND to keep the total body form factor ultra-thin. Adding a plastic bay, with the battery casing, would it made it a lot thicker.

The problem is the thickness of the HD added to a classic battery pack. It's not just a battery on top of a circuit board. The goal was ultra thinness and lightness, and a user-replaceable battery was anathema to that.

I'm the farthest thing from being an Apple fanatic or apologist, but there are some business reasons for certain decisions and I'm not sure it's always correct when one makes assumptions about the intent.

Besides, there are a number of devices on the market with non-user-removable batteries, including many third-party Pocket PCs. It's a stupid decision but it doesn't make all of them bad companies.

-j
 
Would of, was going to, etc, Klesk. This is a non-winnable debate, but again, the iPod beats the hell out of anything else out there, still, unless you want to carry around something wiith 1/5 the capacity, is as big as your kitchen sink, and costs the same. If you like PeeCee's, then you'll never like anything that Apple makes. Big deal! That means more for me! :D

PS: I've had my mac running OSX without shutting down, restarting, crashing or having a problem for about 8 months now. That's on my laptop, mind you. My PeeCee crashes on a daily basis and that's running one stupid app. I also have to restart the thing if I forget to have my printer plugged in when it starts up. So much for "plug and play." :D I'll take Macs any day of the week. In 15 years the worst thing I've heard about Apple from PeeCee lovers is that the computers are too easy to use. Last time I looked, that's hardly an insult!
 
My PC has been up and running without any problems for something like 9 almost 10 months now. Sure I shut it down at times, but that is more because I am paranoid about people peeking in at my files over the network, which can't happen if the computer is off. Since installing Windows XP I have had no problems that I didn't cause by screwing around with things.

As for hot swappable devices, PC's do have them. It's called USB, in fact I just unplugged my printer, used the USB cable to connect a scanner, and then plugged the printer back in. Windows recognized all of the changes without problem, and no need to restart.

Don't want to start a war here, just putting the information out there. BTW, I would love to get an iPod, if I could afford one. This damn knife habbit just keeps me from having money to spare on such things. :D
 
The printer is USB, Hewlett Packard HP1200. If I don't have it plugged in on startup, the Pee Cee doesn't recognize that it's there. Had to download a bunch of drivers and stuff to even get it to work. With my Macs, I plug it in and it prints. I like that! :D
 
Now being serious here, what is they added a cell phone capability to the iPod...it would be amazing. An iPod phone? The cPod? I think it would be genius, and would sell like hotcakes.

That's right, hotcakes.
 
got my battery from ipodbattery.com today. So you get an ipod battery, screwdriver, instructions, and overnight fed ex service for 29 bucks. I am impressed.

I will give cracking the case a try this weekend and report back.
 
That was easy!! I decided to do it tonight and it was a piece of cake.

Took me a few minutes to find the right way to insert the screw driver into the corner that comes off first, but once I stumbled upon that it went really fast. Its on the charger now, so it appears to work.

If anyone wants to give it a try I will be happy to help walk you through it. Send me a PM or email.
 
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