So I picked up a used iPod on the cheap from eBay a couple of weeks ago. It's in good shape and everything works as it should, except the battery wouldn't hold a charge but for about two hours. Not a good ratio when it takes three to four hours to charge it up. In all fairness, the seller pointed this out in the listing, so I made the purchase with full knowledge of what I was getting.
I tried to live with this deficiency, honest I did, but it finally got the better of me, so back to eBay I went to look for a battery. I found one for about a tenth the price the Apple Store would charge to replace it, and the battery even came with the necessary tools to perform the operation. Sounded like a DIY-er's dream package to me, so I ordered it.
While waiting for the package to arrive, I did a little online research and found some well-illustrated, easy to read instructions at ifixit.com and after reviewing them thoroughly, I felt I was ready to roll.
The package arrived yesterday as I was going out the door to work, and I was tired when I got home, so I decided (wisely, I thought) to put the project off until today when I knew I would have more time. Ifixit.com's instructions rated the job at a moderate difficulty and estimated it would take about half an hour to complete. Having about three hours with the house to myself this afternoon, I knew it was now or never, so I sat down with my iPod and tools and began tearing my new toy apart.
The photos in the instructions made separating the metal and plastic halves of the case look very easy, but it's not. After a good 15 minutes, I had broken both of the plastic prying tools that had shipped with the replacement battery and was on the verge of giving up, when I remembered a set of jewelers' screwdrivers I had picked up at the dollar store a year or two ago and had promptly thrown into the kitchen tool drawer to gather dust. Using the largest of these, I had the case apart in about 20 seconds.
The next few steps of disconnecting a couple of wires and removing a couple of teeny-tiny screws with a teeny-tiny Torx screwdriver that came with the new battery were deceptively simple. The really hard part was physically removing the battery from the device. It was stuck in place with some pretty mean double-sided tape. The force required to break that adhesive bond was not inconsiderable, nor was the flexing of the plastic faceplate and a seemingly fragile corner of circuit board behind it. With a little patience and persistence, I was able to dislodge the old battery to make way for the new. There was even enough tape residue remaining to hold the new battery firmly in place, not that it was about to go anywhere once everything was reconnected and buttoned up.
Although everything was back in one piece, I just couldn't shake the nagging feeling that I had just turned my iPod into a high tech paperweight. The worst part was that I would have to wait several hours while the battery charged before I could find out. That's the thing about DIY projects, you always run the risk of royally screwing things up. But I guess it's also part of the thrill of doing it and it makes the satisfaction of success all the sweeter. In this case, I was pleasantly surprised to find that I had not killed my iPod after all. To the contrary, I had given it a new lease on life. I'm hoping it'll be belting out the tunes for a long time to come.
Rock on...
UPDATE: 6 Aug 2010
After breaking both prying tools without opening the case of my iPod, I contacted Accstation, the eBay seller from whom I had purchased the battery kit, to politely vent my frustration and ask for suggestions for alternative tools I might use to safely crack the case. I didn't really expect a response, and was thus doubly surprised by the response I received. Not only did they send me a replacement set of tools, they sent me an entire battery kit! Now, that's what I call customer service.
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