The ultimate iPod repair hack: dust off your broken 3Gs

So, you have an old iPod in the drawer which stopped working for some reason you cannot figure out? You get the folder symbol or nothing? You exchanged the battery but still it will not play your music dependently, just play silence after a couple of minutes or forwarding one track thumbs you through the whole album?

Here is the ultimate trick that will save you a trip to the Apple Store and 120 Euros:

1. Grab a utility to open the iPod (note: a nife worked for me, but don't blame me for finger cuts or damage to the iPod's case)
2. Unplug the iPod's hard drive
3. Blow the dust out of the insides and especially blow the hard drive's connectors clear
4. Reassemble
5. Live happily ever after and send a thank you

I didn't want to believe it, but it cured all the symptoms mentioned above that my 3G iPod suffered from. Hat tip to my friend the musician. Check out Monkeeman, the band he plays in if you like. I think he used the hack on a 4G iPod, so give it a try.


Technorati Tags: apple, ipod, broken, hack, 3g, case, open, harddrive, kaputt, music, play

Comments

[Herr Voß]

There's about one million obscure remedies for iPod issues out there on the net: Wrap it in wet tape, put it into the freezer, keep it 3 months in the drawer and take it out on full-moon. Blowing off the dust from the connectors just adds one more to the list. If you have serious issues with your iPod I'd recommend podmod.de: http://kaffeeringe.de/module-article-viewpub-tid-9-pid-283-title-iPod.in.Reparatur.html

Anyway I suspect that they also only cut the case open and blow off the dust :-D

[Sebastian]

Ha, read your story. Sounds like I saved myself some money. Let's see for long...