Mp3 Player

Replacing the battery yourself is a pretty easy task, but if you’re the kind of person who frets about dings or if you have no mechanical ability whatsoever, your best bet is to send your iPod to Apple or a quality third-party shop to get the battery replaced.

Apple’s iPod battery-replacement program will cost you $99, plus $6.95 for shipping. Apple will take a week or two to put in a new battery and return it to you.

You can also choose SONNETT IPOD INTERN REPLACEMENT BATTERY ( BAT-MINI ). But sites such as PDASmart and ipodbattery.com sell replacement batteries for more like $29, and in some cases–especially if your iPod is quite old–can actually double your battery life. So if you’re adventurous or too impatient to go two weeks without your magical music box, then read on.

The iPod batteries are all standard off-the-shelf units, so it doesn’t matter where you buy them. PDASmart.com and ipodbattery.com are both good sources. PDASmart.com provides both detailed instructions and the plastic disassembly tools noted above.

Opening the case
Turn off the iPod, and place the hold button on (so that orange is showing). Insert the edge of your tool of choice vertically between the plastic and the metal, next to the FireWire port. Insert the tool as far as you can, then slide it up and around the sharp metal upper-left corner of the iPod until it’s about 10mm from the edge. At this point, pry up and release the first of the five clips (on the left side) holding the two case halves together.

Once you’ve released the first clip, continue to slide the blade down the side of the iPod, and the remaining four clips will come apart fairly easily. With one side of the iPod case released, you can now lift the plastic case half away from the metal portion. With it will come all the electronic components, in one unit. Congratulations–your iPod is now open!

Removing the battery
First- and second-generation iPods have the battery attached directly to the hard drive by two strips of rubber featuring some sort of evil adhesive. This stuff sticks! Use your screwdriver or another thin, flat implement of choice to loosen the battery from the hard drive. Try to keep the rubber strips attached to the hard drive and not to the battery. When it’s free of the sticky death grip, disconnect the battery and throw it away.

Installing the new battery
The new battery will install only one way because of the length of the connecting wires, so plug it in and lay it down on the hard drive. Line it up so that one edge isn’t hanging off, and press it firmly so that the adhesive grips it.

Putting it back together
Once this is done, you can just snap the metal half of the case back on. Charge up your new battery, and your iPod will have juice again!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 18th, 2006 at 3:02 am and is filed under Tips & Tricks. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.