DIY Fix Broken iPod!

If you have a broken ipod , with a business card and five minutes it will be fixed!

I enjoy instructionables that are easy to do , short to complete, and will work for anyone!

!!Please VOTE for me so I can win a prize!!

This is a common problem among many, many people that have a warranty that has expired.

Now you could just send it back to apple to get a new one, but if your warranty expired, like mine did, they wont give you a new one. You need to fix this pretty 350$ piece of apple!!

Instead of having a nice paperweight ( hopefully you didnt throw yours out) , you will need these with three things before starting:

1. a flathead screwdriver
2. a broken ipod and 5 minutes
3. a new and or old, but crisp, business card

p.s. No memory loss either, all songs, data, ect will still be on the iPod.

Step 1 Easy does it

The first thing is to take the iPod apart.

This is not a big deal, there are little plastic holds around the iPod, and the flat head screwdriver will allow you to pry it open at the plastic parts.
(see pic)
Once completed, you can just snap the ipod back together so it looks exactly the same, just dont get too frustrated if it takes a few minutes to get the first clip.


Use a MICRO flat head screw driver. Go in from the side as shown in the demo, but to get it started angle the screwdriver down so that it slides in between the plastic and metal, then take a bigger sized micro screw driver to open it the rest of the way.

Comments

[xinav]

After fighting with my grandson about my broken IPOD being fixed like this, (he thought I would break it) He finally took it apart, slipped in the card, snapped it back in place and when I plugged it in it went straight to my playlist, You are a genius!! Thx so much!! He said to be sure to tell you I cackled like a witch when it turned on.

[fiddle-fart]

whats an i-pod

[Dekubaba94]

Go to apple.com and click the iPod button. Voila! Info galore.
Also, try a google search

[cody777]

its a vegetable, like a p-pod

[fartnocker]

 really... as small device you can put music and videos on and listen to everywhere. its also pocket sized

[geekazoid]

srry but wow..

[cdousley]

do you live in a cave with your eyes shut and ears plugged

[coolrobot]

it's a small device (different types like iPod nano,shuffle,iPod touch...) that allows you to put music on it and listen to it anywhere...

[ReCreate]

its this race of alien from mars

[psyoper22]

lol

[TNEN]

apple.com

[ggardner7]

any one know how to fix ipod nano ?

[Oi23]

Is this for fixing the Clicker Wheel? The circular thing on the front.

[mearahrose]

will this work on a new IPod that literally hit a hardwood floor and stopped working?

[smurtagh3]

This didn't work for me :(

[shar shar]

Try centering the card.

[shar shar]

It worked! Apple wanted 160.00 to fix it and the repair shop wanted 90.00.
The business card was FREE!!

Thank you.

[ejdugan]

What was the original issue with your ipod?

[schurchyard]

I am literally over the moon with happiness - this worked!!!! my old, much beloved ipod has sat in a draw for years and my current ipod has just died and I thought 'what the hell I'll give it a go' THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!!!!!

[slively]

Hi, I did this, and now my ipods wont store any charge, they get stuck in charging please wait, but when i unplug, they die. WHAT HAVE I DONE!?

[matstermind]

you may have accidentally unplugged or only partially unplugged the battery, try reopening it and checking all connections, especially the battery plug.

[npeters2]

This actually works! im over the moon now :) thanks for putting this up dont know what i would of done otherwise.

[sbutler]

this has actually worked for me too, i used small bits of blu tac to apply even pressue all over the HDD. thanks!

[argee500]

The Phoenix is risen! Thanks a ton, you fixed my 6 year old ipod!

[mtsunurse2]

Holy Cow, this is great.....I love my ipod...i am always listening to books or podcast while driving....i have the same one you have in your picture, got it when i graduated from nursing school and loved it! if i have a pt that is in my Neuro ICU for more than a couple of days i would always "lend it" to my unit so the patient at least can watch movies, listen to music/books while in critical care and when this one broke it sucked.........i have kept it for the last couple of years at my house just in case....YEAH FOR ME AND MY PATIENTS! you are great, i am now listening to the soundtrack from The Godfather (which is usually one of the patients favorites for some reason)...again thanks so much....
how do i vote for you?

[vincent7520]

Aaaaaaaaaaah ! Dead parrot !…
"This parrot is no more ! … It's pushing up the daisies ! … "

[FMF91WARRIOR]

on my ipod it worked but my battery is shot and the screen is broke before it wouldnt even turn on now after this trick which worked great it turns on but always say battery is low if anyone has a solution to the battery problem without buying a new one or just recover the music that was on it that would me great

[tuftythessinger]

Well shut my mouth and paint me red - this worked! Thanks.

[memyselfand1]

I laughed so hard at that picture...

[undulator]

Brought mine into TekServe, local NYC Mac specialists and I was assured that I had a bad zone on my HD, any ideas on how to get around this DIY-wise?

I will try this trick as well and report back!

[sqeeek]

If your HDD is bad, you need to find a new one and replace it... If you get stuck, PM me.

[mbott]

thanks! i revived my very first ipod with this! some pretty great playlists on there

[szyshnshn]

will this work even if it "broke" because my kid dropped it into a glass of SODA POP????? My fingers are SO crossed!

[dragonsniper]

no

[kegeen]

If the above fix doesn't work, you might be able to sell your ipod on Salvage-it.com.

[tranoxx]

what are you fixing?

[flintyscott]

I just joined this site purely to comment on this posted fix for old iPods. This simple "fix" (with a bit of help from another site - www.ifixit.com - see below) just saved hundreds of dollars in iTunes purchases! A little background: My partner/girlfriend has a 5th Gen Ipod 30 Gig (which I gave to her for Christmas in 2006) that she still actively used up until about two weeks ago, when it just seemed to die completely. It wouldn't even display anything. Nothing. No computer would recognize that a USB device was connected. It seemed totally dead (or the docking connector had failed). This happened only a day or so after her Windows XP PC was infected by some form of virus, which defeated my (limited) efforts to remove it (I have an MS in Computer Science, but I avoid Windows machines as much as possible so I'm no expert on finding and removing malware from Windows systems), and I WAS FORCED TO RE-INSTALL WINDOWS AND RE-FORMAT THE HARD DRIVE. There went her iTunes library! With her PC-based iTunes library gone and her IPod seemingly dead, she was truly bummed about losing her entire music library within just a few days... Then I came across this "fix", and another site that provides instructions for replacing the logic board, and I was able to get the iPod working again. I first tried just inserting the folded business card, but that didn't work. Then I disconnect and reconnected the internal connections by followed the instructions for replacing the logic board (though I just opened it up, then carefully disconnected/reconnected the battery, 3.5 mm jack, Hard Drive, and display, and closed it back up). After this it is working again. This iPod fix is such a great and valuable contribution! Thank you!!! The logic board replacement directions are at: http://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Repair/Installing-iPod-5th-Generation-Video-Logic-Board/615/1

[hjhsi]

Just resurrected my old ipod 4 with the folded business card trick. This was my first ipod and now it's gonna be put back into service in my car. Wow!

[mbjohnc]

This actually worked for me. Unbelievable, that such a simple fix did the trick. Thanks for posting this.

[nolenk8t]

Any suggestions for the *ahem* vintage models? i.e. when they first came out? seriously. my paper-weight is the, original, ipod. There are no little plastic pull-out parts, and it looks pretty solid.

thanks!