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General discussion

Ipod repair!

Jan 9, 2007 12:41PM PST

I have had a iPod 4g for 2 year now, and it has endured countless bumps and bruises. However, immediatly after last time it was dropped, i noticed that I could only hear music coming out of one headphone (yes, I did test it with other headphones, as well as speakers. Same problem.)
I want to know your advice on where to get it repaired, and what part I should have swapped. I assume that it is the headphone module. Any idea if this is right? Also, if any of you have repaired ipods, i would like to know if it is an easy task or not, and what tools it requires. I have installed video cards and ram in computers, and think I could probably handle it. Thanks!

Discussion is locked

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Look at the new exchange price from Apple.
Jan 9, 2007 8:41PM PST

It's not that pricey.

Bob

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iPod Repair
Feb 23, 2009 3:45PM PST
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The iPod is not modular.
Feb 23, 2009 7:58PM PST

Unless you can get an electronics-savvy friend to replace the jack or otherwise attach it back on, from any repair company you're looking at a system board replacement. Apple themselves don't really do repairs. An installed system board (not from Apple, but from a third party repair company) will quite likely cost you at least half as much as a 16Gb 4G Nano for example.

It was a few years back, but I've had pretty poor experience with third party iPod repair companies - including a switcheroo of the pristine case for a damaged one, with them claiming that it was how it arrived - or selling an iPod to someone who I found out ran a repair company (featured in magazines over here), and having him get back to me two weeks after he received it saying it's faulty and that I needed to compensate him for the cost of a logic board. (You can probably guess what I told him to do)

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Sounds like its time to upgrade
Feb 24, 2009 2:09AM PST

To a BETTER player altogether. Assembling computers is lego compared to small soldering jobs and other board-specific work. Just look at this as an incentive to buy a better player, like say Zen X-fi or iAudio 7.

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Define 'better'.
Feb 24, 2009 5:32AM PST

I'm no Apple fanboy, but I have really, really, really tired of Cowon using their customers as Alpha testers (the status of Beta tester only comes with the very last firmware update before they get bored of the player) and given the complete lack of any real effort on the software integration side, I just can't rate Creative's players - no matter how good they sound (and they do, it's just that the difference is relatively minimal these days).

Apple have even sorted out basic build quality issues with the current generation of the iPods. It makes it harder than ever to choose others, and it just beggars belief that no-one else seems to "get it" - bar perhaps the Zune.

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Haha, alright, here's true "better"
Feb 24, 2009 9:12AM PST

Now if you want my real opinion/my current setup: Nokia E71 business smartphone + Homer HHS 1220 stereo bluetooth headset.

Outta boxes, you get extreme battery lives in both : 1-2 moderate/heavy usage from nokia and 12-14 hrs from Homer.

Homer has full set of music controls on it, uses wire to connect vs a plastic band so its portable and comfortable. You can talk and listen to music.

Nokia is extremely robust and music feature really doesn't lag. You get your boosts and spacial settings and plethora of other players if you don't like stock.

While overall sound isn't Shure quality, consider that you're wireless and free to do whatever you want comfortably.

Lastly, if you buy a 80$ extended battery for E71, it'll outlast anything you've owned before.

So you have a player, camera, gps, net browser, PDA, and just about everything in one with extreme sub-feature flexibility.

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You know...
Feb 24, 2009 5:35PM PST

... I was really hoping I might get an actually informed opinion back.

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Repairs poss but risky
Feb 25, 2009 4:35AM PST

Let me say right away that I broke the only iPod (a hard drive model) I tried to disassemble. On that model at least the control wheel connector is unreasonably fragile and awkward to disconnect from the mainboard -- a necessary first step to accessing the mainboard.

However I have done a couple of headphone socket repairs on cheap Chinese players (disassembly was straightforward, unlike the Apple product). So if you can get the mainboard out of your ipod you may be able to fix a broken solder join on the headphone socket (which was the issue on both my successful repairs).

The question is how are you at soldering ? You'll need a low wattage miniature tip soldering iron, some solder, an abrasive to keep the tip clean and perhaps a lot of practice on some old gear you don't mind wrecking.

And are you feeling lucky.......

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iPod Repair
Mar 8, 2009 4:57PM PDT

I have a 4G too that had the same issue. I sent it to iPod Repair Guys. http://www.ipodrepairguys.com. It didn't cost as much as I expected (one of the cheapest places I could find) and they actually called to talk to me, never expected that. I was surprised at the level of service they gave me for a headphone jack replacement. Turned out the guy I spoke to had a 4G too that he couldn't part with, lol.