Extreme measures to fix your iPod

[ Music ] ^M00:00:10 >> On an earlier episode of Insiders Secrets, I showed you a couple iPod troubleshooting tips. But what if those don't work? Thankfully, Connor here at CNET tipped me off to a couple of less conventional iPod tips. I'm Tom Merritt, editor from CNET.com. On this edition of Insiders Secrets, I'll show you two weird and possibly warranty ending ways to revive a dead iPod. Inside your iPod is a hard drive. It's fairly similar to the kind of hard drive you might find inside a laptop. These tricks have their roots in ancient methods used by engineers for ages to revive dying hard drives. The first one is called iPod CPR. Are you familiar with the iPod click of death? The anger in your eyes tells me yes. It's the sound it makes when an iPod is dead. Sort of a death rattle. What I'm about to show you involves graphic violence done to an iPod. This is done under controlled conditions for your information only. But sometimes a hard whack seems to bring an iPod back to life. Some have even reported repeated successes with this method. But I would say this is probably something you only want to try once in a dire emergency when you just don't think there's any other way you're going to get the data off of there. In fact, JC from Macgeekery.com suggests opening the iPod and checking to see if the hard drive cable has come unseated. And that might be the real reason for your iPod's failure, in which case you might want to avoid slapping it just yet. Remember opening your iPod pretty much does void your warranty. But while we're popping open the iPod anyway, if you look and the cable is seated properly and it's still doesn't work, there's another old iPod revival trick you can try, cryogenics. Remove the hard drive from your iPod. Store the drive in a freezer back to prevent freezer burn, seriously. And pop it in the freezer. The longer you leave it in, the longer you have a chance of reviving it. Put it in for a couple hours, you might get ten minutes out of it. Leave it in for 24 hours and you might get two hours. Let's go back to my desk. And as a bonus may I point out that this iPod hard drive here looks very similar to other hard drives you could buy online. A hundred gigabyte iPod anyone? I've said too much already. Anyway, I hope you never have to use any of these tricks but at least now, you know. That's it for this edition of Insiders Secrets, I'm Tom Merritt for CNET.com. Never strike an iPod in anger. ^M00:02:45 [ Music ]