Repair tips for iPod Photo 60?

thedelihaus

Nocturnal transmissions
Looks like I've been dealt my first experience with a true, unprovoked failure. My babied 60gig iPod Photo died. This is the first non-abusive failure I've personally dealt with.

Needs a new drive.

Frustrating.

Of all the hundreds of iPods my friends own, from the 1st generation full sized still going strong on the original hard drive and original battery, to my 6 year old neices shuffle that takes a beeating, to all the minis and others, only 3 iPods that I personally know of (and trust me, i teach all my friends who know little about computers how to set their ipods up- hundreds of them), only two of them has been slightly problematic, and only two have failed. Read further below to see what the failures have been.

but in the meantime... my options are to get a new 60gig drive at a cost of $120 to $150 before shipping, or I can send it to a place that supposedly can repair it for $40- repair the drive, not replace. supposedly. they're on the 'bay, with 99.1% satisfaction rate, supposedly.

Whaddya all think?

I use it for lots- it's my hub of music when I go to the doctors, or am wheeling around town.

Should I just go for the Nano with flash memory, and avoid the weakest link in my opinion- the hard drive?

Or should I take the chance and go for the 60 gig replacement hard drive and pray it makes it past 2 years?

Or should I bite the big one, and go for the $250 80-gig replacement- or will that just be more trouble?

So, back to the failures so far...

I know others say they fail at a higher rate. i'm just talking about my experience with them. maybe me and my friends have been extremely lucky.

1a- Problematic. My sister wanted a Mini, after they were going off market. i was able to get one of the last three refurbished minis for her. It works well, but I always felt the touchpad was a bit slow, a bit insensitive to imputs compared to all the others I've dealt with. Still, it works perfectly otherwise.

1b- Failed- My drummer friend- hers failed. After almost two years of abuse, of accidentally being hit by a drumstick (repeatedly), it finally busted at the headphone jack after the umpteenth tumble across the concrete floor one day. The screen, the drive, the battery still works. It's the chip at the headphone jack on the board that's broken. I opened it up and checked.

2a/b- Problematic & Failed- Mine. A 60gig. Problematic with the hard drive, and hard drive failed. Just pooped out. But it always seemed to click alot, from day one, and often needed to be reset- once every few months. I think the hard drive had bad sectors from day one. It only had 53-54 megs available on it's 60 meg drive anyhoo. Just 2 years old as of last week. Stinks, too, as it's near-mint, and was really babied. My friends who drop theirs constantly, no case, are still playing fine. Ugh.

No resetting will cure it. The drive is buggy, or broken.

Unpleasant.
 
So sorry to hear it, Paul. :sigh:

I have lots of Mac (Apple, not the Audio guys) gear and I always repair it myself when that's a feasible solution. I would not trust the $40 "fix", but that's just me. :smoke:

I've had good luck for obscure/expensive parts on the cheap from http://ifixit.com. They offer both new and "pulled" parts, when available. They will also buy your broken stuff... :D
 
Ejguillot,

Your link worked- thank you very much. I was able to re-align the hard drive case enough to "free" whatever was sticking in there.

Much appreciated!
 
Paul,

YAY! :banana: :banana: :banana: I'm glad to hear it worked for you. I've gotten lots of good advice from this forum, it's good to be able to give some as well.

Good luck!

Edwin
 
Thanks, Edwin. It's working like a champ now.

The tolerances in these mini drives must be miniscule.
 
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