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jmelrose · Apr 21, 2003, 10:05 AM

Hello.

I am the owner of an iPod. I once considered myself a smart man. Alas, this is no longer the case. You see, I killed my iPod. My much-beloved, never-away-from-my-side, iPod.

This morning, I was trying to find ways to fix the low battery life my iPod was experiencing. I turned to the user forums, as I like to try there first for advice in most cases, and found a method for removing the battery from the ipod to "hard reset" it, and then restoring the ipod. Figuring I had nothing to lose (as my ipod is well out of warranty), I proceeded.

Anyone see where this is going yet?

I had quite a time getting the case off. I tried flathead screwdrivers, knives, whatever implement I could wedge into the seam between the plastic and metal to seperate them for a short time. Finally, I succeeded.

But alas, it was at a cost. One of my earlier attempts to get under the case struck the one area most sensitive to a sharp object poking about near the seams: the ribbon connecting the hard drive to the motherboard. It has a 5 mm cut in it. And with that, my iPod breathed no more. Now, as I try to get it to restore from the iPod 1.2.6 utility, it will not recognize the iPod. The iPod does not recognize itself. Sigh...

So, anyone with a dead iPod out there want to give/sell me the ribbon connecting the motherboard to drive? I'm not really sure where else to look for something like this...

I hope to hear from someone. Thanks a lot.

Macpilot · Apr 22, 2003, 01:45 AM

My iPod (first 5 gig version) appears to be dead too. No amount of charging, whether from the adapter or from the Mac, and no amount of resetting will revive it. It is now useless to me.

What is it worth to you? I have no use for it anymore. I have never opened it up. Just dropped it a few times.

jmelrose · Apr 22, 2003, 02:35 PM

Thanks, but I found a friend with a 5GB iPod, and as it turns out the ribbon connecting the drive/motherboard is different than the 20GB model.

I'll make this offer... if someone is willing to give me a dead iPod's connector ribbon, I will investigate getting a FW drive kit so the drive on your dead iPod could be used. This presumes that the problem with the iPod is not HD-based, such as a cracked screen or FW port issue. Please email me directly or post here.

Thanks!!
Jeff