At the risk of sounding old, one fond memory I have of “the good old days” was being able to unplug from social media – not having to worry about always being connected to the internet, listening to my music ad-free and not having to pay a subscription in order to listen to what I wanted to. Now carrying a boombox on your shoulder may have looked cool (and who didn’t want to show off their sweet new Discman playing their favorite new Linkin Park CD) but what really revolutionized the music world was the MP3 player – the most popular being Apple’s Ipod!
The Ipod Classic as we know it now was originally released in 2001. It made it possible to listen to tons of songs all in the palm of your hand. You didn’t need to be connected to the internet to listen to it, you could go on a hike in the middle of nowhere and it would work as long as you had battery life. The light and slender size made it possible to keep in your pocket when going for a walk, in your purse when traveling – anywhere you wanted to go. A really neat innovative product, and I’m not usually an apple fan!
The Ipod classic came out over 2 decades ago! While still an appealing product, there are some things left to be desired as technology has evolved: the limited amount of storage space, shortened battery life and outdated charging ports. Not to mention any other damage suffered over the years.
This is where we come in. Not only can we clean up your Ipod Classic, replace a swollen battery or damaged headphone jack, we can upgrade your total storage for more songs and media, install a USB-C charger and make your Ipod even lighter!
Take this Classic Ipod that came in with a very damaged charge port as shown below:
There was no chance of charging this guy anymore with that kind of damage!
First what we did was gently open the Ipod with special tools as it is notoriously difficult to open without causing damage to the faceplate or backplate. Once we get that opened, we need to carefully remove the battery and headphone jack ribbon cables as these are also VERY easy to damage.
Next is removing the hard drive and various screws to completely remove the motherboard.
This customer opted to convert their ipod to a USB-C charge port rather than replacing the old style 30pin female port. We purchase our kits directly from the creator: Oxyll mods. Their USB-C kits are fantastic and work for various generations of the Ipod Classic.
Once everything is taken apart its time to install the USB-C mod onto the motherboard. This includes microsoldering, usually under a microscope. We have to make sure to connect the right wires to the correct spots on the motherboard or we could risk damaging the whole board! Below is a finished example of the finished work.
Finally putting everything back together, making sure to clean the buttons and crevices for a cleaner look!
And we have an Ipod that you can easily charge and connect to your computer with easily accessible USB-C cables!
Beautiful!
Replace those old swollen original batteries with newer higher capacity ones. You’ll have music ready for those long summer walks!
I mentioned upgrading your storage space, most of the Ipods held anywhere from 30gb to 160gb (If you were lucky!), which held a limited number of songs and videos. Now with the SD card upgrade from iflash, we can replace those old noisy spinning platter hard drives with solid state memory. Much lighter and more efficient storage. Battery life also tends to last longer as you don’t have to spin up an old hard drive anymore!
So needless to say the Ipod classic is still a classic and with our help we can make sure to improve some quality of life issues it has gained from its age, and keep the features you love working through the generations to come. Thank you for taking the time to listen to this “classic” chat about something I love, music. Thank you and hope to hear about a classic that you love!
What would it cost to refurbish a 160gb iPod Classic with new battery, hard drive and charging port?
How long would it take?
Hi Ken, I’d recommend emailing our sales desk for those answers. THanks!
Hello. I have an iPod Nano that needs to have its battery replaced (would not hold a charge for long and as of today, won’t turn on). Can you repair it?
Yes we can do that!