Skip to Content

Possible fix for the iPod 'click of death'

JC at Mac Geekery has come across a potential solution to the iPod hard drive's 'click of death' that many owners will likely experience at some point or another (After all it's a hard drive and you walk/run/snowboard around with it all day. It has to throw in the towel some day).

After hurling a dead 4G iPod off a 3rd story balcony to test an iPod case, JC discovered that his iPod was suddenly working again - but only for an hour at a time or so. This odd turn of events prompted him to investigate by opening up his iPod, in which case he discovered that his click of death (not necessarily everyone's) was a result of nothing more than an unseated hard drive cable. After putting everything back in its place, JC's 4G iPod is back on top and jamming again.

Check out JC's post for more details, but just in case you're in a similar boat, remember: I'm pretty sure opening your iPod is like tossing your warranty out the window and then running it over repeatedly with an SUV, so attempt this stuff at your own risk. If your warranty has already r-u-n-n-o-f-t, however, then you don't have much to lose.

[thanks William!]

JC at Mac Geekery has come across a potential solution to the iPod hard drive's 'click of death' that many owners will likely experience at...
 

Add a Comment

*0 / 3000 Character Maximum

15 Comments

Filter by:
gboone

This is the exact problem I had, except I took it to the apple store and said, "look it's broken" and they reseated the HD for me. The unseating was the result of dropping it on the concrete floor in my dorm room.

June 03 2006 at 6:48 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Brian

My 4th gen died with the CLICK OF DEATH (wonder where I have heard this term before) and I was not willing to pay for a replacement unit after only 2 years of casual usage.... so I was looking at ebay for a replacement drive.
Surprise surprise...... this worked with my ipod - THANKS HEAPS
I wonder how many people have gone down the Apple replacement option and it was realy just a poor fitting data cable???

June 03 2006 at 3:52 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
guido

worth noting - ive had a lot of success fixing dead & dying ipods by simply opening, unplugging, waiting and reconstructing.

a little extra reformatting and often things will be good as new.

i put it all together on a web page if anyone's interested. link:

http://www.ilovesueb.com/Site/ipod%20fix0r.html

June 02 2006 at 11:48 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Mark Domers

My video iPod died on the 27th day...
Hard drive failure... fortunately Amazon.com took it back and even gave me $10 credit for my trouble. Ipurchased a flash player from a lesser known manufacturer and I'd never go back.

June 02 2006 at 7:01 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Brandon

Wow! My 4G iPod has been 'dead' since last March...I'd just been making plans to replace it this summer. Saw this post, figured it was worth a shot. To my suprise, my iPod just booted up normally!

Thanks so much!

June 02 2006 at 6:31 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
William

Sweet! I read this yesterday on Ars Technica, and I just tried it about an hour ago- and my iPod works again! I can sync and stuff now. And hopefully I'll be able to listen to my music longer than 30 seconds. Yay~

June 02 2006 at 5:10 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Jordan

More than likely the fall unstuck the bearings or other parts that were frozen up, while at the same time loosening the cable.

He opened it up, tightened the cable and the bearings are still unstuck.

From reviving hard drives this way (and the freezer method), I must say that his iPod probably isn't going to last all that long.

June 02 2006 at 2:19 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Craig

(referring to comments) I thought that HDDs weren't meant to be slammed down on a table, cos the read/write heads would shatter the platters, so if you were lucky and the heads were parked you may be lucky, but if they were stuck above a platter slamming it down isn't good, right?

June 02 2006 at 12:44 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Chris

I used to have an old Gateway 2000 notebook and I usually had to lift up the front edge and let it drop on the table to get it to boot. Apparently, the jarring effect would "unstick" the hard drive.

June 02 2006 at 12:41 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
matt

strange mine didnt give me the click of death it just ... died and now it has gone off to some strange place so apple can give me a new one ... hopefully before download festival.

June 02 2006 at 12:41 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Buy an ad here

Hot Apps on TUAW

Tweets

© 2012 AOL Inc. All Rights Reserved.