Broken iPod: fix it or replace it?

Why not just protect your ipod from breaking in the first place? I know that is not the topic of this article but I never have to worry about cracking my ipod because I use a Vibe Vault. You can check them out at www.vibevault.com

My old 60 gig photo started having drive errors and wouldn't startup about 2 months out of warantee. My wife sent me a link to a site that showed how to fix the problem with a paper shim. Apparently, heavy use causes the drive case to warp a little, making the discs misalign slightly.

Open up the case (careful not to pull out any wires) and place a business card folded into thirds between the drive and the back. Close it up. It brought my ipod back to life for another 6 months before completely crapping out.

Its not perfect, but it gave me time to set aside a few bucks and wait for the new ipods to be released.

here is the article: http://www.crunchgear.com/ipodwontboot/

a friend of mine had a 60Gb iPod Video which was kind-of 'drowned' in sea-water. Screen was destroyed, battery was a goner, but all the other parts were in fine condition. Got my hands on a new screen (better screen actually) and a new battery - for under 60 euro's the iPod was good as new. Can't get a comparable new iPod for that money. Also fixed my own 2G iPod with a new battery, same as a couple of iPod Mini's... I'm not ready to say my goodbyes to my iPod just yet, not until I can get myself a nice little iPhone ;-)

Perhaps before you vote you should watch www.storyofstuff.com - don't get me wrong, I'm a big Apple fan, but we don't get iPods for free. There's a cost bigger than the shop cost and if if can be repaired we should do that first.

One of my (richer) friends broke his ipod screen on one of the 5gs about a year before screens were readaly availible. He quickly got a new one and I bought the broken one, used it as a hard drive for the year... then when custom screens were availible I sold it to my brother cheap to fix as I already had a 5g, and its his ipid now.

"...and whatever better features apple throws in..."

Sometimes Apple taketh away! I have a 5.5 Gen 80G that stores all my music and movies. If anything ever happened to it and I couldn't fix it, I'd get another one like it.

Reason being; my games wouldn't work on the newer Classic model, nor would all my accessories and cables that I've collected over the past couple of years. Can't do video without a special cable now. Also, many people say the Classic doesn't sound as good as the 5.5G models.

Yeah, I can't rent movies for my older iPod, but if I rent a movie, I'm not going to watch it on an iPod (although I'll sometimes watch my own).

Finally, I would not replace it with a Touch. The Touch is nice, but not enough storage, and you can't "blindly" operate a Touch. A click-wheel can be put into your pocket, and just by "feeling" it, you can navigate your way around it.

I just love my old iPod!

I replaced the 20 GB drive in 3G with a 10 GB from eBay or $40. (It was all I could get at the time and much cheaper than buying a new one.) Recently added a new bigger battery. The case is all scratched and dinged up and beautiful. I'd fix it again.

Another option: use it for your car. Many aftermarket stereos (and factory ones) can control the iPod, meaning you just stash it in the glovebox and never look at it.

The way I see it is this. $250 iPod needs a $75 screen or whatever. When all is said and done, you still have an iPod that cosmetically is beat up, has a battery not holding as much of a charge, and is bigger and heavier. You can replace the battery for another $75, and you're up at $150.

For not a whole lot more you can just get an all new one that looks good, holds a charge, has more capacity, etc. etc.

Just depends on how frugal you are.

IPOD do not want