The 1st generation Apple iPod is among the most difficult mp3 players to take apart.
There are no screws on the exterior of the unit, and there limited visible means of separating the two halves.
In order to remove the metal case from the back of the iPod, a thin slotted screwdriver must be inserted between the metal shell and the white and clear front half, at the top, near the Firewire port.
Slowly work the screwdriver around the body, separating the clips that hold the two halves together.
Once the the clips on both sides have been separated, the two halves can be pulled apart. Don’t worry, there are no wires or ribbons holding the two halves together, you can just remove the back and put it aside for now. The back makes a good place to put the screws removed from the rest of the device.
In order to remove the battery, fold the two “wings” out.
Wondered how they change the battery on those, and why they want you to send the iPod back to the factory to do it (at your expense, which ain’t cheap…). What about the iPod Shuffle. I have one that the headphone jack has gone bad in and would like to replace it and wondered if I could do that myself…thanks for this website!
risky business, to open up the pod.
BUT TO SEND THE POD TO CO, FOR REPLACEMENT OF THE BATTERY IS AGAIN NOT GUD-I MEAN ON PERSONAL COST.
It is much eaier to use a single edged razor blade to open iPods and there is less risk of damaging the case. Just don’t cut yourself with the razor blade.
I loved the pics, perfect shots ! I would appreciate the same info on an iPod Mini as I would like to replace the lazy battery I am presently use.
I used to work a Best Buy Service Center in Bloomington, MN which is the only non-apple place that repairs Ipods. The best tool for opening them, with out scratching or denting them is something like a plastic putty knife, if you look they came with battery replacement kits.
Another thing I’d like to note. I noticed that you don’t have the blue rubber that went around the HDD, this is bad if you are the kind of person that takes you Ipod running, as it increases the chance that the R/W heads on the HD will crash.
Batteries are the most common failed part, followed by Hard drives. If you have the “sad iPod” or the folder with a “!”, turn on you iPod and put the back of it up to you ear, if you hear something (usually it sounds like a techno beat) you will need a new HDD, if you don’t hear any thing upen it up and disconnect and reconnect the HD cable at both ends. In the Ipod, Gen 1-4, and photo they use 2.5″ IDE, while in the Mini’s they used CF type II, It doesn’t require a special drive as the Ipod updater reformats the drive for you.
KC-
As for your question about the Ipod Shuffle it is mearly a flashdrive with the USB port directly attatched, with a plastic casing, at Best Buy they were simply just thrown out and sent a new one to the customer.
If anyone is curious how to take apart the other models, Gen2, 3, 4, Mini, Photo, Nano, and Video send me an email collin.thomas@gmail.com
whats
dathe point of taking it apart.You may just break it, it is like wasting your monney[…] With apologies to Chinua Achebe, sometimes they don’t, and that’s when you have to making that apart-ing happen. The problem with getting old(er), though, is that you recognize that things don’t always work (properly) after trying to reassemble them - stupid sense of consequence! Happily, there is a solution: live vicariously through other people’s efforts. Here’s a quote to give you the flavor: The 1st generation Apple iPod is among the most difficult mp3 players to take apart. There are no screws on the exterior of the unit, and there limited visible means of separating the two halves. […]
i have a 10G ipod that’s a year and a half old and i’m trying to figure out how to take it apart. can you help me?
“whats da the point of taking it apart.You may just break it, it is like wasting your monney”
in the hands of an incompetent person, perhaps. the point? i will have to direct you to the logo banner on the top of this page. in case you need help, it says: “Take It Apart .net, Dissecting electronic gadgetry. Just for fun.”
i like this site.
i wanna take apart my ipod shuffle……any ideas,besides breaking it open??
Hi guys, me again. I have a first Gen. iPod which worked fine from the day i bought it but now it won’t even turn on! I’m just guessing could the battery be dead and if so, where can I purchase a new one? I can order one in over the net but i can’t find a site that will provide one. I can also attend a store. Any ideas? Please guys, help me out.
P.s You’ve all been great with your blogs, cheers.
hey whats going on?
I have a First generation Ipod and its had a lot of usage. The firewire port on the Ipod itself has became loose and it no longer charges or can upload any songs. I’m planning on taking it apart to see if theres anything i can do to connect it back. If anyone knows anything I should do or look out for, please respond.
Thanks,
Mike
I have an ipod (4G) that crashed on me. The sad face was on the screen. I reset my ipod a few times and its been working fine since.
You know, those 5v batterie could be pretty useful, even if they only hold 50% of their original charge. Im using the battery from my 4th gen to make a power booster for my Creative Zen Vision:M since they both us 5v DC. BTW, if anyone has old iPod batteries that still hold juice, would you be willing to mail them 2 me? send me an email if so.
i have an ipod nano. do you think its a good idea to take it apart. im only 11. can i replace the hard drive with a 4gb instead of a 1gb? how much do they cost and where can you get them from
hi im stupid.
i tried to make a wall charger out of a computer power supply for my ipod video i mean the ipod says 5-30 VDC on the back so i turned down the output of the PS to 5.5 V and i hacked up a usb cable located the power leads and hooked them up accordingly and then it worked for a bit then all of a sudden my ipod says low battery so i try to charge it and its dead.
i think its the power controlls that got fried
do u think i could send it in for “battery replacment” since theye just give you a whole new ipod?
i need help fix my 1GB ipod nano i mess up the firmware and now i can’t fix it iam only 14 so plz help i think its because i loaded a iriver bootloader on it
Thanks in advance for the help
I have a first generation ipod that had a waaack battery. I changed it myself, BUT since changing the battery, I CAN NO LONGER SYNC IPOD. I have a pc, that has a firewire card, i used to charge, and update songs on ipod no problem. since changing battery, ipod cannot have songs changed. The unit still takes a charge, which lets me know the cabel and battery are good, but cannot change songs. If the hard drive were bad wouldnt the ipod stop working entirely? It still works, but I have the same lame songs on here….FOREVER……someone who knows anything please post
Hi, my Ipod is having problems, with the HDD, and I was wondering if anyone could give me a resonable price on a HDD.
Michael: HOw did you fix your problem about the firewire port? Mine is loose too. It’s not charging anymore
Wow, what’s with all the little kids messing up their iPods? Yeah, so @josh. An iPod nano doesn’t have a harddrive. It’s flash memory. You can’t get a bigger “drive” for it. It can be upgraded, but you’d ruin it. It takes some knowhow, a soldering iron, and the correct memory chip.
I have a 2GB first gen. iPod nano and I didnt have it more than three months when it fried out for no reason. The computer doesnt pick it up, it doesnt charge, and it doenst turn on. I cant return it cause I lost the reciet so I decided id take it apart.
And after doing so, I must say, I had the idea in my head that there might be something in there that would hint as to what is wrong with it… but theres nothing. Everything seemed to be intact.
Those folks at Apple are tricky ones. They should fix these things for free. Its usually their fault they get broken anyway, since they built them only stong enough to be dropped once. Then they expect you to go out and buy a new one.
The thing is though.. that I didnt drop mine. I even bought a carrying case and never used it outside my house or in any activities that might risk wrecking or damaging it. Apple, if you hear this, you owe me a new iPod. (Im sure they are down-to-earth enough to be fair…)
i need to get a new screen for the newer version of the ipod were can i get 1 plz email me
my ipod shorted out while charging it seems like it fried the ipod burning smell i wonder if the whole ipod is ruined or just the battery?
My advice: DONT OPEN YOUR IPOD. IT JUST MESSING AROUND THINGS YOU DONT KNOW. THE FACT THAT YOU CAN OPEN ONE DOESNT MEAN YOU CAN FIX, CHANGE OR ALTER IT SO JUST DONT DO IT OR IF YOU DO AND YOU BREAK IT DONT GO CRYING BACK TO APPLE AND BLAMING THEM FOR WHAT YOU DID.
Re: iPods that don’t mount.
Unless you have a good reason for believing that your iPod won’t mount/play/light up due to a hardware issue (See the Best Buy guy’s post, or other sites), try software & firmware fixes first. My first gen iPod wouldn’t mount; turned out I’d let too many software updates go by and the OS couldn’t communicate with it anymore. It had to be plugged in for a whie to power up, then wiped entirely, but it came back to life just fine.
Cool pictures. Thanks for taking the time to photograph it.
P.S. Some people really like to take things apart — in fact, can’t help ourselves. We know the risks, but also that much of the time repair prices are outrageous & repairs not that difficult. People who think you shouldn’t mess with things you don’t know SHOULD NOT READ WEBSITES DEDICATED TO TAKING THINGS APART! Duh.
Thanks for posting the great set of photos showing how to take the original iPod apart. After almost six years (I bought it in Jan. of 2002) I was no longer able to get iTunes to “see” my iPod. Also getting it to charge took some patience and fiddling with the firewire connection.
When I took it apart, I could see the firewire socket leads had broken at the circuit board. I did a temporary fix by binding the socket in place with pieces of electrical tape. Should last long enough for me to get an iPod Touch in a month or so, when the stores have them in stock.
I am shocked that my original iPod’s hard drive and battery have lasted so long. I use it two hours every weekday on my bus commutes to and from work. Even now I only have to charge it twice a week. Couldn’t have asked for more out of it.
i have a 20g ipod fist gen, been working great all these years
then all of a sudden when i connect it to my pc or wallcharge it just comes up with ok to disconnect. it still charges fine but wont let me access it to add/remove songs.
any1 know why this would be happening?
Thanks for the info and great pics. and to all of those people who think that taking things apart is foolish or a waste of time:
would you have said that to DaVinci, Edison, Tesla, Turing, Bell, Woz, Franklin,
should i go on?
these men had a habit of taking things apart just for fun. I’m glad they were so foolish. otherwise we may never had some of the inventions and technology that we have today.
my ipod goes to the screen were you just see the apple and then stops so i cant do anything with it anyone help i have reset it and everthing it still wont work
I encountered very sticky gummy glue/padding strips at the top and bottom between the battery and HDD, which had to be unstuck with a blunt flat screwdriver (wouldn’t want to puncture or impact the battery). I kept them stuck to the battery to keep them after the HDD swap…
A pocketknife worked well to remove the backing. Whatever you use, the trick is to keep it angled vertically to trace all the way through the corners, bending the metal outward.
very interesting, but I don’t agree with you
Idetrorce
It’s incredible to see the tech-word that people can’t see! keep the pics coming!!
I have a new battery in my generation 1 Ipod. It still dose the same thing before battery replacement. The only thing on the screen is the apple with the “iPod” word under the apple. what do you think?
Hey Big Marv,
In response to your post below… you can purchase replacement batteries for 1st and 2nd generation firewire iPods here: http://www.ipodmods.com, or http://www.ipodrepairclinic.com
~Scott
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Hi guys, me again. I have a first Gen. iPod which worked fine from the day i bought it but now it won’t even turn on! I’m just guessing could the battery be dead and if so, where can I purchase a new one? I can order one in over the net but i can’t find a site that will provide one. I can also attend a store. Any ideas? Please guys, help me out.
P.s You’ve all been great with your blogs, cheers.
whatever you do dont take a disposable camara apart it zaps you even with the battery out, and it shoots sparks
how to replace lcd on nano
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