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These are a few my recent iPod repair experiences.
Gene Austin of Orange, California
got a hold of me to repair to repair his Nano 1st generation which had a scroll wheel that was
intermitently working. I've seen this before and the flakiness is typically not the scroll wheel
but some oddity turned bad on the logic board. Through our email he comes to understand I know a lot
more about computers than just iPods, (which is true.. I've worked in 8 hardware environments and 14
operatings systems at different times for different client solutions to tricky and technically
challenging problems) and he asks if I can rebuild his Dell Inspiron 700M notebook computer. He
describes the problem which I believe to be a data corruption/drive problem probably not associated
with a hardware failure... but just in case I start to pull out the 700m manuals to give it further
study and tell him to send it with the iPod.
They arrive a few days later and after spending a couples of hours switching in good scroll wheels with
no result and trying to isolate the intermit, I give up and call the time of death on his iPod.
I turn my attention to the Windows XP Professional notebook that continues to get the "Blue Screen of
Death" we've all seen before. I need to know if the data on the laptop is critical and call to ask.
It's not and that leaves me the liberty to isolate and replace the the bad file on the drive or load a
new version of the operating system on it if everything else about it checks out.
There is one bad file in the operating system at boot that has bad permissions and I can't remove or
replace because I don't have Admin level authority reachable on the machine. My choices are pull the
drive out of the laptop and use an adapter to allow me to mount the drive as a sub-ordinate 'slave'
on my PC which would then allow me remove and replace the file (which would be the approach if the data
were life critical) or now that I know all the hardware for the notebook is good operating order to
initialize the existing partition on the drive and load a new copy of the operating system.
I choose to install a new version of the OS since I'm told this is likely to become a wireless notebook
for a fellow workers child to use around the house. I set up a few things to make the notebook even more
useful for anyone once I have the new OS back on it.
Cost to Gene $125 (my fee to work on laptops) plus $20 ship it back and $20 to analyze and try to
fix the iPod (which he kindly gifts to me for spare parts).
Fixed - Total cost $165.
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Natalie Miles from Haw River, NC
sent her daughter's iPod in. It's a Nano 2nd generation and had been dropped in water and a bit of
time had passed but I went at it anyway "just to see what I could do". I took it all apart managed
to get all the traces of the water out and off the logic board. The LCD screen wouldn't work and
needed to be replaced. Once that was done, I got the docking port to work and device works perfectly now.
It can re-charged and the songs updated.
It was $33 for the LCD and $40 labor with return shipping included.
Fixed - Total cost $73.
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Trevor Wiltgen sent his iPod in from Las Vegas.
When he first contacted me about his iPod it was 8 weeks earlier but was moving to Las Vegas and
didn't want to have it mis-delivered to his old Wisconsin address. He had dropped it in water and
by the time it arrived here.... a full 10 weeks had passed since the water immersion. This is
typically too long to consider "water immersion processing" but it was here and I thought
"Okay, let's try". The LCD needed to be replaced and the battery was permanently shorted out but
I was able to get all the other parts working correctly... including the hard drive. So with just
those two parts replaced he had his iPod going again. It turns out the music files on the hard
drive were especially important to him because he is a Hip Hop DJ and some of the only copies of a
few of his performances were on that hard drive, so getting it back working was critical.
It was $33 for the LCD, $23 for the battery for his 30GB video iPod and $40 labor with return
shipping included.
Fixed - Total cost $96.
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I'm in Sonoma County... Northern California wine country.
If you live nearby, are traveling through or live in the San Francisco Bay Area bring your iPod to me and I can do the work while you wait or go wine tasting for a while. Send me an
email just to make sure I have on hand whatever parts your repair will require.
Call or email me
with questions or to set up a repair. You can also call, I am here most days from 8am to 8pm
Toll Free 1-877-iPod-Pro (1 - 877 - 476-3776)
Send the device to:
Frank Walburg
2145 Service Court
Santa Rosa, Ca 95403-3139
Methods of payment
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