Stephen Blyth's Blog

All thumbs – replacing an ipod battery

Sunday, June 21st, 2009, Everything digital

Normally I don’t touch the insides of computers or other electronic gizmos. Maybe it’s because my fingers are too clumsy, or eyesight poor. Adding some RAM in a slot and changing batteries is just about my limit.

I was pretty alarmed when a sad face appeared on my ipod. The official Apple help pages shed little light. According to various experts on the Apple support forum the prognosis did not seem positive.

Advice to drop the offending ipod from hip level and other wacky suggestions seemed more of a joke than sensible advice. A dead battery seemed spot on.

It was a nerve-wracking process as my cumbersome fingers attempted the delicate battery replacement operation, and I resorted to using metal tools when the plastic ones supplied broke.

The scars of my operation are obvious, but all my audio files are intact and the new battery holds its charge.

Keeping any gadget going which took at lot of resources to produce and ship to NZ aligns with my green ethic. My DIY approach – admittedly a risky one – cost just $22.

After I replaced the battery I looked at Apple’s repair prices. My intuition was that these would be expensive. No NZ prices are quoted, but in Australia it’s $369 for repairs for ipods just four years old, $89 for a battery and $19.95 for shipping. Forced to revise my initial estimate, I’d describe them as ludicrously expensive.

This really epitomises the throw-away society – it’s cheaper to get a new ipod than repair one. Although I try not to be surprised, I still am. Apple’s much heralded talk about being environmentally friendly is really only a thin veneer.

Having bought into the consumer merry-go-round I will at least discharge my post-facto environmental responsibility to dispose of the dead lithium-ion battery. The Ministry for the Environment’s guidance on safe use and disposal of batteries suggests I recycle it at the council transfer station. I can drop this off at the landfill down the road for no charge.

A week down later my ipod is still working. I’ll provide an update on battery life in, say, 3 years.

ipod battery, apple

Tags: ipod