Letters from the Equator

I bought an 550mAh ipod mini battery recently on ebay, and it finally arrived yesterday, so I couldn’t resist installing it. My previous battery was taking too long to charge and too fast to drain. Moreover, ipod battery replacement services cost a lot when the warranty has run out.

I’m probably not the only person to blog about changing their ipod batteries by themselves, but I couldn’t resist that either. The only thing I hope for is that the battery is genuine (though it’s made in China) and will last me for a long time.

The stock batteries have about 400mAh of juice, so the 550mAh one that I bought should last longer. I’m not done testing it yet, but so far it’s looking good.

If you need some extra “notes” about replacing the battery, then here’s my walkthrough…

1. The first part of the whole thing involves removing the top and bottom white plastic that protects the internals. The battery I bought came with two handy screwdrivers (one flathead for prying, one phillips for screwing off the top screws).My best advice is not to use the flathead immediately to pry the covers. Use a strong thin blade instead, because you’ll have a better chance not to scratch or damage your ipod.The whole flat area of the cover is glued onto the ipod, and the adhesive is “wet”, meaning that it will still be sticky even if you remove the plastic from both sides. And because of that, you will need to pry the flat areas of the plastic free from the ipod. This will take some patience, especially if you don’t want to damage the ipod.
2. After removing both the white sides, you’ll need to unscrew the tiny phillips screws that hold the motherboard.
3. Plug out the connector with the “molex” word on it. That’s the connector that connects the click-wheel to the motherboard of the ipod.
4. After that, you need to slide the motherboard out from the bottom, by using your finger or the blunt end of a pencil or something.
5. After examining the motherboard, you’ll see the hard disk and the big blue thing (well, mine was blue) which is the old battery. Disconnect that from the motherboard, and connect the new battery in.
6. Slide the motherboard back in place and screw it back and connect the clickwheel back and stick the white top and bottom ends, and you have back your ipod.

Best parts of this:

• I got it cheap on ebay (RM50 value including shipping versus paying RM200 for it at Low Yat plaza)
• The thrill of fixing my own ipod
• Seeing the ipod actually work after putting everything back in
• Seeing the battery life actually improve after seeing it work
• Having a story to tell