A Buddy at work gave this to me to check out. It's an eBay iPod. It had 'click-death' at first, where the hard drive would just click every couple of seconds. It didn't seem to charge either, as it did nothing without the adapter. For that problem, I found the "pico flex' cable for the battery had some traces broken (blown?) right next to the plug. I jumped it with stranded wire.

With this fixed, it ran without the charger. With the charge, it just kept clicking and resetting forever, and became quite hot! It wouldn't stop until the battery was drained. The PC board looked corroded in spots. In fact, there was a bit of sand-like grains inside, all over, like it was at the beach! Ut oh..

The display wouldn't light, but at this time, I didn't know if it should. Under the microscope, it looked like maybe some traces were gone on the pico-flex going to the display. I jumped a trace with a stand of solder-wick, and the display lit!

This broke again after a dozen or so 'pull-aparts' to try to fix other problems. I pulled a pad off, then another pad, trying to fix it. I ended up jumping the connector.

With another hard drive the click-death was gone, but still the boo-face. At one point it did say "..connect to your PC and run iTunes to restore.."etc. I thought I fixed it! I connected it to the Mac (fire wire) and it only kept resetting and the computer couldn't 'see' it. So, after fiddling with it some more, it was back to the boo-face, and it wouldn't go away. So, for the 'heck of it' I used the old pico-flex from the original drive, that was in better shape, and now I have a menu! An actual menu with music, photos, videos, etc., but I can't select anything. And, at this moment, it's charging in the truck and not resetting. Now, I can reset it with menu and select, but the select doesn't seem to work when sitting at the menu, so it might just be the wrong firmware. I'll try the firewire cable again tonite.

Some follow ups: This model iPod doesn't support firewire; only USB. He let me use his USB 'charger' cable (only intended to work for charging, if that isn't a kick-in-the-head). I had swapped batteries after it stopped charging AND working. The battery that was in it was totally ddead. One I had sitting around had more capacity. I put that in and it worked! I was supprised and relieved.

An Aunt gave me an iPod to look at. It's dead. I can't get anything with it. I checked with a guy at http://www.ipodsickbay.com and he said the charger killed it. I suspect MOST of these aftermarket iPod chargers are complete garbage. Other than Apple, I don't know where to get a good one. In fact, it's said Apple is the best place to get a used/refurbished iPod. I have an iPod (docking port) I bought in 2003. The battery lasted for 4 years. I bought an iHome,(whoever makes it) and it fried the battery in two weeks. Then the iHome broke. I put a new battery in the iPod. A year or so later, it's losing it's ability to hold a charge. I've used an aftermarket charger I kept in another vehicle. I need to modify that I guess. I just ordered another battery for the iPod, now 5 years old and still working great.

I received the new battery, put it in, and it charges and lasts a few days! I tried modifing the lighter-charger. What I found is there is no regulation, other than a fuse, in this charger. I experimented with a regulated power supply. What I found is there seems to be a switching regulator IN the iPod, as the current drops as the voltage goes up. I added some resistor in series with the B+, but I found that the iPod has problems with it if it's too big, that is a higher resistance. I put some details on google groups. Basically, there is a current surge that's expected from the charger on startup of the iPod, when the backlight is lit, and the hard drive winds up. If the voltage drops too much, the controls on the ipod become unresponsive and the music studders. Puling the charger is an instant fix. It looks like, when on charge, power is only taken from the adapter, which is also trying to charge the battery. There must be some 'nowhere-land' between charging and no adapter that shouldn't be exploited. Also, the charging circuit at least appears like a negative resistance (higher voltage-less current) that can be a 'nowhere-land' for switching regulated chargers that might become unstable and oscillate.

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