Reader George Garner piggybacks on last Friday ’s Mac 911 entering , iPod and over - charging , to relate his tale of iPod woe . He writes :
First , a correction . The iPod miniskirt was lay off in September 2005 , so yours is at least a yr and a half previous . If you play and file the thing constantly , it ’s possible that you ’ve exhaust the life of its stamp battery . The Li - Ion battery plunked into iPods is good for , theoretically , 500 full charge cycle . Your fuel consumption rate will vary — somewhere between 400 and 450 full charges is about proper .
If you have n’t wager and shoot down your iPod time and again , it ’s possible that the battery is damaged . This can happen if you ’ve exposed your iPod to excess oestrus for long time period of time — hive away it in your railroad car ’s baseball mitt compartment during the summer heat , for object lesson . inordinate cold can temporarily cut a Li - Ion barrage ’s life but it performs as it should when you lend the battery to room temperature . The same ca n’t be suppose for heating system . An overheated battery can become damaged so it ’s worth your while to take away your iPod from a raging environment .
you’re able to also shorten the battery ’s life sentence by draining it fully and impart it uncharged for months at a time . These batteries like to have their negatron banged around at least once a month . If you project to turn in an iPod , create some form of reminder to charge it once a calendar month just to keep its battery in anatomy .
Okay , so now you empathize why your battery may be failing . The next pace is getting your iPod back into soma .
Because it rarely spite to first essay the easy and free affair , plug the iPod into your Mac and restore it — choose it in iTunes ’ 7 ’s reservoir list and in the Summary tab click the Restore button . This wipes all the data off the iPod and restitute the hard parkway to “ factory - brisk ” shape . With luck , it ’s some kind of rottenness that ’s causing the power trouble and restoring the iPod will set it . ( But , probably not . )
If the iPod persist in to run out of juice almost directly , it ’s time to cerebrate about either replacing the iPod or its battery . Apple will replace an iPod ’s battery for $ 59 plus $ 7 shipping . The vantage of doing it through Apple is that you ’re guaranteed to have a work iPod back in your red-hot little hand . But other companies can do it as well . There are loads of them so rather than urge a specific one , I ’ll send you off to your search engine of choice and suggest you enter “ iPod Battery Replacement ” in the search field of operation . Be sure that the company has a guarantee on its work and can come back your iPod to you in short monastic order .
If you ’re ready to hand , you may also replace the battery yourself . Again , lots of companies declare oneself iPod battery switch outfit . As someone who ’s replaced his reasonable plowshare of iPod battery I ’ll tell apart you that replacing the iPod mini ’s battery is more than a small challenging . I ’ve destroyed a perfectly good down iPod mini in the attempt . Frankly , were this my iPod , I ’d have an expert do the job .
