I have an older classic 30G (2nd or 3rd gen) that the headphone jack has craped out on. I have several other half broken I pods around and was wondering what parts are compatible with my 30G. I was wanting to see if I could try to Frankenstein a working I pod out of the pile of wasted money I have. My friend has a new 120g that he will sell pretty cheap (broken Screen)what parts are compatible with and older iPods (hardrive screen headphone jack shell). Thanks for the help in advance.
I would strongly caution against your current train of thought. I suspect I know 10 times what you do and I wouldn't think to try to fix one. I have built complex sterio systems so I know about delemas such as 'cold solder' joints and at the same time not over heating other componants. It is very likely few parts are compatible, by design. ipods are made to break and to be near impossible to repair. They want you to by a new one. They spent effort to make you buy a new one. Their engineers are smarter than you. They are designed to last a year. The days of the old relyable ipods are long gone. I bet my 4 yr old nano will out last any ipod bought today. I would guess unless you can actually see damage to the jack, the chance that a jack went bad are less than a billion to one. It is metal. What is going to break that? A componant inside your pod died not the metal jack. I just bought a refurbished 16 g Sansa View for 65 USD. I added 2 yrs warentee for $15. They don't refurbish anything. They check to make sure it works and re-sell. It has a far better screen than anything Apple has ever sold and the battery life is 8 for videos and 35 for audio. I bet it will last a lot longer than the new ipods. If you are clever, you might be able to 'Frankinstein' two old ipods. The would have had to have been made when they where building them to last.
OK thanks for the knowledge and help Mez. Thought I would give you an update Ive been digging around in every forum I can find and learning as much as possible. My original post I wasn't talking about soldering things just a parts swap.(soldering is way out of my league) I have a 30 Gig 5th gen my problem is there is no sound coming out of my head phone jack or the docking connection. The screen and everything else works fine except for no sound out of ether end. I'm about 95% sure my logic board went south. I was wondering if you think its the logic board and how hard the switch is.(buddy has the same i pod as me with a broken screen that i might be able to get)Also would like to know the reliability of the fix. My last question is what parts are compatible from my 30g 5th gen compared to the new 160g 6th gen. Will the rear casing (160G) fit on the face plate of my i pod? Also wondering about hard drive compatibility and just what parts are changeable between the two. Sorry for the lengthy post I cant thank you enough for you time and knowledge.
I am learning much more than I am giving. I have only taken apart a chipod. That fell apart as soon as it was opened. The pressunre of the casing kept everything together. Everything was soldered. In the last week or so I have 'chatted' with persons not very technical but were able to fix hardware inside the ipod case. I am thinking computer hard disks are very swapable. I bet mp3 player disks are just as swappable. Keep us posted.
