Four years ago, my colleagues at BNP Paribas gave me an iPod Nano as a leaving gift. It worked great and I use it all the time for running. I have a big iPod Classic too, but this little 1Gb gadget is perfect for my runs (since it has the flash memory and I find it easy to navigate the music while running than I did when running with an iPhone.
The problem is that a few years ago, after running with it through the rain, the click wheel stopped working properly. It works eventually but you have to fiddle with it. For example, the menu button wouldnât work until you clicked it about 5 times. It was annoying, but I learned to live with it. I thought about replacing it, but it hardly I couldnât really justify the expense to myself to get a new one.
So the other day, I stumbled upon some videos on how to fix various problems with iPods, iPhones, etc. Since my Nano was probably way outside any warranty anyway, I decided to fix it myself. Around my house, Iâm known for fixing things and making them worse (like flooding my own kitchen or making a small leaky tap to a large leaky tap), so it went against my better judgementâbut I tried it anyway..
I bought a new click wheel for £3.99 from http://www.appleiphoneparts.co.uk/. It was tiny and it came in an envelope the next day. They have loads of parts I also bought a iPhone toolkit from E-Cell on ebay (http://stores.ebay.co.uk/E-Cell-Global) for £2.95.
I then watched a video made by DigiExpress in the US (http://www.digiexpress.us/) which walks through how to replace it:
I had to pause this video loads of times at each step, but I got it to work. It took me about 20 minutes. My 4-year-old Nano is just like new. When the battery goes out on it, I will be able to replace that too. Iâm chuffed about saving some money by fixing myself, but Iâm more pleased that I didnât have to add yet one more piece of technology to a landfill somewhere.
SquarePeg says
Wow, that’s great! Good for you. It’s really encouraging to know that in this throwaway society of ours there are people willing to put in a little bit of effort to mend things rather than (as you say) toss in the landfill. You’re an inspiration. 🙂