iPod 4th gen. restoration experiences
To me, the iPod 4th generation monochrome is the Platonic ideal of the iPod: the clickwheel design fully and elegantly resolved, with nothing more than it needs to be. I've always wanted one in my collection.
I got a relatively cheap one on Vinted. It was quite the fixer-upper and full of sand, but I've finished the project! The sandPod lives, saved from the parts bin. Sharing my experiences here to add to the knowledge out there.
This iPod needed several repairs, which I'll go through:
- Clickwheel: forward button wasn't clicking and inputs were mis-registering
- Lots of scratches
- 30-pin bezel broken
- Battery needed replacing
- Hard drive failed during the project
- A question about the screen
1. Clickwheel
See my post on this here.
2. Scratches
On the front, I used Meguiar's PlastX, which got rid of the main scratches. The screen is still a bit cloudy/scratched, despite many passes. Maybe I need to use fine sandpaper first and then retry? Anyway, it's fine for now.
On the back I used the same approach as this post: mask the engravings with tape, Brasso, then remove masking and finish with PlastX. Very effective! I did it by hand so my result is not quite as clean as a machine-polishing, but a big improvement.
The back after polishing. Needless to say it already doesn't look this good anymore!
3. 30-pin bezel
Gluing the bezel back together was very fiddly. I initially used blu-tack to hold it in shape before gluing it together with superglue. This worked, but fitting it to the hole was the bigger challenge.
In the end, what worked was gluing the bezel bits to the backplate using neoprene glue (reversible) and then the bits to each other with superglue. The bits needed a bit of sanding to fit properly. It's not perfect but was more than I could have hoped for.
4. Battery replacement
Ordered a battery advertised as '4th generation' but it seemed to be for the 3rd generation, so it's smaller, but it works. To stop it from moving around, I taped it and put some folded card between the battery and the motherboard.
Stopping the battery from moving.
5. Flashmodding
Chose 64 GB to ensure stability, but also because 60 GB was the biggest size this model was sold in, so it feels period correct (my Mini has 256 GB anyway). Used an iFlash ATA1 with a PNY microSD. Formatted to FAT32.
Funnily enough, the iPod would sync straight away afterwards, but then gave the folder error after ejecting. In the end, just like my iPod Mini, it needed restoring through Windows, which I did with my Windows VM in UTM.
An interesting quirk: after restoring, the iPod needed to be plugged into a wall outlet to be 'activated'. Luckily it didn't need FireWire - USB did the trick fine.
I was debating whether to add some metal inside to make up for the lost weight (the difference is 43 g) but decided against it to avoid introducing extra complexity - plus, a lighter iPod is less fragile.
6. Screen
Noticed some lines on the screen when the backlight is on, on dark pixels. It's only visible at some angles, but consistent. Any idea what this is and whether I should be worried?
