<p>The battery on my daughter’s iPod is dying; when fully charged, she only gets about 5 minutes of use out of it.</p>
<p>I read an article about this in the Wall Street Journal, so it is a known problem that iPod batteries fail and must be replaced (note that I purchased this particular iPod a mere 18 months ago).</p>
<p>I checked out the Apple web site, and they want you to download new iPod software (which I believe resets your iPod??) and undergo a lengthy test process.</p>
<p>This strikes me as a big waste of time, because clearly the battery is dead and I would just as soon spend my $70 and get the dadgum thing replaced.</p>
<p>Will they require proof that we’ve tried their battery test before permitting us to replace it?</p>
<p>Anybody been through this process and care to share?</p>
<p>Ipod batteries are lithium ion. They can be recharged approximately 300-ish times. Then, they die. So go pay to replace it. That’s all you can do. I bought the Creative Labs Zen Micro just for that reason (user replaceable battery; i actually have 3). It’s not a defect in the Ipod, it’s normal for that type of battery. It just sucks that Ipod didn’t really tell people about it when they bought it. I have lots of friends who never ever realized…and now they’ve lost their music, too.</p>
<p>The ipod batteries die and need to be replaced. I believe that Apple will replace them without cost during the first 12 months (not 100% certain about that), but there was a class action suit that required it for some time period. They actually replace your Ipod with a new one. After that you have to send them back and I believe the fee for “battery replacement” is $79.99. I replaced the actual battery on my daughter’s ipod by purchasing a new battery that comes with directions and a special tool. I paid $39.99 for it. The replacement process was not difficult, but does require patience and some dexterity. Does it now work? Truth be told, she gets a folder w/ an exclamation point message and likely needs to do a restore. She has been too busy at school to attempt it. Here are some links to sources other than Apple for a do-it-yourself battery.</p>
<p>Fendrock, we had the same problem. It seemed clear to us the battery was dead, but even with the new battery there is a problem. So I would suggest you try to restore first.</p>
<p>The battery thing is refered to as “Ipod’s dirty little secret”</p>
<p>I am not an ipod user, but I think the battery thing has gotten just a little bit better after these guys publicized the issue and made quite a scandal out of the whole thing.</p>
<p>had the ipod a couple years, haven’t had to replace it yet but here are some faqs taht might help
<a href=“http://www.ipodbatteryfaq.com/[/url]”>http://www.ipodbatteryfaq.com/</a>
you can either have apple replace your battery for $59 ( a little more than my cell phone battery which I have had for 3 months I got a replacement at radio shack and it was on sale) or you can find one of the places listed on the link to replace it for $25</p>
<p>The links do make it clear that it’s around 18 months that the battery starts to go.</p>
<p>I also learned that doing the software upgrade will indeed wipe out all the music on my daughter’s iPod.</p>
<p>I guess I am convinced that the easiest thing is to buy the replacement from Apple; now to see if Apple will let me do this without undue hassle.</p>
<p>Yeah, if you’re ok with putting stuff together, you should be fine to buy one of the kits and save the ~$30 to do it yourself.</p>
<p>Be glad your D’s iPod hard drive didn’t die a month outside warranty like mine did. I’m still debating whether I want to spend the $100 to buy a new hard drive and put it in myself…</p>
<p>Even if it erases all your music on your ipod, you still have it on itunes, right? So it’s not like you lose all your music because of the dead battery. Or am I missing something?</p>
<p>In our family, we have had the battery go on three IPods in the past six months and we are playing musical chairs with them in our family having to rotate one to another person, get that one fixed, send it to next person who has theirs go, and so forth, as recently as this week…this one is under warranty but it has been nuts.</p>
<p>even if you buy the replacement from Apple, the music files on the ipod will be lost anyway… the only way is to reload the music via itunes…</p>
<p>i personally think it is much more economical to simply buy another ipod, since battery replacements are expensive themselves.</p>
<p>even if your battery works, your hard drive and other components like the screen will eventually wear down soon, so the ipod probably will not last ANOTHER 18 months.</p>
<p>for the loading, i was pointing that out because it seemed to me that the OP was considering using Apple’s replacement option because it would prevent the wiping out of her music, which is UNTRUE. i read the posts again and it was my error.</p>
<p>maybe i use my ipod more agressively than you. come to think of it, i’ve had more than 4 ipod’s, but i’ve had around 2 which were dead within days and weeks. both of them - apple replaced. one was replaced painlessly at the store, while another i had to do some arguing (i got transferred to the public relations department… haha) perhaps i have been stuck with a lot of lemons. :P</p>
<p>i love the ipod, but you gotta admit it scratches easily/dies if dropped on hard floors.</p>
<p>eh, I dropped my cd player during work in highschool many times from about six-seven feet in the air and it never once even skipped… still works fine today.</p>
<p>We had similar problems with my D’s ipod mini. Folder with a exclamation mark, wouldn’t hold a charge. But I wasn’t certain it was a battery issue. I’m loath to spend $50+ on a purchase unless I’m sure it’s gonna solve the problem. I went to the apple website, asked for a shipping container to send it in for repairs. I did not specify battery replacement since I wasn’t sure that was the problem. Within 24 hours, the shipping container arrived and within a week, she had received a new ipod. We did this twice over the last 18 months. Free the first time, about $20 for shipping the second. They didn’t seem to care to figure out if it was a battery problem; they just plopped a new ipod in the container and off it went. Of course she had to reload her music from i-tunes, but this wasn’t a problem and she actually was able to do a little overdue housecleaning on her playlists anyway.</p>
<p>She recently upgrade to the nano which she uses in her room with her i-connect tower speaker…the mini she uses in the car. So far no problems with the nano. I wonder if this battery thing is a mini problem? Did you all have i-pods, minis or nanos with battery issues?</p>
<p>we haven’t had a problem with our ipods- I was wondering do you keep the software updated- run disk utility occasionally?
do you have os X or a nother OS?</p>
<p>If you are having problems and it is underwarranty- just go to the APPLE store and they will give you another one there, unless it has engraving in which case they will need to send it in</p>
<p>I agree, Fendergirl. Amazing how we all got along without these forever, but now people spend hundreds of dollars and need to replace them every couple years. And then we complain about the high cost of college…</p>