Well, it is my wife’s really. I like many gadget geeks pass off older technology to my wife as I “need” to get the newer one. Anyway, this iPod became unresponsive after a problem where it would spin up, click and nothing. It had done this in the past and after a few times would eventually start working again. This time was much worse and the device wasn’t working. I thought at this point that my iPod was dead. So, I was thinking of what I would like to do with it now, throw it against the wall etc. I decided it would be more fun to open it up more deliberately. So, I looked up the best way to open it up without destroying it. This is odd since I was just thinking about smashing the thing.

Anyway, after a little searching I stumble on to article on how to fix an iPod exhibiting the Click of doom or Click O’ Death symptoms. After reading the article I thought I would give it a shot. This iPod is old and way out of warranty, so what did I have to lose? (sorry about the lousy photos. my camera seemed to want to focus on the table.)

So, first I worked a small screw driver between the metal and the white plastic cover. The trick here is to push the driver straight down to get beneath the plastic. Now I can slowly pry up the cover and begin working my way around the device. The cover has many clips that hold it on so I was careful not to break those.

Now, the iPod is open and the hard now the hard drive cable connections are visible. I pressed the one connecting to the hard drive firmly (though I read they may need to be unplugged and reseated), then carefully lifted the hard drive to expose the other cable connection.

The second connection is under the hard drive and is covered with some black tape. I peeled the tape back, pressed this connection firmly and I hear the hard drive spin up and no click. SWEET!

I lift the front for a look and the language selection screen was there. I put the iPod back together, ran the iPod restore utility and now its working great. So, I guess this means I can’t justify getting one of those fancy new touch screen iPods. Oh well, they don’t have enough storage yet anyway.