- Joined
- Sep 20, 2007
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I had an iPod mini 2nd gen when it first came out since 2005. I always use it when I run on a treadmill and have used it in the past when traveling, but not anymore with smartphones. About 5 years ago, I replaced the battery for around $7.
One issue that always came up was the headphone jack was fussy, only able to hear from one side and sometimes you had to wiggle the headphone plug in a certain angle and spot. I would usually try to clean the inside of the jack with a dental brush and rubbing alcohol and sometimes take a really small screwdriver to get the contacts bent back out. Recently, it seemed to get really bad, so when I tried to get one of the bottom contact pins out, I accidentally bent it down to a point i couldn't get at it anymore, I tried opening it (did it many times before, but forgot to release the wheel cable when pushing the screen and board out and broke the circuit contacts. So I looked into irepair.com to get some spare parts. I ordered the click wheel for $11 and headphone jack for $5 plus $5 shipping, so $21 total. I was able to replace those and it's back working again. However, the parts are used, so I carefully cleaned and pried the jack contacts a little. I tested some of my old headphones, and ruled out the ones that seemed to be bad on other devices and one my cat recently chewed up that broke the left ear piece from getting sound.
On eBay, working iPod minis and be had for $30 and I saw one over a year ago at a thrift store for only $7, should have just bought it, but didn't think it was worth it at the time. Oh well, I like to keep and maintain everything I own and in the long run, it makes things more cost effective.
One issue that always came up was the headphone jack was fussy, only able to hear from one side and sometimes you had to wiggle the headphone plug in a certain angle and spot. I would usually try to clean the inside of the jack with a dental brush and rubbing alcohol and sometimes take a really small screwdriver to get the contacts bent back out. Recently, it seemed to get really bad, so when I tried to get one of the bottom contact pins out, I accidentally bent it down to a point i couldn't get at it anymore, I tried opening it (did it many times before, but forgot to release the wheel cable when pushing the screen and board out and broke the circuit contacts. So I looked into irepair.com to get some spare parts. I ordered the click wheel for $11 and headphone jack for $5 plus $5 shipping, so $21 total. I was able to replace those and it's back working again. However, the parts are used, so I carefully cleaned and pried the jack contacts a little. I tested some of my old headphones, and ruled out the ones that seemed to be bad on other devices and one my cat recently chewed up that broke the left ear piece from getting sound.
On eBay, working iPod minis and be had for $30 and I saw one over a year ago at a thrift store for only $7, should have just bought it, but didn't think it was worth it at the time. Oh well, I like to keep and maintain everything I own and in the long run, it makes things more cost effective.
