Entertainment For Lively Minds
IPod woes
As my calls to reinstate Dr Digital remain unanswered I turn to the massive for advice.
My 80Gb iPod Classic is about 2 years old. For most of its life it has sat in a dock in a constant charged or charging state. However after about 6 months of ownership I noticed that the battery would have discharge if it was off the dock for 24 hours or so, even if the battery level was previously showing as high. In typical fashion I ignored the problem as it was mainly used when docked. However I am now starting to use it dock-less so it's starting to annoy.
I'm certain I switch it off properly (holding the play button until the screen goes black) but even in a sleep mode it shouldn't discharge so quickly. I've even put it close to my ear to check if the hard drive is still spinning.
A bit of googling showed that others had a problem with the same model but it was generally put down to a firmware issue which seems to have resolved it for most people. My 3rd party iPod manual also suggested that iPods should be kept on charge where possible, which I do, weeks can go by without it leaving its dock.
I suppose the obvious answer is that the battery is a dud and I can look forward to £50 bill to get it replaced. I just don't want to pursue this if there is another possible solution.
Any thoughts?
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That's not how I use my battery
I use my iPod and let the battery run down regularly : in my experience, keeping it fully charged all the time tends to make a battery run down more quickly.
If you've got an Apple Store near you, make an appointment and take it to the Genius Bar - I've always found them very helpful.
yes
That's how I use my battery. I hardly ever charge my iPod. And yet, on a full battery, I can still get about 14 hours of continual play out of it.
I don't ever turn it "off" as such, either.
I think it must work like laptop batteries. Which I killed off until I found out that less charge makes the batter last longer method.
hysterisis
Every time batteries are charged after the first time they don't charge quite as much. Eventually they hardly take any charge at all. There is nothing you can do, and it is all part of the eventual heat death of the universe as entropy drives everything inevitably downhill.
I believe that you can get other people than Apple to fit replacement batteries
I've replaced a few ipod batteries myself
It's not too difficult if you buy a DIY kit with the tools included, and it does save a few quid...
Change the battery yourself
It's a lot cheaper than letting Apple do it for you. You have to be careful but it's pretty easy.
[Edit] Paul beat me to it.
Batteries need TLC
Batteries don't like constant charging like that. I worry that I'm doing mine in as it's on the cradle most days to change music, audiobooks and podcasts. There are some tips on the best use on the Apple website for what it's worth.
Mine was quite a bit older
But www.ipoddoctor-batteries.co.uk provide a great service, with a clear video that I had on and just paused after each step while I changed the battery. And the battery is much much better than the one that had started to refuse to recharge properly.
You can send it to them if you're not up for openpod surgery...
Other services are available etc.
Thanks everyone, I knew the
Thanks everyone, I knew the WM would respond so well.
I've now found a place fairly locally that will repair pretty much any aspect of an ipod/phone and I've had a good recommendation from a friend. A new battery costs £40 and you can get it done while you wait, so I think that is the route I will take.
Thanks for all the battery tips too.