What to do with a Broken iPod?
If your a Powncer like myself, then you’ll know that I broke my video iPod a couple of days ago. How did I break it? Well, at first look the iPod looks perfect almost new, but when it turns on the screen looks like somebody dropped a rock dog paw on it. Fortunately, I’ve ordered an iPod Touch, but the eight gigabytes won’t be enough to hold my whole iTunes library, so I need help deciding what to do.
Sell it
TechCrunch just recently posted about BuyMyBrokeniPod.com, a website that buys new or old, working or non-working iPods. BuyMyBrokeniPod allows you to get a quote on the chosen iPod and they would buy mine for about $64 bucks. Payments are made through PayPal and the seller (you) are required to pay for all shipping costs.
Fix it
You would probably think the most logical answer would be to get it fixed, but that isn’t so in my opinion. Today, I called Apple to ask them about getting it repaired. They kindly quickly told me that my warranty ended a couple days ago and to get the device repaired I would have to pay $130+ for a refurb, which doesn’t include the ($30) for phone support/setup. I don’t feel like spending $160 on a used iPod, especially when I could get a brand new nano for that much.
Do nothing
Other than the broken screen the iPod works fine. I could just use it to play audio files and leave the video files for the iPod touch. This would be the cheapest and easiest method, but the broken screen would drive me insane. The screen is something I can live with temporarily, but seeing it every day will lead me to just throwing it away.
Buy a new iPod
Buying a new iPod is my favorite idea, but not my bank account’s. After buying the iPod Touch and an iPod classic I will have spent $550 bucks, which is a lot considering I only have a part time job. It’s not that I don’t have the money, I just feel the money could go towards something a little better, like college.
As you can see I can’t make a decision so I want to hear what the Internet has to say. I’ve created a web poll to make it easier for me to make a decision. If you have another idea, feel free to leave it in the comments or email me at mail at r3fresh dot com.
*I’ll be sure to post some pictures of the cracked out iPod as soon as I get my hands on a camera.
October 1st, 2007 at 9:44 pm
Keep it and use it as an external hard drive for backing things up? I broke my old Creative Labs POS mp3 player a long time ago, but I used it to store 6gb of files that I may or may not need at some point in the future.. I wonder if there’s software that lets you connect one iPod to another.
October 1st, 2007 at 9:59 pm
Destroy Apple Headquarters to make sure that they can no longer release faulty, as well as overpriced, technology to this society.
October 2nd, 2007 at 2:17 am
asd,
I dunno if THAT’S fair.. Though I’ve never actually owned an iPod, I do have a MacBook Pro, and I love it. Worth every penny.
October 2nd, 2007 at 11:21 am
Sell the broken ipod and invest in a new ipod Touch…
October 2nd, 2007 at 11:36 am
Thanks for the comments everyone. It looks like I’ll be selling my ipod to buymybrokenipod.com.
@Peety, I’ve already ordered an iPod touch, but it doesn’t have enough memory to hold my whole itunes library.
October 15th, 2007 at 10:03 pm
[...] Everyone voted for what they think I should do with my broken iPod (5.5 gen) and the winner isn’t any of them. After I posted the article stumbled across Kokopelli Music, a website that sells iPod parts. I decided to check it out. [...]
December 2nd, 2007 at 12:35 am
[...] asked the internet community to vote on what I should do with my broken iPod. I didn’t listen and decided to fix it. Since then, [...]
June 22nd, 2008 at 5:45 am
get another broken ipod – pull ‘em both apart & make one working one! my dad did that with 2 phones once..
September 20th, 2008 at 6:41 am
REPAIR IT! they have good deals on ebay. you’ll probally spend less than 30 dollars.
October 28th, 2008 at 2:41 pm
I never had a broken ipod before… I think you should just sell it and get some new accessories for you brand new ipod.
March 13th, 2009 at 5:19 pm
It’s worth adding that if your iPod refuses to go into Disk Mode and you hear a noticeable clicking sound, it’s likely a faulty
hard drive. If the unit is a Fourth Gen, however, the problem might just be corrosion on the HDD cable and will need cleaned
periodically. Good luck & I hope this helps.
March 21st, 2009 at 6:55 am
my ipod was in my bag and the bag had allot of heavu books in it, so when i opend it the screen had a lil dot and two lines in the middle that wouldn’t go…WHAT CAN I DO??WHOULD THE GARANTI COVER IT??
March 21st, 2009 at 11:03 am
Lamoo,
I don’t know if the warranty will cover that kind of damage, but if it does that’s great. It might be cheaper to buy parts and replace it yourself. If you aren’t up for that sell it!
April 14th, 2009 at 12:48 am
Great article! I’ve noticed in many instances, the problem actually derives from a faulty HDD cable. People wrongfully suspect that it’s a bad hard drive and this simply isn’t always the case. Thanks for posting this.