Stories about iPod repairs, how to fix iPods, iPod repair service in San Francisco, iPod repair service in South Weber, Utah, iPod repair service in Santa Rosa, California - Recent Fixes - i Sick Bay

He was having a problem with his 4th Generation Black and White 40GB iPod and wasn't sure what the problem actually was. We talked our way through it on the phone. The symptoms were he had good earbud hearing off the top of the device but in his car he got just one channel instead of stereo *but* he got stereo from the CD player in his Acura and good stereo FM reception. Only when the iPod was cabled in and used did ha have a problem.

Since the car delivered stereo from both sides wit radio and CD, we knew it wasn't a power amplifier problem. I thought is was either logic board or the cable from the iPod to the in dash stereo.

As it turns out he has a 2005 Acura and the iPod connection was a dealer installed after car purchase device.

When the iPod got here I tested it and it worked perfectly. Good sound from the earbuds *and* both sides of the docking port while using both Firewire and a USB cable.

That meant the fault was with the cable in his car.

I called to let him know the result. A replacement cable was $5 and labor/return shipping was $40

Andy also unwisely fills the hard drive on his iPod to capacity. When you do this the controller card on the drive has no place to locate and move data corrupted files to. The drive runs out of "spares" and will continually stumble.... stall on a song or skip the song altogether. The best practice is to fill a drive to just 85% full. That room for both additional spares in a reformatting and space to run a disk defragmentation routine on it.

Fixed - Total cost $45.

Al Bell lives in South Weber, Utah before

and contacted me by email about his 80GB 5th Generation video iPod. It started with a phone call then we exchanged several emails.

Al has Obsessive Complusive Disorder and had discovered an imperfection on the surface on the Black plastic faceplate of his iPod. This became a point of focus for him and he had to have a new faceplate and Select button put on. I had a factory new set and offered them at $10.

He sent his iPod in with a check for $50 which was $40 labor/return shipping and $10 for the parts.

The second image shows the plastic film still on from the factory. And yes his old faceplate looked terrific and had just one small imperfection, OCD is a very compelling problem of the mind.

after

Fixed - Total cost $40.

John Goodwin called from here in Santa Rosa, California

with a standard repair problem. The hearing in his 5th Gen video iPod was out in the right ear. He actually remembered the moment when the iPod was dropped causing the problem. He and his girlfriend Brenda came by with it on January 14th 2009. We chatted for a few minutes while I filled out the repair tag for it. They were introduced to Grace who is George's remaining sibling and we talked about George. I had the repair done within the hour and sent Brenda links to George's story by email . She is very keen on animal kindness and was deeply curious about the story. The message was

"These are things you might be interested in. This was Melinda's letter to George 12 years ago. She felt he was alive but had no idea she would ever see him again. It has strong sentimental recollections. http://www.pet-helpers.com/pages/lost.shtml

This is the Scientific American article, probably the best of the group of articles on him: http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=the-incredible-journey-microchip-id-reunites-cat-with-owners

This is the article that started it all in the Press Democrat http://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/20081111/NEWS/811110322/1350

This is Melinda blog on George's days with us. http://www.pet-helpers.com/pages/george.shtml

They came back a couple of hours later and liked the result.

The part was $28 and labor was $40. He got iPod back with his own music still on it working perfectly for $68

Fixed - Total cost $68.

I'm in Sonoma County... Northern California wine country.

If you live nearby, are traveling through or live in the San Francisco Bay Area bring your iPod to me and I can do the work while you wait or go wine tasting for a while. Send me an email just to make sure I have on hand whatever parts your repair will require.

Call or email me with questions or to set up a repair. You can also call, I am here most days from 8am to 8pm
Toll Free 1-877-476-3776 (1 - 877 - 476-3776)

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