Stories about iPod repairs, how to fix iPods, iPod repair service in New York, New York, iPod repair service in Morrison, Colorado, iPod repair service in Brookline, Massachusetts - Recent Fixes - i Sick Bay

and is planning to move back here again. For the last several years he has been going to medical school in New York and is here looking for a job as an ER doc when he finishes his internship in the next few weeks.

He called about his sister's BlackJack smart phone (which is really a Samsung i607 around the rest of the world, Cingular tries to add cachet by giving it a marketing name) that been dropped in water at some point a few months ago. He brought it by and left it off with my $60 initial fee and left with hope.

I tore the device down and found the evidence of the water problem. In fact the corrosion that developed had entirely eradicated the solder off the ground (earthing) lead on the power switch. I cleaned things up as best I could and resoldered back down the pad that had been wave flow soldered at the factory. Al lof this made no difference. I wasn't able to get it to work again.

Here are shots of it opened and the problem areas.

It was returned to Ed with a $30 refund and he has the absolute knowledge there is no environmental conflict in throwing it out. It will never work again. Total cost $30.

Trey Corkern lives in Morrison, Colorado

and works as an 'interpreter' at the Littleton Historical Museum. It's not clear to many people what an interpreter is in this museum capacity. It's actually a unique term used to identify someone that is a knowledgeable professional and instructor on the items in a museum. In fact it's what everyone would call a "docent" except here in the United States we have come to associate the term with, "kind of educated volunteer worker at a museum". Docents in museums in other countries are more like grad students in the knowledge they have on the items in a collection or the subject a museum exhibit or show is conceived under.

Trey sent in his 4th Gen Photo iPod. The device turns on and the drive works but there was no scroll wheel utility. I replaced the scroll wheel and we agreed it was time for a new battery too. You can see from the photo that I was able to use the scroll wheel to select and migrate down several levels in the iPod menus using it's scroll wheel.

The scroll wheel was $20, the battery was $16 and labor/return shipping was $40

Fixed - Total cost $76.

Evan Testa called me from Brookline, Massachusetts

about his 1st Gen iPod Touch. He kept describing the problem as the on/off button not working which is at the top of the Touch. But the more we kept discussing the problem I realized the problem he was having was with the "Home" button at the bottom of the front of the Touch that takes the user back to the top level where they can choose Songs, Videos, Settings and the like. I've got a pretty good knowledge of the Touch and that switch is a metal membrane covered pad that operates as a single pole, single throw push button. What I believed the problem with it was corrosion on the daughter card was interfering with the switch closure. I thought it was a water problem.

When it got here I took it apart and found the upper membrane in a dome shape that closes the switch had shifted far enough off the metal pads it makes contact with that it wouldn't close the switch when pressed.

I re-seated the membrane and used adhesive to hold it in place. It cost Evan $60 to get his Touch working perfectly again.

Fixed - Total cost $60.

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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