When I ride my bike, I only have one earphone in my ear, so I can hear the SUVs with drivers on the phone that are going to kill me. I rarely listen to my iPod in stereo. I listen mostly to podcasts, so I don’t need stereo. At the dentist the other day, where they offer you an iPod and a nitrous oxide/oxygen cocktail, I discovered my iPod was only working in one channel.
My malfunctioning mono iPod had just passed the one year warranty date but I didn’t imagine that Apple would fix it for me anyway. I started taking the it apart, thinking there was some loose solder joint that I could heat up. I found the heaphone jack held in by two small screws. After removing them, flexing the cable restored the other channel, but I couldn’t see where the break in the circuit was. I had to replace the whole headphone jack – hold switch assembly.
I found one on eBay for $16.29 from a vendor named mayvillage. They sent the part very quickly and I had my iPod was working again. You can see printed on one of the flex cables, the Taiwanese Electronics manufacturer Hon Hai Precision Industry Co, better known as Foxconn (OTC: HNHPF) – one of the large manufacturers for Apple and other US computer companies.
UPDATE July 8, 2011: After four years, the headphone jack on my iPod failed again. A quick eBay search for iPod 5G headphone jack turned up a replacement part that is even less expensive than it was four years ago. When you buy one, make sure you are buying a new part. It took me about 15 minutes to put in the assembly. If this post isn’t detailed enough for you, iFixit has the best Apple product repair instructions I’ve seen.
Betty Carter sounds so good.
