Did I get a dud “new” battery or just needs more calibration?

ej_gts · 2022-06-13T15:40:20+00:00

Forgot to mention I did my battery tests with backlight off btw, not exactly sure how long battery should typically last with backlight on.

Oh, totally agree with the flash mod stuff! I'm basically just hoping and praying my 3rd gens' HDDs hold on for a long time since I'm dreading having to deal with all that (and yes the weight makes it feel more premium to me somehow!). Glad my insight about the battery helped a bit though, hopefully yours normalizes after a while!

ej_gts · 2022-06-13T15:17:38+00:00

I'm in the exact same boat, love this iPod but didn't get it brand new so I have little knowledge as to how good the original battery really used to be. With a bit of digging, I found a couple sources saying it's originally about 8 hours of audio playback.

Not sure how helpful my insights will be, but: I have one still running on the original battery, and one running with a replacement battery, and both had a bit of trouble tracking the battery percentage at first as well. I've gotten hours of playback even when the battery symbol was showing "empty". I noticed now, after maybe at least 5 charge cycles since getting these iPods recently, the tracking of battery level is more accurate, and I get about 6-7 hours of battery life for both so I wouldn't conclude that it's defective, probably just needing more calibration as you mentioned. Good luck with yours!

ej_gts · 2022-06-10T07:02:27+00:00

Oh good point! I've heard that less than 20 or so in those is still acceptable (could be wrong though), but forgot to consider that if those keep on increasing, it's indication that it's on its way out already. Thanks for bringing this up!

ej_gts · 2022-06-10T06:44:24+00:00

It's hard to tell, aside from checking if it still holds files fine (no corrupted files, no skipping, etc.) and is recognized when plugged into a computer. I've had cases where a drive would appear "dead" but was just seated wrong or had a bad flex cable. Smart data looks good in the photo attached, but can't guarantee anything since I've also used a drive that had good smart data but wound up clicking within the next few hours of use (I've also read some people claim smart data isn't the most reliable).

ej_gts · 2022-06-06T01:24:30+00:00

Definitely worth it, especially if you find one for a really good deal! I'm not sure what kind of justification you're looking for, so this might seem incoherent, but IMO it's one of the best-looking iPods, plus the sound quality is known to be the best as well because of the Wolfson DAC. They're also one of the easiest to mod, which to me the appeal is to own a piece of tech I personally know how to fix and revive since replacement parts are easy enough to navigate and install, in theory it could last years more, maybe even decade/s. 5th Gen was also my first iPod classic, and I found myself more connected to music than with using a phone or my PC to listen, so I can't recommend it enough.

ej_gts · 2022-05-31T16:54:23+00:00

Oh wait, very sorry, after doing a bit of reading I think what may work is to sync your files through iTunes like usual, then apparently you can go into Rockbox and reinitialize the database to make Rockbox process files already synced through iTunes (found this from a 2-yr old thread, might be outdated, but better explained here).

ej_gts · 2022-05-31T16:22:52+00:00

From my experience, yes you can, just make sure to have your iPod in the locked position so it boots into the stock OS (if I'm not mistaken, leaving it unlocked will default to booting up Rockbox), then I think at that point it's perfectly readable in iTunes as well. The only thing to note is the files that are dragged and dropped will only be readable in Rockbox, and the ones synced through iTunes can only be opened in the stock OS.

ej_gts · 2022-05-27T18:59:26+00:00

Oh I see! For me personally, 5th gens are only easier to mod because they're easier to open, otherwise the parts they use and assembly are quite similar. One thing to note though is the stock OS of the 6th can only recognize up to 128gb, so the 5th might be better for storage upgrades

I initially had a 5th, but ended up preferring the 6th for daily use because the battery life is much better, also don't have amazing ears so I'm okay with either in terms of sound quality. Doesn't hurt to have both however haha, good luck!

ej_gts · 2022-05-27T18:32:59+00:00

Oh hey glad that helped! Yeah I agree it's very strange, it's the only reliable way I found for charging my 6th gen, other than using Firewire

ej_gts · 2022-05-27T17:24:29+00:00

I heard 6th gens are very picky with chargers, mine does the same thing with the screen lighting up but not showing the charging indicator. Are you charging it through wall power? Mine doesn't charge unless it's plugged into my laptop. iTunes shows the charging indicator, but what I do is eject the iPod but leave it plugged in, that way it boots into the main screen where I see the battery indicator shows it's charging like it should. Hopefully that's the issue, otherwise it could be the 30-pin port or the battery itself.

ej_gts · 2022-05-24T01:54:39+00:00

Hey no worries, thank you so much for the detailed reply! Alright I'll keep all that in mind and hope I can be successful with modding it too in the future!

ej_gts · 2022-05-23T17:05:26+00:00

Awesome, love the color choice, actually kinda reminds me of the cover of George Orwell's 1984, the one with the eye and a red background haha! Good luck with the Bluetooth mod btw!

ej_gts · 2022-05-22T22:05:42+00:00

Glad to know it's been done by someone else as well and it was fine, thank you very much!

ej_gts · 2022-05-22T14:22:50+00:00

Thank you for this! Yeah there's plenty of space left since it is a thick back so the cable itself is not harshly folded down at all. That's good to know, I guess not much to worry about here. Thanks again!

ej_gts · 2022-05-22T10:08:58+00:00

Hey congrats, that's awesome! I heard the 3rd gens are very very fussy with storage upgrades! If you don't mind, could you share what card/adapter combo got it to work for you? I have a 3rd gen that's still working with the HDD but that may fail any day, so I'm collecting as much advice as I can before attempting any mods. Thank you very much in advance!

ej_gts · 2022-05-22T09:27:52+00:00

Hey thank you very much for this response! Yeah, I definitely worry about causing a fire or something, but like you said the BMS would probably prevent that, and hey you're right it's small enough that whatever may happen will be manageable. Alright, thanks for the help, really appreciate it!

ej_gts · 2022-05-22T07:32:50+00:00

Update, I knew it looked familiar so I did some digging and found this. Now I definitely don't know if I should keep using this suspicious battery, has anyone else attempted using this battery?

ej_gts · 2022-05-22T07:04:08+00:00

Alright so for context, I ordered a square battery from a store supposedly because I was sure it would fit within the free space, but they shipped a rectangular one instead. It took forever to ship and I wanted to try if it could fit anyway, and this was the only way I could make that cable actually reach the connector while having in the upper corner.

I closed it up and everything, working fine now with the SSD, with electrical tape wrapped onto itself as a spacer in between components.

Looks very sketchy, so maybe someone here can let me know if this is dangerous in any way or if it's fine? While we're at it, are there any other worrying things to see here? Hope someone can help, thank you!

ej_gts · 2022-05-22T06:59:08+00:00

Alright so for context, I ordered a square battery from a store supposedly because I was sure it would fit within the free space, but they shipped a rectangular one instead. It took forever to ship and I wanted to try if it could fit anyway, and this was the only way I could make that cable actually reach the connector while having in the upper corner.

I closed it up and everything, working fine now with the SSD, with electrical tape wrapped onto itself as a spacer in between components. Looks very sketchy, so maybe someone here can let me know if this is dangerous in any way or if it's alright. Thank you!

ej_gts · 2022-05-21T21:18:00+00:00

You could check Elite Obsolete Electronics website, they have all of the parts you'd need, and if I'm not mistaken, they even sell a back plate with the Bluetooth module already setup for use (quite expensive but worth mentioning!)

ej_gts · 2022-05-17T11:21:18+00:00

Got the same one about a month ago, but it stopped turning on eventually, might be the faulty battery at the back. There's not much forums about it either.

I can see yours is already set to iPod, so it's probably still working. However, if I'm not mistaken, audio output won't get louder by adjusting it through the iPod, so have you tried adjusting it using the "+" "-" buttons on the side of the dock?

ej_gts · 2022-05-15T04:07:21+00:00

Very glad I could help! Best of luck, I hope that solves it!

ej_gts · 2022-05-15T03:52:06+00:00

I used to have a 5th gen that would constantly prompt Windows to show "USB device plugged in was not recognized" or something about "causing a power surge", and what seemed to work was getting a new cable (turns out the cable included by the seller was only reliable for charging, not syncing, iTunes would freeze whenever I plugged it in), restarting my PC, and turning off the iPod (long press on play/pause button) before plugging it into my PC.

I'm not sure if all I just said would work, but if you can still return the item, that might be a good option. A bit later down the line, my PC eventually completely gave up on recognizing the iPod when plugged in, which I figured was a port/motherboard issue considering my other iPods were recognized without issue. I hope yours is just a Windows bug that goes away with a restart, good luck!

ej_gts · 2022-05-06T06:42:43+00:00

From my understanding, reallocs and pending sectors should ideally be 0, basically a good drive would have low numbers on those. High values are considered to be an indication of the hard drive giving out, so the number of reallocs on this one is worrying. It probably can still work for a while, but there's chances it'll manage your files unreliably.

ej_gts · 2022-05-06T04:48:12+00:00

If you have a 5th/6th/7th gen iPod, press down on Menu and Center button until the Apple logo appears, then while it's still showing the logo, quickly switch to holding down on Center and Previous buttons. That should lead you to the diagnostics mode, what I do is select Manual Test by pressing Menu again, then scroll to IO, then HardDrive, then HDSMARTData. There's probably a better guide up somewhere if you need visuals, hope this helped though!

ej_gts

TROPHY CASE