R.I.P. iPod Shuffle

For quite awhile now my iPod shuffle has only worked with audio out to the right ear.

iPod Shuffle Work Area Overview

Today, I tried to take it apart and see if the headphone connector could be repaired, or if it was bent or something. I followed some instructions online to disassemble the little iPod.  It is quite solidly put together and as mine seemed to have much more glue on it than others’ report, it took quite a bit of effort!   Finally I was able to start sliding the innards out of the casing.  Once I got the insides out of the outer shell, I noticed a tiny bit of black tape, had fallen off onto the desk.

This part is supposed to be attached up there…

I looked closer at the tape and a tiny speck of metal was stuck to it!  At this point my heart started to beat a bit faster.  ”Why was this tiny bit of metal on this tape?  What was a tiny bit of metal doing in my iPod?” I looked back at some disassembly photos on my computer.  There was the black piece of tape…but what was normally underneath it?  I did some more searching, and found a picture of the exposed circuit board, I compared it to mine.  ”Uh Oh”.  There seemed to be a tiny part missing.  And there, there’s 4 little pins… I closely examined the bit of metal, and saw on it’s shiny side, there it had 4 little marks…just matching to those pins…  My hopes sank.  Frantically I pushed the ‘power status’ button on the iPod…nothing happened.  No happy little green LED; just darkness.

Scale picture of broken iPod Component

The amazing thing, is after much trial and error, I was able to get the ipod to turn on for just an instant by lining up the broken bit of metal with it’s former contacts in the proper orientation.  Unfortunately, I don’t have a way to hold it in place, and it’s so incredibly tiny that even getting it lined up with tweezers takes an incredible amount of effort, patience, and breath-holding.Whatever this tiny square bit does, it makes the iPod turn on and play audio.  I re-examined the headphone connector, and it seems to be undamaged.  My theory is that this metal bit was already ‘loose’ but held generally in place by the tape and case.  This seems to likely be the cause of the loss of 1/2 the audio signal.  I connected the iPod back to the USB port on my computer and it comes on, and mounts just fine.  So it will still work as a USB Flash Drive at least…but I don’t think it will ever play any songs again.