iPod iPod Breaking? Please tell me your experience!

SeanDM said:

I've never had an iPod before and I'm thinking of buying one for present. I'm hoping if anyone could please give me a feedback, I'd highly appreciate it.

I've spoken to a couple of my friends, and they told me a billion problems with iPod, freezing and such. I guess my question is: Is iPod something that's easily breakable that I should expect problems within a year or something that would last longer than just a year?

Please let me know if you have/had problems with iPod and if you could fix those problems or end up just throwing your iPod into the trash. Thank you and I really appreciate your help!

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3G iPod - had it for about 2.5 years now. No problems, although the battery life is a little short now (especially in Canada in the winter!)

1st gen shuffle - used for year, no problems

8G nano - too new to have any problems (and it is fantastic!!)

My opinion is that Apple's quality control is at least as good, if not substantially better, than other computer and consumer electronics manufacturers. But when you're on top, everyone tries to knock you down.

I've got:

G1 iPod Shuffle - no problems with it ever.
G3 20G iPod - It broke after being thrown against a wall in a RAAF room inspection, but beside that it worked PERFECTLY until that dark day.
G5 iPod Video - No problems, it has heaps more battery life and a better display than the G3 iPod.

Overall I am very happy with my iPod purchases, I haven't really had any major problems with them.

I have a 2nd generation Blue mini that I got as a present about a year and a half ago and it survived being flung from a height of about 7 feet about 20 feet in the air and landed hard on the corner on a hard ceramic floor with only a small dent on the top corner, a root beer spill, and almost freezing (~40 degrees F) outside during the winter. That thing's indestructible.

Remember, if you have trouble with it, you can bring it back to the Apple store and they should be able to fix it for you. Pressing the center button and the menu button for about 10 seconds will force it to reboot, and that will fix most problems.

I've had a

1) 3G iPod,(sold)
2) mini iPod,(gave to my sis)
3) 4G w/ Photo,(gave to my wife)
4) 5G w/ Video,
5) 1G nano.(gave to my nephew)

no problems at all with the exception of an occasional freezing up (but tolerable) of the 5G iPod.

I have a 3G 15gb ipod and no problems.

3G 15GB iPod - 3 years old, still works but the Canadian winter did a number on its battery*

1G 512MB shuffle - ordered the day it was announced, works perfectly but I can't find it in the mess that is my apartment.

2G 4GB mini - perfect working order.

1G 1GB nano - perfect working order.

*This is the main reason people complain about battery and breaking - they don't seem to respect the $500 device in their pocket. I shouldn't have used my iPod in conditions where it was going from -50°C to +20°C and back again a number of times during the day. Even still, it works, just has a battery life of about 4 hours.

There is a vocal segment of the market that complain about problems that are either:

a - easily fixed by reading the manual (the iPod has a hard drive, an OS, moving parts - it's a complex bit of kit so read the manual)

OR

b - their own fault for treating it like a mobile phone.

A mobile phone doesn't cost $500 and contain a miniature hard drive does it (the fancy new ones that do are excluded because you'd have to look after them equally as well as an iPod)? No, so why should you treat an expensive, complex piece of technology like a cheap mobile phone?

I've had iPod mini, iPod 4G, iPod color, iPod nano, iPod nano 2G, iPod shuffle and they've all been great and they keep getting better and better

i bought a 30gb video and about one month later a friend bought the same thing.

mine works great,,love it,, {with the exception of frezzeing while using a JBL soundstage, not apples fault}

hers is in the mail to an apple service center right now after only 2 months.

there is my total experiance with apple products right there.

I would never ask my friends for advice on iPods! Half the time they don't know what they're talking about. You always here all these stories about iPods batteries dieing after a year and them breaking easily. Most problems with iPods are simply fixed by reseting it which takes 5 seconds. iPod batteries were a bit iffy at first but they've improved vastly since the 3rd gen. Most people who own iPods don't understand that they have fragile mini hard drives in them that can break if not cared for. If you drop an iPod or ANY hard drive player there is a risk the hard drive will be damaged. The iPods we've had:
1) 2x 1G Shuffle - Superb, no problems
2) 20Gb 4G iPod - Superb, going strong and battery life is still around 10 hours (The battery life was stated at 12 hours)
3) 5g 60Gb iPod Video - No problems. Had since the beginning of the year
4) Both my friends have had 1g minis for a couple of years and with regular use theres are both still going strong.
If you care for your iPod (putting it in a case, not throwing it around) It'll last you a good few years. iPod batteries can be replaced fairly easily and cheaply (around £20?) Another way to think about it is thousands of iPod are sold in a day and millions of people have one, they're incredibly popular but popularity can be a bad thing. Since there are so many iPods a few of them will break early, it cannot be prevented. You're going to read alot more about people complaining then people 'praising'. For every 20 complaints you'll only get 1 praise.

REMEMBER: It's cool to complain about how bad iPods are

SeanDM said:

I've never had an iPod before and I'm thinking of buying one for present. I'm hoping if anyone could please give me a feedback, I'd highly appreciate it.

I've spoken to a couple of my friends, and they told me a billion problems with iPod, freezing and such. I guess my question is: Is iPod something that's easily breakable that I should expect problems within a year or something that would last longer than just a year?

Please let me know if you have/had problems with iPod and if you could fix those problems or end up just throwing your iPod into the trash. Thank you and I really appreciate your help!

Click to expand...

I had an iPod hard drive die on me, but it was almost 3 years old, so it didn't bother me too much.

I used my 1st generation 5 gig that I got in December 2001 until about a month ago. So almost 5 years, and the only problem I ever had was a bad battery in the first year, which Apple happily replaced for me.

After finally putting it to rest (I feel like I should frame it or something), I just upgraded to the 80 gig, and so far it is awesome.

Scottyk9 said:

But when you're on top, everyone tries to knock you down.

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^This is so true!!

I had my iPod mini for two years and never had any problem. Now I just bough a 30GB video and it's perfect. Maybe one day it will freeze, but I'll reset it and everything will be just fine. It can freeze because it's a hard drive. On the other side, if you buy a Nano, I'm sure it will always work just perfect because of the flash memory.

you probably saw my other posts.
total experiance,, one very good 30gb video,, one very bad 30gb video.
if my math is correct,, thats 50%.
lets just see how the service end of this industry plays out. i'll let you know.

4G iPods poor reliability

The 40GB 4G iPods have a very poor reliability record. I have three children who were in their early twenties when I bough each of them a 40Gig iPod. Each iPod was returned for service at least three times. Now two years later only one is functioning. So avoid the 4G 40 gig model on the second hand market. It will prove a high risk purchase.

wtf... n problems at all

I've had a couple which I've returned for a replacement and another couple which have needed repair but on the whole they've been OK. When they work, they just work - which is a lot more than I can say for some other MP3 players.

4G iPod (20GB)- died after 7 months. Had been freezing randomly and finally gave me a sad iPod face. Took it to Apple, they replaced it.
4G iPod #2 - Fell into water. Dried it out, kept using it. It froze occasionally, but worked. Stopped freezing after a month and worked perfectly for another 3 1/2 months before dying with the sad iPod face. Took it to Apple a week before the warranty ran out, they replaced it. I decided to extend the warranty for $47, the way my luck was going.
4G iPod #3 - Died from what I'm guessing to be one too many embraces with the pavement. It fell very hard onto the street, the back and front casing split apart. I hammered it back together, it kept working. I spilled coffee on it, but nothing happened despite some going into the headphone jack. One day I plugged it into my computer and it wasn't recognized. I restarted it, put it into disk mode, did a ton of other things. It kept just restarting with the Apple logo, before finally giving me a picture of a folder with an exclamation mark. Shortly after that, the sad iPod of death reappeared. Took it to Apple, they gave me a new one.
4G iPod #4 - Still going strong! Has had numerous encounters with the pavement and has been slammed into the wall quite a few times, but it hasn't crapped out.

All in all, they seem to be fairly hardy, and Apple just gives me new ones when mine break. I'd go for it. (I'm not abusing Apple FWIW! I never demanded new a iPod, I just took it to the Genius Bar and they'd go, "Oh, the sad face! That means it's dead, hold on I'll get you a replacement." )

petermuir said:

The 40GB 4G iPods have a very poor reliability record.

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Whether that's statistically true or not, it's also coincidentally the model I had, which admittedly took a bit of a beating and then died. However, with the encouragement and advice of fine people here, I eventually replaced the hard drive in it with a 60gb model and it's working perfectly at the mo.

But I must admit that my repair job left the case looking a little worse for wear. I briefly thought of taking a picture of it with my phone but the potential howls of derisive scorn and laughter would be too much to bear. It ain't pretty.

I've only ever had 1 ipod, a second Generation Mini - It worked fine for the first year and a bit; but then started rapidly losing charge... then randomly resetting itself... and i was outside my warranty i've still got it (had it for 1yr 1/2) - hopefully it will sort itself out --- my advice if you do get or have bought an ipod is to get the extended warranty thing... If your in the UK then apparently Curries and PC World have very good Insurance on Ipods (3yrs - £2.49pm, fast and easy repair/replacement). having said all that about the Mini, it survived being trod on, sat on, having a 2kg weight being dropped on it... Accidentally so it was v.robust.

get one - but get a long insurance cover.

I have had a mini, battery died after a year of continuous use, apple was kind enough to replace it. Had a 5G iPod, which got a bit wet, well not a bit, got really wet and died. May she rest in peace. My brother had a 3G and its battery is dead, but apart from that it is working swimmingly. Oh yeah, my bro also has a 8GB Nano, and its perfect. But she is still a baby, so time will tell.
So apart from the battery, and a certain biking accident, my iPods have been great!

Blue iPod Mini- After six months of use, it could no longer hold a charge. I don't have Applecare for it since I bought it somewhere else. Now I have no use for it.

Silver iPod Mini- About 2 1/2 years old, no longer holds charges.

1st Gen iPod Nano Black- A year old, still good, but full, and I mean FULL of scratches.

1st Gen iPod Nano White- I was extra careful with it, no scratches, but there was a file error and I couldn't even turn it on. Apple replaced it with another, which I now use.

Plus, I have gone through many of their earphones.

Personally I think there are better players out there than the iPods. Plus everyone has them, even my middle-aged father.