iPod Reviving a 3G iPod

[venom600]

I was cleaning out a drawer and found my old 15GB 3G iPod. I want to use it connected to a stereo, but I know it needs a new hard drive and battery. What's the best way to revive this ancient tech without spending too much?

 

[rgarjr]

Put an SDXC card in there and batteries are like 5 bucks.

 

[an-other]

The battery is probably shot. Plug it into a proper current USB port (or it's charger) to see if you get anything to light up. I'm doubtful. new batteries are reasonable and can be found at the typical places. (I'm a big fan of Fender 246 picks to open the back up.) There's youtube videos describing how to do it.

I think you'll find it's slow to load music too now that you're used to flash devices.

As rgarjr noted, many people hack them to remove the hard drive. (I hack mini's for my car stereo which requires older ipods.) It's fun, but hard to rationalise to people who "don't get it."

I would confirm the battery before buying a hard drive. Connect to itunes, and you'll be able to get all the system software you need for it.

The 3 was not the best designed ipod for sure. I picked mine up the day the upgraded the storage by 10Gb. I did not know about the upgrade, and was over the moon.

Please update this to let us know your progress.

 

[venom600]

Well I know for sure the HD is dead because that's why I stopped using it in the first place. I got it when I worked at the Apple Store The Grove in LA and dropped it down the beautiful glass stair case, so it's no surprise that the HD is clicking and won't load anything.

The battery was going years ago too, so I'd like to replace it as well. I like the SD card suggestion, but I don't know which adapter to buy for this model.

 

[rgarjr]

There are 2 options that will work with the 3rd gen.

Compact Flash to 50-pin IDE adapter and Compact Flash to SD adapter
or
iFlash-Solo and 50-pin to ZIF ribbon cable

 

[MattA]

The battery is probably shot. Plug it into a proper current USB port (or it's charger) to see if you get anything to light up.

If I recall correctly, the 3rd gen classic will not charge over USB, only over FW. You can do data transfers over USB, but you weren't able to charge unless you had FW. At least, that's the way mine operates. I doubt they changed it until the 4th gen classic arrived.

 

[MultiFinder17]

If I recall correctly, the 3rd gen classic will not charge over USB, only over FW. You can do data transfers over USB, but you weren't able to charge unless you had FW. At least, that's the way mine operates. I doubt they changed it until the 4th gen classic arrived.

Correct, the third generation can sync and charge over FireWire, but it will only sync over USB. That's the primary reason that I retired mine in favor of my old iPod mini.