The TRUTH about the iPod BATTERY and CHARGING

[secretdonkey]

Originally posted by stubborn

1) Would earphones other than the ones supplied with iPod decreases the battery life? (My ears think that Seinheiser MX400 produces better sounds than the earphones supplied by Apple )

It's amazing to me that this issue has not received more attention on these forums. I noticed decreased battery life when I started using my Etymotic ER-4Ps and after some research I have discovered that yes, earphones/headphones do affect battery life. Specifically, lower impedance phones equals higher battery drain.

[desistyle3]

lower impedance? what does that exactly mean?

i just got the sony's mdr-ex71's and want to know if htey'll decrease my battery life

[sooner36]

Originally posted by solitude
So here's an interesting twist: I had an iPod that was down to about 45 minutes of playtime, no matter how I tried charging, discharging, resetting, etc... after popping the case open, I tried the following by pure chance: (this probably isn?t all necessary, but it?s what I did)

Disconnect the internal battery
Connect to AC power
Do a soft reset (play+menu for 10 sec)
Disconnect AC
Reconnect battery
Do another soft reset
Charge

And Voila... 7.5 hours of playtime until discharged, and the battery meter was actually accurate for a change as well! This might just be a happy fluke on my device, but it may be worth trying.

Thank you! You saved me with this info. I haven't used my iPod in weeks/months. I couldn't get the Apple icon-just the battery with the exclamation point icon and couldn't do anything with it. I tried charging it overnight and it was still dead. I did what you suggested above and it is now charging away. Cheers!

[djvic87]

i have an important question. if my battery dies, and i dont change my battery for a long time, does the data still stay in the hdd? just curious

[yepnyc999]

Originally posted by djvic87
i have an important question. if my battery dies, and i dont change my battery for a long time, does the data still stay in the hdd? just curious

I've never actually done this, but I'm guessing that the data would remain on the hard drive. The storage of data on hard drives (which are magnetic storage devices) does not depend on having electric current; the data would remain whether the drive has current or not. This is why it is a concern for privacy-minded people when they discard of computer hard drives; all personal data on the disk remains intact for people with appropriate software to access, unless disk-wiping software is employed prior to the discarding of the drive. I have to assume that the miniature hard drive used in the iPod works in a manner similar to larger computer hard drives, so again I'll say that the data would remain intact on your iPod hard drive. If anyone thinks (or knows) differently, I'd appreciate a rebuttal, so as to update my knowledge of mass storage media.

[ME399]

Originally posted by W9FIF
I know, nobody wants to hear this, but.... for the 3rd time since owning Ka-Tet (5 months), I've run it 9.5 hours on a charge and no low battery warning. The first time was just a few days after gettiing my pod, the last time was over a month ago. Even the elapsed time of the 177 of 256 chapters at 3 to 3-1/2 minutes each of Band Of Brothers adds up to almost 10 hours. Just can't believe this is THAT unusual. Somebody out there is getting the good battery life, they just aren't talking about it.
Come on guys, help me out here!

As usual, my 2 cents worth! ;-)

All my options are off, no EQ, 2 sec. backlight, contrast is minimum my poor ol' eyes can tolerate, yada, yada, . . . .

Thankee-sai, HEhehehehehe

[DuaneMX]

Does anyone know if using a cover such as the Marware could shorten battery life by retaining heat. I mean its like a wetsuit and I know my wetsuit retains heat. I keep seeing heat is bad.

[sadmodebloke]

Does anyone know if you can get Apple to exchange the battery in a 3G model for the improved 4G model, in particular the 40Gig model, Or is the new battery specifically designed NOT to fit 3G models and V.V. That would be a surprise wouldn't it?

[cs92ac]

i have a couple of times been syncing my ipod with me computer without charging it until the battery runs out. when it has done and i charge her up again the screen then refuses to work. that is that the backlight comes on but nothing shows on the screen (check out this thread -> http://www.ipodlounge.com/forums/sho...threadid=23565)
but then after a few days of using it 'blind' the screen then works again once i have charged it a up a couple of times! is this because the battery gets so low that it cant fire up the screen? mentioned earlier in this thread not to ever allow the battery to run completely dead...

[djl236]

i did a battery test on my 3G 15GB iPod that I got about 2 1/2-3 weeks ago. I had the backlight off, the shuffle off, repeat off, EQ on "Rock", Volume on about normal and didn't skip any tracks, just let it play through. My iPod played with these settings for 7 hours and 26 minutes. Leaving the EQ on "Rock" made me loose about a half hour from Apple's projected time. Not too bad.

[freeskiing04]

the new 4G ipods do not lie with the 12 hour life... it really lasts a really long time. and when i plug it in after it said charged without using it between plugging, it won't start charging again, just say charged like it should

[Mediahound]

one hint to keep your battery good for longer is to never let it get too hot. severe heat degrades the battery life more than practically anything else.

so, don't leave it in a hot car in the summer for instance. also, take it out of the case when charging it. this might not be that much of a biggie, but why not do so? part of the reason the iPod has a metal back is to act like a heat sync to disperse the heat out from the battery while it's charging. so it should be in the air for this to happen.

just my opinion.

[OhioIpod]

Okay I read the entire thread and learned a lot. Thank you. However a few questions remain unanswered still today.


1. No one has given a review of: http://www.pdasmart.com/ipodpartscenter.htm -- This seems like the dream accessory for the 3G users who don't want to buy a new 4g. Comparable battery life and updating the new Itunes gets you a similar machine.

2. The Belkin battery pack-- for those who use it, what type of batteries have you tried and how long are they lasting? Further, it is well documented that the green lights are often wrong. How wrong are they is my question.

3. I have used the Belkin battery pack to charge my ipod. It heats the bottom up to what appears to be unnaturally high temperatures. I assume this is bad for the battery and I should stop doing it?

4. There hasn't been a consensus on really how much time people are getting when the ipod battery indicator shows nothing. I've heard rumors of about 1-2 Hours. Anyone test that extensivley?

[OhioIpod]

anyone?

I suppose I have another. There is talk about discharging the ipod being unhealthy, while every 30 days it's a good idea. If my ipod is discharging 100% say once-twice a week (because of use) is that substancially hurting the lil guy?

[marcstang23]

Does anyone know how long the charge retention in the ipod battery is when it isn't used ? I know that the ipod is actually never totally off and will use some power when idle. I recently didn't use my 4g for 2 days (shame on me) and noticed that it had lost 2 bars on the battery. Just wondered if anyone knew what the charge retention time was ?