A business card fix for a broken click wheel cable

[nipchee]

Folks, I did the flash upgrade today for the first time, and I ran into a problem.

I didn't know how fragile the "molex" click-wheel ribbon cable was when I pried it out of the connector, and when I reassembled, it turned out that I had broken the cable during disassembly. I couldn't see any visible damage, but the click-wheel was not working.

I shouted F@$k several times, thought about the problem for a bit, and realized that if I applied pressure on a specific spot on the click-wheel cable-top, I could get the click-wheel to work.

Dear bejeezus, it sounds like it's time for the hero of the iPod... the business card! I took a small (2x1 cm) length of business card, folded it in half, and placed the open end of the folded card toward the end of the click-wheel connector that required pressure on it to make the iPod function properly. Viola! It worked.

Here is link to a few photos from my repair to illustrate the fix:

http://picasaweb.google.com/Joshua.h...heelWorkAround

Of course, the fix needs to be tested for long-term durability. I look forward to hearing if this fix works for anyone else.

-Josh