Refurbishing an iPod Classic 3rd Gen - Model A1040

The iPod Classic 3th Generation (15Mb) Model A1040 can be refurbished and modernized. There is a brief description of how this can be achieved. I believe there are a variety of documents available covering the same idea. This is, how I was successful after all:

The iPod Classic 4th Generation (8 MB) can be refurbished and modernized. Below is a brief description of how this can be achieved. Many detailed guides and documents which can be found in the web cover the same process. This is how I ultimately succeeded:

Opening the iPod

To disassemble the plastic front cover and metal back cover, use only plastic prying tools.

Note: the ribbon-cable connector sits on the left-hand side, right next to the dock-connector port. When opening the body take care, so that the cable which is permanently connected wont’t get damaged.

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Also note that pictures where taken after changing the HDD with the new electronics.

Removing the Hard Drive

In the next step, the HDD needs to be removed. In my unit the drive was already dead, which is exactly why I started the whole project.

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Required new Hardware

Required is:

  • Replacement battery compatible with Apple IPod 3.Gen, Model A1040

  • CY CF Kompakt-Flash-Speicherkarte auf 50pin, 1,8 Zoll IDE-Festplatte, SSD Umsetzer, Adapter für Toshiba von CY

  • RGBS SD SDHC SDXC zu High Speed Extreme Compact Flash CF Type I UDMA Speicherkartenadapter für 16 / 32 / 64 / 128 GB

  • SanDisk Extreme PRO SDXC UHS-I Speicherkarte 128 GB

The orientation of the IDE board matters and also the position where the empty pins need to be. Please check the photos down below.

I also needed to cut back some very long pins on the backside of the IDE board. Otherwise the board won’t fit into the available package space.

Hint: I also bought the following adapter board by mistake. This board does not work for the 3rd Gen because of the ZIF/CE Adapter which has been introduced later.

  • Eboxer 1,8-Zoll-50-Pin-Compact-Flash-Adapterkarte CF-Speicherkarte zu ZIF/CE-Adapter SSD HDD-Adapterkarte
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Install the replacement Harwware

Once everything is installed, the iPhod needs to be initialized/synchronized with iTunes. Note that there is also a fire-wire charging unit required during this procedure.

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Finally assembled

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Conclusion

The installation works and the capacity of 128GB is huge.

The disadvantage of such capacity on the other hand is that the iPod boot-up sequence gets a bit slower and also the selection of songs when scrolling through huge lists of information tends to be long winded. But anyway, it’s well worth the effort.