After Hours

Cracking Open the Apple iPod Touch 2nd generation

By // January 12, 2009, 4:38 AM PST // markwkaelin

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  • Colorful

    Over the past year or so we have cracked open several versions of the Apple iPod and the iPhone. These are always delicate operations that often result in broken devices. Unfortunately, the Cracking Open of the iPod Touch second generation is falls in the broken category. Here is what happened.

    Photos by Mark Kaelin for © TechRepublic.com

  • Our iPod works before Cracking Open

    This is our Apple iPod Touch just before we begin to crack it open.

    Photos by Mark Kaelin for © TechRepublic.com

  • The 8GB version

    We opted for the least expensive model just in case.

    Photos by Mark Kaelin for © TechRepublic.com

  • Record time

    Within two minutes after starting we had a catastrophic event. The glass face plate is toast already.

    Photos by Mark Kaelin for © TechRepublic.com

  • No denying it

    The cracks in the glass radiate out from the epicenter. Getting the face plate off is not even more challenging. The cracks will get bigger as we go and the glass is likely to shatter in to smaller pieces.

    Photos by Mark Kaelin for © TechRepublic.com

  • Shattered, Shattered

    My worst case scenario occurs - the glass face plate shatters and several glass pieces remain behind, still glued to the plastic framing.

    Photos by Mark Kaelin for © TechRepublic.com

  • I love the sound of breaking glass

    Several shards of glass remain on the plastic housing that supports the face plate.

    Photos by Mark Kaelin for © TechRepublic.com

  • Plastic housing

    The plastic housing remains after I remove the glass shards. This plastic piece was supposed to come out with the glass face plate. Since there is not glass, I should be able to remove it.

    Photos by Mark Kaelin for © TechRepublic.com

  • Glass pieces

    Here are the glass pieces - what a mess.

    Photos by Mark Kaelin for © TechRepublic.com

  • The bottom plastic

    The top plastic piece unclipped from the iPod without much trouble to reveal the underside of the WiFi connection subsystem. The on/off power switch is also housed here.

    Photos by Mark Kaelin for © TechRepublic.com

  • More problems

    Take a close look at the sides. Those plastic pieces should have come out with the faceplate. They are part of the plastic framework - This cracking open is the roughest so far.

    Photos by Mark Kaelin for © TechRepublic.com

  • Little pieces

    These various pieces should all be part of the glass face plate framework. This is not what you want to see.

    Photos by Mark Kaelin for © TechRepublic.com

  • Ends do not justify means

    This is what I was looking for during the initial Cracking Open phase taking off the glass face plate. However, this state was reached several steps too late to save or iPod face plate.

    Photos by Mark Kaelin for © TechRepublic.com

  • LCD screen

    Now, believe it or not - the iPod Touch 2nd gen was working at this point. I know because the darn thing came on while I was trying to get a good picture.

    Photos by Mark Kaelin for © TechRepublic.com

  • Tiny screws

    Very small screws hold the metal plate in place.

    Photos by Mark Kaelin for © TechRepublic.com

  • Under the metal plate

    The battery is glued to the underside of the metal plate. It peels off the metal plate easily and we can separate the LCD panel from the rest of the device.

    Photos by Mark Kaelin for © TechRepublic.com

  • Battery is soldered

    The battery does not disconnect from the rest of the device so cleanly. In fact, it is soldered to the circuit board.

    Photos by Mark Kaelin for © TechRepublic.com

  • Checking the underside

    The main circuit board houses the Apple software ROM, the ARM processor, and the 8GB of memory. Unfortunately, most of the chips are under a very elaborate heat sink. This is completely new with the second generation iPod Touch. Even the iPhone 3G did not have this configuration.

    At this point I still had high hopes that we could buy a replacement faceplate and fix our iPod Touch.

    Photos by Mark Kaelin for © TechRepublic.com

  • Another casualty

    This is the Apple iPod Touch cracked open. Notice the LCD screen - it has a couple of discolored areas. I was apparently feeling very destructive the day I cracked this device open, because the LCD screen useless now.

    To summarize: DO NOT OPEN YOUR IPOD TOUCH ---- EVER!. Apple has gone to great lengths to make this device nearly impossible to open without breaking something. My best advice, take care of your iPod and if it does break, get a new one.

    Photos by Mark Kaelin for © TechRepublic.com

Colorful

Over the past year or so we have cracked open several versions of the Apple iPod and the iPhone. These are always delicate operations that often result in broken devices. Unfortunately, the Cracking Open of the iPod Touch second generation is falls in the broken category. Here is what happened.

Photos by Mark Kaelin for © TechRepublic.com

Related Topics:

After Hours Innovation Hardware Tech & Work

By Mark Kaelin

Mark W. Kaelin has been writing and editing stories about the IT industry, gadgets, finance, accounting, and tech-life for more than 25 years. Most recently, he has been a regular contributor to BreakingModern.com, aNewDomain.net, and TechRepublic.