Lesson Learned: Don't be cheap with your iPod

My iPod is a G4 clickwheel, so it's getting old. The battery doesn't hold a charge like it used to, so I decided to replace it. I searched eBay for a replacement battery and it is positively rife with them... all of them suspiciously cheap. I ended up buying one for about $10, including the tools to install the replacement battery.

I received it, replaced the battery and went on my merry way. All was well for a few days, and the iPod seemed to have tremendous battery life again. Win!

Then the troubles began. Who knew that batteries are so freakin' integral to delicate electronics? Does it really matter if your system is receiving 3.6 volts instead of 3.7? I guess it does! My iPod started to act all funny. Suddenly half of my playlists were missing. And then one day songs started crashing in mid-play... forcing the iPod to skip to the next one. This happened for a while until finally the harddrive stopped working all together and I got the "sad iPod" icon on the screen. Lose!

I started browsing the Apple store to see how much new iPods cost. Yikes. Plan B.

Luckily I kept the original battery, so I used my trusty Chinese tools to re-open my iPod and surgically replace the battery again... back to the original. My iPod immediately came back to life and is running fine. Win! (sort of)

Guess I'll start researching OEM Apple batteries. I hope they aren't too rapeliciously expensive.