4th Gen... Out of Curiosity.

[scacinto]

Apple recently sent around a coffin cart for my 1 1/2 year old 4th generation iPod clickwheel. Fortunately, I had the sense to purchase the extended warranty for the thing, so they'll be kind enough to send me someone else's broken iPod which they've Frankensteined back into *working* order. Whilst I was sitting, musicless on a bench the other day, I wondered to myself how many other people had their 4th Gen iPods snuff it on them within two years of purchase. I, personally, over the last four days have encountered 2 people who had their 4th Gens croak -- both had neglected to purchase the extended warranty and were out $400 each. I began to wonder "Isn't $400 a little too much to pay for something that's only going to last 1.5 years or less?"

SO: Lets have a count shall we? Let's have a show of text from any and all who've lost their 4th Gen iPods to hardware malfunction. I don't want to hear from all of you whose iPods are *fine* -- make your own "I luv iPods" thread. This one's only for the bereaved.

Feel free to include sad stories about what your iPod meant to you and how tragic it is that it's gone! Misery loves company...

-S

P.S. Pictures are good too. I didn't have the sense to phograph my dear "BilbiPod" before he passed on... now he's gone forever! (sound of distant violins)

[ra3ndy]

Myself, my fiancé, and my best friend have all had our 4th gens relaced once. Another friend of mine has had his replaced twice now. Mine was the oldest, bought in September 2004, got it replaced September last year. One freakin week after the original warranty would have expired.

So that's 5 replaced iPods, all warranty replacements (i have smart friends ^_^)

On the other hand, the 10gb Archos Jukebox I bought in March 2003, which i sold to my fiancé's brother, still works great.

[scacinto]

Hmmmm. That's truly disgusting! I suppose I should be happy that mine's lasted this long.... BUT I'M NOT!


....

[Lt Major Burns]

i'm on my 3rd 4th gen. first one had a fault with the clickwheel (the touch sensitivity stopped working, making it basically a "click-") that developed about 2 weeks before the warranty, so they replaced that with an identical brand new 4th gen, which suffered a hard drive failure about 4 weeks after i got it. they replaced that with the one i'm looking at, which appears to be fine. i'll upgrade when they bring out ipods with greater than 100gb storage.

[ra3ndy]

Not to make excuses, but this happens all the time when high-tech gadgets explode in popularity. Quality HAS to suffer at times to match demand. You could argue that it's OUR fault for wanting them so damn much.

The first 2 generations of the PlayStation had a massive problem where the laser would stop reading after a period of time, because the laser's guides were made of cheap plastic, which wore down after a while. Many people I knew had to run their PSs face-down to keep them working. Sony fixed this in the next release, and the supply dried up because it was somehow harder to manufacture a better laser guide.

[Lt Major Burns]

oh i'm not complaining. i effectively got a year extension to my year warranty after they happily replaced them with brand new 4G models. i had my shuffle for the downtime.

[adambyte]

Shouldn't the question be "Why is the 4th gen iPod so breakable?" I mean, I've had my 1st gen iPod for quite a while now, and it still works great....

hmmmm....

[Lt Major Burns]

to be fair, a hard drive faliure is a hard drive faliure...