Replace your iPod Mini battery

Since you're taking apart your iPod Mini, you might as well know what's inside. The front of the player includes the 1.7-inch monochrome LCD and, below that, 32MB of RAM (for buffering) and the main 80MHz dual ARM 7TDMI processors (PortalPlayer PP5020). The Click Wheel and the controller, still attached to the metal body, plug into a port on the bottom.

The backside is where you'll be installing the new battery. Notice the existing OEM battery is blue, just like the replacement. The battery--this particular one lasted eight hours per charge when new--plugs into a socket above. Below the battery, you'll notice the hard drive, which is actually a 1-inch microdrive (in our case, a 4GB Hitachi drive) that can be pulled out and used in digital cameras (with CompactFlash Type II slots) or other devices. The drive will be secured by some cheap-looking tape, though we've removed ours. The top of the Mini, which includes the headphone jack, might come off during disassembly. The tiny circuit board plugs right into the motherboard.