{"id":1113,"date":"2009-12-04T17:30:53","date_gmt":"2009-12-04T22:30:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/?p=1113"},"modified":"2009-12-06T18:55:07","modified_gmt":"2009-12-06T23:55:07","slug":"i-just-saved-several-hundred-dollars-with-a-drop-of-nail-polish-remover","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/archives\/2009\/12\/04\/i-just-saved-several-hundred-dollars-with-a-drop-of-nail-polish-remover\/","title":{"rendered":"I just saved several hundred dollars with a drop of nail polish remover"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><figure style=\"width: 240px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/nicmcphee\/1162258117\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"Our family iPod (which is truly dead due to a bad hard drive, but that's another story)\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm2.static.flickr.com\/1191\/1162258117_f3b72d4d48_m.jpg?resize=240%2C180\" title=\"OurPod\" width=\"240\" height=\"180\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Our family iPod (which is truly dead due to a bad hard drive, but that's another story)<\/figcaption><\/figure><br \/>\nI&#8217;ve had my iPod Touch for about 1.5 years and can&#8217;t really imagine living without it.  I had a Palm Pilot at two different times in the past, and I never felt the need to replace either of them when they died.  Life without the Touch, however, has quickly become unthinkable.<\/p>\n<p>Thus I was pretty seriously distressed when the home button quit responding yesterday.  It had been acting a little touchy for a while, but I could always get it to respond if I was persistent.  Yesterday, however, it just went dead. Kaput. The end.  This is the kind of thing you don&#8217;t repair, and I wasn&#8217;t super keen on spending a few hundred to replace it, especially since <em>everything<\/em> worked fine except that one crucial little button.<\/p>\n<p>A little searching turned up <a href=\"http:\/\/discussions.apple.com\/thread.jspa?threadID=1969583&#038;start=0&#038;tstart=180\">this forum thread<\/a>, which boils down to two recommendations:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Blow compressed air into the connector slot at the bottom<\/li>\n<li>Put a drop of contact cleaner, nail polish remover, or other water-free solvent on the button, and then work the button to try to get the solvent to wick around to the where the contacts are<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Both of these are based on the assumption that the problem is some dirt or or gunk that&#8217;s collected under the button and is interfering with the contacts.  Since my iPod lives pretty much permanently in my jeans pocket (along with pens, keys, lint, and various other experiments in the spontaneous generation of life), that assumption seemed pretty reasonable.<\/p>\n<p>Some of the people that tried the solvent approach got too much in there, and it seeped along the screen, giving them an undesired aquarium effect.  Consequently, I tried the compressed air first, since that seemed least likely lead to some unfortunate side-effect.  Sadly, it also didn&#8217;t lead to the desired effect either.  Consequently I moved on to nail polish.  I put a drop on the button, and then clicked and wiggled that little button to try to work the liquid around.  And after maybe thirty seconds of fiddling \u2026 voila! It started working!<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s now been most of an hour, and the fix seems solid.  I&#8217;ve had it propped up with the button end down, so if there&#8217;s any liquid still in there it&#8217;s headed away from the screen and the bulk of the electronics, and by now I would assume that most of the liquid has evaporated anyway.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;d think twice about trying this at home, especially if you have a working piece of electronics.  Mine was completely unusable without the button, so I was willing to take the risk, but I can imagine a lot of ways in which this might not go well, so tread gently into these swamps.<\/p>\n<p>For me, though, it&#8217;s all happy, happy, happy :-)<\/p>\n\n\t<div class=\"st-post-tags \">\n\tTags: <a href=\"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/archives\/tag\/contact\/\" title=\"contact\">contact<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/archives\/tag\/dirt\/\" title=\"dirt\">dirt<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/archives\/tag\/electronics\/\" title=\"electronics\">electronics<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/archives\/tag\/home-button\/\" title=\"home button\">home button<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/archives\/tag\/ipod\/\" title=\"iPod\">iPod<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/archives\/tag\/ipod-touch\/\" title=\"iPod touch\">iPod touch<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/archives\/tag\/nail-polish-remover\/\" title=\"nail polish remover\">nail polish remover<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/archives\/tag\/repair\/\" title=\"repair\">repair<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/archives\/tag\/solvent\/\" title=\"solvent\">solvent<\/a><br \/><\/div>\n\n\n\t<h4>Related posts<\/h4>\n\t<ul class=\"st-related-posts\">\n\t<li><a href=\"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/archives\/2009\/12\/31\/saving-money-by-doing-more-silly-things\/\" title=\"Saving money by doing more silly things (31 Dec 09)\">Saving money by doing more silly things<\/a> (1)<\/li>\n\t<li><a href=\"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/archives\/2013\/04\/14\/watching-electronics-help-some-wonderful-acoustic-music-unfold\/\" title=\"Watching electronics help some wonderful acoustic music unfold (14 Apr 13)\">Watching electronics help some wonderful acoustic music unfold<\/a> (0)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I fixed a non-responsive home button on my iPod Touch using a drop of nail polish remover.  Your milage may vary, however.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0},"categories":[4,1],"tags":[487,486,197,483,485,482,488,489,484],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p90sy-hX","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1146,"url":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/archives\/2009\/12\/31\/saving-money-by-doing-more-silly-things\/","url_meta":{"origin":1113,"position":0},"title":"Saving money by doing more silly things","author":"Nic McPhee","date":"31 Dec 09","format":false,"excerpt":"As reported earlier, I managed to use a few drops of nail polish remover to postpone my iPod Touch's trip to the great pile of electronic waste that is one of the banes of our modern world. In the comments Matt Carlson mentioned that he'd had a similar experience reviving\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Computing&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Computing","link":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/archives\/category\/computing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":38,"url":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/archives\/2005\/01\/20\/turn-any-ipod-into-an-ipod-shuffle-in-3-easy-steps\/","url_meta":{"origin":1113,"position":1},"title":"Turn any iPod into an iPod Shuffle in 3 easy steps!","author":"Nic McPhee","date":"20 Jan 05","format":false,"excerpt":"mhusson (via Extended Abstract) has hilarious instructions on how to Turn any iPod into an iPod Shuffle in 3 easy steps! Gotta love modern technology (and marketing).","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Computing&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Computing","link":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/archives\/category\/computing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":619,"url":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/archives\/2007\/08\/18\/the-many-mysteries-of-consumer-electronics\/","url_meta":{"origin":1113,"position":2},"title":"The many mysteries of consumer electronics","author":"Nic McPhee","date":"18 Aug 07","format":false,"excerpt":"One of the coolest\/strangest things on our trip out to the UK was the discovery that the Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport now has vending machines selling iPods, as well as headphones, chargers, and digital cameras! We've reached the point where we can buy computers in vending machines, a slight change from\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Computing&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Computing","link":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/archives\/category\/computing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":446,"url":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/archives\/2007\/02\/06\/are-there-interesting-affordances-of-mind-mapping\/","url_meta":{"origin":1113,"position":3},"title":"Are there interesting affordances of mind mapping?","author":"Nic McPhee","date":"6 Feb 07","format":false,"excerpt":"seismograph #4, originally uploaded by Nils K. Windisch (netomer). Bill over at Notional Slurry has been wondering whether the mind mapping emperor actually has any clothes. Which is a fine bit of timing, because I'd been wondering the same thing. In all the driving back and forth to Arkansas to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Computing&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Computing","link":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/archives\/category\/computing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":861,"url":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/archives\/2008\/07\/06\/tis-time-for-the-tour\/","url_meta":{"origin":1113,"position":4},"title":"&#8216;Tis time for the Tour!","author":"Nic McPhee","date":"6 Jul 08","format":false,"excerpt":"aller \u00e0 bicyclette, originally uploaded by Summa for Strings. The mighty Tour de France started yesterday. We've been recording it, but haven't actually seen any of it yet (unpacking, etc.). Soon, though, there will be many hours of bike racing in our lives! Thanks to \"Summa for Strings\" for this\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;General&quot;","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/archives\/category\/general\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":552,"url":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/archives\/2007\/05\/06\/tomorrow-resting-on-yesterday\/","url_meta":{"origin":1113,"position":5},"title":"Tomorrow resting on yesterday","author":"Nic McPhee","date":"6 May 07","format":false,"excerpt":"Tomorrow resting on yesterday, originally uploaded by Unhindered by Talent. Shot a bunch of stuff yesterday (5 May) in part because I was hoping to get something useful for the 24 hours of Flickr project. (Ego is a wonderful thing :-)!) I'll be cleaning up and posting some of these\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Events&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Events","link":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/archives\/category\/events\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1113"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1113"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1113\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1126,"href":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1113\/revisions\/1126"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1113"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1113"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1113"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}