My player held together by masking tape!

[IdleTime]

Originally Posted by sunnydalerocks";p=&quot

Whoa! Maybe there IS a good reason like those other guys said for that piece of tape to be there...

Jeez, i dont think i wanna open My Chipod now...

I've actually opened two of them — one bought locally at a computer market for $A58, bought as a 2GB and it is as stated, the other off Ebay as a "Real 4GB" which is also 2GB, not 4, but seems to work better — it set me back $A45 delivered, so I probably got a good enough deal.

Both had the strip of masking tape inside the case and it is there purely for insulation and serves no other purpose that I can see.

In both players I replaced the masking tape with a strip of electrician's tape, which at least looks better when the case is opened.

Masking tape is, of course, cheaper and easier to tear off which would be why they use it, and I'd expect to find it in all the metal cased Ipod-like devices.

The Ebay unit came from "smile_plus168" (AKA RogerLam and probably others) and I bought it already suspecting the memory was faked — hence didn't bid over $45 and finally won one.

I notice he's now advertising the bulk of his "Real 4GB" gadgets with a starting bid of $60, a "Buy-It-Now" price of $70 and adding P@P — the "delivery included" NR deal I got has almost disappeared — but I'll bet even at circa $80 delivered they're still fakes!.

I've been amusing myself with a few teasing emails to him about what sort of feedback he should get — so far he has said he'll "work with me to resolve the problem" and also that he's "sorry"...

Maybe he'll strain his back carting all that loot to the bank...

[robjones]

I think the main reason for the masking tape is to stop the battery from wandering. It is probably there from new. There is so little room in these things that there is barely any room for the battery let alone a battery holder. Masking tape is not a totally bad thing. If the battery was held by insulating tape there is a good chance that it would start to loosen before too long and either the battery wires would break due to the flexing or the plastic coating on the battery would wear against the solderred connections underneath and lead to a short. Masking tape may look bad, but it sticks very well to most surfaces. I suppose that is one of the reasons why they use it when repainting car panels to prevent overspray. It also has to put up with a lot of heat in the car body respray business. I also had masking tape inside the two hacked players I bought from red-vision. They were on the inside back of the player which had metal casing to prevent a short circuit.

[IdleTime]

The main trouble with masking tape is that it's meant to be a short-term application and to be removed as soon as the job's done.

Leave it on a while and the adhesive goes hard and is almost impossible to remove — to the extent of actually damaging the surface under it if you pull hard enough — then some time after that it will denature and fall off by itself.

I've had rolls of it become useless just sitting on the shelf.

[lattesurf]

Pretty much the manufacturers do not have any intentions for a long term solution regarding the masking tape insulation or to secure the battery. Very obviously it can be seen from the lack (or even non-existence) of after-sales support (firmwares/updates).

To me, it would not really matter much as the casing would be closed almost 99.9% of the time. Unless i decide to open it to do something to it. Even if the tape lost its stickiness, it would still act as an insulator.

Well, the saying goes, "you pay peanuts, you get monkeys".