Replacing The iRiver iHP-120 Battery

Kim replaces the battery int the iRiver iHP-120 mp3 player.

[HVG]

OMG my favorite mp3 player lives on! I need to do this myself!

[rennman]

Amen sister, Thank you so much for that video - my HP-120 was dead for over a decade - with your help the thing is back to life. Very good video for a non-techical guy like me, works on first try. You made my day...

[razycrandom]

iRiver was quality. While everyone's ipod was breaking every year or so my iRiver lasted a decade until i dropped it. smh Might as well tear it down to see what (if anything) can be done. If I can get it working again I'd love to expand the storage as well. Thank you for this video.

[Tonydronie]

Greetings Kim from Wales, UK! Excellent very clear video! Many thanks! Removing the existing drive carefully leaves some old adhesive on the case for the new drive obviating the need for sticky tape. The case then closes easily. Very important not to over tighten the screws to avoid losing the screw thread! Took about 40mins to replace the battery.

[fraserhopewell]

Thanks Kim; just about to swap out the battery on my H120 and this video was really useful.

[rexbygraves]

thank you for posting this video, it was very helpful, i wish i had of watched this before i attempted to dismantle my H-120 as i have cracked both the side grey plastic button strips because i didn't remove the 2 little side screws, thanks again

[thethstranger]

I love to see people still rocking mp3 players and keeping the faith, as it were. :-)

[evil-wombat]

This is exactly what I was looking for. Taking these apart is not obvious.

[pauldixon]

Thanks for doing this video - it made a job that initially scared me quite easy

[ironwolfosiris]

I grabbed one of these little things from a computer junker store for 8$. I 've known for a long time about Rockbox and upgrading the storage/battery on various players. Always wanted to do that to something like this and make an old device feel new and improved. I'll be using this video as a reference when I do that! Great video.

[kwijung]

I'll be trying this soon as well. I also plan to try and replace the HD with a SSD while I'm at it.

[musicantd]

Thanks for the great video! I bought 2 of the very same batteries off ebay 2 years ago and have put off replacing the batteries in my H120 and H140 iRivers because I knew that doing so is kinda tricky (yep, I read posts in forums). This video, however, gives me the confidence all by itself to do the replacements. My H120 has been upgraded to an H130, i.e. by replacing the broken 20GB hard drive with a 30GB hard drive. So, I figure the lack of wiggle room for this battery will be even more of a problem. I'll cross that bridge when I come to it, but figure (probably rightly!) that I'll have to either eliminate the hard drive cushioning material noted in the video or replace it with something thinner. After all, the cushioning material is some insurance against breakage should you drop your iRiver, right? Some tradeoff is probably required. I've already bought the batteries so replacing my old now low capacity batteries with a 1300 mah or 1700 mah batteries is something I don't want to have to do if I can succeed in using the 2200 mah batteries I already have. The H140 should be less of a problem, the case being significantly thicker. This video lets me know where the trouble spots are. I especially like the fact that Ms. Jackson does not gloss over the problems, does not pretend something is a snap when it's not, and she did not add music... that I don't need in this! Kudos! Great job!

I don't keep my iRivers in a case, maybe I should, I have them. I do wrap them in a large folded handkerchief and put in a plastic bag when not in use. That adds some of the same hard drive protection that the internal cushioning material does. So, I figure I don't need that as much. My old batteries only last around maybe 6 hours when fully charged. It's enough to do what I'm doing, but I have to charge them frequently. That's partly why I've continued to put off replacement. However, keeping the "new" batteries sitting around for 2 years still shrink- wrapped isn't good for their health. It's time to get the job done. Another reason I didn't do the replacement yet is the reverse polarity of the leads from the battery, which I'd read about in the forums. I knew that people were splicing the battery leads. I did not know that it's possible, if you're careful, to not splice those leads but deal with the connector. I think I have the tools and ability to deal with that connection. The video makes the process clear. I had no clue that this particular battery does NOT have the reverse polarity issue until watching this video! Altogether, I was thinking, "OK, this is going to be tricky, " which only made me procrastinate this project further. Thanks again, Ms. Jackson, your video is just what I needed to motivate me to get this done, and likely done right!

[aw]

Glad to see others still using their iriver and great video. I missed out on numerous h120 auctions and have a trusty h320.
I've always hated how the location of the battery connector on the motherboard of my h320 because it got dust on my screen lol.

Jeez, the fit looks even tighter than my h320 (with one pad removed), with the zif adapter+msata combo I am running. Considering going compact flash or SSD upgrade? The Compact flash solution might work better, plus you wouldnt have to run the hard drive pads.

[Beyondesp]

Thank you for doing this video !!! I just found my old i-h120 and am thinking of doing the compact flash update and battery mod. I was wondering how hard it was to take this apart.

I had a hard time taking apart my ipod classic 6th/7th gen . So was hoping for a better experience.

(But looks like the battery may be hard to find now)

[drcoolit]

do you have a video on the HDD upgrade including what needs to be added (driver, etc.) to make the HDD work? Ideally, I want to change to a SSD but aside from the hardware differences, the install procedure would be the same including the drivers. I looked on your channel but didn't see any video for the HDD replacement. Thanks.

[HVG]

Oh hey I saw later on you have the rockbox firmware on it. What is better about that in your opinion than stock firmware? Thanks!

[migueldemaria]

Thanks for the video... I think I'll solder the wires, I don't want to mess with the molex and the motherboard.

[fduyilemi]

Thanks a lot I've just install mine.

[skeelo]

Question : how do you format the disk on say windows 8, 1, 10 ?

[kumbackquatsta]

maybe remove the electrical tape, should fit better. will you be doing a hd upgrade video?