I live in a play-your-own area when it comes to music offerings on the radio. And since most of my expendable income goes to my projects, buying a new MP3 player for the garage just wasn't in the cards. Fortunately, I had an old (~6 years) Archos Jukebox Recorder 20 doing nothing but gathering dust, so I drafted it into garage service. This is really an optimal solution since the Jukebox Recorder 20 is heavy by today's standards (12.5 ounces) and isn't suitable for use while working out or walking.
Add to the mix that the player's Nickel Metal Hydride (NiMH) batteries had become corroded and no longer held a charge. Rather than write off the player, I chose to open it up and see what could be salvaged.
First I loosened the screws (shown here circled in red) at the top of the player using the smallest slotted screwdriver I had. None of my small Phillips screwdrivers could fit in the screw head.
Then I loosened the screws at the bottom of the player (shown here circled in red).
Then I used a Torx T-10 bit to loosen the side screws (shown here with red arrows).
Once I'd loosened the screws, I was able to gently lift the battery cover plate without removing the player's faceplate.
The second cover came off easily as well. To my happy surprise, the batteries used by the Archos were standard AA batteries and could be easily replaced. I chose to replace the dead batteries (1.2V 1500mAh NiMH) with four Sanyo Eneloop rechargeable AA batteries (1.2V 2000mAh NiMH).
Once the batteries were properly inserted, I replaced the covers and re-secured the screws I'd loosened. A test start-up shows that the Jukebox really likes its new power source!
I hooked up the MP3 player to a pair of Sony portable speakers that were also gathering dust and voilà, 20 gigabytes of musical goodness for those long days tooling around the garage!
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