I've had my tilt for a little over two years now and it seems the hardware has finally gave in. About two weeks back, the phone repeatedly got got stuck in a white screen when returning from sleep mode (as identified here: search "white screen issue"). I chose to dismantle the phone and replace the flex cable with one I had salvaged from my friend's dead tilt. Fortunately the white screen went away. In turn, I lost the use of the memory card slot, the touchscreen functionality only worked in landscape mode, and worst of all my sim card is no longer identified. Trying to revert back to my old tilt's flex cable gave me a empty screen all together. My question is, whether I should purchase both a new flex cable and screen or whether a flex cable alone will do? Moreover should I take a chance and dismantle an old tilt sold on eBay? Or just buy a new cable shipped all the way from China as there seems to be no US sellers? Any and all advice is welcome.
Sounds like you may have a loose/bad connection plug, need to recheck assembly.
The old ribbon probably failed completely due to extra stress during dissembly.
Parts from china are mostly copy parts & the quality is normally awful, buying a salvalge phone is a good option if price is right.
For sure a few forum members will have Kaiser spares.
Mister B said:
Sounds like you may have a loose/bad connection plug, need to recheck assembly.
The old ribbon probably failed completely due to extra stress during dissembly.
Parts from china are mostly copy parts & the quality is normally awful, buying a salvalge phone is a good option if price is right.
For sure a few forum members will have Kaiser spares.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the response, but I disassembled time and again to check the connectors with the utmost care mind you . After some thought, I decided the salvage phone was not a a good option as those may have severe wear on the cable as well and I'm not willing to wait around for a week for the item to arrive to find its dysfunctional (or nearing its fate). Fortunately, I found a legitimate eBay seller in NY who has the new flex cable. Hopefully if the phone recovers, I will update for those who might come upon this thread and have found themselves in a similar situation.
Hey guys,
I've been struggling with my N1 power button for a while now until in August it finally failed and my device wouldn't turn on anymore.
Since I bought my phone in Germany I hesitated to send it in. Not HTC is responsible for the warranty, but the seller himself. Anyway, I mailed them, sent it in, but they denied to repair it. They said some bull***t about me braking the camera. So I talked to legal protection insurance and they asked me whether I'd prefere to sue the trader or if I want to get 220 Euro back from them instead (because obviously suing would be much more cost intensiv for the insurance then paying 220 Euro). So I decided to take the money and either buy a new phone or try to fix the power button myself. And that's what I did.
I dissembled the phone and tried to solder the broken connections following this (http://youtu.be/k74D4dGGf4U) awesome guide myself. I do not have a lot of experience with stuff like this but I thought since I had already gotten the money "back" and the phone was not working I could at least try.
I did try and I did break the rest of the power button. So know I am not sure what to do. I see two options and very much would like other users comments on what I should do.
Try to sell the other components (screen, battery, logic board) and buy a new phone.
Replace the entire board with the camera, the led and the power button.
Ad 1.) Where would you sell the components? Ebay? Any other specific website?
And also, can you suggest phones to consider. I haven't followed the "android market" for a couple of months since it was not clear what would happen to my N1. I could buy a new N1 for about 210 Euro. Or a Nexus S for about 200. Are there any new phones that can compete with the nexus one in terms of openness, processing power, battery life & built quality? Or is the N1 still the best deal (especially for that price, I don't want to spend much more then the 220 Euro, I just got back).
Ad 2.) I've looked online, there are plenty of sources to replace the board with the flex cable ribbon. They range from 17 to about 70 Dollar. The difference seems to be that the ones are without camera, while the others come with a new camera.
Since my camera was working just fine I was wondering if it's possible to use my camera on another motherboard (I think that's the adequate name of the board I am talking about, right?). I couldn't find any reports online, but there is a spare part, which indicates, that it is very possible. Has anyone tried to replace a camera? Did it work? Is there a tutorial online?
Over all, I would very much prefere the second option. I have used my N1 only for roughly a year. I got the N1 dock. And over all, it would only cost about 30 bucks and a couple of hours. Also I would not have to buy a new phone and produce unnecessary technical waste.
So I'm very much looking forward to all your comments and help. For me that's a huge project. I haven't done hardware "hacking" before, so I will need all the help I can get.
Cheers, Armin
repair it.
Replacing the flex cable is not extremely difficult (medium diff.), and the chinese sellers in ebay will often bundle the tools required to open the N1's case.
By the way, the flex cable is not the mainboard, it's the cable that connects different modules (camera, led) and buttons (volume, power) to the mainboard, replace it, plug your camera and led modules to the new flex cable, make sure all connections are tight and your N1 will be as good as new!
I just repaired my N1, and I cannot tell you how awesome it felt when this little beast came back to life after months!
hey trschober,
thanx a lot for your reply. could you elaborate on how to switch the camera? it seems like it's only held in place by the bent metal. but i don't want to "force it out" since i dont want to break the camera (expensive).
does it come off easily?
also i didn't even know i could take off the led module. but now that i had a look at it it seems like i can just "pop off" the white rectangle.
awesome, i'm really excited right now!
well, i'll just order the part. we'll see how it goes.
I've never had to replace the camera, but from ifixit's pictures it is held in place by some sort of metal clip. There must be a place that you can push to get the camera module out without forcing it.
I can open my N1 on monday to check the proper way to unmount the camera module, but I doubt that you have to force it out, these electronic things don't work that way.
Yes, the led module just pops off, just be careful no to scratch the led itself, or the light will get blueish.
The hardest part of replacing the flex cable is popping off the bottom part of your N1, just use the proper _plastic_ tools to open it, or you will scratch the case. once you disconnect the connectors, the flex cable just slides upwards and out.
Hey guys. I have an HTC vivid. I dropped it and the screen cracked, but the phone worked perfectly (LCD is perfect). To fix it, I first bought a replacement digitizer from gounlock.com (SST Trading). This part had a dead zone, basically a horizonal bar 1/3 up from the bottom of the screen. I took the phone apart repeatedly and I'm 100% sure everything was installed correctly. I never contacted the company about the replacement since so much time had passed by when I finally installed the part. Next, I found people who had ordered from repairuniverse.com with good stories, so I ordered the digitizer from them. Instead of risking it, I paid a local repair shop to do the install, and there was zero response from the touch screen, even though it boots correctly. The shop reinstalled the part 3 times, still nothing. The seller gave me some line how the professional installer damaged the ribbon cable and I should order another part. To me, this is a bs excuse, because I've found plenty of threads about cheapo ebay digitizers not working or partially working in various HTC phones. They told me they test their parts, but im sure this doesn't involve actually installing on a real phone to make sure it actually works/is designed correctly, just that it might not have a manufacturing defect.
So, where can I order this part and not have problems? Unfortunately I don't have the original screen anymore to compare part numbers, although these things all seem to be low quality china knock-offs, hence why they frequently don't work.
Thanks for whatever advice you can give me =) It's been a very frustrating experience dumping money into this old phone to fix a relatively simple problem.
well, I probably threw more money down the drain ordering a third digitizer. At least this one only costs 10 bucks. If this one doesn't work I'm just going to sell the phone on ebay and someone else can try to fix it.
Hi guys,
I got my XSP 17 days ago and it's already giving me this weird problem. I bought it brand new (well, I got it from a possibly shady reseller in Russia, but it looked new and un-tampered, I checked it carefully ).
It worked perfectly as my main phone for about two weeks (with the official stable CM 11) when suddenly, it started switching off by itself. When it first started doing this a couple of days ago, it would shut off randomly twice or thrice a day, but today it switches off about every 5 minutes. Sometimes it doesn't even complete the boot sequence before it turns off.
The effect is just about the same as pulling the battery out. One moment you're using the phone, the next moment the screen is blank. No vibrations, no errors, no lights, nothing. It can be turned on normally and works for a short while before turning off again.
I haven't been able to isolate the problem to any single use case - it turns off with and without the SIM, with/without the SD card, on airplane mode and off, with the screen on or off.
It turns off with every combination of CM11, CM12 and stock that I tried, with stock kernel, default CM kernel, William's kernel and Tangerine kernel.
Although I don't want to admit it, it looks like it's a battery problem. Perhaps the battery lost capacity sitting around in a warehouse for two years? Either that or I was duped by the place I got it from, which seems unlikely as it was spotless in its original packing with all the plastic bits covering the screen, camera and microphone, and a warranty sticker over a screw on the back. Besides, they've given me a one-year service guarantee (it's not the official Sony warranty, though).
Mine is the C5303 model.
Has anyone had this problem? Can anyone suggest what I could do about it? It's a great phone except for this problem
Thanks for any help!
EDIT: Sorry, I forgot to mention that this does not happen when connected to a charger or a computer. Only when running on battery.
devilsworkshop said:
Hi guys,
I got my XSP 17 days ago and it's already giving me this weird problem. I bought it brand new (well, I got it from a possibly shady reseller in Russia, but it looked new and un-tampered, I checked it carefully ).
It worked perfectly as my main phone for about two weeks (with the official stable CM 11) when suddenly, it started switching off by itself. When it first started doing this a couple of days ago, it would shut off randomly twice or thrice a day, but today it switches off about every 5 minutes. Sometimes it doesn't even complete the boot sequence before it turns off.
The effect is just about the same as pulling the battery out. One moment you're using the phone, the next moment the screen is blank. No vibrations, no errors, no lights, nothing. It can be turned on normally and works for a short while before turning off again.
I haven't been able to isolate the problem to any single use case - it turns off with and without the SIM, with/without the SD card, on airplane mode and off, with the screen on or off.
It turns off with every combination of CM11, CM12 and stock that I tried, with stock kernel, default CM kernel, William's kernel and Tangerine kernel.
Although I don't want to admit it, it looks like it's a battery problem. Perhaps the battery lost capacity sitting around in a warehouse for two years? Either that or I was duped by the place I got it from, which seems unlikely as it was spotless in its original packing with all the plastic bits covering the screen, camera and microphone, and a warranty sticker over a screw on the back. Besides, they've given me a one-year service guarantee (it's not the official Sony warranty, though).
Mine is the C5303 model.
Has anyone had this problem? Can anyone suggest what I could do about it? It's a great phone except for this problem
Thanks for any help!
EDIT: Sorry, I forgot to mention that this does not happen when connected to a charger or a computer. Only when running on battery.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
you should try to flash a stock ftf ROM with flash-tool ....if the problem still happen with you then i'm afraid it's a hardware problem
flash- said:
you should try to flash a stock ftf ROM with flash-tool ....if the problem still happen with you then i'm afraid it's a hardware problem
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you for your response, but I've already tried that, to no avail. This makes me think it's definitely a hardware problem that's related to either the battery or the charging circuit.
However, a recent experiment I tried seems to contradict this. I left the phone on CWM recovery for about 40 minutes and it didn't switch off! I even ran a backup to add strain to the battery, but no, it stayed on.
This indicates that it might not be a battery problem - a battery problem should affect the phone in recovery as well as inside the Android OS.
One major difference between CWM and Android is that Android runs the radios, while a recovery has no need to. Could it be a chance bug in the radio firmware? Is there any way to reflash the radio firmware?
devilsworkshop said:
Thank you for your response, but I've already tried that, to no avail. This makes me think it's definitely a hardware problem that's related to either the battery or the charging circuit.
However, a recent experiment I tried seems to contradict this. I left the phone on CWM recovery for about 40 minutes and it didn't switch off! I even ran a backup to add strain to the battery, but no, it stayed on.
This indicates that it might not be a battery problem - a battery problem should affect the phone in recovery as well as inside the Android OS.
One major difference between CWM and Android is that Android runs the radios, while a recovery has no need to. Could it be a chance bug in the radio firmware? Is there any way to reflash the radio firmware?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
actually i never saw a radio firmware to flash ......but it's not a battery problem for sure ....maybe cpu can't handle the ROM running or like you said radio don't run in cmw then it mite be the cause of the problem
but anyway it's a hardware ...since you are flashing a stock ftf via flashtool then the radio shouldn't have any problems at all !
so you need to go to service center i think to repair it ...sorry for not finding an answer or a direct solution for your problem
good luck man :good:
flash- said:
actually i never saw a radio firmware to flash ......but it's not a battery problem for sure ....maybe cpu can't handle the ROM running or like you said radio don't run in cmw then it mite be the cause of the problem
but anyway it's a hardware ...since you are flashing a stock ftf via flashtool then the radio shouldn't have any problems at all !
so you need to go to service center i think to repair it ...sorry for not finding an answer or a direct solution for your problem
good luck man :good:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for your help. I think I was cheated and they deliberately sold me a faulty phone. I'm thinking of having my phone checked by an independent service center (for a price )
I have another question, if anybody can answer: what does the original guarantee sticker look like? Mine is the one in the attachment, stuck over the central screw.
I'm beginning to think that it's a fake sticker stuck by the shop that sold it to me
devilsworkshop said:
Thanks for your help. I think I was cheated and they deliberately sold me a faulty phone. I'm thinking of having my phone checked by an independent service center (for a price )
I have another question, if anybody can answer: what does the original guarantee sticker look like? Mine is the one in the attachment, stuck over the central screw.
I'm beginning to think that it's a fake sticker stuck by the shop that sold it to me
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don"t have this Sticker. The Sony Ericson Joint-Venture was ended Yeats before the SP came out... Looks like it is from another phone...
Anyway:
Cwm doesn't use a high current.
Because of stuff I can't explain in English, it could be possible the battery delivers enough Voltage but not enough current for booting up.
Although, it seems more likely to be a RAM error. Yeah, that can happen on phones too.
That would explain the very random behavior.
Cwm doesn't change anything in the RAM when it does nothing. That's why the error doesn't occur then.
Gesendet von meinem
Sony Xperia SP - Cyanogenmod 12.1
Kaffeetrinker said:
I don"t have this Sticker. The Sony Ericson Joint-Venture was ended Yeats before the SP came out... Looks like it is from another phone...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You have a point. Looks like it's definitely a refurbished phone, then
Because of stuff I can't explain in English, it could be possible the battery delivers enough Voltage but not enough current for booting up.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
AHA! Now this got me thinking. I flashed a fresh ROM without gapps, set the maximum processor clock to 384 MHz, turned down the brightness, switched off WiFi, GPS, Bluetooth, NFC, etc., and now it works perfectly fine without switching off! Looks like you're right, the battery can't produce enough current.
I can now reproduce the problem reliably by setting governor to performance @1.7GHz, turning up the brightness, switching on all the devices mentioned above and recording video. The moment I touch the button to stop recording, the extra strain caused by flushing the buffer to the memory causes the phone to switch off. Bingo! :good:
What does this mean? That the battery is weak? Or the charging circuit is wrongly cutting off the battery?
Thanks a lot for the info! Finally this thing is beginning to make sense. :highfive:
devilsworkshop said:
You have a point. Looks like it's definitely a refurbished phone, then
AHA! Now this got me thinking. I flashed a fresh ROM without gapps, set the maximum processor clock to 384 MHz, turned down the brightness, switched off WiFi, GPS, Bluetooth, NFC, etc., and now it works perfectly fine without switching off! Looks like you're right, the battery can't produce enough current.
I can now reproduce the problem reliably by setting governor to performance @1.7GHz, turning up the brightness, switching on all the devices mentioned above and recording video. The moment I touch the button to stop recording, the extra strain caused by flushing the buffer to the memory causes the phone to switch off. Bingo! :good:
What does this mean? That the battery is weak? Or the charging circuit is wrongly cutting off the battery?
Thanks a lot for the info! Finally this thing is beginning to make sense. :highfive:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It means the battery is weak. I guess the phone itself should be fine.
When a bettery gets old, it can get a higher resistance. Yeah, batteries have a resistance too. In German it's called Innenwiderstand. Literally translated "inner resistance". It's the same effect like when your car's battery is old. Your stereo still gets its 12V, but trying to start the car will let the curcuit "die" for a few seconds.
The battery in the SP can be replaced, it's not that hard. There are some great videos on YouTube. Please don't buy a battery that is sold as original! Sony doesn't sell spare batteries for the SP. If it says original, it's used or fake.
Buy a battery from a seller who admits it is not from Sony. He is honest to you. Make sure it's a spare battery with good cells in it. Like Varta etc.
Gesendet von meinem
Sony Xperia SP - Cyanogenmod 12.1
Please don't buy a battery that is sold as original! Sony doesn't sell spare batteries for the SP. If it says original, it's used or fake.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the heads-up! I've called multiple repair centers and they've all told me they can give me original batteries. I'd better be careful, then!
Do you have any idea where I can order a good battery, or how I can identify which ones are good?
I will be in Eastern Europe next week, where it's easier to get deliveries from eBay, etc. I might even visit Germany! Any suggestions on how to find a battery are welcome.
devilsworkshop said:
Thanks for the heads-up! I've called multiple repair centers and they've all told me they can give me original batteries. I'd better be careful, then!
Do you have any idea where I can order a good battery, or how I can identify which ones are good?
I will be in Eastern Europe next week, where it's easier to get deliveries from eBay, etc. I might even visit Germany! Any suggestions on how to find a battery are welcome.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
www.amazon.de/gp/aw/d/B00VWDWINQ/re...ia+SP+Akku&dpPl=1&dpID=41vGGV60ByL&ref=plSrch
That's the one I would buy. You see that this not-original battery is more expensive than the "fauxriginals"? There's a reason
You can buy elsewhere too. Make sure the seller has got many good ratings over a long period of time.
A few terrible ratings aren't a problem. There are always some noobs who break their spare parts and blame the seller.
E.g. on Amazon, look for many 4-star and 3 star ratings. They are real. Bought ratings are almost always 5 star ratings.
Don't buy where all ratings are 1 or 5 stars.
The capacity may differ from the original 2300mAh. 2100mAh to 2500mAh is fine. More than 2500mAh should be fake.
You can also buy on eBay where the seller admits it's a used battery in good condition.
I don't think you can buy this battery "" offline". If you do, make absolutely sure the connectors look like in the pictures in Amazon!
In Germany, there are lot Mobile Phone Shops with an Internet Café. Mostly, they are owned by Turks.
Usually, they have a good service. They can replace the battery for you for a few bucks. If you can't be served in one shop, they'll sometimes tell you where a shop is where they can help you.
Hope these information are useful
Gesendet von meinem
Sony Xperia SP - Cyanogenmod 12.1
Thanks for your advice.
What do you think about this thread I bumped into? http://forum.xda-developers.com/galaxy-s2/accessories/polarcell-akku-1800mah-t1269918
Do you think there's a chance that my problem might be due to some other component other than the battery?
devilsworkshop said:
Thanks for your advice.
What do you think about this thread I bumped into? http://forum.xda-developers.com/galaxy-s2/accessories/polarcell-akku-1800mah-t1269918
Do you think there's a chance that my problem might be due to some other component other than the battery?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's possible that it is caused by another component. We can't know. Buying a New battery is the cheapest option. I don't see another way to find out.
There are bad third party batteries too. But I trust someone who admits it's third party more. Just rely on the ratings...
Sorry, but I don't have any better advices.
Gesendet von meinem
Sony Xperia SP - Cyanogenmod 12.1
Flash cm 12.1 only with gapps and supersu. Do not touch the kernel settings, dont make the phone overheat too much and try. Try to discharge the battery at 0% 2-3 times and recharge it with the stock charger and cable.
Can you install cpu z and tell us what voltage it reads when your battery si charged to 100% and disconnected from charger ?
It should be 4.2V i have my XSP for a year now and my battery reads 4.130V at 100%.
Solved!
Hi guys, I'm back from Europe.
I know it's been a really long time, but I just wanted to update the thread in case anyone else has the same problem and finds this thread.
Before leaving, I purchased a new "original" battery at a local shop (a pretty large scale distributor).
It looks identical to the battery that was already in the phone, and also identical to the batteries in all the videos I've seen on youtube. The SONY branding is covered by a thin plate of copper, but it's there, so I assume it's not fake.
It cost me 1300 RUB (~20 USD). There was a "Craftmann" branded battery also available, but it was 3x more expensive, so I didn't buy it.
Well, the phone works fine. In the past ~2 months, it hasn't turned off even once, and the battery lasts a day with decent use (~3h GPS guidance, ~1h FM transmitter, always connected to LTE, messaging and email, occasional calls), so I consider the issue solved.
Thanks to all who helped me!
Except for the fact that, given that the USB port deteriorated, so I could only charge my phone wirelessly, for months I've been using it very nicely, almost without problems for such an old phone, up to this week when this suddenly happened:
I went to sleep and left the phone with ~50% battery and didn't leave it charging, it was enough to wake up with it having some charge left, but upon waking up it didn't turn on and couldn't be charged, I sent it to a repair shop and I was told that they repaired the USB port, but that "something on the motherboard was short-circuiting and draining the battery", and that to find what and repair it could take until Monday or more.
I took these photos after it was disassembled and the USB port repaired.
What can you tell me from this information and the photos?
Can you at least tell me the repair shop didn't severely damage it?
I have more information, but I think it's only minor details, so not to bloat I won't post them now, but I can surely post more if needed.
Thanks!
I don't spot any visual damage.
How about buying a used phone that works? Isn't that cheaper than repairing your Nexus?
Hi! Thanks for the quick reply! I'm glad to hear there's no visual damage.
Let's see, first I already have a pretty decent fallback phone, it's better than Shamu in some aspects, though I still prefer Shamu in general.
Second, I paid ~$120 USD (shipping included) for this phone on ebay about a year ago (advertised as new, obvious it's not, but maybe it wasn't (too) used either? It has decent battery, and is overall pretty good except for the already mentioned USB port which quickly deteriorated, which I didn't mind too much).
For this repair I won't be charged if they break my phone or aren't able to repair it, even for the already fixed USB port (I think), for which they bill me ~$8.08 USD (exchange rate as of today), and for the suspected current problem, a maximum of ~$35.03 USD for a total of ~$43.11 USD.
That's still ~$76.89 USD away from a "new" Shamu, and even further (~$124.40 USD) from the other phone I want at the lowest price I can find (Honor Note 8 at $168.51 according to DHgate as suggested by kimovil).
Unless I can find a better phone, and better for me would be a phone with at least the same resolution but lower ppi, because I don't want pixels so small I can't tell the difference, but I do want a larger screen (so far I can tell between the 402ppi of my current phone vs Shamu's 490 ppi).
And if possible, I'd prefer a "new" phone, even if it isn't really new, but can be convincingly said it is.
So, so far, I still think the repair is pretty worth it. I know I'm kind of picky, but I think what I want makes sense, right? I hope that answers your question.