Hi, some time ago when i was dissasembling my Nexus 6 due to a camera replacement, i accidentally broke an smd component below the camera that is part of the screen well it only detached one pin ftom the two it has so i suited it in his place again and attached back the yellow transparent tape it has, i proceeded to reassemble the phone and all went good except when i low the brightness to certain point it starts to show Green lines and distortion but at a normal ir not so low brightness there Is no problem, Also i noticed an high amperage consumption and consequently a low battery duration i suppose it happens due to the broken component and want your advice if i should weld it again, it is very small and Is surrounded by many components as the same i broke, should i use heat gun? Or a soldering iron ? Tin welding or liquid welding, or i just should heat the welding the component has and set it again un his place? There Is a photo of What im talking about (the photo Is from a broken screen i have but it shows the components)
http ://i.imgurcom/h4TemYN. png
Just add the point after imgur and delete the spaces to see the image, im not available to put links Yet.
Lots of questions to ask here, so I'm going to just get to it.
1. What is the wattage rating of your soldering iron?
2. Is your soldering iron a pencil type or gun type?
3. How small is the tip?
4. Did you apply any extra solder in attempting your repair?
The wattage of the soldering iron and its type are critically important. Too much heat and you could destroy the component. Also, the damage here could be to the board itself and not the component. When one side lifted from the board it could have pulled up the solder pad the component was sitting on, breaking the trace underneath. What I'd need to see, prior to you doing anything else, is a picture of the actual board you worked on.
My advice? I would get a new screen. The fact of the matter is that you shouldn't have taken a soldering iron to the component as you could easily have burned the board and burned out the component. In such a confined area you could also have accidentally created a solder bridge, which could also cause the issues you're seeing. What you should have used was a heat gun set to 300 degrees celsius. Hold the heat gun one inch above the surface and turn it on, holding it steady for one minute. So long as no traces were broken in the initial mishap, this would allow the solder to liquify and restore the connection between component and board.*
*A heat gun is what I used to repair my Dell Inspiron 15, by applying steady heat to the GPU for a minute. This caused the solder balls making the connection to liquify and restore the connection with the motherboard. Two years later and the laptop still works.
It s an easy job with the right equipment ,and being a technician . Only trouble I can think off is to find the same component but since you have a broken screen it should be easy. I think if you have no experience you can seriously ruin your display. Bring it disassembled to a technician with the component to remove and solder back from the broken display . It's an easy job and I wouldn't charge more than 10€ to resolder it from the broken one to the working one. Elsewhere if you want to do it by yourself you need an hot air rework station and a good flux to recover the component from the ko display , and then a fine tip to solder it back ( a good flux is your friend ) . Don't use hot hair to mount the component to the new display, you can screw the flex cable, it's really delicate
@Axel85: I don't agree that it's necessary to be a technician to replace a surface mount component. The OP can do the job if he has a low-wattage soldering iron or a variable wattage model. I do agree that flux is a good idea however. I honestly wish I had some when I was repairing my laptop, but I also got lucky. The heat gun I thought would have been better for the initial repair, because I thought this might have been an actual board on the underside of the display that the ribbon cables connected to. Thus the soldering iron was the right choice.
The problem here is that he didn't post a picture of his work, so we can't see what's been done to the board. For all we know the pad lifted off the board, which broke the trace. He could have burned the board by using a high-wattage soldering iron. He could have destroyed the component with the soldering iron. If he used additional solder he could have accidentally bridged the connection. There are simply too many unknowns here to present an informed opinion.
Strephon Alkhalikoi said:
@Axel85: I don't agree that it's necessary to be a technician to replace a surface mount component. The OP can do the job if he has a low-wattage soldering iron or a variable wattage model. I do agree that flux is a good idea however. I honestly wish I had some when I was repairing my laptop, but I also got lucky. The heat gun I thought would have been better for the initial repair, because I thought this might have been an actual board on the underside of the display that the ribbon cables connected to. Thus the soldering iron was the right choice.
The problem here is that he didn't post a picture of his work, so we can't see what's been done to the board. For all we know the pad lifted off the board, which broke the trace. He could have burned the board by using a high-wattage soldering iron. He could have destroyed the component with the soldering iron. If he used additional solder he could have accidentally bridged the connection. There are simply too many unknowns here to present an informed opinion.
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Yes we need pictures... It's not a board, it's fully a flat, so hot hair could ruin the flex even if you move it flat to a dashboard, you can't even imagine how easy is to break those flex. More than this with hot air and amoled displays you have to be really careful, those types off display are delicate too. For the fact that it could be able to solder back the component , if he can is ok, but to do a perfect job you must have experience ,the matrix of components on the flex is very tight . It's better to bring it to a technician than try to do something you can't do... It's 10€ Vs a screen replacement of 180. If he has experience , better for him, for me would be an easy job.
You should also consider that the use of the display without the component could ruin. Something else on the motherboard
@Axel85: Just to clarify, I'm not saying he shouldn't bring it to a tech. Just that it isn't necessary to be a tech to do such a repair. I agree that he'd be much better off taking it to a tech, though I think it's too late and the damage has already been done.
Strephon Alkhalikoi said:
@Axel85: Just to clarify, I'm not saying he shouldn't bring it to a tech. Just that it isn't necessary to be a tech to do such a repair. I agree that he'd be much better off taking it to a tech, though I think it's too late and the damage has already been done.
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Yes I understand but I can tell you its harder than you think, you must have a good skills with soldering iron to resolder this component inside this matrix of others.
We need to know more about him and get damaged area pictures to evaluate an answer
@Axel85: Preaching to the choir.
IOW, I agree.
Strephon Alkhalikoi said:
Lots of questions to ask here, so I'm going to just get to it.
1. What is the wattage rating of your soldering iron?
2. Is your soldering iron a pencil type or gun type?
3. How small is the tip?
4. Did you apply any extra solder in attempting your repair?
The wattage of the soldering iron and its type are critically important. Too much heat and you could destroy the component. Also, the damage here could be to the board itself and not the component. When one side lifted from the board it could have pulled up the solder pad the component was sitting on, breaking the trace underneath. What I'd need to see, prior to you doing anything else, is a picture of the actual board you worked on.
My advice? I would get a new screen. The fact of the matter is that you shouldn't have taken a soldering iron to the component as you could easily have burned the board and burned out the component. In such a confined area you could also have accidentally created a solder bridge, which could also cause the issues you're seeing. What you should have used was a heat gun set to 300 degrees celsius. Hold the heat gun one inch above the surface and turn it on, holding it steady for one minute. So long as no traces were broken in the initial mishap, this would allow the solder to liquify and restore the connection between component and board.*
*A heat gun is what I used to repair my Dell Inspiron 15, by applying steady heat to the GPU for a minute. This caused the solder balls making the connection to liquify and restore the connection with the motherboard. Two years later and the laptop still works.
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1. 60 watts the thin soldering iron, 140 watts the gun one , i have other pencil soldering iron of 30 watts
2. I have both
3. I don't have the specifications but is very thin
4. No i just suited the component in his place and put back the yellow tape
5.- The board is all right i also confirmed it (The component i broke is part of the LCD)
6.- I've already posted a link to the image because i can't post links or images yet, there is again : http ://i.imgur.com/h4TemYN. png (just copy and paste in the search bar and delete the blank spaces in the link to see the image)
7.- All right then i will try it
Thank you so much for your advice :good:
@BRMX7: Read the rest of the thread before doing anything.
1. You should be using no more than 30 watts on small electronics. 60 watts for your pencil iron is too hot and will have likely fried the component. I hope you didn't try using the gun on this, which leads to my second question.
2. Which one did you use to make this repair? I hope it wasn't the gun, because you may have done far more damage than you can see.
3. Post a picture.
4. Good. That eliminates the possibility of a solder bridge. Though there may still be damage you can't see, especially to the component itself.
5. How can you confirm it based solely on sight? On the rare occasions where I needed to get up close to the work, I had both a 16x and 20x jeweler's loupe handy (most recently when I was repairing my car remote).
6. According to your post, the image you posted is not of the screen you worked on, but a second screen that was already broken. @Axel85 and I both want to see a picture of the screen you worked on. If what you posted is the screen you worked on, make that clear.
7. See the opening sentence of this post.
Strephon Alkhalikoi said:
@BRMX7: Read the rest of the thread before doing anything.
1. You should be using no more than 30 watts on small electronics. 60 watts for your pencil iron is too hot and will have likely fried the component. I hope you didn't try using the gun on this, which leads to my second question.
2. Which one did you use to make this repair? I hope it wasn't the gun, because you may have done far more damage than you can see.
3. Post a picture.
4. Good. That eliminates the possibility of a solder bridge. Though there may still be damage you can't see, especially to the component itself.
5. How can you confirm it based solely on sight? On the rare occasions where I needed to get up close to the work, I had both a 16x and 20x jeweler's loupe handy (most recently when I was repairing my car remote).
6. According to your post, the image you posted is not of the screen you worked on, but a second screen that was already broken. @Axel85 and I both want to see a picture of the screen you worked on. If what you posted is the screen you worked on, make that clear.
7. See the opening sentence of this post.
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1. Okay i will use it in 30 watts it is a variable welding station
2.I haven't done anything first i asked for advice before doing any repairment on it.
3. i did it (i will post one of the damaged one)( I didn't posted one of the damaged one because i'm using it right now and i haven't my tools at the hand to dissasembly it and take the picture) looks exactly the same than the damaged one because the indicated component in the image is in the same place but just with the right pin detached .
4. I will have care
5-6. I confirmed it using a variable power supply and a multimeter doing various proceedures to know what was the problem, testing if the power consumption was problem of any component or the screen, also checked it with a flir thermal camera of a friend and it was all right in the board.
BRMX7 said:
1. Okay i will use it in 30 watts it is a variable welding station
2.I haven't done anything first i asked for advice before doing any repairment on it.
3. i did it (i will post one of the damaged one)( I didn't posted one of the damaged one because i'm using it right now and i haven't my tools at the hand to dissasembly it and take the picture) looks exactly the same than the damaged one because the indicated component in the image is in the same place but just with the right pin detached .
4. I will have care
5-6. I confirmed it using a variable power supply and a multimeter doing various proceedures to know what was the problem, testing if the power consumption was problem of any component or the screen, also checked it with a flir thermal camera of a friend and it was all right in the board.
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The best way than is to recover the component from the old broken display flex and solder it back in place . If you ripped off the solder pad you can search where it goes with the tester, you just need to expose a little point of the solder pad way ,and then make a bridge
Related
My Alltel Touch Diamond stopped vibrating. Since I did not get it from Alltel directly...they will not replace it even though it is only 3 months old. Contacted HTC as well as PCD and no help there. Is there anyway I can fix this myself?
TIA
Go to eBay and search for 'htc diamond vibrator'. There are around $45. I never use the ringer so not having vibrate mode is killing me too.
possiblility
the ebay "vibrators" for diamond are for the gsm versions, not the cdma. note that they are laid completely differently. here's a pic of cdma (ripped from someone who knows)
ftp://ppcgeeks.com/Diamond/Users/snovvman/DSCF2199.JPG
now, in my case, kind of neat. if you open the case up that far (four screws on inside, that's all), you'll notice that the vibrator motor can be detached from mainboard relatively easy through the two pin (black/red) header. you can test the vibrator motor with like some AAA 1.5V battery or something. in my case it worked, so drats, that means that the driver could be blown.
however, i looked real closely, above the header are discrete components, like a tantalum capacitor (surface mount), super tiny, and something that didn't make sense--a cold solder blob over one land pad (but not the other, ... perhaps there was one at manufacture time and it fell out??)
anyways, htc apparently intended for either an inductor or a short (0 ohm resistor) at that land pattern. sometimes they cheat and just manufacture it as with a blob of solder. in this case part of the blob fell out. hence, no connection to the vibrator motor header.
i put blob in and i was in business.
note that these are super tiny. DO NOT ATTEMPT without sufficient tools (magnifying jig, really fine tip soldering iron)
...
OF COURSE before you do ANY of this, try a hard reset first.
Thanks! I almost wasted $45.
pictures
Could you take some pictures of the areas you soldered? Im also trying to fix mine.
Also, to test the vibrator, did you just take two wires and put it on each end?
Sorry for bringing back to life this old threat but this appear to be a very common issue among diam500 owners and nobody knew what to do apart from swap it (if it still in warranty which by 3rd quarter 2010 i really doubt someone still has it)
i googled around lots of forums and this was the only one with a real answer surprisingly this was also the one with the less replies... i confirm what chnhnm said THERE IS A 0 OHM RESISTOR THAT FELL OFF(perhaps caused by the vibration itself and real poor quality soldering from htc in this specific resistor) when i gutted my diamond the resistor was still there sticked to the vibrating motor connector in the mainboard i tested it with a multimeter and confirmed it is a "0 ohm one" real tiny color black)
once again as chnhnm said i just put blob in and it worked like a charm
so there is a relatively easy fix here (if u have the tools and some soldering skills) i strongly recommend you to try this as your last resort
will post some pics later
im uploading a picture of it before i applied the blob (the resistor is missing) this is the best one i could get i hope u cant see it
elamodelmerol said:
im uploading a picture of it before i applied the blob (the resistor is missing) this is the best one i could get i hope u cant see it
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Thank you for this! I will do this soon when I get a soldering iron.
Ok, I tried doing this, but it is hard to solder it. Everytime I try to put the blob there, the solder attaches to the iron and doesn't stick to the connection on the board.
Can I get some help on how to keep it on the connection instead of melting and sticking to my iron?
sorry for the late reply...
well i don't really know how to solder either but i have learnt something by just giving it a try(and a few youtube videos xD) ...this is how i did it.
first off make sure the surface is clean wipe it if needed with acetone(don't flood the board) and a cotton swab (that will remove the grease and dirt it may have)
be careful not to apply to much solder on the iron tip...just use a little bit more almost nothing than the needed to coat the tip...
do not overheat ur iron that will cause the metal to oxidize quicker (oxide prevent the metals from joining) unplug the iron as soon as it is hot enough to melt the solder
use some soldering flux be careful not to add too much just enough to cover that tiny area (u can use a needle) this cleans even more the area and prevents the metal oxidation
now u just need a steady hand and eagle like vision
even after following this directions i still find it hard to achieve for a noob like me maybe i just got lucky...xD
if you are out of luck maybe u can buy one of this conductive ink pens and that way u just have to draw fine line or should i say a dot. Or u can try using a pencil (graphite is a relative good conductor) but that didn't work for me...
Good Luck Mate
I damaged my Capacitive buttons (flex circuit).
Can anyone recommend where to get a replacement part?
Lol. I did the same thing. Ladies and gentlemen please wait for the plastic tool to arrive in the mail before you start trying to disassemble your streak! I used a screwdriver and it cut through the flexible circuit card. Contemplated fixing it, but there`s five tracks on the circuit board!
I got a quote from an ebay seller in the UK for the capacitive buttons and plastic bezel. 90 pounds plust postage. What a rip off! I ended up buying a complete streak from ebay. It was locked to O2 and had the lcd bleeding problem, but perfect for me. Keep your eye out.
In the meantime, install softkeys from the market. It is a replacement home/settings/back button. A little inconvenient, but keeps you going while you bide your time on evilbay.
Sent from my Dell Streak using XDA App
printed circuits
My first streak also has a broken capacitive circuit board, didn't use this plastic tool for disassembling..
Now i use a old modified tooth brush
Was ready to ask a flexible board manufacturer what it would cost to reproduce such a circuit but for now i'm also using softkeys..
Maybe if we get 100 people together who needs one of those capacitive button circuits its worth asking a reproduction?
Thanks for the inputs. I got the key to work again after some fiddling. I'm just waiting for it to inevitably fail. I'll probably just get a new phone when that happens.
how do you get it broken? not that i wanted too, but it sound strange to me
Sent from my Dell Streak using XDA App
Pretty easy... First time pulling it apart, had not seen any videos of the process. Fixit. Com (OR IFIXIT?) wasn't that comprehensive. Of course I was overtired and of course used a small screwdriver instead of a plastic removal tool.
Excuses, excuses. The screwdriver ultimately was the wrong thing.
Sent from my Dell Streak using XDA App
Does anyone know where i can buy the Streak front 4 buttons and volume rocker buttons ribbons ?
http://www.dellstreakrepairs.co.uk/spares.html
I broke my capacitive button ribbon cable, anyone have any luck finding replacements? I'm going to try to repair it.
Wheeew, just finished repairing my broken cap buttons. Most nerve-wracking soldering job ever.
I managed to tear through 5 contacts on the flex PCB when disassembling the Streak because I didn't bother to read the obvious warning about this on ifixit Also, I was taking the week-old device apart for no good reason, so I had it bloody coming, really. Anyway, even with a high-quality soldering iron and a stereomicroscope this repair was a massive pain, but it is doable.
I think it should be possible to repair even a completely broken ribbon - I would scrape off the plastic off the ends of the tracks and then glue the underside of both halves of the circuit in place (or tape together if not possible). Then you need to tin the tracks with solder - plenty of flux helps. After that it's the difficult matter of bridging the broken tracks with solder blobs or tiny pieces of wire while not shorting across them. Finally a layer of epoxy to secure it all. Not even worth attempting if you don't have a really good soldering iron and a microscope. Can't use too high a temperature or the plastic melts. I did the repair with the phone assembled fully except for the bottom panel, flex PCB attached to phone - the broken area was still accessible for me and this way reduces the risk of breaking contacts during reassembly.
Hope this helps someone!
Posted in error
is it available now . coz i searched all through the internet and couldnt find the home and back buttons strip .
DashingGentleman said:
Wheeew, just finished repairing my broken cap buttons. Most nerve-wracking soldering job ever.
I managed to tear through 5 contacts on the flex PCB when disassembling the Streak because I didn't bother to read the obvious warning about this on ifixit Also, I was taking the week-old device apart for no good reason, so I had it bloody coming, really. Anyway, even with a high-quality soldering iron and a stereomicroscope this repair was a massive pain, but it is doable.
I think it should be possible to repair even a completely broken ribbon - I would scrape off the plastic off the ends of the tracks and then glue the underside of both halves of the circuit in place (or tape together if not possible). Then you need to tin the tracks with solder - plenty of flux helps. After that it's the difficult matter of bridging the broken tracks with solder blobs or tiny pieces of wire while not shorting across them. Finally a layer of epoxy to secure it all. Not even worth attempting if you don't have a really good soldering iron and a microscope. Can't use too high a temperature or the plastic melts. I did the repair with the phone assembled fully except for the bottom panel, flex PCB attached to phone - the broken area was still accessible for me and this way reduces the risk of breaking contacts during reassembly.
Hope this helps someone!
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I think I may attempt this...$40usd for a new assembly is a bit high...
You can find the top/bottom parts on Ebay and on Lingosbox.com
I've purchased some spare parts for other phones on lingosbox - they are not genuine oem parts but for this price, it's a bargain for replacement parts that are rare/difficult to find. There's some delay(15-27days) but everything has arrived without any problem.
good to know someone found it cheaper
anyone's phone last until now without charging port problems, or anyone changed their port and does the problems return? I'm considering if it is worth to replace the port
I have exactly the same question.
xdaxdap said:
I have exactly the same question.
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end up selling the device as the charging port i bought from aliexpress got no stock and grab myself a lenovo legion y70
The charge port issue isn't actually the charge port, but somewhere on the main board. I've tried fixing close to a dozen boot looping on charger RP2's in the last year or 2, and didn't matter if it was a charge port out of a working one, it still had the issue after swapping
TechX1991 said:
The charge port issue isn't actually the charge port, but somewhere on the main board. I've tried fixing close to a dozen boot looping on charger RP2's in the last year or 2, and didn't matter if it was a charge port out of a working one, it still had the issue after swapping
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what more is needed to discover the flaw? im holding onto my first razer phone 2 because i still believe and i choose to believe anything can be fixed one way or another
Titanricky8 said:
what more is needed to discover the flaw? im holding onto my first razer phone 2 because i still believe and i choose to believe anything can be fixed one way or another
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Gotta figure out what and where the issue lies on the main board. What tiny component is going bad causing it to not charge
TechX1991 said:
Gotta figure out what and where the issue lies on the main board. What tiny component is going bad causing it to not charge
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i assume its like finding a needle in a haystack furthermore different for each phone
Titanricky8 said:
i assume its like finding a needle in a haystack furthermore different for each phone
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Not exactly. If you have a thermal camera, you could hook up the phone with the back off and look for the component that's gettin hotter than everything else
I have a Razer Phone 2 that I'm refurbing for a client, and the USB-C port was in bad shape, so not only no data transfer, but she could only be charged via wireless. No worries though, at least in the case of this specific Razer 2, the problem was the flex cable that attaches the female type-c pin housing to the daughter-board. My theory, again, at least for this specific Razer 2, is because the 2 screws securing the port had come loose, the port was not secured, and was driven deeper inside the chassis when the owner went to plug it in. Since said flex is pretty wimpy, the movement back and forth probably fatigued the traces and the coating of the ribbon, more than likely damaging/breaking several traces.
My solution ended up being similar to the 2017 Retina MacBook Pro ‘Flexgate’ issue, where a very poor design choice created an LCD flex that had a spring/tension/rolling mechanism, which would pull out/extended the flex cable to accommodate the MB being opened, and retract to its resting position when closed. Unfortunately, the short length of the flex, along with a lack of robustness, meant that every opening and closing caused more and more fatigue, and eventually traces became severed and/or shorted out. This manifests as a 'stage light effect' that gets worse the further you open the lid, or in some cases, the 'stage light' effect is absent, however opening the lid past ~45 degrees causes the screen to shut off.
Apple did correct this the following year by replacing the flex with one 6mm longer that was more rigid than the previous year’s problematic flex. However, before the replacements were available (the 6mm extended flex worked a treat to fix the 2017’s issues, and it saved SO MUCH MONEY! A $10 flex cable as opposed to a ~$500 top housing assembly! So a $150 repair, as it is kinda labor intensive, not to mention if you’re not careful you’ll damage the LCD while removing it), a solution was needed to prevent clients from having to pay the ~$500 for a new display (which, OF CORSE, Apple refused to sell the LCD panel by itself (which are made by 2 suppliers, LG Display & Samsung Display, and Apple’s manufacturing contracts prevent both companies from selling any panels as replacement parts. Sometimes they’ll be a few here and there, but it’s rare), forcing people to buy the entire top case, which, of corse, STILL HAD THE PROBLEMATIC FLEX CABLE, meaning that the replacements would also eventually fail.
The solution to both the Razer 2 & 2017 MBP Retina's flex woes is to cut the offending flex just below where the fatigue is visible, or in the case of my client's Razer 2, where a visible kink was. Since the flex has 2mm or so of slack, you can then scrape (or VERY CAREFULLY use a fine tip soldering iron) to expose the tips of the traces, and using nanowire, bridge the two halves together with low-temp solder after aligning and stacking them, with one overlapping by ~0.25mm. Shielded nanowire isn't a common thing most people who don't do repair have laying around, so a workaround is to use twisted copper wire, which you then can un-twist, giving you very thin strands that are perfect for this. Just MAKE SURE THAT YOU EITHER APPLY SOME LIQUID ELECTRICAL TAPE OR UV CURABLE LIQUID INSULATION, since the strands wont be individually insulated or shielded. You should do this regardless of the type of nanowire you use, not only to prevent potential shorts, but also to reinforce the flex just in case it gets moved around again. This will make it more resistant to kinking up and/or breaking if it does experience any movement/bending. Louis Rossman of Rossman Repair Group has a great video that goes through the flex bridge technique in extreme detail.
One more interesting thing. I originally had ordered a replacement daughter-board/USB-C port from a 3rd party that I knew was used, but worth a shot. Unfortunately, it took about 2 months to arrive, so I got impatient and did the flex repair described above. After it eventually arrived, I installed it to see if it worked but found it was also defective . . but for a different reason than the one in my client's Razer 2. The control chip on the board (a 40-pin QFP, pin arrangement=12x8x12x8) needed to be removed, cleaned, and reinstalled, and voila, she lived again! I noticed some people saying their device was really hot by the port, and bad solder joints can create poor connections to their respective pads, and poor connections can cause increased resistance, which creates heat. Also, I think that specific charger control chip also has a pass-through for the mic that's on the board, so if your port AND mic are both not working or working intermittently, that might be the cause. I could be mistaken about the pass-through, I need to look at the data sheet again, as it's been a minute since I worked on said Razer 2, as the owner was out of the country for months on business. I actually finished refurbing it about 6 months or so ago.
I recorded the entire process, replacing the display assembly, battery, removing the old (and IMHO inferior) thermal putty and replacing it with Thermal Grizzly’s Kryonaut (reducing thermals by ~10C under load), and have EXTREMELY DETAILED footage of the repair from my USB microscope. I've been kinda lazy with editing it, but I just finished editing another refurb (an EVGA 660 Ti SC that needed a complete refurb, along with replacing 2 cooked MOSFETs. It has sentimental value to the owner, so yeah, a VERY COOL GPU that’s back at 100%), so I'm gonna start on the Razer 2 refurb video tomorrow. I’ll post a link here as soon as I upload it to YT and it’s published.
BTW, the fact that the charge ports are so hard to find new is kinda strange, and maybe suggest a much smaller production run of the Razer 2 than I had originally presumed. I repair devices every day, and my parts distributor can usually get ANYTHING, the guy and his business are amazing. He was able to get me an OEM display assembly and a brand-new sealed replacement OEM battery no problem. When it came to the charge port though, he couldn't find any new units, which is strange, especially since the battery was available as a newer, sealed replacement part. Charge ports and batteries are parts that usually get an additional limited production run for replacement part/repair purposes, since batteries will definitely need to be replaced after a few years, and charge ports USUALLY need to be replaced, unless a person is EXTREMELY GENTLE when they plug & unplug their devices. Unfortunately, all I've been able to find for charge port & mic daughter-boards are pulls from devices, and ya never know what a part has been through when it's not new.
Anyway, the guy who owns the Razer 2 just got back from the UK. and asked me to flash TWRP, LineageOS, etc., and when I opened the Razer 2 forum home page, this was the first thread I saw.
Hopefully this info can help someone out. Maybe someone can get something out of my experience with this specific device and part. And as I mentioned above, as soon as I post the refurb video on YT I'll post a link here. I think that’ll help out, if not because of the same issue, then maybe it can help rule out the issues I ran into.
Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk.
Need4Sneed said:
I have a Razer Phone 2 that I'm refurbing for a client, and the USB-C port was in bad shape, so not only no data transfer, but she could only be charged via wireless. No worries though, at least in the case of this specific Razer 2, the problem was the flex cable that attaches the female type-c pin housing to the daughter-board. My theory, again, at least for this specific Razer 2, is because the 2 screws securing the port had come loose, the port was not secured, and was driven deeper inside the chassis when the owner went to plug it in. Since said flex is pretty wimpy, the movement back and forth probably fatigued the traces and the coating of the ribbon, more than likely damaging/breaking several traces.
My solution ended up being similar to the 2017 Retina MacBook Pro ‘Flexgate’ issue, where a very poor design choice created an LCD flex that had a spring/tension/rolling mechanism, which would pull out/extended the flex cable to accommodate the MB being opened, and retract to its resting position when closed. Unfortunately, the short length of the flex, along with a lack of robustness, meant that every opening and closing caused more and more fatigue, and eventually traces became severed and/or shorted out. This manifests as a 'stage light effect' that gets worse the further you open the lid, or in some cases, the 'stage light' effect is absent, however opening the lid past ~45 degrees causes the screen to shut off.
Apple did correct this the following year by replacing the flex with one 6mm longer that was more rigid than the previous year’s problematic flex. However, before the replacements were available (the 6mm extended flex worked a treat to fix the 2017’s issues, and it saved SO MUCH MONEY! A $10 flex cable as opposed to a ~$500 top housing assembly! So a $150 repair, as it is kinda labor intensive, not to mention if you’re not careful you’ll damage the LCD while removing it), a solution was needed to prevent clients from having to pay the ~$500 for a new display (which, OF CORSE, Apple refused to sell the LCD panel by itself (which are made by 2 suppliers, LG Display & Samsung Display, and Apple’s manufacturing contracts prevent both companies from selling any panels as replacement parts. Sometimes they’ll be a few here and there, but it’s rare), forcing people to buy the entire top case, which, of corse, STILL HAD THE PROBLEMATIC FLEX CABLE, meaning that the replacements would also eventually fail.
The solution to both the Razer 2 & 2017 MBP Retina's flex woes is to cut the offending flex just below where the fatigue is visible, or in the case of my client's Razer 2, where a visible kink was. Since the flex has 2mm or so of slack, you can then scrape (or VERY CAREFULLY use a fine tip soldering iron) to expose the tips of the traces, and using nanowire, bridge the two halves together with low-temp solder after aligning and stacking them, with one overlapping by ~0.25mm. Shielded nanowire isn't a common thing most people who don't do repair have laying around, so a workaround is to use twisted copper wire, which you then can un-twist, giving you very thin strands that are perfect for this. Just MAKE SURE THAT YOU EITHER APPLY SOME LIQUID ELECTRICAL TAPE OR UV CURABLE LIQUID INSULATION, since the strands wont be individually insulated or shielded. You should do this regardless of the type of nanowire you use, not only to prevent potential shorts, but also to reinforce the flex just in case it gets moved around again. This will make it more resistant to kinking up and/or breaking if it does experience any movement/bending. Louis Rossman of Rossman Repair Group has a great video that goes through the flex bridge technique in extreme detail.
One more interesting thing. I originally had ordered a replacement daughter-board/USB-C port from a 3rd party that I knew was used, but worth a shot. Unfortunately, it took about 2 months to arrive, so I got impatient and did the flex repair described above. After it eventually arrived, I installed it to see if it worked but found it was also defective . . but for a different reason than the one in my client's Razer 2. The control chip on the board (a 40-pin QFP, pin arrangement=12x8x12x8) needed to be removed, cleaned, and reinstalled, and voila, she lived again! I noticed some people saying their device was really hot by the port, and bad solder joints can create poor connections to their respective pads, and poor connections can cause increased resistance, which creates heat. Also, I think that specific charger control chip also has a pass-through for the mic that's on the board, so if your port AND mic are both not working or working intermittently, that might be the cause. I could be mistaken about the pass-through, I need to look at the data sheet again, as it's been a minute since I worked on said Razer 2, as the owner was out of the country for months on business. I actually finished refurbing it about 6 months or so ago.
I recorded the entire process, replacing the display assembly, battery, removing the old (and IMHO inferior) thermal putty and replacing it with Thermal Grizzly’s Kryonaut (reducing thermals by ~10C under load), and have EXTREMELY DETAILED footage of the repair from my USB microscope. I've been kinda lazy with editing it, but I just finished editing another refurb (an EVGA 660 Ti SC that needed a complete refurb, along with replacing 2 cooked MOSFETs. It has sentimental value to the owner, so yeah, a VERY COOL GPU that’s back at 100%), so I'm gonna start on the Razer 2 refurb video tomorrow. I’ll post a link here as soon as I upload it to YT and it’s published.
BTW, the fact that the charge ports are so hard to find new is kinda strange, and maybe suggest a much smaller production run of the Razer 2 than I had originally presumed. I repair devices every day, and my parts distributor can usually get ANYTHING, the guy and his business are amazing. He was able to get me an OEM display assembly and a brand-new sealed replacement OEM battery no problem. When it came to the charge port though, he couldn't find any new units, which is strange, especially since the battery was available as a newer, sealed replacement part. Charge ports and batteries are parts that usually get an additional limited production run for replacement part/repair purposes, since batteries will definitely need to be replaced after a few years, and charge ports USUALLY need to be replaced, unless a person is EXTREMELY GENTLE when they plug & unplug their devices. Unfortunately, all I've been able to find for charge port & mic daughter-boards are pulls from devices, and ya never know what a part has been through when it's not new.
Anyway, the guy who owns the Razer 2 just got back from the UK. and asked me to flash TWRP, LineageOS, etc., and when I opened the Razer 2 forum home page, this was the first thread I saw.
Hopefully this info can help someone out. Maybe someone can get something out of my experience with this specific device and part. And as I mentioned above, as soon as I post the refurb video on YT I'll post a link here. I think that’ll help out, if not because of the same issue, then maybe it can help rule out the issues I ran into.
Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk.
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NIce so what your saying is spare phone is the way to go unless you can bridge a flex cable. You think working ones ought to re-enforce the working cable? If so clear resin a conformal coating like what did you use tape to harden the cable? Still use mine from time to time and have done lets say a few rebuilds to make it extra pretty.
Hi all,
I want to start giving the old smartphones that keep accumulating in our family a second life - which primarily means replacing aged batteries.
I actually want to use my S7 as a bike computer with the Komoot app, but decided to get some practice on my wife's old S6 Edge, which conveniently partially disassembled itself (bloated battery had opened the back cover).
So I got myself a spare battery and proceeded with the disassembly. Disconnecting all connectors, replacing the battery, reconnecting everything, and putting back the 13 screws that connect the frame to the display all worked ok, and the device would start up.
Alas, there are now a few glitches:
- the device feels quite slow (at least according to my wife... but maybe that is just subjective, now being used to much more modern devices)
- the device gets really warm (primarily on the middle of the right side, i.e. where the main board is located), even without any apps running, the battery also drains quite fast
- the left touch button (which on this device brings up the "task manager"/"app switcher") does not work. The right touch button ("back") works ok, as does the home button.
Everything else seems to work fine.
I disassembled everything twice, cleaned all connectors with alcohol, reassembled, same result. All connectors appear to be properly connected.
Any idea what could have gone wrong?
Needless to say, with that not-so-great result of my first repair attempts, I hesitate to work on anything more valuable than the S6...
Any hints welcome.
Regards
G
Welcome to XDA.
A connector pin may have been be damaged, inspect.
Do a factory reset and see what you got.
If that fails the mobo may have been damaged. Out of circuit they are suspectable to ESD damage. ESD protocols should be followed when doing repairs. At the very least raised the RH to 50% in the room.
Grummbeerbauer said:
Hi all,
(bloated battery had opened the back cover).
G
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It may not be your fault
The battery on my S7 swelled up a bit, so I got a new battery fitted, the shop had problems with the phone overheating so needed further testing. They had to replace the charging chip due to the battery swelling.
blackhawk said:
Welcome to XDA.
A connector pin may have been be damaged, inspect.
Do a factory reset and see what you got.
If that fails the mobo may have been damaged. Out of circuit they are suspectable to ESD damage. ESD protocols should be followed when doing repairs. At the very least raised the RH to 50% in the room.
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Click to collapse
I was doing this on an ESD-safe matt, so that should be fine. Visually, the connectors are ok... but considering how small they are, I would probably need to check with a microscope (which I don't have... but I could try my macro lens.
There are two cable connectors with only two pins each (look a bit like mini koax connectors). The connect the charging board which also has the electronics for the touch buttons to the mobo. One appeared to have been squeezed, probably by the bloated battery. So I measured conductivity with a volt meter, they measured ok.
I guess I will write the device off... not worth to invest in more spare parts.
The S7, which I still like a lot , is a different thing. Would hate to break this, but the battery is nearly dead and might bloat anyway sooner or later. So on to the next test subject for my repair skills. ;-)
Grummbeerbauer said:
I was doing this on an ESD-safe matt, so that should be fine. Visually, the connectors are ok... but considering how small they are, I would probably need to check with a microscope (which I don't have... but I could try my macro lens.
There are two cable connectors with only two pins each (look a bit like mini koax connectors). The connect the charging board which also has the electronics for the touch buttons to the mobo. One appeared to have been squeezed, probably by the bloated battery. So I measured conductivity with a volt meter, they measured ok.
I guess I will write the device off... not worth to invest in more spare parts.
The S7, which I still like a lot , is a different thing. Would hate to break this, but the battery is nearly dead and might bloat anyway sooner or later. So on to the next test subject for my repair skills. ;-)
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Wear a wrist strap and make sure the room isn't dry. Wear cotton clothes. Static electricity is omnipresent. Nonconductive plastics are can build up a charge, even paper. Keeping the relative humidity above 40% is very important; just boil some water in the room if needed.
2-3x stereo magnification Optivisor probably do it. Very handy for detailed work.
Anyone know if the motherboard failure cause has been discovered on the Pixel 5/5a?
I'm willing to open the phone up and see what DIY solution I can get to repair my Pixel 5a. It will not boot and only outputs the QUSB device message through USB (I'm assuming stuck EDL mode).
It would be nice to know what causes the problem before digging in blindly.
The only thing I can imagine from my own technical knowledge would be possible manufacturing defects, similar to the RROD on the Xbox 360. I've never had a problem with my Pixel 5, but my wife's 5a suddenly froze one day with the same result as you. We ended up having the motherboard replaced under warranty.
If you're especially enterprising you can try disassembling the device and very carefully reflowing the solder with a heat gun...but this is assuming it's a hardware problem. There's a possibility of a SoC problem that randomly corrupts certain parts of memory, resulting in a failed bootloader, but troubleshooting this would be at the level of Qualcomm internal engineering - and Qualcomm/OEMs don't even fix stuff like this, they just replace the board and call it a day.
I'm curious as to why this happens as well. My 5a is still working, but it's only a matter of time.
I hypothesize the 5a suffers from a similar issue that the LG G4 had, overheating and/or poor quality solder. I still have a G4 and throwing it in a oven for a bit usually fixes it for long enough so I could migrate.
V0latyle said:
The only thing I can imagine from my own technical knowledge would be possible manufacturing defects, similar to the RROD on the Xbox 360. I've never had a problem with my Pixel 5, but my wife's 5a suddenly froze one day with the same result as you. We ended up having the motherboard replaced under warranty.
If you're especially enterprising you can try disassembling the device and very carefully reflowing the solder with a heat gun...but this is assuming it's a hardware problem. There's a possibility of a SoC problem that randomly corrupts certain parts of memory, resulting in a failed bootloader, but troubleshooting this would be at the level of Qualcomm internal engineering - and Qualcomm/OEMs don't even fix stuff like this, they just replace the board and call it a day.
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I've been able to randomly boot the phone twice using the power + vol up + vol down combination, but I cannot get it to work again. The fact that I was able to get the phone boot at all when it was in this state makes me think it isn't a corrupt software/bootloader, but something hardware related.
I was hoping to avoid having to reflow the whole motherboard. I don't want to accidently cause other damage. But if it must be done, I may have to resort to that.
The main reason for this endeavor is the need to get important un-backed up data of the phone. I know I should have had it backed up, but I would never expect a phone to just crap out like this.
MikeDev101 said:
I'm curious as to why this happens as well. My 5a is still working, but it's only a matter of time.
I hypothesize the 5a suffers from a similar issue that the LG G4 had, overheating and/or poor quality solder. I still have a G4 and throwing it in a oven for a bit usually fixes it for long enough so I could migrate.
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Could you explain more about the process you used for the G4 and the oven? How long, what temps, etc...?
paulgiro said:
Could you explain more about the process you used for the G4 and the oven? How long, what temps, etc...?
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I extracted the motherboard, put it on a wax cooking sheet in a pan, put it in the oven preheated to at least 360F (it's been forever so I don't recall the exact temp). I left it to reflow for like 10 minutes, and put it out to cool for half an hour. Re-assembled it and powered it on with it laying on a ice pack wrapped in a small cloth to keep it cool and minimalize condensation while I recovered data. YMMV.
MikeDev101 said:
I extracted the motherboard, put it on a wax cooking sheet in a pan, put it in the oven preheated to at least 360F (it's been forever so I don't recall the exact temp). I left it to reflow for like 10 minutes, and put it out to cool for half an hour. Re-assembled it and powered it on with it laying on a ice pack wrapped in a small cloth to keep it cool and minimalize condensation while I recovered data. YMMV.
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Thanks! This sounds more promising than me attempting fine precision heat gun maneuvers.
Were there components on both sides of the motherboard? Is there a risk of something falling off the bottom when in the oven?
paulgiro said:
Thanks! This sounds more promising than me attempting fine precision heat gun maneuvers.
Were there components on both sides of the motherboard? Is there a risk of something falling off the bottom when in the oven?
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On the G4, most of it is covered by a metal shield that doubles as a heatsink for some components (I modded my G4 to have cooling pads on the SoC and wireless chips post-reflow, as well as modifying the chassis of the phone to act as one giant heatsink).
As long as it stays relatively still, it should be fine. I'm judging that based on the fact that my oven has a small recirculating fan inside, so as long as that's turned low or off, it should be ok.
I recommend not touching it after reflow for like 5 minutes so the solder can cool down enough to harden before putting it out to return to room temp. Being too hasty could accidentally disconnect a component or two.
Edit: Yes, there was components on both sides. The 5/5a should be a very similar story. Of course, I recommend keeping a close eye on the motherboard, I would hate for you to accidentally cook it.
MikeDev101 said:
On the G4, most of it is covered by a metal shield that doubles as a heatsink for some components (I modded my G4 to have cooling pads on the SoC and wireless chips post-reflow, as well as modifying the chassis of the phone to act as one giant heatsink).
As long as it stays relatively still, it should be fine. I'm judging that based on the fact that my oven has a small recirculating fan inside, so as long as that's turned low or off, it should be ok.
I recommend not touching it after reflow for like 5 minutes so the solder can cool down enough to harden before putting it out to return to room temp. Being too hasty could accidentally disconnect a component or two.
Edit: Yes, there was components on both sides. The 5/5a should be a very similar story. Of course, I recommend keeping a close eye on the motherboard, I would hate for you to accidentally cook it.
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Thanks for all the detail! I really appreciate it!
I wouldn't actively cool the board if you try the oven method. Just turn the oven off and let it cool down by itself in the oven. Using ice or cold air is a good way to thermally stress the board to the point where it might fracture, and with the extremely fine pitch components, that would be fatal.
MikeDev101 said:
On the G4, most of it is covered by a metal shield that doubles as a heatsink for some components (I modded my G4 to have cooling pads on the SoC and wireless chips post-reflow, as well as modifying the chassis of the phone to act as one giant heatsink).
As long as it stays relatively still, it should be fine. I'm judging that based on the fact that my oven has a small recirculating fan inside, so as long as that's turned low or off, it should be ok.
I recommend not touching it after reflow for like 5 minutes so the solder can cool down enough to harden before putting it out to return to room temp. Being too hasty could accidentally disconnect a component or two.
Edit: Yes, there was components on both sides. The 5/5a should be a very similar story. Of course, I recommend keeping a close eye on the motherboard, I would hate for you to accidentally cook it.
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Should I remove the metal plates and heat pads if any when I got to do this over the weekend? Or will those all be ok still on the motherboard?
Mine gone into a boot loop while I was doing an nearby share. It was a tv series and files were bit big.
I think it was due to corrupted memory as v0latyle mentioned.
Couldn't find any solution yet.
sampathjanitha said:
Mine gone into a boot loop while I was doing an nearby share. It was a tv series and files were bit big.
I think it was due to corrupted memory as v0latyle mentioned.
Couldn't find any solution yet.
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I hope it's not corrupted memory and a physical issue. Since I am able to randomly get it to boot and turn on for about 5 mins (about 1 in 100 tries), I don't believe it's a software issue.
I still need to try reflowing the solder on the board and hope that it's a loose memory chip or something.
paulgiro said:
I hope it's not corrupted memory and a physical issue. Since I am able to randomly get it to boot and turn on for about 5 mins (about 1 in 100 tries), I don't believe it's a software issue.
I still need to try reflowing the solder on the board and hope that it's a loose memory chip or something.
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Have you tried it and got any results?
sampathjanitha said:
Have you tried it and got any results?
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Still haven't tried yet. It's been difficult finding time with the baby not being predictable these last few weeks. I have gotten the phone screen off, but haven't gotten to the motherboard yet.
paulgiro said:
Still haven't tried yet. It's been difficult finding time with the baby not being predictable these last few weeks. I have gotten the phone screen off, but haven't gotten to the motherboard yet.
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Plz give us an update once you were able to test it.
I have brought back my phone from the repair shop,
They have re flashed the eeprom, but there's no luck.
Still getting into stuck at Google image.
sampathjanitha said:
Plz give us an update once you were able to test it.
I have brought back my phone from the repair shop,
They have re flashed the eeprom, but there's no luck.
Still getting into stuck at Google image.
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Bad news. Tried reflowing the motherboard tonight. Baked in the oven at 390F (200C) for 10 minutes. I could smell the flux/solder when it was baking, so I assume it was at a good temperature for reflow. Put it all back together and still no boot. Can still get the QUSB device over USB though, so I didn't cook it too much.
I'm at a loss now unless someone has any other ideas. I really just need to get the files off pf the device.
paulgiro said:
Bad news. Tried reflowing the motherboard tonight. Baked in the oven at 390F (200C) for 10 minutes. I could smell the flux/solder when it was baking, so I assume it was at a good temperature for reflow. Put it all back together and still no boot. Can still get the QUSB device over USB though, so I didn't cook it too much.
I'm at a loss now unless someone has any other ideas. I really just need to get the files off pf the device.
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So the oven method does not work on this device.
Seems like it doesn't. I also took off the heatsink/covers on the chips and inspected for any burnt looking parts. I didn't see anything conspicuous either.