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[Dragonfly DIY] Phone fiddling
Feb. 21st, 2016 09:35 pmOver the last 3 weeks or so I have been battling what I thought was an Android issue on my LG Nexus 5, where the speaker on the phone would not always work. Long story short, after about 10 reboots and 2 factory resets, I found that it was actually a hardware issue. Pressing firmly on the back of the phone would make the speakers start working.
I opened the back of the phone (which is relatively easy) and cleaned the contacts. This seemed to make the speaker happier but left the vibration motor unhappy. I opened it again, stretched the spring contacts for the motor a bit, that fixed that but later I found that wireless charging wasn't working. This evening I opened it up again, carefully cleaned ALL the connectors, used an exacto knife under magnification to ensure that ALL of the spring contacts were fully as strong as they could be, then ressembled. At this point it seems like everything is working correctly.
I was thinking about getting a new back for it since the retention clips get worn when you open it, but the available backs do not have any of the electronics on them, they must be transferred, and there are I think 4 stick-on antennas and a large wireless charger pad, so this is a bit intimidating to get them all cleanly unstuck and re-stuck. I'll leave it for now and hope for the best.
It was interesting to open the phone. I'm not happy with any phone that comes with a "non-replaceable" battery, but at least I found that this battery is actually very easy to replace and is available for $10, so if the phone lasts another few years I can drop a new battery in pretty easily.
I opened the back of the phone (which is relatively easy) and cleaned the contacts. This seemed to make the speaker happier but left the vibration motor unhappy. I opened it again, stretched the spring contacts for the motor a bit, that fixed that but later I found that wireless charging wasn't working. This evening I opened it up again, carefully cleaned ALL the connectors, used an exacto knife under magnification to ensure that ALL of the spring contacts were fully as strong as they could be, then ressembled. At this point it seems like everything is working correctly.
I was thinking about getting a new back for it since the retention clips get worn when you open it, but the available backs do not have any of the electronics on them, they must be transferred, and there are I think 4 stick-on antennas and a large wireless charger pad, so this is a bit intimidating to get them all cleanly unstuck and re-stuck. I'll leave it for now and hope for the best.
It was interesting to open the phone. I'm not happy with any phone that comes with a "non-replaceable" battery, but at least I found that this battery is actually very easy to replace and is available for $10, so if the phone lasts another few years I can drop a new battery in pretty easily.
