Database Users

Here's the Shift disassembly guide

So I has some free time and the shift was laying around...
Anyway let's get down to business.
The first part of the guide will cover the basic disassembly tips you maybe need in order to open up the casing and maybe upgrade something.
You will need a T6 screwdriver. That's all..but if you want to disassemble the display you will also need a T5.
1 Start by removing the battery, stylus, any card, sim or whatever is attached onto your device.
2 The shift's screws location is shown here.
3 You will need to remove the 3 rubber caps in order to expose the upper screws. First I thought the middle one is a connector to an external antenna. Nope, it's a screw hole.
4 After you're done with the screws you will need to remove the keyboard in order to have acces to another screw underneath it. I've found out that removing the keyboard is a bit tricky. There are no screws holding it, you simply must pull it off. Carefull not to bend it too much and begin with the upper part.
5. Underneath the keyboard you will have to remove this screw and the ribbon like cable that connects the keyboard. In order to do this, pull upwards the white blocker (shown with the green arrow) then pull off the ribbon cable (red arrow).
6. Next comes the first ugly part. You should remove the back cover on your shift in order to expose it's motherboard. Begin by placing your fingernail on the right bottom corner (or the left - you choose) and go along all the cassing in order to separate the 2 pieces of casing. You may hear a lot of ugly noises, cracks and so on... it's pretty normal, just don't abuse the casing too much. By the way, keep the shift in "laptop" mode while you do this.
7. After you remove the back cover you should see something like this.

Carefull with the hard disk. There aren't any screws fixing it to the motherboard. It's simply ...placed there, the back cover will fix it back to it's position. Don't tilt the device or the hard disk may fall and could damage the connector cable (orange ribbon). Around the hard drive you may see a black rubber insertion that protects it from certain shocks.
I've heard some of you guys asking about the dimensions inside and the possibility to replace this hard drive with another one, more thicker. THERE IS SPACE INSIDE TO DO THAT.
The silver corner and the whole sides of the rubber casing is about 2-3 mm thick in the upper portion and just about the same underneath the hard disk. It's kind of soft thus you may insert a larger hard drive without problems.
(Someone asked about a 2.5 drive replacement into the shift -- NO way dude)
8 Next you will need to remove the aluminium radiator and the fan.
You have to remove the following screws:
Note that the far right screw is somewhere deeper and you may need to move the hard-drive a little to get acces to it.
9 After you remove the aluminium heatsync you should see something like this. If you want to remove the motherboard from the chassis you should also remove the marked screw.

You may remove the ram board but carefull. It seems pretty stuck in there you will need to use some force. Here's a photo with mine removed. The metallic piece in the lower part of the picture is the card reader's casing. The card reader is made by Panasonic.
In order to remove the card reader first unscrew it (it's the last screw i was talking about 2 pictures ago). There is a ribbon connecting it to the mainboard.
here is the card reader removed:
and here is it's ribbon connector:

Here is the GPS antenna. YEP it is here. I've seen simillar antennas on bluetooth GPS mouses. This one is properly connected and seems to be powered. HTC had some GPS in mind when it designed the Shift.
10 In order to continue the disassembly you must remove 2 screws located somewhere around this area. They are under the ribbon cable connecting the hard drive to the motherboard.
Be carefull around that area. The shift's motherboard is made of 2 pieces, apparently one for the x86 side (intel processor, GMA950 video, card reader etc) and another for the WM side. The 2 parts are linked via a connector that is secured by those 2 screws. YOU WILL NEED TO BE CAREFULL WHEN REASSEMBLING THE SHIFT. IF THAT CONNECTOR ISN'T ATTACHED PROPERLY YOU'RE IN FOR A LOT OF TROUBLE AHEAD (had mine... trust me).
Here are various components.
RED - Display side connector. This is the only connector linking the 2 sides.
BLUE - Keyboard connector.
GREEN - underneath that area lies the connector that links the 2 parts of the motherboard.
YELLOW - those cables go to the wireless antenna.
Here is the Shift's internal microphone. Like I've said, i didn't know it had one.
The mic is linked to the generic "WM side" of the motherboard. Actually it isn't that simple like wm side - x86 side but as I can see these 2 parts seem to be pretty well diferenciated. One side - x86 - heatsyncs, ram, hard drive... another side - WM, aluminium caps soldered over the chips (like in most phones) microphone, gsm/gps antenna. The WLAN module is also located there.

11 If you remove the motherboard you should see something like this. The arrow marks the position of the antenna block (like the one shown in the FCC pictures).
If you want to remove the display part from the rest of the body you have to remove these screws:
2 more of these are located on the left side. Also remove them. Then the display should come out easily. Carefull not to damage the ribbon connector.
.
12 If you want to dissasemble the display you have to remove the screws from it's back plate. It should also come out easily. You should see something like this:

The hinges that enable your display to tilt are located inside the display block. Here's a photo with one of them :

now some tips about how to do this process if you want to upgrade the shift.
BE CAREFULL. The Shift's motherboard seems pretty delicate. If you want to mess with the hard drive, first disconnect the cable from the HDD's end, then from the motherboard.
If you want to remove the RAM board, pull it off by using 2 fingers, 1 for each side. You will find that the module is firmly attached and woun't come out easily.
I don't recomand you remove or try to mess with that silver foil over the display's back (one of the last pictures). There's a jungle of connectors and wires underneath it and they are cought between 2 layers of that stuff. They can be easily damaged.
When reassembling the shift first start by connecting the small ribbon from the microfone to the motheboard, then connect the display's cable. You will find it more easily to maneuvre if the display is at halfway distance from the main body. Then connect the 2 screws that secure the connector between the 2 portions of the motherboard. ONCE AGAIN, CAREFULL TO HAVE THESE 2 SCREWS FIRMLY ATTACHED. In my first try, the connection wasn't good so when i powered on the shift, it started to make some scarry stuff with it's leds and display. No harm been done but it was pretty scarry. You may then reattach the rest of the screws in backwards order.
If you will want only to upgrade the HDD just stop at "removing the back cover" part. There's nothing more you need to do, you don't need to remove the motherboard and there's pretty much no risks involved. Just be carefull with the ribbon linking the HDD to the motherboard.
I heard some advices about some serials on the chips and such data. Yep, I did photos of these things too. I'll attach them also, tomorrow after I organise my list of findings and notes that I've made with those. I'll post them by category. However I didn't find much, most chips are imposible to read because of the faded markings and other ones are covered by aluminium caps that are soldered over them. The shift looks like a large phone.
Please ask questions if you have. I'll try to help and be specific on those topics.

Bravo!! Good job!!! Can't wait to see the remaining! Now we need someone to try upgrading the HHD. This is getting more interesting!

Excellent, thanks for sharing your findings.

Really good job, man!
Really good job! Thank you for this "step-by-step" guide!

now time to enable the microphone, enable the phone, and look like a complete idiot when u try to hold this thing up to your ear
now u pretty much proved a few things. this thing is pretty much a fully functional wm device. you also shower we were right all along the gps is very very possible for this device. i need to get ltxda one of the gps tools and have him post a lock so you can all see some gps action

Ok people, I'm willing to order a larger HD and even more RAM. I'm going to contact some of my sources on Monday or Tuesday. Any help you guys can provide would be great.
EDIT: Great job on the how-to here!!!

Pawel062 said:
now time to enable the microphone, enable the phone, and look like a complete idiot when u try to hold this thing up to your ear
now u pretty much proved a few things. this thing is pretty much a fully functional wm device. you also shower we were right all along the gps is very very possible for this device. i need to get ltxda one of the gps tools and have him post a lock so you can all see some gps action
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Let's try this on Sunday afternoon bro if you're availabe. I also have a tool that i'm going to try to run, if the family allows, and provide results. Get with me sometime after 3pm. I'm headed to bed now...nite all.

Can you give some information about touchscreen model or manufactur???

I must first study how the protective silver film is attacked on the back of the display. from the fcc photos it seems there are a lot of ribbon connectors between it's twin layers. first time i've dissasembled shift i didn't have enought guts to rip that film in order to expose the internal components. Some connectors in that area caused me a lot of problems (shift's display didn't light up at all or the led's started to go crazy). I'll investigate the problem and there will be a second shift disassembly session in which time i wish to upgrade the hdd also.

So, where might we solder our 32GB SD card to the WM side?
Great job!

Keyboard
Hello,
I tried to pull out the KEyboard by it doesn't work.
What is the Secret to get it out ?

i've sent you an email.

facdemol said:
i've sent you an email.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the Email, I'll try it on Monday and let you know if it work.
Andi

Possible Mistake If You Choose A 2,5 Hhd For Shift Original Hdd.
facdemol said:
I've heard some of you guys asking about the dimensions inside and the possibility to replace this hard drive with another one, more thicker. THERE IS SPACE INSIDE TO DO THAT.
(Someone asked about a 2.5 drive replacement into the shift -- NO way dude)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks to everybody for the help to dissasenble.
Im sorry, It´s clear is not possible.
I'd attach a Picture of my shift with a 1.8 + 2,5" hdd.
---------------------------- -----------------------------
Please, don´t buy ANY HDD 2,5" Noone will fit in.
Is necesary a 1.8" HDD AND the conector of the HDD MUST BE a kind of ZIF connector. (They Called "LIF")
(Neither there are COMPATIBILITY with IDE/ATA/SATA connectors. You will need a ATA 7 conector!!!)
I found this kind HDDs in 80, 100 and 120 GB capacity, easy to buy ad least in Spain.
For Myself I'd ordered a Toshiba-MK1214GAH (120GB), where I Plan to Install a Personal Ed. XP + Vista in a second partition.
Armas.

Wizard Sim Card/ Radio Trouble (Water Damage)

This is a last ditch effort for fixing my Wizard:
A couple weeks ago it had an unfortunate meeting with a river. It wouldn't turn on. Since then I have opened it, repaired it, and gotten it to turn on and function --EXCEPT-- the phone part. The sim is recognized at first, but within 1-5 minutes (regardless of movement, usage, etc.) the sim is no longer recognized. Sometimes the phone reports "Searching for signal", but usually it reports "no sim. insert sim". Does anyone have any advice? Please? I'm stuck with a Tornado until I figure this out! Thanks in advance.
David

Have you tried another Wizard compatible sim card? You may have damaged you original card. Just go to a retailer and ask them to temporarily boot you up with a new card and you'll know wether or not your sim card is to blame.

I have used the below method to save a number of phones that got dunked. Most importantly is to use anti-static protection when handling it after you open it. Yeah, you gotta open the case to get the moisture out. (Note - Nokia is like a tank and I won't argue that this or that Nokia worked fine after being dunked without taking it apart. I already know it does)
I keep a usb cable handy that is cut and use it to ground the device after I remove the battery. Using canned dry air I empty the can going over and over the circuit boards with special attention to the connections for the buttons and video.
I have a dehumidifier just for the purpose of running it for a week with projects I am working on so next I setup the dunked phone next to it and forget it for a week or two. On expensive items I have gone so far as to put it inside a plexi-glass box that has a vent hole cut the same size as the intake of the dehumidifier to concentrate the treatment by putting them together. (I live on the gulf coast and get a lot of business on fish-finders and such). Once or twice during that time I check my work to remove any droplets that may appear due to condensation that has not evaporated.
The problem with using heat is that it will simply evaporate water that is inside connections and so on but if there is not an easy exit for that water it will not come out. You remove the moisture from all the surrounding air and the moisture inside those connections will slowly leech out.
Replace the battery. That is normally what fries the device when people turn it on. Water gets inside the battery and shorts it out, then it ZAPS the device. I repeat. REPLACE the battery or everything else you have done is likely to be a waste of time.
Blah, blah, blah... Yeah, I am sure there are gonna be people that "had no problem reusing the battery" and yes there are exceptions to every rule. There are also just as many or more that had problems with the device or it failed afterward and they did not know why and it is for them that this is written. (Can ya tell I have written this before in a forum? heh heh) Mostly the batterys that are not affected will be the ones that are a plain battery but this is not the case with a smartphone or pda. Many of them actually have electronics built inside the battery for protection and those electronics are also damaged by the water. I am sure that some are not so equipped but when it comes to such a device, I prefer to err on the side of caution.
Anyway that is about it. Cheers!

Silica gel might be a good alternative to a dehumidifier. You'll want to use more than what comes in the little packets with new items.
(No that was not a pack of Chicklets!)

rmcknight said:
Silica gel might be a good alternative to a dehumidifier. You'll want to use more than what comes in the little packets with new items.
(No that was not a pack of Chicklets!)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I used a hairdryer once, ofcourse going over each component a couple of times. I did have to change the battery. i used a multimeter to check the voltages and got freaked since the cells shorted.
kept it under a heating lamp for about 2 days with adequate ventilation.

Aye, silica gel is probably the fastest and best bet, goto Wal-Mart or Lowes or something and get you some Painter Desicant, as it is called....should be like 5USD or so. Put some of the granuals in a plastic container, then put your Wizard directly on top of it and put a lid on the container. Let it sit for a few days, and all should be fine.

fell, now no signal

folks. the 8125 was always able to surive falls. but this time my wife dropped her one on a concrete floor and now no longer picks up any signal.
anybody have any thoughts?
it is completed stock. no flashed roms or radios. everything orginal cingular.
it just searches and searches for network and cannot find anything

Remove the battery cover, then remove the upper rear cover (careful prying will allow this easily enough). Verify that both antenna pins extend fully and are not bent. Use a scalpel or hobby razor to carefully lift the antenna (copper tape on inside of top rear cover), and push out the deformations where the pins normally contact the device. Reassemble. Turn unit off, then back on, and check for signal.
If it's still not receiving, chances are you've broken an internal component, and you're looking at a complete disassembly followed by part(s) replacement using hand tools. These days, it might be cheaper/easier to just buy another used 8125 and put your broken unit up for parts replacement. Just do a PIM backup onto an SD card so you won't lose contact/message data.

Disassembly of Legend (advises & some help required)

Hi there,
I broke my touch screen and tried to replace it by myself.
To make a long story short, I failed miserably (I broke the screen under).
However, I learned a few things I didn't met in the forum.
A- Disassembly of the case.
1- The Legend is glued. So, you have first to use hoven to melt the glue before being able to do anything useful.
15min/ 60 degree in the oven. Or use an hair dryer (I used the former).
2- Don't forget to remove ALL the screws (even the one behind the IMEI notice).
3- Don't try to open the camera lid before loosening the glue or you'll damage the aluminium body.
4- You have to unplug all the différent cables, so take notes to remember where all of them goes.
5- You must disassemble all the boards. There are 2 boards. One supporting the sim / SD connector, and one supporting the screen/touchscreen.
6- When disassembling the screen board, remove it by pulling the touchscreen at the bottom, and lift it up. don't pass a tool on the sides to remove it or worse, under the touchscreen, you'r tool will touch the screen under and break it (like I did). The screen is very, very fragile
Now, I'm stuck here because I can't remove the connector of the legent which is passed under the shield on the back of the screen.
I'm not able to remove the screen so I would like to know how to remove this shielding or get back the touchscreen connector to be able to replace it.
Once I figure out how to remove this shiled, I may be able to remove the screen too.
But now, I'm clueless (it was 2 in the morning when I gave up).
Maybe, some of you knew the trick to open this phone further.
I'd like to hear about it.

A little up to my post for the ones who did not read it till the end:
I can't remove the connector of the legend which is goind under the shield on the back of the screen.
I would like to know how to remove this shielding or get back the touchscreen connector to be able to replace it.
Once I figure out how to remove this shield, I may be able to remove the screen too.
But now, I'm clueless (it was 2 in the morning when I gave up).

mate it sounds like you have trashed your phone.they are built NOT to be taken apart.They require special tools and process to be repaired. The only thing i would suggest is contacting your insurance company and let them know that your phone was crushed under a car or something and then crush it under the car and you can get it replaced. If you dont have insurance, take some out and make a claim in say a month or two.
Its not an honest thing to do but your phone sounds busted and its the cheapest way of replacing that handset.
Post a pic of it if you can

Unfortunately, I have no rights to post a link or some put some pics.
Something about spam and profile that should be reviewed before being able show any pics.
This device is glued. No specialized tools are able to open it without removing it.

That would mean that the phone cannot be repaired, only replaced. My phone's motherboard was replaced, so at the service stations they should have special tools.

Fixed it!
Bottom right hand corner:
Bend the shielding back just enough to allow you to slip the connector in & then use a little glue to stick it back.
Maybe I was lucky, but my phones working as good as new again

I fixed my Legend
Guys, I know it's been a while since you talked but in case someone else is looking for this info, that's what happened to me:
I cracked the display of my legend and purchased a new one on eBay (roughly 40 pounds) - obviously delivered from Hong Kong but a genuine Samsung (in case you didn't know the Legen's screen as well as most of the AMOLED screens are Samsung's).
Then I used the above information plus some YouTube videos to give myself an idea as to what should I do. The result follows:
I used a hair dryer to heat up the back of the phone (camera and loudspeaker cover). Perhaps I should have been more patient as in the end I decided to use a knife with a very thin blade to lift it and I scratched the plastic and the aluminium body a bit. Anyways - the back clicks in but is glued in addition to that so you have to use both the heat and gently applied force.
Once you remove the back cover (which took me the longest out of everything) you should start removing screws. There's two behind the back cover and six behind the bottom cover (where the battery is). At this stage you don't have to remove all the screws - the bottom two, the one behind the IMEI and the one under the VOID sticker hold the main board but the two screws sitting deeper inside the phone's body hold the front buttons so you may leave them for now.
Now comes the trickiest part so read carefully: the main board is held inside the unibody by the screws (which we already removed), but is also glued right below the camera lens and along the sides. You should probably heat it up as much as you can and for a long time. I decided to do it the hard way. My dislplay was already cracked and it's the most delicate part of the phone so I said "whatever" and used the same knife as before - moved it alongside the screen (pushed it in gently from the front) until there was no resistance (the glue let go). Then I pushed and I heated the thing up and pushed and tried from every angle until finally the board slid out of the unibody. I hope you'll find it easier then I did as it seems that everyone describing it found it quite doable.
Now everything becomes easy-peasy. Remove the remaining screws to put the buttons aside (you'll have both the actul buttons and the tiny board with sensors - the latter sticks to the screen but once you remove the connectors, yu can take it off too). All the connectors are quite easy to remove if you hav a needle or something (just pull them out gently). I didn't worry about noting which is which as ther is practically no way you can mix them up - they're very different.
The rubbery plastic black surrounding of the board clicks in, so once you find the right spots you can lift them gently and take the thing off. You'll be left with the display covered by the shielding from the top and a thin metal board from the bottom. You have to remove two more screws to disconnect the main display plug.
And the final bit (that's where the thread's author had a problem I believe). My display was cracked but the shielding - fine. These two are glued together so I had to find some space for my finger nail and lift the shield. By slowly and gently pulling it apart I detached one from the other - and had to do the same thing with the metal board. Don't forget there's some extra stuff to remove from the back of the display - they're all glued but the glue will remain fresh enough for you to glue them again - this time to the new screen. The same applies to the front shield. I hope you won't let any dust sit on it in the meantime. You should have a screen protector on your new display if you bought it like I did. Remove it now and the display will be happy to stick to the old front shield just as if it was always there. The metal back will also fit in.
Now you can go through the above process backwards - just remember to connect all the connectors.
What I didn't do: I didn't use ANY glue putting the phone back together. As an effect the front shield is sticking out a bit (doesn't sit in the unibody tightly). It doesn't affect the phone itself but it gives you the funny feeling that something isn't 100% right. But I prefer that than screwing something up with a misuse of glue (glue can be disobedient).
The most important piece of information: the phone is working 100% correctly as if it was never disassembled by an amateur. Apart from two scatches on the back, the VOID sticker missing, the front sticking out slightly (less than a mm) and the missing battery slider (which I forgot to put back in and didn't bother to repeat the whole process for the sake of it) - there is nothing wrong with the phone. So if you ever crack you ever crack your Legend's screen - you can try fixing it yourself if you have the courage.

I would like to see some photos too But I'm never gonna take my phone apart - can't see the point

Foto's
Nice thread, i myself am wondering, if a better gsm antenna can be fixed inside the phone. and connect them to the 2 connections.
Do you have any pictures of the inside housing etc?

[Q]Remove SIM reader

So...recently I switched to a new T-mobile prepaid plan, and the sim card the pack came with was (unbeknownst to me at the time) a microSIM.
(Wasn't paying attention to the package. Phone had been turned off for days, I was excited). Being the stupid person I am, I put the microSIM card in my sim card slot and (*gasp*) it was too small. I couldn't get it out with my fingers, so i took a paper clip to it. I suppose in the process of removing the sim card, I must have pushed some of the pins down. The phone no longer recognizes any sim cards. I've taken the phone apart down to the motherboard, but the sim card reader the the sd reader are attached to the motherboard. Does anyone know of anyway that I can remove them from the motherboard so I can access the pins underneath the reader? Thanks in advance.
Sorry for the long post...I like typing..

whytry23000 said:
So...recently I switched to a new T-mobile prepaid plan, and the sim card the pack came with was (unbeknownst to me at the time) a microSIM.
(Wasn't paying attention to the package. Phone had been turned off for days, I was excited). Being the stupid person I am, I put the microSIM card in my sim card slot and (*gasp*) it was too small. I couldn't get it out with my fingers, so i took a paper clip to it. I suppose in the process of removing the sim card, I must have pushed some of the pins down. The phone no longer recognizes any sim cards. I've taken the phone apart down to the motherboard, but the sim card reader the the sd reader are attached to the motherboard. Does anyone know of anyway that I can remove them from the motherboard so I can access the pins underneath the reader? Thanks in advance.
Sorry for the long post...I like typing..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
They aren't actually attached to the motherboard, they are attached to a thin metal plate above the motherboard, and connect underneath with a small black ribbon on the right hand side (not the camera ribbon). You can gently undo the black ribbon cable that wraps underneath on the right hand side (near the black coax cable), then unlatch the tiny metal tabs all around the metal plate they are attached to (I used a small flathead to pry them), and pop the plate off. Can't remember if you can access the pins from there, but you might get a better look at it at least. If I remember there are a few little holes under the sim reader, where you might be able to access whatever you jammed up.
Good luck!