Samsung Galaxy Note: DIY Replacing USB Charging Port

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So couple of days ago, my wife’s Galaxy Note was broken – whatever charging cable we tried, the phone hardly get charged – the only case it got charged was when I pulled the charging cable to extream southeast.. It was painful and inconsistent and not a sustainable way.. -_-;

So after some research, I found out, 1) this is not the problem of us only, and we had tons of folks who went thru this process, and 2) some folks do sell USB charging port modules on eBay.. The challenge was finding out the right part for Tmobile version of Note 1 – which is an extreme rare.. (it only sold for a short period with limited quantity)

Luckily enough I was able to order one from eBay, and followed all the directions from the youtube video below

– Open 9 screws at the back

– Open the surrounding cover (so painful!)

– Open 3 screws at the bottom and detach one module

– Open 2 screws at the mainboard

– Detach 6 connection cable points & 1 white line connection point & pull out mainboard

– Detach the white line connection from Charging port module

– Pull out the charging port & reconnect the line connection & all other cables and put back the screws and covers.

The biggest challenge was peeling out the surroundings case because I didn’t have that fancy plastic tool shown in video but I only have my nails as something similar (ouch!!)

With 1st try, it seemed working at first, but power supply seemed to be not feeding into battery.. so…after some thoughts .. I reopened it with hands & nails again (Ouuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuch!!!!), and found out the cable connecting charging port module to mainboard was not clipped properly.. 😦

Finally, rework after work, finally the galaxy note is back to its life.. 🙂

Gamble of $20 +pain in nails saved me $500.. but thinking this might have been done at one of the Samsung’s service center in Seoul with cheap service fee made me feel sad that I live across the ocean… I do miss that convenience…

Thank you eBay (and who sold this) & Youtube (and the person who shared the video)!

2013.5

DIY 2: Laptop Fan Replacement

얼마전부터 나의 미국생활과 함께 시작되었던 유구한 연을 가진 우리 Thiankpad T42가 캥캥거리기 시작했다..

좀 켜놨다 싶으면 탱크 굴러가는 소리도 내고 가끔은 Fan Error로 Booting도 안되고…그럴 때마다 순간 맞바람을 불어주고 먼지좀 대신 먹어주는 인공호흡을 하며 연명하다가 결국 Fan을 갈았다..아 절라 비쌉니다..대략 ebay에서 60불…거의 이건 뭐 대략 싸구려 이동식 에어콘값이구만…T_T

옆 컴퓨터 창에 Hardware Material Mannual을 띄어 놓고 조이고 풀고 해서, Battery>Keyboard>외장판 다 떼고… 마지막으로 팬을 떼어네 이 Laptop쓴지 4년 반만에 최초로 CPU와 대면식도 해주셨다…^^;

에휴… 사실 작년 초에 Warranty 3년 expire되기전에 나름 때마침 망가져주신 Lan Adaptor 갈고, CD도 갈고, Keyboard도 갈았건만.. 이젠 Warranty도 없어서 결국 DIY해주셨다.. (Keyboard는 아들님이 새 Keyboard 장착 후 한달도 안되 뽑아주셔서 왼쪽 Ctrl 키가 없는 장애 Keyboard로 버티고 있다..)

2009.11

Cabin Air Filter!

드디어 주문하였던 자동차 air filter가 배달 왔다. 정말이지 이 나라의 DIY 문화는 적응이 쉽지 않다..^^; 문화땜시 하는지..돈땜시 하는지..-_-;
소나타의 에어 필터는 Glove Box 뒤에 있는고로 Glove Box 뜯어내느라 한 10-20분은 낑낑대다 처리했다. 뭐 항상 그렇지만 하고 나면 쉽고 돈도 절약하고 뭔가 배운 것 같기도 해 기분은 좋다…^^

이제 남은 다음 숙제는 차 긁힌거 녹제거와 페이트칠..-_-; 흑흑 정말 힘들다..T_T
2009.10