RMA the charger? - Eee Pad Transformer Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

Has anybody RMA'd there charger before. The clip that holds the pins onto the charger, has snapped so it keeps sliding off and the pins no longer make contact. Its really annoying. I emailed asus and just got an automated reply,"Sorry your having issues with your transormer... please fill out an RMA form", so I've filled one out and put a note to replace the charger. But i'm worried if i send it the might just throw it away.

Just got a reply form asus
"Thank you for your e-mail.
We can only have the faulty goods servised. To arrange a pick up, please submit the from from the previous e-mail.
Please note, that individual modules are not accepted for repair. ASUS will not be held liable or responsible for not repairing any individually sent modules or accessories.
Kind regards,"
Looks like i'll have to break out the selotape.

just glue the 2 pieces ( the charger and the plug adapter)together making sure the 2 pieces are firmly in place while the glue dries and making sure the pins have contact before you glue.
i did this 1 month ago when the little plastic pin broke on my charger, its that pin only that makes sure the 2 charging pins are in place- pretty crappy design.
done, and no need to RMA or buy another charger

Related

[HELP] I literally broke my TF 700! What should I do??

Last night I dropped my TF 700 about 5 feet onto concrete floor.
It was working fine right after the drop, but the screen panel ('Gorilla Glass') was popped out a bit and one
corner of the frame was severely dented. But the worst part is that I thought I could fix it on my own.
So I disassembled my TF 700 following the 'TF 700 Teardown Tutorial.' I was able to fix the dented aluminium backplate
(I ripped off the warranty seal during this process though).
After this I reassembled the tablet and everything seemed fine at this point.
However, when I tried to turn it on, the screen display wouldn't turn on. I know that the tablet is still functioning because
when I connect it to my PC, I can see all the files saved. But the screen is completely dead.
I'm pretty sure that this is because I accidently bent some cable component that connects the LCD panel to the mainboard
(the flat cable thing that is made up of copper fibers). Upon closer examination, it looks like the bent cable is preventing some parts from
connecting to each other (please see the picture attached). I really need this tablet and I'm here to ask you what I could do to fix this.
Where should I go and how much do I have to pay to replace/fix the bent cable? Or even better, where can I get the new back-plate? Cuz mine now looks terrible..
Desperately waiting for some advice...
almightytaek said:
Last night I dropped my TF 700 about 5 feet onto concrete floor.
It was working fine right after the drop, but the screen panel ('Gorilla Glass') was popped out a bit and one
corner of the frame was severely dented. But the worst part is that I thought I could fix it on my own.
So I disassembled my TF 700 following the 'TF 700 Teardown Tutorial.' I was able to fix the dented aluminium backplate
(I ripped off the warranty seal during this process though).
After this I reassembled the tablet and everything seemed fine at this point.
However, when I tried to turn it on, the screen display wouldn't turn on. I know that the tablet is still functioning because
when I connect it to my PC, I can see all the files saved. But the screen is completely dead.
I'm pretty sure that this is because I accidently bent some cable component that connects the LCD panel to the mainboard
(the flat cable thing that is made up of copper fibers). Upon closer examination, it looks like the bent cable is preventing some parts from
connecting to each other (please see the picture attached). I really need this tablet and I'm here to ask you what I could do to fix this.
Where should I go and how much do I have to pay to replace/fix the bent cable?
Desperately waiting for some advice...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ouch! Tough break. Unless you have insurance, shed a few tears, bury it quietly in the backyard behind the garage, and buy a new one.
BTrack said:
Ouch! Tough break. Unless you have insurance, shed a few tears, bury it quietly in the backyard behind the garage, and buy a new one.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you do not have an extensive warranty, you'll probably lose about as much money repairing this unit as when you'd buy a new one (it sounds pretty bad, judging from your story). It might be better to bite the bullet, as BTrack proposed.
Hard for me to see what happened by the pics.
Someone had post sometime back that they were parting out their broken Infinity.
Maybe the search can turn up the thread.
Glad I've had a folio around mine.
Banged it a few times being careless.
I feel for ya...hope you can find a fix.
Ouch, unless yo have insurance I think you may be out of luck. I know Asus will fix tablets with " costumer induced damage", but they charge for parts and labor. And it looks like it would cost more to fix than buying a new tablet.
Sent from my ASUS Transformer Pad TF700T using XDA Premium HD app
.Just an off the wall idea, you might try sending a PM to someone who has bricked their device and see if they want to sell it. You might be able to pick up the case and connector that way
I had a drop onto tile with my first prime.
My AMEX covered the cost but they made me send it to Asus (even after getting an estimate) instead of just refunding the money like they had on some previous items. When mine dropped it was just the front glass that cracked all the way across, as well as the aluminum body being deformed. The touchscreen was working, screen worked, device was fully functional. The final repair + shipping came to around $378, and that was still a functional (though sharp, pointy and ugly) device when it got to them. If you bought it on a credit card you should check to see if they have any kind of accidental coverage. Good luck
Well thanx a lot guys..
Thank you for all your help.
I guess I just have to buy new one then..:crying:
almightytaek said:
Thank you for all your help.
I guess I just have to buy new one then..:crying:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Why don't you try taking it apart like you initially did, buy a bricked one and try to fix it?
You could sell it to me so I don't have to disassemble a fully working one to play with hardware
I had dropped mine off a table onto a concrete as well. About the distance too. Hit right in the corner of the power button. The glass held up well. The metal bent up and plastic completely cracked through. I was able to squeeze it back together, but was still bent up. It still was functional.
I was did an a-hole move. Since I did it a week after receiving from Amazon, I told them it came damaged, but packaging was fine. They exchanged and not a problem.
You could try exchanging it from where you got it. Another option, there are aftermarket warranty services that you may be to use if you got recent enough. Some allow you to get purchase within thirty days of purchase.
Although, my guess, you probably past that time. I would suggest trying to fix it again. At this point, you have nothing to loose.
Send it back ta Asus for an estimate to repair. Ya never know, you might get off with a cheap fix.....worth a try.
I'm bummed for ya though.
Brad
Sent from my ASUS Transformer Pad TF700T using XDA Premium HD app

HTC Windows Phone 8X Screen Repair Take Apart Guide

The RepairsUniverse team has put together a take apart repair guide for replacing various parts on your Windows Phone HTC 8X. In this guide you will learn the steps to properly take your HTC smartphone apart safely. Repair nearly any internal component on your Windows Phone HTC 8X using this detailed repair guide.
This guide will help you to install the following Windows Phone HTC 8X part(s):
HTC Windows Phone 8X Touch Screen Digitizer Replacement
HTC Windows Phone 8X LCD Replacement
Tools required:
Safe open pry tool
Small Phillips Screwdriver
Adhesive strips
Windows Phone HTC 8X Screen Repair Guide:
You want to begin by applying heat to around the surface edges of the device for about 15-20 seconds on each side. You can use a hot blow dryer or a heat gun.
Next you will need to use the safe open pry tool and begin separating the screen assembly from the frame of the device as shown below.
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Once you have properly separated the front of the phone from the device you will need to disconnect 3 Flex ribbon connections that are holding the device together.
After these connections have been released the front screen assembly can be removed from the back housing frame of the device.
Next you will need to turn the screen assembly (screen facing down) with the mother board facing you.
Using a small Phillips screw driver, you can begin removing 12 screws from around the edges of the screen assembly.
Once these screws have been removed you can begin disconnecting the Flex ribbon cables and Antenna flex cables (5 total).
The LCD and the Touch screen digitizer are held in by a jaw connector that can be lifted to release the ribbon.
The two antenna flex cables can simply be pulled out and the Key pad flex cable is a pop connection that can be released using a safe open pry tool.
You can now remove the motherboard.
Once the motherboard has been removed you can remove the upper back frame.
Now that the back housing and mother board have been removed, you can release the second connections of the antenna flex cables.
There are 2 small flex ribbons that will need to be released on the left and right side on top of the green mainboard.
Next you want to move the vibrating motor (next to the camera) out of the way so you can remove the upper mainboard.
Next step is to remove the ear jack and ear piece speaker.
You can now remove the battery and once you have done so you will have one more antenna cable to release and remove.
Last step is to remove the charging connector and the home button from the upper part of the device.
You can now replace the damaged screen for the Windows Phone HTC 8X.
Notice:
Repairs Universe's guides are for*informational purposes only.
Super informative
Very informative guide. Thanks a lot.
Under required tools, adhesive strips are listed. What kind of adhesive is needed? Size of strip? & where should the adhesive be applied?
Know you have my thanks.
I have dne it
Hey,
I have completly teared down my 8X to fix the broken glass. Changed LCD+Glass Combo.
Worked for almost one day. now it just wont start up again :/
It vibrates by pressing power button
b14ckroses said:
Hey,
I have completly teared down my 8X to fix the broken glass. Changed LCD+Glass Combo.
Worked for almost one day. now it just wont start up again :/
It vibrates by pressing power button
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Was your battery low ? I've had pretty much the same problems - it turned out that the stock cable that cable with the phone was rubbish and the phone didn't charge up properly - the solution I came with was using a Nokia micro-usb cable - leave the phone to charge for 45-60 minutes and then try to turn it on if it doesn't do that automatically.
Hi. Can someone make motherboard pictures? I replaced screen but I lost idea how to connect coaxial cables.( got picture but i lost it)
Phone awaiting for being assembled to housing but I want avoid mistakes and tear it down again( hard job)
Or you know how to connect them maybe?
robdevil said:
Hi. Can someone make motherboard pictures? I replaced screen but I lost idea how to connect coaxial cables.( got picture but i lost it)
Phone awaiting for being assembled to housing but I want avoid mistakes and tear it down again( hard job)
Or you know how to connect them maybe?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, the attached picture is acurate. You appear to be missing the cage which secures the camera and boards in place. The 8x is designed with stacks. One board sits on top another, connected by two ribbons. Then those the lower charging board which is laid atop the lower portion of the device rests inside the back housing. It's really not complicated.
As you say, it's just very hard. Also the back housing is very tough to get flush. I advise using a case to minimize the slight elevation from digitizer to housing.
The long coax needs to be tucked underneath the ribbon and behind the gray prongs. The long coax should be nesting right alongside the length of the battery. This phone is a huge pain to fix. You should know that by now.
Any luck adding Wireless charging using this guide?
Or "bigger" battery ?
Origin of replacement difitizers and where to get replacement adhesive
Unfortunately, I am also amongst the unfortunate ones who have their 8X screen broken.
I decided to so a DIY repair, because I had success at doing such DIY replacements in the past on my previous HTC phone's. I am aware that it is quite difficult to work on the 8x though.
What I am concerned about is the quality of replacement parts. Where do these eBay suppliers get the replacement parts from anyway? I'm expecting to find a genuine, HTC manufactured lcd+digitizer combo with real Gorilla glass and same LCD panel, but heard that a lot of these replacements, even though sellers claim them to be genuine, are in fact inferior to the original parts, which really worries me. One of the sellers explained to me: "it is HTC manufactured OEM , but not with real gorilla glass" and then added "I am sorry, the supplier tell me the glass is not real gorilla. so I reply to you". There's no way I'm going to buy such a fake part.. Another seller, when asked, described his item: "Hi, this item is oem product make for HTC 8x. and used the original Material to assembly this item as the HTC product. of course i will test the item first and only the item work in good conditons then i will send it to my customer. Thank you!", but it still worries me - I'm not too confident the seller actually knows what OEM stands for.
Any ideas on this?
Also, as a side question, I was wondering, where do you get the replacement glue from? I heard they come in some strips.
so I got the mainboard out of the case, but I ripped a cable. I have attached a couple pics. could someone please tell me what ribbon I ripped and what I can do about it? or is it a loss? thanks. I attached two pics.
Hi guys!
I've just bought for cheap a HTC 8x. I've got it from a guy which tried to replace shattered glass ...no surprise LCD got also damaged during that.
So.
Now I'm sitting her with a disassembled phone and brand new digitizer and wondering - shall I keep it cheap and get just a new LCD or is I safer to go for preassembled set of LCD&digitizer? Is it difficult to put it together (is any glue necessary and, if yes, where it has to be placed) or its more like putting two LEGO blocks together?
mc_gee said:
Hi guys!
I've just bought for cheap a HTC 8x. I've got it from a guy which tried to replace shattered glass ...no surprise LCD got also damaged during that.
So.
Now I'm sitting her with a disassembled phone and brand new digitizer and wondering - shall I keep it cheap and get just a new LCD or is I safer to go for preassembled set of LCD&digitizer? Is it difficult to put it together (is any glue necessary and, if yes, where it has to be placed) or its more like putting two LEGO blocks together?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Your best option is to use the LCD + Touch Screen Digitizer Assembly. You repair will go much smoother. If you were to try the other route you would have to use adhesive to attach the LCD to the Touch screen. Those with experience can do this quite well i'm sure. The only issues with it could be dust or possibly not having a flush fit after re-assembly.
I have been repairing phones for nearly 20 years. I have my own small one man shop and have litterally opened thousands of phones. This has got to be one of the worst I have ever opened. What a piece of crap design; HTC should be embarrassed. Of course most users don't know this, because they only buy for the look and functions, but this phone should be avoided at all costs. Taking the back off without breaking it is a challenge for most. But separating the LCD/Dig. assembly from the b frame is one of the hardest ever. Once again, HTC feels they need to put far too much adhesive on their phones. Nuclear war would not separate these parts. And for Repairs Universe(Who I respect alot) to suggest the digitizer can be separated from the LCD when it is fuzed, is a joke, and borderline negligent.
I never like to go above 65 degrees centigrade(150 F) on my scientific hotplate, but for this i had to turn it up to 72, and it still took me forever with alot of reheats.
My best advice is to never get this phone, or work on it. It's a customer problem waiting to happen. However, if you do, try and find it with the b-frame attached...at least then you only have to worry about the absurd battery/back cover...what a POS!
---------- Post added at 02:15 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:36 PM ----------
lokeycmos said:
so I got the mainboard out of the case, but I ripped a cable. I have attached a couple pics. could someone please tell me what ribbon I ripped and what I can do about it? or is it a loss? thanks. I attached two pics.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
See you posted this awhile ago, so this may not help you anymore. You pulled the charge port PCB up with the MoBo and LCD/Dig assembly. In taking apart this phone, the entire charge port board(PCB) stays down and does NOT come up with the original lift.
A few other tips. Do NOT use the old adhessive as some yahoo on youtube suggested. This is that black spongey adhesive HTC uses on a lot of phones and it ALWAYS needs to be completely removed if you don't want the Digitizer to float. Use manification(Microscope or desk magnifier), tand carefuly remove every molecule. Then wash with a solvent like windex or some I-alcohol. Use a qtip and maybe a soft tooth brush to remove the rest. Then carefully cut your new adhesive strips careful to not cover what was not covered before(Proximity chip, camera, etc.). Also, remove the shiny balck tape from around the edges after you remove the LCD. Smooth out where the LCD fits if some of the old adhesive became bunched when removing the LCD. The more prep you do, the less float and heartache you'll have later on.
I'll add more if I come up with anything significant as I put this POS back together...
After careful consideration, don't effing bother with this POS. If ya think it's hard to take apart, wait til ya gotta put it back in that ridiculously engineered back. From the volume rocker housing to the top corners, it was incredibly hard; and i have alot of experience. There's gotta be a trick I'm missing; but I dont miss many. I tried warming the back, spunger shim, really thin guitar pick shim(My own trick that has always gotten me out of a lot of tight housing problems), Bottom in 1st, side in first, top in first, but nothing got a nice tight seal. Best I could manage is left sound gapped and down volume wont work. This phone should be considered disposable if it wasnt so expensive. I Can only hope this is not the wave of the future for HTC and other EM's, or I'll be looking for a new profession after 20 years..
peakcelln said:
After careful consideration, don't effing bother with this POS. If ya think it's hard to take apart, wait til ya gotta put it back in that ridiculously engineered back. From the volume rocker housing to the top corners, it was incredibly hard; and i have alot of experience. There's gotta be a trick I'm missing; but I dont miss many. I tried warming the back, spunger shim, really thin guitar pick shim(My own trick that has always gotten me out of a lot of tight housing problems), Bottom in 1st, side in first, top in first, but nothing got a nice tight seal. Best I could manage is left sound gapped and down volume wont work. This phone should be considered disposable if it wasnt so expensive. I Can only hope this is not the wave of the future for HTC and other EM's, or I'll be looking for a new profession after 20 years..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Crap.
After replacing the screen and putting it back together, I'm facing exactly the same problem. It almost as if you have to use your brand new screen as a lever to let the back cover clips jump in.. what I obviously do not want to try. Have you found a solution in the mean time?
Thank you in advance,
Erwin
A bit of OT, but I don't think that it would be good idea to make separate topic for that
As I have my 8x allready disassembled (and I have to wait until few parts comes from china anyway) I'm wondering is it possible to swap rear camera module with one from Lumia 920? Any chance that it will fit and eventually work? I do realize that there's a different kind of connector in L920, but maybe contacts layout is the same on ribbon and I could just cut connector off?
Any chance?
I highly doubt it, but if you have any luck please post!
mc_gee said:
A bit of OT, but I don't think that it would be good idea to make separate topic for that
As I have my 8x allready disassembled (and I have to wait until few parts comes from china anyway) I'm wondering is it possible to swap rear camera module with one from Lumia 920? Any chance that it will fit and eventually work? I do realize that there's a different kind of connector in L920, but maybe contacts layout is the same on ribbon and I could just cut connector off?
Any chance?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Two different EM's With different Camera's, Modules, Sensors, etc.? I wouldnt do it either, could short your board...
---------- Post added at 05:55 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:51 PM ----------
ErwinP said:
Crap.
After replacing the screen and putting it back together, I'm facing exactly the same problem. It almost as if you have to use your brand new screen as a lever to let the back cover clips jump in.. what I obviously do not want to try. Have you found a solution in the mean time?
Thank you in advance,
Erwin
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I never did figure it out. I gave the customer a discount and vowed never to touch the phone again. Terrible design, way worse than the Inspire; and that one was pretty bad.
peakcelln said:
Two different EM's With different Camera's, Modules, Sensors, etc.? I wouldnt do it either, could short your board...
---------- Post added at 05:55 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:51 PM ----------
I never did figure it out. I gave the customer a discount and vowed never to touch the phone again. Terrible design, way worse than the Inspire; and that one was pretty bad.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for clarifying mc_gee's question about the camera swap.
peakcelln said:
Two different EM's With different Camera's, Modules, Sensors, etc.? I wouldnt do it either, could short your board...
---------- Post added at 05:55 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:51 PM ----------
I never did figure it out. I gave the customer a discount and vowed never to touch the phone again. Terrible design, way worse than the Inspire; and that one was pretty bad.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yep, I'd have to say in my few years of phone repairs, this has got to be THE scariest phone to fix. Absolute crap! I managed to replace the screen and get it all up and running but putting it back together is another story. So far, I've managed to break the power cable and the volume cable just trying to fit the thing back in its case.
Is there any need for such a seriously tight fitting back to a phone? I really don't want to finish this repair now as I'm afraid I'll break another cable and this is starting to cost me money replacing all the parts (which are also very hard to get hold of in the UK for some reason). It's definitely more hassle than it's worth and I won't be repairing any more of these crap phones.
If anyone has managed to get the back on without wrecking the phone, I'd love to know how it's done. If I do manage it by some miracle, I'll post an update.
Good luck to all those trying this repair.

[Q] Keyboard Dock Warranty Indicators

I, like many others, have an issue with warranty seals. I pulled apart my dock about two months ago (a week after I got it) because a few keys weren't registering, and it just turned out the ribbon cable was a little loose. Now I can't charge the dock at all, through any sort of charger, and I postulate it's a hardware fault.
There's the backstory, but now my question to you is where, O where, did Asus put the warranty indication stickers that would let them know I'd opened the cursed thing?
I don't want to go prying again in case it's some sort of tape that gets torn by opening it, but does anyone know off the top of their head?

So I took it apart... Here's how it went.

So a bought my tablet, without the dock. Being a modder/hacker/tweaker, I knew I had to root and learn the flash process specific to my device ASAP.
Horrified to find that I would lose my warranty, and that I would be on my own from that moment when I would have unlocked it an beyond.
So I hesitated... For a week... and unlocked, rooted, and flashed a couple ROMs. All is well.
Fast forward 4 months...
I started getting issues with the touch screen on my device. I was heartbroken. I knew that nobody would fix it, despite it being a hardware defect of some kind.
The issue I was having was the "Ghost Touches" which would swipe up and down rapidly and randomly on the left half of the screen.
It would happen seemingly at random, and progressively became so bad that I couldn't use my TF700 any longer.
Shelving it for a few weeks, I finally became inspired and motivated to try to fix it myself, or at least discover wtf was wrong with it.
I found that pressing on the bottom of the tablet (the sections that surround the screen itself) would actually make the problem go away, but also make half of my screen unresponsive until I screen locked/unlocked it.
That made me feel that it was software related seeing that a simple lock/unlock via the top left button would make it stop for a few seconds, but this wasn't the case despite this glaring fact.
So I knew I had to open it, and I had no resources, couldn't find any videos, no information on opening this thing was available, at least at the time.
The steps I took were:
1) Turning off the device of course.
2) Flipped it over and with a flashlight looked down into the two slots for mounting it on the dock.
2a) I peeled away the squishy stickery thingy from each slot.
2b) There are little circles, one in each, that using something sturdy, you must slide to the tablet's left. (I used a nail...)
3) Using some kind of plastic yet sturdy wedge, you must unsnap all of the clasps under the screen to free it.
3a) I used a guitar pick, starting from one of the slots on the bottom, I ran the pick around the edges of the screen after carefully forcing it between the aluminium case and the glass.
3b) With somewhat violent prying motions I was able to free all of the snaps. (You need not unsnap the top side, only the bottom, left, and right sides. If I recall correctly)
4) There's 2 ribbons, they're sneaky, one is copper colored, the other is white. The white one is the scary one.
I turned on my tablet at this point, everything worked fine, I was VERY thankful at that point.
Now I looked around on the inside of the device and noticed that the point where the copper ribbon meets the digitizer/lcd screen was dented a bit, and when I ran my finger across it, the phantom touch problem went absolutely crazy. Bingo.
I found the pressing the ribbon flat against the screen, and firmly holding it in place fixed the problem.
So with a piece of tape I found next to me, I carefully rolled the tape over the dented area of the ribbon, and firmly secured the ribbon to the back of the screen preventing it from moving at all.
Upon reassembling my device, all has worked well, though when I shake the tablet, or press on certain points (takes a fair bit of pressure, nothing you'd ever do intentionally) the "Ghost Touch" comes back, but is easily remedied by a quick lock/unlock. This happens only once or twice a week at best, and I use this tablet HEAVILY.
Sorry for the messy post, and the lack of pictures, I didn't take any, and am not doing this again until I have to.
I really hope anyone who read this can gain from it.
Regards,
~HNx
That is some good info there.
Thanks for taking the time to put that together. I'm sure this will be very useful/helpful to those with similar/same symptoms.
Good job on doing it on your own like that. :thumbup:
Sent from my ADR6400L using xda app-developers app
Wow thank you for the post very very much.
I have had the ghost touch problem ever since the start, but it only came about with the dock connected. Through trial and error i figured that the dock is pressing on the bottom of the screen when you open/close it and causes persistent ghost touch. Simple on/off screen would fix it until i adjust the dock angle again. Never had it without dock connected.
Mine is also unlocked so no warranty. Although i am planning to rma the dock as its started to make clicking noises when open/closes.
Will definitely do your fix soon. How long would you say the whole process took you the first time?
Any idea what is causing the ghosting after the fix? My thought is that it was the gorilla glass bending that was creating some interference inside of it, hope i'm wrong.
Also, since we are on the fixing it from the inside page, the clicking noises (i get slight ones if i press/squeeze by audio jack), could they be fixed with some filing. ?
And the big one, could we solder on / replace the inner sdcard chip? perhaps hack a flash/ssd in there if possible?
There are pictures of the TF700's internal components on the iFixIt web site.
I don't think you can replace a BGA chip without damaging the board.
Took me a while to get to it but i opened her up today.
Firstly i recently received my dock back from RMA because the left top corner kept opening up when i tilt the tablet and i had to press on dock to click it back together. RMA people sent it back saying "works as intended, no problems found" with an added touch of removing right side rubber protector (left and bottom still there). Thank you for that..
So i decided to take matter in my own hands and lifted the top left rubber foothold of the dock only to find the warranty "void" screw just fall out... apparently it was never screwed in. OK easy fix, touch of screwdriver and dock is now better than new. Nice quality control there ASUS.
So now excited with first fix, i got to the tablet.
The ghost touch has been plaguing me with the dock attached every time.
I had tf700 unlocked to get the extra performance due to slow flash so no warranty.
Used 2 guitar picks, managed to get the screen off no problems. Tested if it still works, fine there too.
As noted by OP, the orange ribbon causes ghost touches as you press on it.
The white ribbon was in the way so I unplugged it from the screen.
This is the trouble causing area:
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It was obviously insecurely connected to the touch screen. I tried to stuff some tinfoil to the edges to hold in better, however, upon testing my solution, had a fatal (to the screen) accident.
The white ribbon killed lcd power and I couldnt tell if device was on (which it was). Upon attempting to connect the ribbon back, some contacts touch other contacts on the connector, small electrical flash, and lcd screen is dead... :crying:
tablet still works with dock and hdmi out:
Well since screen was broken already i decided to remove it from the touch glass to further investigate the ghost touch.
This is the problem, the orange ribbon was just glued to the touch screen (pressed between 2 screens) and has no secure connection hold. perhaps the glue unglued or air bubbles get in the way or the 2 screens not hold it tightly enough. It is obviously a design fault.
Whoever decided to use this method and then use same badly secured connection area to apply force to keyboard dock to open/close the device, did poor job...
Sure it is my fault i ruined the screen but i cant help but to feel cheated from ASUS.
I loved the idea of transformer tablet and was a very loyal ASUS fan. Bought it first month it came out, used for a year already.
They advertized a premium top of the line product, use a cheap memory solution which makes customers unlock and
void warranty. And when design failures arise, well, you are on your own.
Every TF700 tablet has this "ghost touch" problem, by design. Some may be better than others. It is just a failed product execution.
Not sure what i will do with the tablet now, have mixed feelings about it.
But as a long time ASUS customer / fan, can no longer recommend their products. Their new "direction" of passing bad designs as premium products, just not what I expected.
0.02
upon further review, the lcd connection wire had some pins burned out from the short, so hopefully lcd screen is alive.
[EDIT]
WOW they sell from china for 45 dollars!! for a tiny piece of wire like that...
anyone with a broken/replacement lcd which has a working wire be willing to salvage/sell theirs?
Just as an update, I've yet to need to take my TF700 apart again. The "Ghost Touch" problem hasactually gone away entirely even with
pressure applied to the effected areas.
Further I've tracked the problem down to the tablet getting hot, very hot. As dankens points out, the glue is all that holds the ribbon in place. It's my suspicion that the glue becomes loose. The ribbon most likely shifts a bit at this point, and the problem arises.
Be careful tf700 owners, once it starts, it doesn't just go away.
dankens said:
upon further review, the lcd connection wire had some pins burned out from the short, so hopefully lcd screen is alive.
[EDIT]
WOW they sell from china for 45 dollars!! for a tiny piece of wire like that...
anyone with a broken/replacement lcd which has a working wire be willing to salvage/sell theirs?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
First I'd like to apologize if my post played any role in the eventual damaging of your tablet.
I hate to see such an expensive device broken.
You said it was just some burnt out pins that are problem. I'm pretty sure that I could repair it if you havn't yet bought a new screen.
If you're interested, you can drop me an email -- [email protected]
Well, i went out and got the parts from china/ebay, i think they ship them on wales from china because it took forever!
Started off with the damn white ribbon which cost me $41 for a 4 inch piece of wire!!
LCD was still dead, so i figured it got fried as well. new LCD (no digitizer) cost another $88. After assembling (now i make sure the battery is unplugged first thing, and connected last) i could see the lcd lamp turn on but screen was black.
Next to go was the mobo (i think GPU fried as well), they dont really sell those much, cheapest one was $80 (refurbished).
connected all and viola, back to normal. cost of parts: 209, worth it? not sure.
Definitely a learning experience, damn parts cost more than the tablet itself.
Looking forward to Dell Venue 11 pro (i5 version).
dankens said:
Well, i went out and got the parts from china/ebay, i think they ship them on wales from china because it took forever!
Started off with the damn white ribbon which cost me $41 for a 4 inch piece of wire!!
LCD was still dead, so i figured it got fried as well. new LCD (no digitizer) cost another $88. After assembling (now i make sure the battery is unplugged first thing, and connected last) i could see the lcd lamp turn on but screen was black.
Next to go was the mobo (i think GPU fried as well), they dont really sell those much, cheapest one was $80 (refurbished).
connected all and viola, back to normal. cost of parts: 209, worth it? not sure.
Definitely a learning experience, damn parts cost more than the tablet itself.
Looking forward to Dell Venue 11 pro (i5 version).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
For those of you who will attempt to fix the same problem reported in the OP, my 2 cents:
1. After you successfully open the tab, but BEFORE doing anything, turn off the switch in the area circled red in the attached thumbs. This will cut off all electrical current to the components and prevent accidental shorts. It's called "service switch" for that reason;
2. The information given earlier about how the ribbon was bonded to the glass was incorrect. So I deleted that part. I examined under a microscope and it appeared a chemical strip of some kind was applied to the glass for bonding. Apparently, it worked in my case since I put a piece of kapton tape where the ribbon came off the glass, More likely, it was a part of the ribbon that had no function in the operation of the touchscreen. Thus, there ain't no way one can re-bond it once the ribbon's ripped off the glass, undamaged though it might be.
It looks like I'm having the same issue, but I'm confused about where to put the tape. Should I be removing the digitizer for this? Does the tape go RIGHT WHERE the ribbon connects to the glass? Or do I simply fold the ribbon over top of the computer chips on the back of the digitizer and do it there and tape it there?
jneuffer said:
It looks like I'm having the same issue, but I'm confused about where to put the tape. Should I be removing the digitizer for this? Does the tape go RIGHT WHERE the ribbon connects to the glass? Or do I simply fold the ribbon over top of the computer chips on the back of the digitizer and do it there and tape it there?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I hope someone can answer this. I can't figure out where to put the tape from all these posts either. I am about to embark on this journey. I have never disassembled a tablet or smartphone before. I am not that scared because I haven't really used this tablet due to all the problems I have had with it and have moved on the the Nexus 7. I would like to have it back in service though since now it is unusable due to the ghost touches.
Edit:
This might be the info I was looking for from a post above. Thanks.
"So with a piece of tape I found next to me, I carefully rolled the tape over the dented area of the ribbon, and firmly secured the ribbon to the back of the screen preventing it from moving at all."
echardcore said:
I hope someone can answer this. I can't figure out where to put the tape from all these posts either. I am about to embark on this journey. I have never disassembled a tablet or smartphone before. I am not that scared because I haven't really used this tablet due to all the problems I have had with it and have moved on the the Nexus 7. I would like to have it back in service though since now it is unusable due to the ghost touches.
Edit:
This might be the info I was looking for from a post above. Thanks.
"So with a piece of tape I found next to me, I carefully rolled the tape over the dented area of the ribbon, and firmly secured the ribbon to the back of the screen preventing it from moving at all."
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I successfully opened it up and taped the white and gold wires down but the problem didnt go away. I am able to reproduce it more now though. I didnt tape the gold wire to the edge of the screen because when I pressed on that with the unit on it didn't cause the issue. I was able to make it happen while opened by touching the gold wire near where the problem spot seems to be but not on it.
Wondering if I build up a protective bump of material like tape inside so the case cant be compressed to cause the issue if that will help. I refuse to send it anywhere or purchase parts. I've spent too much time and effort on this thing. Really sucks to have a tablet that I cant use. I guess I could sell it on ebay for parts.
I'm going to keep bumping this as I discover more.
So I took it apart again trying to rig it up to work.
I found that the gold cable doesn't like being bent the way it is bent from the factory. If you straighten it out and fiddle with it, the ghost touches go away. I have been doing all my testing with the tablet powered on making sure not to disconnect anything. This way I can really get a feel for what is causing the ghost touches. If you intend on doing this look for the service switch and shut it off. Its hard to find even though its right in the middle of everything.
Cable with "33" written on it is the issue. I cut away some of the black plastic they used to keep things neat.
Pulling away the problem cable for your viewing pleasure
Tried to add some foam padding which helped with the case open.
Too much padding to close the case. Might try again with less padding.

Replacement Vibrator Motor for Photon Q?

Hi all,
Has anyone successfully replaced the vibrator motor in their Photon Q? Mine went flaky on me for a while, now it doesn't work at all unless I shake the phone while testing it with the little "Vibrator Tester" app, so effectively it's shot. Maybe I weakened it when I did the Simcard mod because it's so close to where the Simcard chip is. I tried messing around with it yesterday with a jeweler's screwdriver, it's not shorting out, it needs a shake or a flip to get it running at all, then after stopping it won't run again on its own.
It doesn't look very easy to replace, appears to be soldered down along both sides pretty good. I figure I can't go at it with hot air or I'll destroy my Simcard mod or something else. I'd just buy another board but the Simcard mod is so darn difficult to do that I'd rather avoid redoing that!
Anyone dealt with this problem before? Thanks in advance for any tips!
Based on the lack of replies after a week it's looking like I was right about there not being a simple/known fix for the vibrator motor in the Photon Q.
I tried this process but it did nothing. I suspect the motor isn't just in need of lubrication, it's probably burnt out.
[GUIDE][TAKE APART] Fix the annoying/bad vibration
Let me ask a different question out of interest - Anyone else living with a vibrator motor that is not functioning right or at all in their Photon Q?
I haven't had a good motor in mine for years. The board I have in mine now works for about 3 times before it dies for about 10 minutes, so I get by with it. However you peaked my curiosity so I attempted to pull one off of a board I had laying around. Surprisingly it came off rather easily! There are only 2 solder points, and I really think you could just dab a little solder on the pads to raise them up and glue new vibe motor on there without needing to solder anything. I may give this a try this weekend just to see if it looks like it's replaceable. They are on eBay but I had heard you had to have a hot air solder station to do the repair. Here's a pic of the one I just removed.
Hi bmccrary,
Thanks for your reply. I was going to attempt to file the motor housing down enough to use side cutters to clip away at it to make the bottom and solder pads a little more accessible, but your picture is very encouraging, makes me think that the cutting will be unnecessary!
They have what looks to be a good fit motor and it's about 15 minutes drive away from me in Santa Clara California, but by the time I found it online it looks like they closed up shop for the US holiday weekend already, so now I have to wait 'til Tuesday.
Vibration - Micro Motor 1.5-3V
Many similar ones are available on eBay but I want it NOW! Well, Tuesday anyway.
Do you mind if I ask you a few more questions in the meantime?
- Is the motor glued down in that rectangular section or soldered?
- What did you do first, break the glue or desolder the contacts?
- Did you clip the contacts somehow before desoldering them?
- How did you break the glue without breaking the board?
All very encouraging so far... Looking forward to hearing back from you! Thanks again.
bmccrary said:
I haven't had a good motor in mine for years. The board I have in mine now works for about 3 times before it dies for about 10 minutes, so I get by with it. However you peaked my curiosity so I attempted to pull one off of a board I had laying around. Surprisingly it came off rather easily! There are only 2 solder points, and I really think you could just dab a little solder on the pads to raise them up and glue new vibe motor on there without needing to solder anything. I may give this a try this weekend just to see if it looks like it's replaceable. They are on eBay but I had heard you had to have a hot air solder station to do the repair. Here's a pic of the one I just removed.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
timekiller_9 said:
Hi bmccrary,
Thanks for your reply. I was going to attempt to file the motor housing down enough to use side cutters to clip away at it to make the bottom and solder pads a little more accessible, but your picture is very encouraging, makes me think that the cutting will be unnecessary!
They have what looks to be a good fit motor and it's about 15 minutes drive away from me in Santa Clara California, but by the time I found it online it looks like they closed up shop for the US holiday weekend already, so now I have to wait 'til Tuesday.
Vibration - Micro Motor 1.5-3V
Many similar ones are available on eBay but I want it NOW! Well, Tuesday anyway.
Do you mind if I ask you a few more questions in the meantime?
- Is the motor glued down in that rectangular section or soldered?
- What did you do first, break the glue or desolder the contacts?
- Did you clip the contacts somehow before desoldering them?
- How did you break the glue without breaking the board?
All very encouraging so far... Looking forward to hearing back from you! Thanks again.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hey at least you have a place nearby! :good: I'm in TN with a bunch of cows haha, no motors around here. Ok, this is going to sound over simplified, but all I did was just took a small flat blade screwdriver and pried against the board and the weight attached to the motor shaft. It broke loose without too much force. The rectangular section is just adhesive, there is no solder. The solder joints held on until the motor was lifted 90 degrees off the board, then they just broke off the motor's contacts. However, the pads on the board are still very much intact and they did not lift at all from the board. There is only 2 small solder joints on the whole motor/board combo.
Granted, I'm sure you may want to take a little more care with yours. I didn't care what happened to mine so I just attacked it! However, I think just a little forceful but gentle prying is all that you will need. I hope yours turns out as easy as mine did!
Thanks again bmccrary. I don't think it sounds over simplified, you had to find out it if was glued or soldered somehow. I figured it would be soldered like the sim card chip is underneath, hence my thought that it would need to be clipped to avoid hot air.
Given that it's glued, I don't think there's going to be a better way than the way you went at it. The glue has to be broken through and that's it.
That place in Santa Clara ships, either directly from their site at the link above - $1.95 each + shipping, or you can buy from their eBay listing, lot of 2 for $7.95 shipped.
Vibration Micro Motor 1.5-3V - Lot of 2
I'm really excited by this particular motor design because the way the little legs protrude out a bit, I'm envisioning actually being able to solder this thing in without needing the solder to be completely "underneath" the motor.
Yourself or anyone else following this thread might want to hold off until next week when I can report back on whether or not it worked out. I'll take some photos as I go and, if it's successful, try to post some pics of each step.
bmccrary said:
Hey at least you have a place nearby! :good: I'm in TN with a bunch of cows haha, no motors around here. Ok, this is going to sound over simplified, but all I did was just took a small flat blade screwdriver and pried against the board and the weight attached to the motor shaft. It broke loose without too much force. The rectangular section is just adhesive, there is no solder. The solder joints held on until the motor was lifted 90 degrees off the board, then they just broke off the motor's contacts. However, the pads on the board are still very much intact and they did not lift at all from the board. There is only 2 small solder joints on the whole motor/board combo.
Granted, I'm sure you may want to take a little more care with yours. I didn't care what happened to mine so I just attacked it! However, I think just a little forceful but gentle prying is all that you will need. I hope yours turns out as easy as mine did!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Considering how cheap these handsets are now, why not just buy an entire new phone?
That way you'll have a ton of spare parts and a fresh chassis to continue using
gtmaster303,
Only one reason, but it's a big one. The Simcard mod.
Modifying that board to convert it from being locked on Sprint/CDMA to unlocked Simcard is, at least for me, a very difficult job. I got it done after about 3 trial boards and lots nerve racking fiddling. I'd sooner try to repair the vibrator motor on my existing board if it's at all reasonably possible.
gtmaster303 said:
Considering how cheap these handsets are now, why not just buy an entire new phone?
That way you'll have a ton of spare parts and a fresh chassis to continue using
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
All I can say is that I'm looking for a way to replace the half dead vibrator motor on one of my two SIM modified Qs as well...
Hey kabaldan,
Come back here mid next week and I should have an update on my progress by then. I'm eager to give it a go!
The shop I've got my eye on here locally in the US would charge you a fortune to ship to Europe, but there is at least one Asian seller on eBay that's selling these same "protruding leg motors" pretty cheap w/ free shipping:
5pcs ultra-micromotor 4*5MM mini motor vibration motor rotor of motor DC 1.5- 3V
Hold off 'til next week though, I want to confirm it's a fit before anyone else takes this as a recommendation.
BTW. I'm waiting anxiously for an update from you w.r.t. Marshmallow in the "CyanogenMod 12.1 for Photon Q (Android 5.1)" thread!!
kabaldan said:
All I can say is that I'm looking for a way to replace the half dead vibrator motor on one of my two SIM modified Qs as well...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You could also use Vibrating motor from old Nokia phones as replacement. Cornholio wrote about it. Somewhere in SIM card mod thread. I did this replacement 2 years ago and motor is working properly since than. I have used motor from Nokia 2610.
Thanks for the hint ---UFO---! No amount of searching I was doing was coming up with anything, but include the word Nokia in the search and the thread page comes up top in the search results!
Good News !!! SIM CARD MOD IS HERE !!! (Page 117 - discussing vibrator motor)
And he's got photos even, about half way down this page are the vibrator motor related pictures:
Photon Q Vibrator motor replacement with Nokia motor
The Nokia motor looks very close but clearly different than the Motorola Photon Q original. I have a feeling the Photon Q ones were very poor quality with a low MTBF.
I'm still going to have a look at the motor that has those protruding legs first. If it's going to be a fit, I'm going to try the prying method first. I want to avoid any further use of hot air on my Simcard modded board. Especially seeing as szegi2 says it took 400C of hot air to get it out, yikes!
More soon from me...
---UFO--- said:
You could also use Vibrating motor from old Nokia phones as replacement. Cornholio wrote about it. Somewhere in SIM card mod thread. I did this replacement 2 years ago and motor is working properly since than. I have used motor from Nokia 2610.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Okay folks, I replaced the vibrator motor in my Photon Q today. Not my finest hour for sure, but it's done and I think it should last me a good while anyway. I'll walk you through my experience here with some photos.
First, here's the replacement motor I bought from the links I provided in my previous posts in the thread. It's considerably longer, but there's room for it with some cutting of the inner case:
I decided based on a second look at bmccrary's photo to not go with the raw prying approach. I attempted to snip away at the rear end of the motor to gut it first. Unfortunately, instead of chopping the pins out while they were still straight and attached the the board, I bent the black plastic piece securing the pins and I broke one of the two pads. If you're going to use this approach, I now know that what you need to do is carefully chop the black plastic on the motor away from the pins without having those pins bend around very much, then you'll want to heat the pins and desolder them. Otherwise you run the risk of losing a pad like I did.
My heart sunk as I figured I'd never get the darn thing working in that condition. But I forged on anyway just incase it could possibly work somehow.
By using side cutters to snip away all the sides of the old motor, I was able to apply a soldering iron to the base of the old motor. I couldn't entirely desolder it this way, but the solder weakened as a result and the same side cutters lifted it up with very little effort after some heat was applied.
Well, I figured, in theory, I have a 50% chance of having the power pad and I'm missing the ground. So I soldered up the one pin I could, powered up the phone, and grounded the pin without a pad with a test wire. Sure enough, the motor ran when prompted to do so! And so I soldered in a ground wire to that pin on the motor. Some small mercy I lost the pad that was possible to replace without soldering a wire to the tiniest component imaginable!
The padding under the vibrator wheel needed to be chopped away a bit to allow it to spin freely. Then I used some "E6000" glue to secure the motor a bit to the circuit board along the bottom edges.
The inner case needed some trimming in order to accommodate the larger motor.
There it is in its new home.
And finally, I little video of the new vibrator motor in action:
Replacement Vibrator Motor in Motorola Photon Q
Okay, so in the end, had I not broken the one pad, the job would have been a lot quicker and enjoyable. So I have to recommend against raw prying because you're really taking your chances with that, and if you're going with the chopping technique, you must find a way to destroy the black plastic piece holding the pins without stressing the pins to the point where the pad breaks.
Maybe someone who understands electronics better than I do wouldn't mind to explain the risk I'm running bypassing the SMD component that leads to ground on that pad I lost. I'm not sure if it's a diode, resistor, or capacitor, but a continuity check did show that pad running to something of that sort.
Thanks to everyone that provided hints!
timekiller_9 said:
Okay folks, I replaced the vibrator motor in my Photon Q today. Not my finest hour for sure, but it's done and I think it should last me a good while anyway. I'll walk you through my experience here with some photos.
First, here's the replacement motor I bought from the links I provided in my previous posts in the thread. It's considerably longer, but there's room for it with some cutting of the inner case:
I decided based on a second look at bmccrary's photo to not go with the raw prying approach. I attempted to snip away at the rear end of the motor to gut it first. Unfortunately, instead of chopping the pins out while they were still straight and attached the the board, I bent the black plastic piece securing the pins and I broke one of the two pads. If you're going to use this approach, I now know that what you need to do is carefully chop the black plastic on the motor away from the pins without having those pins bend around very much, then you'll want to heat the pins and desolder them. Otherwise you run the risk of losing a pad like I did.
My heart sunk as I figured I'd never get the darn thing working in that condition. But I forged on anyway just incase it could possibly work somehow.
By using side cutters to snip away all the sides of the old motor, I was able to apply a soldering iron to the base of the old motor. I couldn't entirely desolder it this way, but the solder weakened as a result and the same side cutters lifted it up with very little effort after some heat was applied.
Well, I figured, in theory, I have a 50% chance of having the power pad and I'm missing the ground. So I soldered up the one pin I could, powered up the phone, and grounded the pin without a pad with a test wire. Sure enough, the motor ran when prompted to do so! And so I soldered in a ground wire to that pin on the motor. Some small mercy I lost the pad that was possible to replace without soldering a wire to the tiniest component imaginable!
The padding under the vibrator wheel needed to be chopped away a bit to allow it to spin freely. Then I used some "E6000" glue to secure the motor a bit to the circuit board along the bottom edges.
The inner case needed some trimming in order to accommodate the larger motor.
There it is in its new home.
And finally, I little video of the new vibrator motor in action:
Replacement Vibrator Motor in Motorola Photon Q
Okay, so in the end, had I not broken the one pad, the job would have been a lot quicker and enjoyable. So I have to recommend against raw prying because you're really taking your chances with that, and if you're going with the chopping technique, you must find a way to destroy the black plastic piece holding the pins without stressing the pins to the point where the pad breaks.
Maybe someone who understands electronics better than I do wouldn't mind to explain the risk I'm running bypassing the SMD component that leads to ground on that pad I lost. I'm not sure if it's a diode, resistor, or capacitor, but a continuity check did show that pad running to something of that sort.
Thanks to everyone that provided hints!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I feel like the Photo Q is one of the very few devices that gets hardware modded by its owners. The only other phone I know is the Xt910/912 changing from razr to razr maxx
BlueEditionE6,
It's all about the physical keyboard combined with the ability to run a very resent OS release. If one of the device manufacturers would put out a half way decent new device with a physical keyboard, you'd likely see most of us stop this insanity of hardware hacking this device.
I'm glad you got the new motor installed! I'm going to go ahead and order a couple and give it a go myself. I pried from the shaft end of the motor, and it simply bent up the contacts on the motor without pulling off the pads, but maybe I was lucky. I will have to be more careful with the board I actually use!
Thanks for all of the detailed pictures and efforts! I'm glad putting in a new motor isn't such a scary thing to do anymore! I'll let everyone know how mine turns out. I'm also making a back cover with some bondo to cover the mugen power droid 4 battery that I installed.
bmccrary,
I think you did in fact get lucky with that board. You're as likely to pull off both pads as you are to succeed a second time with only brute force prying. My advise is to file/cut a bit until you can use side cutters to cut the black plastic piece clean through without bending it. Once you've freed up the pins you can pry the rest out if you like, though I think your new motor won't sit in place quite as nice if you have an uneven surface from breaking the top layer off.
One other thing you should know that I didn't mention - if you're using the same motor that I did - those legs on the back of the motor that create the protruding pins are just soldered on to the motor. I had one fall off on me while I was trying to solder it to the board because all that's holding the leg on there is solder! Luckily I was able to get it back on, but what a PITA on top of an already difficult problem. You might be wise to glue the new motor down first and then use tweezers to make sure that leg stays on the motor as you solder it down.
Good luck with it, let us know how you make out.
Vibration motor replacement
FWIW, I replaced the dead vibration motor in my Photon Q. Could not find the exact part but used the following part from cellphonerepairshop.com:
Original Motorola Vibrator Motor Part # 59002313001 for Sprint Photon 4G MB855
This is identical to the Photon Q motor except for a slightly longer rotor, so I had to take care to mount it slightly back on the pads so that the rotor did not hit the PCB... and cut away the plastic slightly (but not as drastically as the OP did).
Carefully wrapped motherboard in tinfoil (AFTER removing SD card and SIM [I have a SIM modded Photon Q]) and used hot air to remove and replace. Worked perfectly first time, no damage or issues. If you don't have the tools to do this yourself, your local cell phone repair shop can do it in a few minutes (assuming you already disassembled the phone). I was a little worried the hot air would damage the plastic keyboard membrane, but it was fine.
Hope this helps anyone needing to replace the vibration motor in their Photon Q.

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