Chinese knockoff Note 2; poor reception because it has no antennas! - Android General

Hi folks. I wanted to share some pictures I took of a phone which you may have seen before, but I found some interesting stuff inside.
I ordered a "Samsung Note II (chinese copy)" from AliExpress. I knew that it probably wasn't going to be the genuine article.
I've been unable to get good reception on it, even on wifi with my AP in the same room. I took the back off the phone, only to find out that the thing has no antennas inside it!
(see pictures)
The spring contacts exists for where the antennas are supposed to go, but then there are no antennas inside the middle cover!
Contrasting to how the Note II actually is arranged in teardown videos.
Sure enough, it's really an MTK6577 internally, and finding a driver for the serial device that pops up when plugged in was pretty hard. I had to search for the USB hardware device ID, which brought me to an XDA page about a HaiPai phone.
It's also pretty funny that it came with a hacked version of AnTuTu Benchmark installed that had all the faked information in there about cores, resolution, Flash size, etc.
Now if only I could find a magic middle housing piece that actually had proper antennas that matched the spring landing contacts on the phone board ....

I also bought NOTE2 clone. It's dual core MTK 6577 but everything work great. Signal is great.
BTW how can we make sure the MTK model is really match with they advertise?

natdanai said:
I also bought NOTE2 clone. It's dual core MTK 6577 but everything work great. Signal is great.
BTW how can we make sure the MTK model is really match with they advertise?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, I'm jealous. This phone without antennas is basically useless, and the seller is giving the runaround and won't give me a refund. I may as well have just put my $170 in a pile and burned it.
I managed to mostly uninstall the hacked version of AnTuTu benchmark they had on there to mis-report the specs. I believe if you drop it into service mode, there is a page that will let you see the actual specs of the phone. With the phone off, hold Volume Down + the button at the bottom + the power button, and the phone will go into a service mode instead of booting up normally, and there is an option to give hardware details.
Does your NOTE2 clone also have the Samsung fake branding on it? It is a fake samsung, or something that roughly similar to a NOTE2? I'd be really interested to see you take it apart, and see if there are any antennas in the middle housing part, where mine are missing.

Related

upgradable camera?

HI,
The otherday i was cleaning and changing the case of my Magician.
I made a wrong move and pulled out the camera, lucky the camera was connected by what it looks like a socket.
So yea, im just wondering, would it be possible to buy another camera module, coz the camera is just plain crap.
im just looking at ways of improving my magician lol.
whitemoo.
if its a standard conection id say yes i did a cam change on an old nec e808y it worked so i cant see why not id head off to maplin and pick up a cam let me know how you get on or if you get stuck
Actually the Magician's camera is a bit... weird. It hangs off by a thin parallel connection instead of being soldered to the board, which I don't think many other cameras do. I dunno, I've given up all hope on that terrible camera
ive just about given up hope to, im only wondering cause my real digicamera is in repair, and im itching to take photo's.
I was looking at aftermarket parts for camera phones, and saw camera modules which looked like they had similar connections, so there might be hope.
When i do get my real digicamera back from repair ill take some high res shots of the connector, and aftermarket case's for reference on this forum.
Whitemoo.
yer get some shots of where it connects to the phone as well
Can anyone give me a detailed description of how to change the case of O2 mini. I have tried to open the case many times but failed. iam afraid i might void the warranty.
Hi maharishi_b,
ill be giving my detailed photo's of the inside of the xda mini soon, and photo's of aftermarket cases i bought off ebay, compared to the original. This will all come soon.
you will need a plastic case opener similar to what they use to open the ipod's, and a torx screwdriver.
Theres a post with pictures on how to open it, but i cant seem to find it.
Whitemoo.
Torx size 6 to be precise. Stupid seller who sold me my casing shipped me a size 5, and I almost made the bottom two screws round before I realised.
Also I dont use the plastic case opener - I find a thin metal thing to be more effective, though I dont know what its called - it holds the binding thing... nevermind.

cameraless Version

does anyone know if there is / will be a cameraless version of the Touch Pro? Or any of the newer phones that is... Treo Pro, Omnia, Diamond, etc... I'm still stuck at Hermes level by Cingular. Does AT&T still make versions without cameras?
Why do you want a camera less version? Why not just get the normal one and not use the camera?
Because he works in a place (or goes to a school) where camera's are prohibited, due to there being sensitive documents (or children) about.
Maybe it helps,when you put a piece of sticky tape on the camera chip under the cover disable camera icon in album,turn off touchflo and delete camera shortcut from programs,so all access to camera app will be disabled. If someone will ask,if you are able to take pictures with it,just give him for a test to take the picture. Or make a small triangle from black plastics and stick it on the alluminium one. Yes,but what with the 3G camera?
Thats correct. A place where cars are around that noone has seen yet. A camera would cost me my job, not even a cameraphone with deactivated camera is allowed. So the AT&T (or until now Cingular) phones where great, because I could show them, they are *manufactured* without camera (though I know the modul is just pulled inside and a black cover where the lens was). Of course it's a real pita to find those on ebay, and from someone that ships to germany too
Mercedes, BMW or Audi I wonder
@TomasNM: in case they ask, I have to prove that the phone was manufactured without camera, i.e. you can order or buy it somewhere. Of course I can fake the camera be gone, but when I have a HTC something for example, I need to be able to show that there is one without camera (like nokia E51 for example).
@NLS: Audi.
there's quite a demand for phones without camera, but it's more or less ignored by companys. Only one so far besides Nokia I know is Cingular, and that was only because they couldn't get their video network to work
Yes,I was in april at BMW in Germany for a bussinesstrip. Everywhere is taking photos strictly disallowed,but I needed some to take(of ours machine for documentation),so I just did it with Olympus camera,not only with HTC Hurricane(my bussiness phone). Everybody thought,I am crazy,but I didn't care. Hahaha. Sorry La....ut. Anyway,our machines are for the welding of already-known parts of BMWs and my pictures was without those parts,so no secret things goes out(if someone wants to ask).
BMW is quite easy on cameras, and in Audi manufacturing part noone cares also (everyone I know that works there has a cameraphone). Though I work in the technical development area, and it's quite different there... There are several cases of termination of work contract...
Considering how difficult it is to get a phone now that doesnt have a camera. Cant you just explain the situation with your boss?
TauTau said:
Thats correct. A place where cars are around that noone has seen yet. A camera would cost me my job, not even a cameraphone with deactivated camera is allowed. So the AT&T (or until now Cingular) phones where great, because I could show them, they are *manufactured* without camera (though I know the modul is just pulled inside and a black cover where the lens was). Of course it's a real pita to find those on ebay, and from someone that ships to germany too
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Pictures, or it didn't happen!
LOL, J/K
What about physically removing the camera and making a little cover to cover the hole. Ive heard of people doing that. Ive also heard there are companies that will do it for you if you don't have the skills. When I worked at 3M it was worse,we simply were not allowed to have phones of any kind in the plant at all. At our plant,we had could have them in the offices,up front but not in the actual manufacturing facility.
If I did that with say,my mogul,I think I would get one of the 3rd party extended batteries with the cover that doesnt have the markings that indicate there is a camera. That way,I would have a phone,with no camera,and a little plastic or rubber plug over a hole,where there is no camera. (rubber plug might be better,that way if someone really thought there was a camera,you could pull out the plug and show them,nothing there. )
There will be a cameraless version, why is everyone douvting it? The 8125, 8525, and Tilt all have had cameraless counterparts.
I'm not doubting, I have asked the bad thing about it, is you have to wait ~2 generations of phones until they pop up on ebay....
(and explaining such a situation to the boss of 30.000 ppl that you maybe saw once on TV is a bit difficult)
pflatlyne said:
What about physically removing the camera and making a little cover to cover the hole. Ive heard of people doing that.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There are some Qteks around, with pushmail and everything, but only for upper management. They just have a sticker on the camera, but they are registered with numbers. Also there's a department that has camera phones in an isolated area, those are the ppl that work on bluetooth in the car etc., but again everything registered. Since I'm external, i.e. working for a company that works for that company, there's no way to get in a situation to be *allowed* to have a secured camera phone.
I the case of the Touch Pro there are 2 cameras that need to be removed / disabled, making it even more difficult to do oneself to the satisfaction required.
Ill send you my Nokia 2110.... and in return I get a pic of the RS8?
no need for the nokia
http://www.auto-motor-und-sport.de/news/auto_-_produkte/hxcms_article_504320_14204.hbs
NutsyUK said:
Considering how difficult it is to get a phone now that doesnt have a camera. Cant you just explain the situation with your boss?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
HP Ipaq 614. Not as cool as the Rapahel, but still a reasonable phone. Without any camera!
Eriol
Maybe this will help/guide/... you: click.

UPDATED!: Pictures of Captivate Mainboard

So.. after some tinkering (and massaging) I got the back cover off of my Captivate and was able to snap some pics of the innards for your viewing pleasure.
It's very similar to the standard Galaxy S, but some of the chips are laid out a bit differently, also, I apologize for the substandard picture quality, the only thing I have available to take pictures is a Blackberry Storm2 with an led flash.
Update: I've taken some better pictures now, and I've got them uploaded:
Teardown Photos
Enjoy!
Update:
Step by Step Teardown
Very cool
That is cool. Wonder how long it will be until we see a complete tear down of the phone
That is (almost) as far as you can go. Theres one more PCB thats actually attached to the screen. Other than that, that main board and the sim/sd card board that sits on top of it are all thats there.
Edit: Here are some better pictures I was able to take this morning, unfortunately EVERY single picture I tried to take of the small Broadcom chip turned out like crap, or you could not see the writing on the chip. I could not read it myself, as the writing on the chip is extremely tiny, and I don't have a magnifying glass.
Teardown Photos
Any way you could do a photo-by-photo instruction for the tear-down? Maybe put some o' dem fancy photo-ma-shop arrows in there?
I suppose I could do that
I just need a few more photos of the "in between" steps to give a better idea of what needs to be disconnected and how to get the back cover off.
And then there's the whole write up thing. -- Question about that, should I do a new "tear down" thread, I'll get a bit more in depth this time as well, I'll get all the chip numbers down (I found a magnifying glass!) so we can better cross reference what hardware we have in comparison to the Galaxy S i9000.
Will probably be a day or two until I can get it up, maybe longer depending on the write up.
Yeah, I'm guessing a tear-down thread would be in order unless there's some way of changing your thread title. Appreciate it.
I spilled a bit of an "adult beverage" on my Captivate last nite. Dang cat... Nothing went wrong w/the phone... save for the power button & the volume rocker... They were a bit... sticky.
I was able to get them cleaned up a bit using a razor blade & some alcohol wipes, but I'd love to be able to fully clean everything by disassembling the phone. I removed the 4 screws in the back beneath the battery cover, but got nowhere...
Can someone confirm if the fm radio chip is there?
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App
t-readyroc said:
I removed the 4 screws in the back beneath the battery cover, but got nowhere...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There are actually 6 screws. Two are hidden underneath the sliding latch for the battery door.
isyiwang said:
Can someone confirm if the fm radio chip is there?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thats one of the purposes of tearing the phone down, I'm hoping to answer that question, or at least give enough people enough information to find out.
https://fjallfoss.fcc.gov/oetcf/eas...me=N&application_id=200666&fcc_id='A3LSGHI897'
pretty cool u think now that we can tear it down, we can add the front camera too it?
I don't know, it would definitely take someone much more skilled than I to fit the Front camera in.
The layout on the top is a tiny bit different, and it would require some changes to that as well as making space above the screen on the opposite side for the camera.
So, definitely NOT an easy job, if it is even possible.
if you look at that video of the teardown of a galaxy S i9000, it looks like the FFC is part of the rear facing camera module
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lt9XNnjAcBc&feature=player_embedded
at 2:59 in the video the camera is taken out, and at 3:07 she turns it over and you can see the front facing camera - does your rear facing camera look different (except for the obvious, missing that small black square with the FFC)?
if it's not different, except for the missing ft camera, i suspect these are all modular components so sammy could assemble them, as needed, to a customer's specs - which means, if someone can source that correct module w/ffc, and rip the driver and software for it from the i9000, that it'd be possible
The camera is identical, minutes the front facing piece, if course. The connection to the main board is the same as well.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App
if you pull it apart again, it'd be nice if you had a magnifier or a camera capable of macro shots so we can definitively identify that gps chipset
The macro on my camera is good, but not that good =)
My magnifying glass, however, shows me that the chip is a BCM4751.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App
My research shows that this chip does not do anything with FM radio so that is quite disappointing. Dammit AT&T! Always got gotta crap up a great phone. So now we don't get FM radio and we don't get the FFC.
if its the same camera module minus the FFC, im sure we will find some junk galaxys on ebay for parts soon enough, sum1 will develop a new front for us hopefully, pop in the new camera, get the ROM for it to work, and hope it can work. i am by no way an engineer or anything technically, so im not saying its plausable, just saying it could work if some1 knew how to do it.
NikAmi said:
My research shows that this chip does not do anything with FM radio so that is quite disappointing. Dammit AT&T! Always got gotta crap up a great phone. So now we don't get FM radio and we don't get the FFC.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This chip is the broadcom gps. He replied to the larryccf question.
So, I hope fm radio is here.
Broadcom BCM4751 is a single-chip GPS receiver used for tracking and navigation, primarily in mobile devices.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App
iLoki said:
The macro on my camera is good, but not that good =)
My magnifying glass, however, shows me that the chip is a BCM4751.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
tks - it may be sammy did use a different gps chipset in the captivate
and btw, macro will magnify - take a high res shot, then open on your pc, depending on how hi res, i've had them open the picture in 25 X 22" or so sizes
and you can see mosquito footprints - had an Omega, a high end one that had a serial number on the backside way too small to read even with a 6X magnifier - had to have been laser etched
used a macro shot to read it - no joke
try it some time

Encountered my first KIRF phone today

For years now, I've been hearing about and seeing examples online of knockoff phones floating around. I never thought I would actually come across one, however, until today.
I work at a major retailer and a customer comes up to me today with a manilla envelope and says that she wants me to setup her phone. She had bought a SIM online from prepaid service and came to the store to buy an airtime card. She then pulls out a phone from the envelope. I see a white "Samsung" phone. It looked to be something similar to a Galaxy S III Mini or Galaxy Express. I didn't think of anything when I first saw it, but I did first look for carrier branding to make sure it wasn't carrier locked. I saw none. The phone also had a hard plastic case on it with a strangely-skewed Android logo on it.
Upon closer inspection when I took the phone over to my work counter, I noticed some oddities. The screen seemed a bit strange. It was resistive. That was the first alarm. I then noticed that the "Samsung" logos on the phone were actually decals or stickers stuck to the front and back of the phone as opposed to being screen printed on, like they should be. After prying the back off, I noticed a really lightweight, cheap looking battery, with no branding whatsoever. There were also two SIM slots with two different IMEIs. I know that some international variants of certain phones have two SIM slots, but I've never actually seen one. Another alarm was something that was printed on the back of the phone under the battery: "Model: i9300." This was defiantly not a Galaxy S III.
I called into the carrier and had the SIM activated. Everything on that end seemed to go through just fine. I put the SIM into the phone and booted it up. I was greeted with a really cheesy boot animation of a stylized Galaxy S logo. When the UI finally loaded, I noticed something reminiscent of a Gingerbread-based TouchWiz homescreen. The fonts were some really pixelated serif fonts and all of the icons and "widgets" on the homescreen were really bad looking icons. When I finally found the settings menu, I dug around looking for APN and after quite a while, I finally found them. I struggled to use the onscreen keyboard with a stylus and put in all the correct settings. I rebooted the phone and was unable to make any calls. A few other oddities that I noticed were an articulating extendable antenna popping from the top of the phone and a "WiFi" logo under the battery. I could find no actual WiFi functions in the software. After playing around with all the call and APN settings, I decided to break the news to the customer.
She said that a "tech-savvy" friend of hers bought the phone for her online for $80. It was hard to tell someone they just basically bought an $80 paperweight. She left and then came back after a short time (after saying she had cried) wanting to buy a "real" Samsung phone. So about $150 later, she had an actual Samsung that was actually able to function as a smartphone should.
Not sure what I want anyone to get from this story; I just thought it was interesting and I thought I'd share it. I just wish I had gotten pictures of the actual phone. Oh well.
Just wow. I've heard about good "fakes", but it's sad that that one was completely unusable.
Sent from my SGH-T999 using xda app-developers app
beanboy89 said:
For years now, I've been hearing about and seeing examples online of knockoff phones floating around. I never thought I would actually come across one, however, until today.
I work at a major retailer and a customer comes up to me today with a manilla envelope and says that she wants me to setup her phone. She had bought a SIM online from prepaid service and came to the store to buy an airtime card. She then pulls out a phone from the envelope. I see a white "Samsung" phone. It looked to be something similar to a Galaxy S III Mini or Galaxy Express. I didn't think of anything when I first saw it, but I did first look for carrier branding to make sure it wasn't carrier locked. I saw none. The phone also had a hard plastic case on it with a strangely-skewed Android logo on it.
Upon closer inspection when I took the phone over to my work counter, I noticed some oddities. The screen seemed a bit strange. It was resistive. That was the first alarm. I then noticed that the "Samsung" logos on the phone were actually decals or stickers stuck to the front and back of the phone as opposed to being screen printed on, like they should be. After prying the back off, I noticed a really lightweight, cheap looking battery, with no branding whatsoever. There were also two SIM slots with two different IMEIs. I know that some international variants of certain phones have two SIM slots, but I've never actually seen one. Another alarm was something that was printed on the back of the phone under the battery: "Model: i9300." This was defiantly not a Galaxy S III.
I called into the carrier and had the SIM activated. Everything on that end seemed to go through just fine. I put the SIM into the phone and booted it up. I was greeted with a really cheesy boot animation of a stylized Galaxy S logo. When the UI finally loaded, I noticed something reminiscent of a Gingerbread-based TouchWiz homescreen. The fonts were some really pixelated serif fonts and all of the icons and "widgets" on the homescreen were really bad looking icons. When I finally found the settings menu, I dug around looking for APN and after quite a while, I finally found them. I struggled to use the onscreen keyboard with a stylus and put in all the correct settings. I rebooted the phone and was unable to make any calls. A few other oddities that I noticed were an articulating extendable antenna popping from the top of the phone and a "WiFi" logo under the battery. I could find no actual WiFi functions in the software. After playing around with all the call and APN settings, I decided to break the news to the customer.
She said that a "tech-savvy" friend of hers bought the phone for her online for $80. It was hard to tell someone they just basically bought an $80 paperweight. She left and then came back after a short time (after saying she had cried) wanting to buy a "real" Samsung phone. So about $150 later, she had an actual Samsung that was actually able to function as a smartphone should.
Not sure what I want anyone to get from this story; I just thought it was interesting and I thought I'd share it. I just wish I had gotten pictures of the actual phone. Oh well.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My friend got suckered into buying a phone that's similar to be the one you described. I took some pics of it. He's pissed as he paid $300 expecting a real GS3.

Swap a good donor motherboard into a G930X LDU (Live Display Unit)? VERY HARD.

Hi,
The question is: Can a Live Display Unit (LDU) version of the S7 be made a fully functional S7 by swapping out it's non-useable motherboard with a good motherboard from a broken donor S7, and what would be involved to make this work?
I am posting and answering my own question here in the hope it will provide answers to various other posts I have seen in the S7 and the S7 Edge sub-forums. The questions and the answers are relevant to both versions of the S7.
Background:
I am a semi-retired technically oriented handy fellow who is in his early 60's, living on a modest income. As of this last summer (2017), I was still using the Galaxy S4 that I had gotten new in early 2014. The S4 has been remarkably durable, and is still working like the day I bought it, but it's just slowly becoming more and more obsolescent. The only thing I have had to replace over the almost 4 years I have had it was a tempered glass screen protector that did it's job and sacrificially protected my screen, a few cases that wore out, a frayed charging cord, and a few replaceable Li-Ion batteries that no longer were keeping their charge long enough.
However, the S4's limitations of only 16GB of onboard storage, only 2GB RAM, the increasing (relative) slowness of it's 32 bit quad-core processor when running multiple current apps, and the fact it is stuck at Android 5.1 were becoming increasingly an irritant.
I determined the time had come to upgrade my phone. I didn't mind signing a new contract and getting a new phone as I've always had access to reasonably priced phone plans, but I don't like the idea of having to pay a monthly additional fee of $30-40 to lease a phone that has to be returned after 2 years or purchase a phone at full retail cost with even higher monthly payments and/or a big down payment. So I determined that somehow I would have to find a "deal" on a like-new good fairly current but used phone.
I looked around at the cost of the then new S8s and could not justify paying $800 or $900 USD on a phone. I then looked at the 2016 flagship, the S7, but they were still selling then for $300 or more used. I didn't want to get anything older because I wanted to be on the most current version of Android and have at least 32GB of on-board storage, 4GB of memory, and a good 64bit quad-core processor. I also wanted to stay with Samsung, because I was familiar with their "version" of Android and knew them to usually have a fantastic build quality (except for their debacle with the self-igniting Note in 2016).
So I started out looking at how I could acquire a like-new used S7 for about 1/2 of the going rate -- or about $150 USD. I have repaired my own "smart" cell phones in the past -- but that was back in the days when they were held together by screws. I hadn't needed to open up my S4, and had not personally seen the insides of the ever-more-glued-together phones that have been produced since, although I had kept somewhat current by watching various YouTube videos of tear-downs of new phones as they came out. As I said earlier, I am a technically oriented handy fellow, so the thought of learning to deal with the hardware and assembly methods used in the newer versions of smart phones didn't scare me (at least not very much). If someone else can work on them, then I can educate myself and do it too. Thus I determined that the way to get my new phone at a reduced price would be to find one and repair it. So I started my research of the S7.
Research:
Through my research, saw that there are a lot of really busted up S7 phones out there that do show solid signs of life when plugged in (although the screen is broken and non-functional). These phones power up, hold a charge, make the appropriate booting sounds, and the LEDs at the top and bottom light up during the boot process. All of this indicates a functioning motherboard. Additionally, many of these badly broken phones with functioning motherboards also have readable ESN/IMEI numbers on their backs, and so their ESN/IMEI numbers can be verified as non-blacklisted and non-leased. Basically, you can tell if the broken phone you are buying has an activatable motherboard in it or not before you purchase it.
I saw that S7 phones with blacklisted ESN/IMEI numbers or that were blocked because of being on-lease but that were in like-new condition were still selling at prices in the mid-to-high $200s, which is more than I wanted to pay. For ethical reasons I also didn't like the possibility of potentially supporting thieves by buying stolen stuff they were selling. So it was looking like I was going to have to look at paying for a broken phone and a $150 replacement screen assembly and miscellaneous other needed parts, at a total cost of $200-$225. This still didn't fit in my desired budget.
I then learned of the existence of the Live Display Units (LDUs) that come up for sale on Ebay from time-to-time. These LDUs have special motherboards in them that were manufactured without the cellular radios that fully functional S7s have. This was done by Samsung to reduce the thefts of display models at the stores that sell their phones. Other than the lack of cellular capability, the LDU models are fully functional -- working screens, cameras, speakers, wi-fi, apps, they just can't connect to cellular towers and so can't be used for phone calls or for mobile data purposes. They also have a "special" firmware version installed on them that prevents them from being turned off, and automatically wipes their memory and restarts the "demo" programs after a certain amount of time has elapsed. Most of these LDUs are in like-new condition -- never having been in pockets or purses getting scratched up, never dropped, never gotten wet, etc. They might have some screen burn-in issues -- but that is tolerable to me. I saw them selling for around $110 USD. The LDU models have an "X" suffix. In the case of the S7 models, the LDU model numbers are G930X (S7) and G935X (S7 Edge).
So I got to wondering if it might be possible to combine the two otherwise useless phones and make a like-new S7 out of them by swapping a fully functional motherboard from a donor S7 into an LDU like-new "body" with a good screen. I determined to try it out, and promised to document the results of my experiment on the various posts I had seen asking similar questions -- but didn't have answers. (I'll be going back to those posts and posting a link to this one.)
Preparation:
I watched a number of tear-down and repair videos on the S7, and purchased a collection of the appropriate specialized tools from various sellers on Ebay (some directly from the manufacturers in China, some from US sellers). These specialized hand tools are fairly inexpensive -- for example one of the most useful tools when ungluing glass from the frame is a set of plastic guitar picks -- some use a sacrificial deck of playing cards (plastic guitar picks can be wiped off and reused). I knew that I was going to have to make do without some of the equipment the "pro"s use -- like vacuum tables, heating ovens, UV curing stations, etc. I would have to make do with other methods to hold the phones, to heat them, and use LED UV flashlights or UV fluorescent bulbs in existing fixtures for UV glue curing.
On to actually "doing it":
I purchased a couple of functioning G930X LDUs on Ebay in good cosmetic condition. One of them had some minor screen burn-in, the other was in a boot-loop. I didn't care about either issue as I wasn't going to keep the motherboard, and minor screen burn-in doesn't bother me, as it is really only noticeable when the screen is mostly white, which isn't often in real-world usage. I got these for about $107 USD each. Far less than just a replacement screen assembly would have cost. For some reason, the Edge versions of the LDU's were going for much more, some close to $200, but I wanted the non-edge version anyway.
I then purchased a couple of badly busted up S7 donor phones with functioning motherboards and clean ESN/IMEI numbers, which I got from the sellers and verified prior to the purchase. I was able to get these "parts-only" phones for around $45-60 USD each.
I then got to the actual work of opening up the phones and attempting the motherboard swap. Here's what I found out:
Well, my first attempt didn't work out the way I had hoped, but I learned A LOT.
Firstly, to replace the motherboard on the S7, you pretty much have to completely disassemble all the parts contained on the back of the metal middle-frame. An exception to this is the bottom daughterboard which normally can be left in place when replacing a motherboard. This part of the work turned out to be fairly easy to do once the back glass was removed. I cracked the first back glass I removed, but was able to get them off in one piece after that. Luckily, the replacement glass backs are not very expensive (even the ones that come with the camera lens and adhesive pre-installed are less than $10 USD.)
In addition to the motherboard, I found the following parts are different between the North American (NA) S7 models and the demo G930X LDU model. This will likely be true for the G935 Edge models too:
1. The plastic covers at the top and bottom of the phone that include the molded-in antennas are different between the LDU and the NA models. I think that they might be the same as the European versions though. This was not a problem, because I could simply use the parts from the non-LDU donor phone that had the bashed in screen and back.
2. The phone speaker (not to be confused with the earpiece speaker) is different than the NA versions. The LDU contained the European version. I don't know if this is really so different that it wouldn't work, but, if you ever want to send it to an official "factory" service place for some reason, they might reject the phone because it doesn't contain the "proper" parts. Again, this is not a problem, because I could use the speaker assembly from the North American non-LDU donor phone.
(I suspect one of the reasons for the differences in the antenna and speaker parts has to do with tighter European RF (radio frequency) emission standards)
3. Here's where the big problem occurred -- the LDU also has a modified bottom daughterboard (this is the daughterboard that has the charging port and headphone jack on it). This daughterboard on a regular S7 contains antenna connections and circuitry that is missing on the LDU model. That wouldn't be an issue except It turns out that, on the S7, this bottom daughterboard includes the leads, sensors, and LEDs for the "soft" buttons to the left and right of the Home button. What this means is that, in order to swap this bottom daughterboard out, you have to remove the screen assembly from the front of the phone so you can expose and release the softkeys that are part of this daughterboard and that cannot be detached from it. I understand that this is true for both models of the S7.
Getting the screen assembly loose from the adhesive that bonds it to the metal middle-frame without damaging it, even with using heat, is a very tricky and failure-prone operation. The adhesive is incredibly strong and the slightest wrong amount of pressure will fracture the fragile LCD that is on the bottom of the screen assembly (the LCD is actually what is glued to the middle-frame). Break the LCD and you've got a dead $150 USD front screen assembly, basically making the LDU a useless investment. The LDU motherboard isn't worth much. Basically what you have left is the battery, the frame, the Qi and NFC antenna assembly, the cameras, and possibly the back glass if you managed to get it off without breaking it. None of these parts are very valuable.
I failed at my attempt to do this, and must have cracked the LCD -- although I was very careful and worked slowly. I couldn't see a crack, but it wouldn't light up after I reassembled the phone. I was careful not to damage the leads on the display when loosening the glue on the screen edges (you have to be extra careful on one side where the leads are routed through the middle-frame close to one of the edges) -- so that wasn't the cause of the failure.
As the euphemism goes -- "hindsight is 20/20". I now think the correct approach is to leave the LCD and digitizer glued down to the middle-frame, and instead (with heat) separate the front glass from the digitizer and LCD using the wire separation method you can see being done on YouTube in videos where just the front glass is cracked and being replaced (the LCD and digitizer are still functional). Once the glass is separated, the soft keys are exposed and the daughterboard can be swapped out. You would then have to use the specialized UV activated glue to reattach the glass to the digitizer and LCD. I seem to recall that there is a plastic film polarizing filter that often gets damaged during the separation process and has to be replaced, along with the seals for the top and bottom, and the seals for the sides of the glass. The glass, seals and the filter are not that expensive. However, doing this screen disassembly process is tricky too (but not as bad as trying to preserve the LCD when attempting to remove the entire assembly).
I don't recommend others go this route (attempting to use an LDU for it's frame and display assembly) unless they have experience successfully being able to remove and install the front glass on these phones.
With it's fully curved sides, the S7 Edge (G935) version would be more difficult to get the front glass removed and replaced. I know I would want to practice on a couple of S7 Edge phones with fully broken displays before I attempted it on a good display..... It is certainly not a project for the faint-of-heart.
The glass separation for the regular G930 S7 doesn't look too difficult, as long as a person uses (moderate) heat, is careful, and has patience. I have one more G930X LDU that I purchased, so I am going to find out. I'll try to update this post with the results of that effort.
International/European versions of daughterboard are different than North American
Something I did learn that will be of interest to anyone attempting to swap motherboards between an international/European version of the phone and a North American version of the phone is that there IS a difference in that same troublesome bottom daughterboard between the two versions of the phones. I know this because I asked a parts supplier, and they informed me that there are two different versions of this daughterboard -- one international/European and the other North American. (I don't know which version is used in the Chinese domestic version of the S7, or whether or not there is a difference between the versions used in the various Asian markets. Hopefully one of the experienced Asian posters will know and reply to this thread with the answers.)
UPDATE (12/16/2017):
I don't know exactly what the differences are in the daughterboard, but they are slight. I recently got a G930FD parts phone with a bad motherboard, and discovered that I could use the European daughterboard with a North American motherboard and antenna set -- you should switch out the antenna wires that go from the motherboard to the daughterboard (the colors are reversed), and it works just fine
Well, it turns out I was wrong about the European daughterboard being compatible with the North American motherboards. Everything on the phone works EXCEPT the wireless radio can't get a signal lock, and eventually shows an "x" on the signal bars indicating that the radio has turned off. I tried this with multiple T-Mobile SIM cards, and worked with a tier 2 T-mobile phone technician trying every possible thing to work around this. Bottom line, it looks like the European version of the charging port daughterboard is only compatible with the G930F and G930FD motherboards. Oh, well. It was worth a try. I am now looking for a working G930F or G930FD motherboard to get this phone working again. I am also looking for a good North American G930A, P, T, V frame and good display (or just a good complete screen full assembly) to make a whole phone with the good T-mobile motherboard I have.
Samsung learned their lesson regarding this daughterboard
One other point I learned from a cell phone technician -- the issue of the front softkeys being part of this bottom daughterboard has been fixed in the S8. It seems Samsung learned "the error of their way" with this design. Whenever this daughterboard needs to be replaced on an S7 due to a charging port issue or headphone jack issue it requires removing the front glass to get the job done -- making the work a lot more involved and costly for Samsung's own repair staff, as well as all the authorized in-warranty carrier cell phone repair centers.
A lot of grumbling has occurred. due to this design. I am sure the post-warranty non-authorized repair centers are also pleased that this design ended with the S7. Their customers can't have been pleased at the elevated post-warranty charging port repair costs this design has caused....
Success in a non-LDU motherboard swap:
After failing to be able to use the first LDU to build a useable S7 phone by swapping it's motherboard with a good motherboard (with a clean ESN/IMEI number) from an S7 with a badly broken display and back (and scarred up middle-frame), I was able to use another North American S7 that I found with a good display, but a bad motherboard. The swap was pretty easy to do, and I wound up with a functional S7 at the end, for much less than I would have paid for a refurbished or a good used S7. I did have to deal with bypassing the FRP lock on the good motherboard because, of course, when the screen was broken, the previous owner couldn't log out of their Google account, so the FRP lock came into play once the phone was factory reset. That "adventure" is covered in another post I made a few weeks ago. Doing this first S7 motherboard swap has been an invaluable learning process as well -- one that I hope to be able to leverage and turn into a profitable sideline/hobby in doing future swaps and repairs. I find I really enjoy working on these intricate pieces of electronic equipment.....
A cautionary tale:
BTW, there's an interesting story (at least to me) as to why the motherboard on the S7 I used as the "screen donor" was damaged. I think it's a cautionary tale of what NOT to do to your mobile phone....
The previous owner had not used the "sim tray removal tool" to eject the S7s SIM tray, and had snapped the top off of the sim tray attempting to brute-force it out. They then went on to use what must have been a screwdriver, knife and/or nail file to try and pry the rest of the tray out, and in the process broke off most of the electrical connecting "fingers" on the motherboard that contact and connect to the SIM and MicroSD cards. I only discovered the extent of the damage once I had removed the motherboard and gently pushed the remnants of the broken SIM tray out and was able to see what had been done. In fact, I found the SIM card was still in place within the bottom 3/4 remnant of the broken SIM tray, which was also still very much in place. The SIM card, which is located at the bottom end of the SIM tray, also showed evidence of how much digging and gouging the owner or the seller had done trying to get the broken tray out -- they had dug around that deeply within the slot on the phone that they scratched and deeply scarred up the SIM card.
Otherwise this motherboard was functional -- unfortunately since it couldn't connect to the SIM card, it rendered the motherboard almost as useless as an LDU motherboard. I think the Ebay seller who sold me the phone had done some further damage trying to get the phone to work. The story he told me was that the original owner's kid had jammed something down inside the slot -- this proved obviously not to be the work of a small child.
A last thought regarding using LDU and other semi-functional motherboards
One last thought regarding LDU and other semi-functional motherboards -- these boards can be reflashed with functional firmware, and the motherboards can be probably be used in phones with broken displays as always-on smart home controllers, possibly as media players, or whatever else a person can imagine with a wi-fi capable Android device. I am planning on using my old S4 in this fashion -- connected to a USB OTG and MHL enabled docking station so it can be connected to an external display and sound system. Samsung made a special docking station just for the S3 and S4 (and probably the Note 2) that makes this possible, and can be found used online for much less than it originally cost. I know that the S7 is also OTG enabled, so with it's included adapter or a generic OTG docking station or cable you can do similar stuff.
My hope is that this post is both useful and interesting.
Good luck with your adventures with the Galaxy S7!
Philip
Very nice adventure Sir
I have S7 G930FD with broken motherboard but good display LED screen
Can I swap the broken 930FD's motherboard with Working well 930F's one?
Help
Hello Phillip,
My S7 screen was damaged and i acquired a LDU and attempted the motherboard and daughterboard swap. The screen came come and I it would seem that everything was fine....except that the touchscreen is unresponsive lol....in your experience is it a software/firmware issue or did i damage the digitizer? could it be i did not "reconnect" it properly. Plz help
agusto888 said:
Very nice adventure Sir
I have S7 G930FD with broken motherboard but good display LED screen
Can I swap the broken 930FD's motherboard with Working well 930F's one?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I believe that would work. The daughterboard and antennas should be the same for both the FD and the F models.
Let me know how it goes.
Good luck,
Philip
Meesh8 said:
Hello Phillip,
My S7 screen was damaged and i acquired a LDU and attempted the motherboard and daughterboard swap. The screen came come and I it would seem that everything was fine....except that the touchscreen is unresponsive lol....in your experience is it a software/firmware issue or did i damage the digitizer? could it be i did not "reconnect" it properly. Plz help
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It isn't a firmware issue because the F motherboard you used should have F firmware on it. If you tried to flash the FD firmware onto the F motherboard you will likely run into serious problems because the hardware for the second SIM card is not present. You could simply re-flash the F firmware onto your motherboard and eliminate this as the issue. Make sure you use the non-HOME CSC version so your phone will be completely set back to factory settings. The HOME version of the CSC firmware section preserves some of the user data. The non-HOME version resets almost everything.
It's hard to say what the problem is without having the phone to look at. It would seem strange that you would have somehow broken the digitizer but not the Amoled display. However, if you nicked the screen's cable when you removed it from the LDU, that might be causing the issue.
I would try to disconnect and re-seat the display cable and see what happens -- you've got nothing to lose at this point. Make sure you don't force the connector into place -- it should connect easily once you get it lined up correctly. If you forced it, you may have bent some of the pins on the motherboard or the ribbon connector and that could be causing your issue. Look closely at both under a strong magnifier to check this. If something is bent, sometimes it can be unbent, but you'll need magnification and needle-sharp tools to manipulate the tiny contacts.
Good luck,
Philip
phreich said:
I believe that would work. The daughterboard and antennas should be the same for both the FD and the F models.
Let me know how it goes.
Good luck,
Philip
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Fortunately I've found 930FD's motherboard. My S7 comeback to live again.
I've experienced damaged motherboard twice. After played around with TWRP custom rom.
Do bad flashing customrom from TWP, indeed able to damage the motherboard sir?
agusto888 said:
Fortunately I've found 930FD's motherboard. My S7 comeback to live again.
I've experienced damaged motherboard twice. After played around with TWRP custom rom.
Do bad flashing customrom from TWP, indeed able to damage the motherboard sir?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't use TWRP. I flash the motherboards with Odin. In my experience, you can usually resurrect a motherboard with corrupted or wong firmware by reflashing it with the proper factory firmware using Odin.
Just curious, where did you find the 930FD motherboard, and how much did it cost? Do they have more? I also am looking for a 930FD motherboard.
phreich said:
I don't use TWRP. I flash the motherboards with Odin. In my experience, you can usually resurrect a motherboard with corrupted or wong firmware by reflashing it with the proper factory firmware using Odin.
Just curious, where did you find the 930FD motherboard, and how much did it cost? Do they have more? I also am looking for a 930FD motherboard.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Already try flashing proper stock rom via odin with no luck. Sending them to official samsung service center : they also cant flash the stock firmware. I am quite sure it was the symptom of damaged Emmc UFS
I live at Indonesia. Got the working mobo from local online shop, I dont think they can deliver overseas.
The FD mobo cost $125 and the F cost $90 in online shop.
In offical samsung service center, the FD mobo cost $240
Hi Philip,
converting an LDU to a full working smartphone is possible just taking the back out and if you don't mind loosing the two bottom touch buttons: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KnwfCc5Y0H0
You could then install the Simple Control App to have the soft buttons enabled so you could have all the functionality from the two touch buttons you loose: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=ace.jun.simplecontrol

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