Develop Bugs

[Q] G2 SIM Slot acting up. Replace?

Tmobile G2. Started losing network every so often. Would need to reboot or sometimes switching to airplane mode and back would work. Then it just wouldnt work at all. Went to Tmobile store and they gave me a new SIM card. Tried that, and still no luck. SIM works fine in other phones.
I tried multiple cards, and they seem to work fine so long as I apply heavy pressure to (push down on) the card while using the phone. If I let go, the network drops within seconds. Must be the SIM slot itself..
Anyone ever replace the slot on a G2? I think it's soldered directly to the board, but I havent taken it apart yet. Hopefully it's just a few points that I can easily remove. Where can I get a replacement though? Anyone know parts that have matching solder poins?

yeah its soldered to the motherboard and unless you are amazing at soldering it will be tough, to top it off I've never seen one on ebay or amazon so you'll have to dig for one
Sent from my HTC Vision using xda premium

FuNKSioN said:
Tmobile G2. Started losing network every so often. Would need to reboot or sometimes switching to airplane mode and back would work. Then it just wouldnt work at all. Went to Tmobile store and they gave me a new SIM card. Tried that, and still no luck. SIM works fine in other phones.
I tried multiple cards, and they seem to work fine so long as I apply heavy pressure to (push down on) the card while using the phone. If I let go, the network drops within seconds. Must be the SIM slot itself..
Anyone ever replace the slot on a G2? I think it's soldered directly to the board, but I havent taken it apart yet. Hopefully it's just a few points that I can easily remove. Where can I get a replacement though? Anyone know parts that have matching solder poins?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've been looking for the part too, had some luck just resoldering the old one, twice(!).
CAREFUL if you do this. AND DON'T push on the sim slot. This will wreck/crack the traces for the solder for the SIM holder itself. The holder is soldered to the surface of the MoBo. Mine (mobo) got damged on the second solder operation, some traces came off of the board. There is a place I found that will repair it for you for 89bux, but seems pricey to me.
http://www.repairlabs.com/htc-desire-z-sim-card-tray.html

looks like compatible sim holder
FYI
http://www.parts4repair.com/samsung-galaxy-note-sim-connector/
I'm going to order it (only 1 buk) and give it a whirl. Will post results.

what was the result?

Sim card tray damaged. Best way to fix?

I have a tendency to hop back and forth between phones. Today I went to put my sim card in my Note 2. I use a nano sim card adaptor (I decided to experiment with the iPhone 5 for about a month...) to put my sim card in my Note 2 and my Nexus 4. Unfortunately, the sim card fell out while I was putting it in my Note 2 today and the adaptor got stuck in the tray. After a few moments of agonizing struggle, I got the adapter out. Now my Note 2 won't recognize my sim card. I think the prongs at the entrance of the slot were damaged, since that's where the adaptor kept getting hung up.
Is there a way to find out if it's completely broken or if the prongs are just out of place? And if it's broken, does anyone know how much a repair would cost? I don't know that I have the confidence to try to repair it myself.
Thanks.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 2

The SIM card reader module I'm fairly certain is soldered onto the logic board, so unless your good with soldering, a replacement SIM reader isnt very practical. However, the Sprint Epic Touch (GS2) sd card reader module is attached only by a simple flex cable, so its possible the same may apply here. If this were the case, the replacement part shouldnt cost more than 10-20$ (assuming their available) and replacement would be as hard as taking the back housing off.
Try comparing the SIM slot with another similar model and see if you can see if something is out of place. See see see see see see.:good:

I think I may have done the same to mine with one of those SIM adapters. I've ordered this and it should be here in a few days. I'll give it a go...
http://www.ebay.com/itm/OEM-Samsung...271792?pt=PDA_Accessories&hash=item1c313e9ef0

u did the same exact thing i did lol but what i thought was a damaged sim tray was somehow just corruted firmware when i restored back to stock everything worked just fine i even called samsung and they were going to replace it but since i live in Hawaii i didnt want to wait so i just did a restore in odin and everything works fine
if u are really damaged ur stim tray and dont wanna wait on samsung u can try this
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UT-2zrZ_aNo
but good luck try restoring with odin first

I'm glad I'm not the only one to have had this problem, heh heh.
Anyway, after watching the video, I think I'm going to send my Note to Samsung and have them fix it. I would probably ruin my phone if I did it myself. Should I do a factory reset to protect my data before doing so? I don't know if they'll be sending the same phone back to me, since it says they may replace it with another if they determine that they aren't going to fix the part that's broken.

blackplague1347 said:
I'm glad I'm not the only one to have had this problem, heh heh.
Anyway, after watching the video, I think I'm going to send my Note to Samsung and have them fix it. I would probably ruin my phone if I did it myself. Should I do a factory reset to protect my data before doing so? I don't know if they'll be sending the same phone back to me, since it says they may replace it with another if they determine that they aren't going to fix the part that's broken.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
they will wipe ur data if ur rooted and have a custom rom on your phone u need to return to stock and set the flash counter to zero.
u would send the phone is no battery no battery cover no sim card so sd card just the phone nothing else
try to restore ur phone via odin first
http://galaxynote2root.com/galaxy-n...ootunbrick-galaxy-note-2-with-stock-firmware/
if u still get no sim card error after doing that then give samsung a call phone number is on the phone itself under battery and they will send u a box and u should have to wait about 2 weeks then u will either get a fixed phones or a replacement not sure how they do it since i fixed my no sim issue with odin

I did the same thing once. Just called att and told them it wasn't reading a simple anymore and they sent me a new one.
Sent from my GT-N7105 using Tapatalk 2

My Fix For Broken SIM Reader Pin
This is an old thread, I know. But the problem is ongoing. These SIM card adapters are just plain evil. Now that this has happened to me, I googled the issue and see that there are tons of folks suffering. I am posting this reply so that others can see the "fix" I managed for my International Samsung Note I. I am sure it can be applied to most other phones.
I should point out that in order to get any usable access to and visibility of the SIM card reader I had to remove the battery cover and the back from the phone's touchscreen. This reveals the motherboard to which the SIM card reader is soldered. I found a good video on this at YouTube. It wasn't that hard although I did not have the plastic pry bar they used - I think I will get one for the future. I managed with a small flat head jewelers screw driver and an ancient, plastic shirt collar stay. (I can hear my mother saying "save it - you'll find a use for it!" I hate it when she is right.) Once complete I could move on.
At first, I tried to replace the SIM card reader pin that was broken off by the SIM card adapter with a tiny piece or rolled-up tin foil. I saw someone else reference this approach and it seemed possible and cheap. Alas, it did not work. After many attempts, the phone simply would not recognize any SIM card. I finally got to sleep at 3am.
I then found a piece of brass shim stock that I have had lying around for years. (I am hearing mom again!) It is item 1412110231, Brass Strip .016x1/2inx12in shown here. I got mine at the local hardware store for some other aborted project. I used some snips to cut off a tiny strip from one end and then cut that strip to maybe 1/3 to 1/2 its overall length. The idea was to place the strip inside the SIM reader slot where the pin had broken off in an effort to create a contact point to replace the pin. Cutting the tiny strip off the stock piece caused the tiny strip to bow a bit. It turns out that was a good thing but I had to reduce the amount of bow quite a bit for it to fit inside the reader. Remove any rough edges from the tiny strip with a file.
With the touchscreen assembly lying flat on the table I managed to get the tiny strip in place. I was then able to slowly and carefully slide the SIM card into the reader and this resulted in a contact good enough to make the phone again recognize the SIM card and for cell service to be restored. Hurray! Yes, I was able to carefully place the battery in its bay and operate the power button to perform testing.
But you must remain aware that the tiny strip is just lying in the slot and is held in place only by friction/pressure from the SIM card inserted into the reader. Therefore, for the rest of the phone's life, it requires great care when removing the SIM and handling the phone when a SIM is not installed . Basically when removing the SIM, the phone MUST remain flat on its display until the SIM is re-installed. Moving the phone around in other orientations without a SIM card installed will definitely cause the tiny strip fall out. And who knows what hell that will cause?
You cannot put the phone's back onto the touchscreen with the SIM card in place. At first I thought about cutting the SIM's length down so the back would install even with the SIM in place. Before doing this I tried to carefully snap the top portion of the back onto the touchscreen while it all remained flat on the table so the tiny strip wouldn't move. With the top 1/3 of the back snapped on, I could just manage to insert the SIM through the phone's cover and have the tiny strip held in place by the SIM while I snapped the rest of the back into position. This worked pretty well but your mileage may vary.
I basically plan to leave the SIM in place forever - even if it is not to be used. I also put a reminder note on the battery so that I am less likely to forget that I made this hack.
I hope the annotated photos help those who follow me - as surely others will do. Good luck. I was very lucky to have destroyed only one pin and for it to be in the most accessible part of the SIM reader.

[Q] Removing the flash storage chip

Hi all,
the wife's HOX died suddenly, won't turn on at all, wont recoginse being plugged in into either the wall or the PC, no lights, nothing.
Unfortunately she has taken a number of pictures of our 5 month year old son on it, which obviously we would like to have back!
I'm competent with taking the phone apart and putting it back togther, however what I want to know is how the Samsung Flash chip is connected to the mainboard.
I can see black glue around the outside of it, but I am unsure if the underlying pins are also soldered down.
My intention was to razor blade the glue away and then buy a knackered (but working) HOX and transfer the chips over.
Obviously I wouldnt be able to do this if the chip is soldered down. I have monkey hands when it comes to soldering things.
Is anyone able to offer any insight?
I've had a google and read the datasheet for the specific chip, but it says nothing about how it is connected.
Thanks in advance.

ucof said:
Hi all,
the wife's HOX died suddenly, won't turn on at all, wont recoginse being plugged in into either the wall or the PC, no lights, nothing.
Unfortunately she has taken a number of pictures of our 5 month year old son on it, which obviously we would like to have back!
I'm competent with taking the phone apart and putting it back togther, however what I want to know is how the Samsung Flash chip is connected to the mainboard.
I can see black glue around the outside of it, but I am unsure if the underlying pins are also soldered down.
My intention was to razor blade the glue away and then buy a knackered (but working) HOX and transfer the chips over.
Obviously I wouldnt be able to do this if the chip is soldered down. I have monkey hands when it comes to soldering things.
Is anyone able to offer any insight?
I've had a google and read the datasheet for the specific chip, but it says nothing about how it is connected.
Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I really can't see this being successful, sorry. I'm fairly sure the chip is soldered down, and the chances of damaging the chip are very, very high if you want to try and get it off.
If the phone didn't come into contact with water a JTAG recovery might be possible. It may not get the phone working again but it could get your data back. Alternatively companies like DriveSavers have an excellent reputation for getting data off flash chips, but it'll cost you in the region of $400 - $1400 (I got a quote a month or so back, when I thought my HOX was finished.)
I really wouldn't recommend trying to remove the chip though. You could do irreparable damage to the chip, which would render it completely unreadable.

ucof said:
Hi all,
the wife's HOX died suddenly, won't turn on at all, wont recoginse being plugged in into either the wall or the PC, no lights, nothing.
Unfortunately she has taken a number of pictures of our 5 month year old son on it, which obviously we would like to have back!
I'm competent with taking the phone apart and putting it back togther, however what I want to know is how the Samsung Flash chip is connected to the mainboard.
I can see black glue around the outside of it, but I am unsure if the underlying pins are also soldered down.
My intention was to razor blade the glue away and then buy a knackered (but working) HOX and transfer the chips over.
Obviously I wouldnt be able to do this if the chip is soldered down. I have monkey hands when it comes to soldering things.
Is anyone able to offer any insight?
I've had a google and read the datasheet for the specific chip, but it says nothing about how it is connected.
Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try first change the battery to see if the phone will start again it is the cheap way and most secure

de4life - thanks, I've had a quote for data recovery from Kroll. They want £95+ to look at it and provide a list of what can be recovered and then between £195 and £395 for actually recovering it for me. Far too expensive!
As for JTAG, there's been no water damage whatsoever; I've had a quick Google and it says this is more for Routers. How could I do it to my phone? Im not fussed about getting the phone working again, just want the contents of the flash storage back.
Thant - alas, the was the first thing I tried. New battery has made no difference. Which is annoying as her old Desire Z showed the same symptoms, we bought a new battery and its works again. She's currently using that until we decide what to do.

ucof said:
de4life - thanks, I've had a quote for data recovery from Kroll. They want £95+ to look at it and provide a list of what can be recovered and then between £195 and £395 for actually recovering it for me. Far too expensive!
As for JTAG, there's been no water damage whatsoever; I've had a quick Google and it says this is more for Routers. How could I do it to my phone? Im not fussed about getting the phone working again, just want the contents of the flash storage back.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
First thing's first, if you do go down the data recovery route try to avoid companies that charge any type of analysis fee. Kroll are a well known company but I've not heard much good things about them. I went through an extensive search of companies when I thought I'd killed my HOX and found DriveSavers were the best in terms of reputation, and they don't charge a fee to look at the phone. They are very expensive though, perhaps more so than Kroll, and you have to send the phone to the States which is daunting and costly in of itself (I assume from your £ quotation that you're UK based?).
It's good that there's no water damage. It's difficult to say what can cause the motherboard to suddenly stop working like that, but it's unlikely there has been a serious short circuit that could have affected the memory chip. Have you tried dissembling the phone completely and putting it back together? It may sound ridiculous to even try it, but when one of my older phones suddenly died I managed to get it working by taking it apart and then just putting it back together again. There are a lot of connections within the HOX motherboard framework that could easily have come loose. You might already have done this, but just a thought.
In terms of JTAG, it can be done on mobile phone motherboards with the right equipment. It's usually used for soft bricked phones to reset the software back to its original form if it's been corrupted, but I have seen cases where hard bricked phones were brought back to life using this method, including the HOX. It's not really something you can do at home (not cheaply, anyway) but there are companies that provide this service. One of the more popular services is here: http://mobiletechvideos.mybigcommerce.com/htc-one-x-jtag-brick-repair/ - I believe they post on here from time to time as well. Again, based in the States, but significantly cheaper than data recovery and as far as I've heard very professional. I don't know of any mobile phone JTAG services in the UK, though they probably do exist.
Keep in mind the data chip on your phone is likely fine. Even if the motherboard has stopped working, the memory chip itself is unlikely to be affected and will still contain all of your data - albeit in a scrambled form. If you send it out to companies then they can potentially damage the chip beyond repair, if you go down the route of sending the phone out to repair/data recovery companies I would urge extreme caution. If it's still on the chip the data itself isn't going anywhere. Take your time and make sure you're sending your phone to the right people, because one false move and your data is gone for good.

[Q] Desire Z bad sensors and no vibration (after servicing)

Recently I bricked my Desire Z with wrong hboot. I had no choice but to get it to a repairman.. He said he used RiffBox. That was the only way to do it. When I got the phone back, vibration didn't work at all... and after a while I noticed that few sensors (linear g... orientation...) work like crazy, after a while they don't work at all... One more thing I noticed, comparing with my original box, my imei is OK but serial number and MAC address are different than before giving it to repairman... He said he didn't change any of hardware, but he looks very suspicious. Is it possible when using RiffBox to change MAC and serial number? Anybody have an idea how to fix sensors?
Thank you in advance.

Sensors.
Maybe if someone knew if the main reason for faulty sensors could be a ribbon cable? Where are the sensors located at all?

It is possible the repair guy did something shady, but hard to say for sure.
The vibrator is part of sdcard tray and that connects direct to the logic board, the other sensors would be effected by the main flex cable so there really isn't one cable that would cause your issue
The mac address and imei are located in the efs partitions but I'm not 100% on the serial numbers location. Yes it is possible to change this using JTAG but I don't think it would be necessary nor do I think he would bother to
Unless all he did was swap logic boards and to make all look legit he matched the imei, not sure of a reason to do all this though
I assumed everything worked prior just fine? Does the phone look the same? (Same scratches etc?) Is there a void sticker on one of the three screws in back? You willing to open up your phone and look around to see if anything is suspicious? (There should be tape in certain places that can often give signs of tampering
As for a fix, it all depends on the cause, which is hard to determine as of now
Sent from my Nexus 4 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app

Shady repairman.
demkantor said:
It is possible the repair guy did something shady, but hard to say for sure.
The vibrator is part of sdcard tray and that connects direct to the logic board, the other sensors would be effected by the main flex cable so there really isn't one cable that would cause your issue
The mac address and imei are located in the efs partitions but I'm not 100% on the serial numbers location. Yes it is possible to change this using JTAG but I don't think it would be necessary nor do I think he would bother to
Unless all he did was swap logic boards and to make all look legit he matched the imei, not sure of a reason to do all this though
I assumed everything worked prior just fine? Does the phone look the same? (Same scratches etc?) Is there a void sticker on one of the three screws in back? You willing to open up your phone and look around to see if anything is suspicious? (There should be tape in certain places that can often give signs of tampering
As for a fix, it all depends on the cause, which is hard to determine as of now
Sent from my Nexus 4 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you for very useful infos, demkantor.
Phone looks the same outside. Since I knew that JTAG would be done, before I brought it to servicing i opened the phone myself and marked every piece of hardware with the markings only noticeable by me... It looks like the same PCB. I only did that with the board under the keyboard and didn't touch the display part... I guess he did what he said he would but screwed flex cable... It was important to me to know if the issue could be because the flex cable so I can replace it. Are you sure that could be the issue? All the sensors seem to be soldered on the main board.
As for the vibration issue, the memory card is in order so it must be that the motor is dead. I already ordered that part.
To sum this up, you suggest that new flex cable should fix my sensor problem?
I appreciate the help.

No service Nexus 5x water damage

So I did what every phone owner dreads, I forgot my phone in my pocket and went swimming with it. I was swimming with it for about 5 minuets until I noticed it when I noticed it I immediately took the back cover off and unscrewed everything and put all of the components in rice and then put the rice and my phone into a vacuume chamber. I left it like that over night and found that the water killed the battery. So I ordered a new battery and stick it in my phone and surprisingly i turned it on and if started booting. After it turned on I noticed that out said it had no service, but other than that all of my sensors and hardware all work. I know that it is not the Sims card reader that is broken because it can still give me the sim card information when I put it in my phone. Could this be the antenna, or something else?

Could be so many things. You can check that your antenna is making good contact but it's also likely one of the radio chips fried.
Sent from my Nexus 5X using Tapatalk

Any idea where would the antenna connectors be?

Not on this phone. Maybe someone else does. There is usually prongs on a back door that need to make a connection.
Sent from my Nexus 5X using Tapatalk

So I cleaned all of the contacts with alcohol but to no avail. If it is one of my radio chips that is fried could I get a new motherboard?

kerfun said:
So I cleaned all of the contacts with alcohol but to no avail. If it is one of my radio chips that is fried could I get a new motherboard?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Replacing the motherboard is usually close to the cost of buying a new device from what I've seen.

I recently upgraded my phone to android N when it came out a few days ago, so I decied to see what would happen when I put my sims card back into my phone. When I put it in my phone it showed that I had a few bars but didn't say anything like 4g or LTE. So I tried to make a call and it still doesn't work.
Is it still a hardware issue?