Develop Bugs

tips soldering BGA (expand internal memory)

howdy iam pretty handy with the solder tools
SMD isnt really hard for me..
but i cant figure out how to (easy) solder the bga memmory..
need input ..
greetz

are you sure it will even work?
if the memory map is not made for more
memory it will just still report the org size
and never use the extre mem

hmm thats true...
forgot about that..
ill first check the prices..
so i know my worst casse scenario.. (iff i dont **** up the solder proces )
hehe..
greetz subbie

Seeing as you don't have access to the 'pins' on a BGA device, you will not be able to hand solder it, I'm afraid.

u need a hot air blower

ahhh
if it will melt lead/tin than it will surely melt my other pcb casings and stuf ..

Hi Subroutine,
Normally a BGA is soldered with the help of a Pick n place machine..which has a BGA capability...
From whatever experience I hv in PCB assembly, U usually get hold of a SMD Solder paste properly mixed( I dunno the ingredients and proportions) and then just place it on the PCB..then wash the surrounding area with IPA and done.
Hot Air blower is needed to troubleshoot any SMD IC for dry soldering or completely removing it..that too u hv to be very careful about the cycles used for blowing it...
I hope this may prove helpful..

!
BGA devices aren't intended to be hand soldered, rather processes like vapour phase reflow ought to be used.
I've not worked with BGA devices but would be very interested to hear of any success with hand soldering with a heat gun!
I wouldn't have thought it would be a good idea to apply further solder paste - the Balls are solder anyway and adding more might make bridging more likely.
Anyway - good luck and please lettuce know how you get on!
Bloney
PS: You might be able to find a local PCB assembley company with the appropriate equipment who'd help out for a small fistfull of cash..!

ohh well BGA soldering is doable..
but only if you solder a new pcb, because you dont have to
be carfull with surounding components because there arent any..
if you have to add a components than its a different ball game in my opinion
because of the risk off desoldering / melting the existing components
imho ..
i have to really think about it before attempting to add memory to my universal

BGA replacement
BGA replacement is not something you can do at home with a heat gun. BGA replacement has to be done on a high end BGA rework station. The 3 stations we have at work cost around $60,000.00 USD each. The PCB is heated gradually with infared heaters and a special nozzel which directs hot air is lowered over the part to be replaced. Once the solder reached the melting point, around 215 C, a vacumme nozzel comes down and removes the part. The PCB is then allowed to cool, the BGA pads on the PCB are cleaned and any old solder is removed. Next, new solder paste (SN63 63% tin and 37% lead)is stenciled on. This requires a stainless steel stencil with the same ball pattern as the BGA. The BGA is placed on the solder covered pads using the vacumme nozzel an mirrors that allow you to see the exact placement of the part. Heat is applied gradually until the solder melts.
To make a long story short, don't try this at home. You will destroy your phone. It takes very specialized equipment and a highly trained operator.

...and I guess the other consideration is apart from catastrophic failure, there might be more subtle problems that won't be fixable (moisture in device causing device to 'bubble', shorts, dry, intermittant joints...) or visible (without an xray, maybe JTAG).
I know when soldering 208pin QFP devices, they usually need a bit of tinkering and fiddling to get rid of the odd short/dry joint. But then I'm probably a bit rubbish. But the chances of a perfect hand soldered BGA device must be very slim, surely! But I might just be showing my ignorance/lack of ability!
But in my experience, I really wouldn't advise trying with a hot air gun. But I'd be genuinely interested to hear about any attempts.
Sorry to go on..!

heh heh..
i see that a lot of people were thinking/ wishing to solder the extra memory on their device..
I know about the difficulties iam an electrical engineer.
BGA solder machines (yup the bigones) are a lot like smd solder machines.
saw them at my University and some congresses
but smd and and BGA is doable IF!! it is not to complex (layout number of components. imho offcourse ..
so guess that the question if I should expand my memory on my lovely univers is ..
NO..
ahh damn!!

[Soldering/PCB Modify] MicroSD Install on Galaxy Nexus GSM ("maguro")

Hey xda Devs' :angel:,
I got this insane and "completely out there" idea of engineering my phone by soldering a MicroSD ribbon cable to the PCB of my phone for a external storage compatibility.
The ribbon cable I am looking at right now is a 8-pin FFC/FPC (flexible flat cable, flexible printed circuit) MicroSD ribbon cable.
There is a tear down of my phone at the ifixit website.
What I was wondering if that, if there is a way of soldering this on a spare PCB connection on the board. And if I cant, that if I can take a unused part off the PCB (like the 3 copper dots on the right of your phone) by de-soldering it, and using that. :good:

Been high recently?
Having a hangover maybe??
That's crazy!!!
Do it and say bye bye to your gnex.
Chuck Norris style!!
Wish you all luck though

TheImpossibleEnemy said:
Been high recently?
Having a hangover maybe??
That's crazy!!!
Do it and say bye bye to your gnex.
Chuck Norris style!!
Wish you all luck though
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks man. But I'm not high and/or having a hang over.
Maybe I should do it when I'm high or having a hang over. (sarcasm)

You can buy one of these.
http://r.ebay.com/oDKDQN
or
http://www.meenova.com/st/p/m3r.html
But you will not be able to find the schematic of the system board, add the connections to a possible unpopulated internal bus, and then source a flex harness the correct length. Well, you could, but it would easily push past the value of the cheap ebay external component.

btom.harris said:
Hey xda Devs' :angel:,
I got this insane and "completely out there" idea of engineering my phone by soldering a MicroSD ribbon cable to the PCB of my phone for a external storage compatibility.
The ribbon cable I am looking at right now is a 8-pin FFC/FPC (flexible flat cable, flexible printed circuit) MicroSD ribbon cable.
There is a tear down of my phone at the ifixit website.
What I was wondering if that, if there is a way of soldering this on a spare PCB connection on the board. And if I cant, that if I can take a unused part off the PCB (like the 3 copper dots on the right of your phone) by de-soldering it, and using that. :good:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hey man, "completely out there ideas" are what drive innovation , so as long as you've weighed the risks , have at it! I'm sorry I have no way to help with the connections , but hopefully someone will be able to point you in the right direction. Good luck

A simpler alternative would be to get a microUSB to USB dongle and a Flash drive, plus a kernel that supports mounting flash drives and voilá, instant "SD Card".

I don't think its possible without a good bit of engineering skills, assuming you manage to fit the cable properly, you'd have to build a custom kernel and/or rom that has enabled micro SD support. Neat idea tho, I believe someone successfully did the hardware part on the nexus 7.
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

IRX120 said:
I don't think its possible without a good bit of engineering skills, assuming you manage to fit the cable properly, you'd have to build a custom kernel and/or rom that has enabled micro SD support. Neat idea tho, I believe someone successfully did the hardware part on the nexus 7.
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I use CyanogenMod, so I'll to find its source code and modify it some.
But maybe not, could I just build a kernel module or driver that loads into the OS without rebuilding another OS entirely?

btom.harris said:
I use CyanogenMod, so I'll to find its source code and modify it some.
But maybe not, could I just build a kernel module or driver that loads into the OS without rebuilding another OS entirely?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
you should be able to mod a kernel to enable the sdcard access,hell you get this working ill even build mine for you with the sdcard support

I have one of these
http://www.amazon.com/Corsair-Voyager-Android-devices-CMFVG-32GB-NA/dp/B00HVT27CW
It works great both plugged into the phone as well as just a normal USB3 flash drive. VERY tiny and handy, and certainly must less destructive than some of the other methods here!

Modifying Parts

Deleted, lack of help, already achieved.

General though I forgot to add if that project could be real, it would teach Samsung and att a great lesson and someone would sell these parts and make money out of them.

Sounds like it's more trouble than it's worth.

It's not like a car where you can unscrew a few screws and exchange the part for a new one. This device has thousands of microscopic soldered components, so unless you have very advanced technology, you are not going to replace core components.

I see something like this happening for laptops first.. and the reason they don't do it for them now (with very few exceptions) is because most everything is integrated into the mainboard.
Have you ever tried to solder an smd resistor onto a pcb with just your basic general use soldering iron? It's damn near impossible without putting too much heat on the resistor or soldering the pad next to it also.
Everything is so tiny and cramped in laptops, imagine how much more tight things get in a cell phone. There was one (or maybe a couple) mfgrs that are doing plug and play build a phone. Think hi tec Legos but in general. I gonna guess that the phone would have to be designed for this from the ground up.
Good thought.. but probably a few years ahead of its time.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N910A using XDA Free mobile app

xlr8shun said:
I see something like this happening for laptops first.. and the reason they don't do it for them now (with very few exceptions) is because most everything is integrated into the mainboard.
Have you ever tried to solder an smd resistor onto a pcb with just your basic general use soldering iron? It's damn near impossible without putting too much heat on the resistor or soldering the pad next to it also.
Everything is so tiny and cramped in laptops, imagine how much more tight things get in a cell phone. There was one (or maybe a couple) mfgrs that are doing plug and play build a phone. Think hi tec Legos but in general. I gonna guess that the phone would have to be designed for this from the ground up.
Good thought.. but probably a few years ahead of its time.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N910A using XDA Free mobile app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for your insight. I was asking because I have done a lot of reverse engineering and a little 3D printing. I have seen couple of project Ara videos and it doesn't seem impossible.
I have a note 3 that I use for testing. I will play around with it and some other components. If I had any luck to start with, it would be a mini step forward

At best what you might find is some internal only interface like jtag or something that you can modify what's loaded on the eeprom and spi flash. Really big if on that.

Sata header on 16GB model for internal HDD [nVidia Shield Android TV]

So, barring software compatibility, it seems possible to put an internal laptop HDD into the shield non pro-model.
The biggest issue is that the shield pro has a ribbon cable and mounting point soldered onto the secondary board that the regular 16gb model does not.
16GB model:
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500GB PRO model (image credit user takitoes ):

if you're trying to effectively solder to sata point on the board, better break out the fume hood. i fancy myself pretty handy with a soldering iron - i've pulled off a few JTAG and RGH installations in 360's, but that's not something i think i could do.

Part sourcing
I'm going to actually attempt this when I get my system finished with it's setup.
The parts I'm working with will be a 20pin FFC lobsterclaw from mouser:
<can't do outside links yet, search for: XF2M-2015-1A on mouser.com>
And from ebay an FFC to female sata header, although all I'm seeing now are male and I'm not sure how much clearance I've got inside since I didn't open mine yet.
Other than that, since it looks like there are no pitfalls to be encountered in proprietary pinout or extra circuitry, I'll toss my hat in and give it a try and post the results
Since the pro 500's pic is small there, can anyone tell which orientation pin 1 is, or maybe a larger picture of the adapter.

edit: can delete.

still need the photo
Puglife said:
I'm going to actually attempt this when I get my system finished with it's setup.
The parts I'm working with will be a 20pin FFC lobsterclaw from mouser:
<can't do outside links yet, search for: XF2M-2015-1A on mouser.com>
And from ebay an FFC to female sata header, although all I'm seeing now are male and I'm not sure how much clearance I've got inside since I didn't open mine yet.
Other than that, since it looks like there are no pitfalls to be encountered in proprietary pinout or extra circuitry, I'll toss my hat in and give it a try and post the results
Since the pro 500's pic is small there, can anyone tell which orientation pin 1 is, or maybe a larger picture of the adapter.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
still need the photo

photo of adapter
I can't seem to find a close up photo of the adapter anywhere at all.
Since I bought the 16GB, and I don't know anyone else with a 500, it'd be great if someone could share a nice high res photo of the adapter cable.
I can put the ffc connector on there, and assume that the orientation is correct since I'm sourcing the same type of ffc connector with the claw to the back, but since I'm not keen on burning out a hdd by doing a reverse sata hookup and sending power into the data port, I'd rather not move forward without a picture.
I suppose I can probe out the pins once I have an ffc cable in there.... ugh.

Just for informations, nothing special. I appreciate your work.
From Android M every external HD or external sd card can expand your real internal storage. And it work very very well. We also have usb 3 so it can be also better.
I already tested this functionality on the Nexus Player and i assure you that will solve all your problems also with a bad read / write external storage.
For the moment i use the app foldermount that can save all my apps and games on an external sd card.

I have no doubt Google has the storage situation addressed in M, but who knows if M will ever make it to the shield outside of a custom rom. I like the way the device works now, that's the only reason I'm investing time into it, when I ignored all the other devices.
So far, this device alone is reducing my electric bill by replacing a noisy full desktop that I was using to run XBMC, I found the Pi to be too underpowered for my needs.
Shame that each new android revision is snubbed by most manufacturers in order to sell new hardware, but that's the lifecycle of electronics.

Puglife said:
Shame that each new android revision is snubbed by most manufacturers in order to sell new hardware, but that's the lifecycle of electronics.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm hoping NVIDIA continues their method from the past as they're currently about to release an update to lollipop for the shield portable which was released on July 31rd, 2013 and shipped with Android Jellybean 4.2.1. If they continue this trend for the shield android tv, I expect we'll see android M on it

Puglife said:
I have no doubt Google has the storage situation addressed in M, but who knows if M will ever make it to the shield outside of a custom rom. I like the way the device works now, that's the only reason I'm investing time into it, when I ignored all the other devices.
So far, this device alone is reducing my electric bill by replacing a noisy full desktop that I was using to run XBMC, I found the Pi to be too underpowered for my needs.
Shame that each new android revision is snubbed by most manufacturers in order to sell new hardware, but that's the lifecycle of electronics.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Considering how good nvidia has been about bringing updates so far and the fact that they keep their systems almost fully stock, I have faith we'll have M before the end of the year (within a month or two of M being released)
Sent from my Nexus 6 using XDA Free mobile app

Im in to see progress of this mod
:good:

Something I'm curious about here. Can someone on the 16GB model boot my twrp build and see if /sys/devices/platform/tegra-sata.0 exists? I expect it will be and that means that this mod is possible. Though, it would be somewhat of a hack to chainload the boot to a sata hdd.
I've been doing some research on the opposite. On the pro model, the emmc is actually there, but is flat zeros (like binary diffing a dd of it and a dd of the same size from /dev/zero returns no differences). So it appears to me that the bootloaders (like pre fastboot bootloader) are looking at the internal media specific to the model. Like I said above, it should be possible to chainload back and forth. But for me, I'll likely just format and mount the unused emmc for extra storage (and likely faster r/w). Also, standard disclaimer that I haven't tried this yet, so don't blame me if you try something and it perma-bricks your device.

Puglife said:
I can't seem to find a close up photo of the adapter anywhere at all.
Since I bought the 16GB, and I don't know anyone else with a 500, it'd be great if someone could share a nice high res photo of the adapter cable.
I can put the ffc connector on there, and assume that the orientation is correct since I'm sourcing the same type of ffc connector with the claw to the back, but since I'm not keen on burning out a hdd by doing a reverse sata hookup and sending power into the data port, I'd rather not move forward without a picture.
I suppose I can probe out the pins once I have an ffc cable in there.... ugh.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Pics attached. Hope it helps

r3zon8 said:
Pics attached. Hope it helps
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Damn, the entire cable is matte black, I was hoping I could figure out the orientation of the pins. I suppose I can guess based on that if the pins are straight through, but it looks like there's 22 total pins in a sata connection and 20 in the FFC connector.
Any chance you can give me a really close zoom of the conductive end of the FFC cable that plugs into the board so I can see if they skip pins or combine pins to isolate the signal?
Status update: I'm still waiting for the SATA board from china/ebay to assemble this, in theory I can just use a soldered off header from a junk board like ps3, or something to do this, but I wanted a clean solution with as few parts/wires as possible so it fits neatly inside.
More than likely by the time I assemble something, Ebayers will probably be posting a "replacement" cable for it.
I did already get the FFC connector installed, that was a piece of cake. I'll take pictures of it as soon as my wife stops watching Mad Men on netflix.
My hopes for this are just more addressable internal storage, not necessarily being able to boot off the hard drive.

let me know, with a closer look at the board, i think i could handle that soldering job

Did that project go anywhere? I'm very interested in doing this also if is worked.

I might be super lazy but is this cheaper and easier than just buying the pro model? What benefit does this have over going pro?

You can add in an ssd potentially that's bigger than 16gb and therefor better performance. It would also cost less if you were me and have a 120gb ssd laying around.

Has anyone addressed the issues with getting the hard drive partitions to be recognized by any software/OS and cloning the drive? This would seem to me to be the first step required before figuring out solder points, etc.
Sent from my SM-G900H using Tapatalk

Seeing as I and the OP have the non pro, would be harder for us. That being said, I don't want it to replace the 16gb is possible, so even if it's not bootable no biggy as long as it sees it and I can put files an there.

*Ripped off antenna from motherboard*

Hi guys i was replacing the screen on asus zenfone 2 after cracking it and while doing so i ripped of the port on motherboard to which the antenna connects like with roots . And right now i cant use my sim cards because no antenna)))
Any thoughts how can i fix it? or where can i buy new motherboard? Maybe asus service center can fix it for money? i mean phone is ideal but no antennat for now maybe i can solder it? Will it do the trick?

Did you ripped the connector in the upper (big) or lower (small) board?

Alexuzb1 said:
Hi guys i was replacing the screen on asus zenfone 2 after cracking it and while doing so i ripped of the port on motherboard to which the antenna connects like with roots . And right now i cant use my sim cards because no antenna)))
Any thoughts how can i fix it? or where can i buy new motherboard? Maybe asus service center can fix it for money? i mean phone is ideal but no antennat for now maybe i can solder it? Will it do the trick?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This can be sent to ASUS for out-of-warranty service. Unfortunately we are unable to provide an estimate until the phone is received and evaluated. If you would like to send in for service please feel free to contact me direct at [email protected]. Please include a link to this post when responding.
Sincerely,
Frank
ASUS_USA

Alexuzb1 said:
Hi guys i was replacing the screen on asus zenfone 2 after cracking it and while doing so i ripped of the port on motherboard to which the antenna connects like with roots . And right now i cant use my sim cards because no antenna)))
Any thoughts how can i fix it? or where can i buy new motherboard? Maybe asus service center can fix it for money? i mean phone is ideal but no antennat for now maybe i can solder it? Will it do the trick?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
dear alex i have the same problem as yours and i know the fix, i manage to peel off the surface of the motherboard; using a thin razor blade, where the center pad is missing, the rest of it on the sides is ground, i manage to trace the track to a resistor inside of the shielding can, and i make jumper to the antenna cable and voila the signal is showing again and all working fine, if you can provide the photo of the board (remove the shielding) i can draw you the line to make the cable jumper...

Asus_USA said:
This can be sent to ASUS for out-of-warranty service. Unfortunately we are unable to provide an estimate until the phone is received and evaluated. If you would like to send in for service please feel free to contact me direct at [email protected]. Please include a link to this post when responding.
Sincerely,
Frank
ASUS_USA
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
is it alright if i email you, i happened to do the same while replacing my screen ?

touji said:
dear alex i have the same problem as yours and i know the fix, i manage to peel off the surface of the motherboard; using a thin razor blade, where the center pad is missing, the rest of it on the sides is ground, i manage to trace the track to a resistor inside of the shielding can, and i make jumper to the antenna cable and voila the signal is showing again and all working fine, if you can provide the photo of the board (remove the shielding) i can draw you the line to make the cable jumper...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have a similar problem too and will appreciate if you could guide me on how to rather solder it inside the shielding can. I soldered it back to the original place but it is not firm and does not seem to have a solid base. I am yet to replace the screen which is damaged as a result of the phone falling off the roof of my car and being ran over by cars. I have attached a couple of pix for you to select from. Thanks.

www[dot]myfixguide[dot]com/manual/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Asus-ZenFone-2-Teardown-23[dot]jpg
the green area is encharge of 4g, if you were an EE or CE, you might know what you are doing

touji said:
dear alex i have the same problem as yours and i know the fix, i manage to peel off the surface of the motherboard; using a thin razor blade, where the center pad is missing, the rest of it on the sides is ground, i manage to trace the track to a resistor inside of the shielding can, and i make jumper to the antenna cable and voila the signal is showing again and all working fine, if you can provide the photo of the board (remove the shielding) i can draw you the line to make the cable jumper...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Touji, Thanks for the information.
I have the exact same problem (I even managed to damage connectors on both ends...).
Could you please describe more precisely what has to be done to solder the wire at the right places ?
Thanks,
Gaston

huotg01 said:
Touji, Thanks for the information.
I have the exact same problem (I even managed to damage connectors on both ends...).
Could you please describe more precisely what has to be done to solder the wire at the right places ?
Thanks,
Gaston
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hello, i have the same problem, how did you solved it?
Here there are the images of the connector and the motherboard.
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And here there are the links of bigger size of the images:
mobo1: s10.postimg.org/3v1v017yh/image.jpg
mobo2: s29.postimg.org/oukochbk7/image.jpg
Thank you so much.

cindybabe said:
I have a similar problem too and will appreciate if you could guide me on how to rather solder it inside the shielding can. I soldered it back to the original place but it is not firm and does not seem to have a solid base. I am yet to replace the screen which is damaged as a result of the phone falling off the roof of my car and being ran over by cars. I have attached a couple of pix for you to select from. Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hello, how did you solved it?

i know that the center pad is already ripped off and nothing is left but if you see carefully under a magnifying glass, there is a small yellow dot that is the line under the center pad, use multitester to trace it to some resistor in area i have marked in red, so sorry i'm no longer in posession of this board because i have return it to my customer, and i did not make note of which resistor to jumper...
just try it yourself and post your results here, as for the antenna i cut of the connector and made a plain jumper to the ground and the other one to a resistor....
sorry for my late reply ...

touji said:
i know that the center pad is already ripped off and nothing is left but if you see carefully under a magnifying glass, there is a small yellow dot that is the line under the center pad, use multitester to trace it to some resistor in area i have marked in red, so sorry i'm no longer in posession of this board because i have return it to my customer, and i did not make note of which resistor to jumper...
just try it yourself and post your results here, as for the antenna i cut of the connector and made a plain jumper to the ground and the other one to a resistor....
sorry for my late reply ...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I did not understand very well , say the yellow dot that indicated by the red arrow ? the connector was previously welded where there is a red circle .
I have to cut the metal connector and leave only the black wire antenna ? Thank you so much for the reply don't worry for the late response

i only mark an area not a specific point because i don't remember the line from center pad is connected to,
antenna connector welded to board if peeled off, the surrounding is connected to ground, the missing center pad you have to see using 10x magnifying glass and you can see there is a small dot still exist, you try using multitester then to find where is that dot ends, in the area i have marked, after you find it, cut off the antenna cable at the connector, and solder the outer cable to ground and the center to the part where you have found using mulltitester..

Alagi said:
I did not understand very well , say the yellow dot that indicated by the red arrow ? the connector was previously welded where there is a red circle .
I have to cut the metal connector and leave only the black wire antenna ? Thank you so much for the reply don't worry for the late response
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Alagi,
In your photo of mother board, you use Red Arrow point a solder pad. Is the point to connected to Antenna center pad. Appreciated your reply.
Also appreciate expert can post a photo here to show found point for Antenna center point.
Thanks

connector's digitizer has broken,
can you help me the solution, please ??? i have a zenfone 2 with broken connector's cable display, where i must jumper the cable display if the connector's has broken on motherboard ??? thanks a lot.

I have same issue with antenna pad on mainboard ripped off.
And I found the soldering point is actually not as the previous pic posted above.
The actual center pad connected with the antenna goes to a cap as I pointed with yellow arrow, the circuit follows by my blue lines on the pic.
Been Tested. Give a try on yours, guys.

You guys are awesome!
Made an account just to say that you are all amazing. With the info on the thread I was able to fix my phone and saved a lot of money! Its a lot easier than I thought it would be, and I'm not the greatest solderer.
Take your time scraping the traces away, and put a dab of glue on the joints to firm them up. Don't rush and take your time people!
I had a picture to post as well but xda doesn't let accounts with less than ten posts can not have outstide links sry

unbentcrayfish said:
Made an account just to say that you are all amazing. With the info on the thread I was able to fix my phone and saved a lot of money! Its a lot easier than I thought it would be, and I'm not the greatest solderer.
Take your time scraping the traces away, and put a dab of glue on the joints to firm them up. Don't rush and take your time people!
I had a picture to post as well but xda doesn't let accounts with less than ten posts can not have outstide links sry
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Click to collapse
Hi crayfish, is there any way you could send me on that photo, or if you've made 10 posts now post it for everyone? I did the same thing and after two or three failed attempts I finally fixed my screen just to find out the antenna was definitely not working so I'm tempted to just cut my losses but if you managed it I might give it a go. Thanks!

Third time's the charm
chorgan said:
Hi crayfish, is there any way you could send me on that photo, or if you've made 10 posts now post it for everyone? I did the same thing and after two or three failed attempts I finally fixed my screen just to find out the antenna was definitely not working so I'm tempted to just cut my losses but if you managed it I might give it a go. Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
After typing out a mutliparagraph response and loosing it, I had to switch to my computer. I'll try to condense what I had previously typed out, I don't feel like doing all that again.
BUT after several weeks of my antenna fix I can tell you it is not perfect, least my fix isn't. Granted half reception (none inside buildings or in certain places) is better than none. But it doesn't seem to be a perfect fix. I have issues uploading anything like texts, images, etc. Downloading is unaffected. My phone is my only source of internet so I really notice this. My speed test results are looking like this: (mb/s) Down: high=29.59 Low=4.4 Up: high=2.48 low=0.13 Ping doesn't seem effected. My upload speeds used to be higher than my download... Before I even did the trace scraping fix, I emailed Asus about purchasing a Zenfone 2 motherboard from them (none on ebay/online) and they won't sell them to regular people. Super bummer, but its okay I ended up buying a new Zenfone2 (the zoom and lazer aren't worth it) it should be here today.
Got a little off topic there, but we're good. As for the fix itself?
I used a thumb tack for the scraping action, take your time and don't dig deeper than the trace! (pic below for the CORRECT trace) As for the antenna wire, Cut the end that has the broken off port still stuck in it and strip that sucker. Split the outer metal wires into two stands. Use your teeth or a lighter to expose the signal wire. Tin your fresh wires (less is more, its small pads and wires!) and turn your attention to the ground pads. They are the large pads left where the plug was sitting. At this point your trace should be visible, your antenna should be tinned, and your fingers crossed! I had forgotten to tin the trace and pads but It worked out because I tinned the wires with a tad too much solder so it was okay. But don't be like me, tin your pads and trace.
Start with the ground wires first being sure to check the length of your wires before hand, and get them on there! Once they are secured move on to the signal wire. I found this to be hard, it is by far the smallest thing I have ever worked on. Have good lighting, steady clam hands, and a magnifying glass! You don't want to break anything else here, even if you don't fix the antenna your Zenfone is a great media device! When you finally have that signal wire on, take a smoke break you need it! Next, turn on that phone and test the connection. If everything is peachy put a dab of glue on your fresh solder joints for protection. When putting the phone back together be careful not to pitch or snag any wires. Also, I cut the corner off the copper heat sink so that I would sit flush with the new fix.
Sooo ya. That's about it folks!
Good luck chorgan and may the force be with you.
I'll see any replies to this comment, so ask away if anyone has questions. I'm no expert, but I'm glad to help!
Almost forgot: https:// imgur.com/a/xC9Rc (I had to put spacing in to submit the comment, still under ten)

chorgan said:
Hi crayfish, is there any way you could send me on that photo, or if you've made 10 posts now post it for everyone? I did the same thing and after two or three failed attempts I finally fixed my screen just to find out the antenna was definitely not working so I'm tempted to just cut my losses but if you managed it I might give it a go. Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Update: I just had a look inside and was planning to solder it tomorrow so I taped everything down and while I was at it, made sure the connector was realigned with its old home on the motherboard. When I turned the phone back on, my 4G worked. So it's possible (though I wouldn't stretch to saying it's a good long term solution) to just tape the socket back on as long as you apply enough pressure that it won't move around in normal use. I'll keep you updated on how long this lasts because it could be a much easier fix for us that aren't too handy with a soldering iron
---------- Post added at 08:57 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:45 PM ----------
unbentcrayfish said:
After typing out a mutliparagraph response and loosing it, I had to switch to my computer. I'll try to condense what I had previously typed out, I don't feel like doing all that again.
BUT after several weeks of my antenna fix I can tell you it is not perfect, least my fix isn't. Granted half reception (none inside buildings or in certain places) is better than none. But it doesn't seem to be a perfect fix. I have issues uploading anything like texts, images, etc. Downloading is unaffected. My phone is my only source of internet so I really notice this. My speed test results are looking like this: (mb/s) Down: high=29.59 Low=4.4 Up: high=2.48 low=0.13 Ping doesn't seem effected. My upload speeds used to be higher than my download... Before I even did the trace scraping fix, I emailed Asus about purchasing a Zenfone 2 motherboard from them (none on ebay/online) and they won't sell them to regular people. Super bummer, but its okay I ended up buying a new Zenfone2 (the zoom and lazer aren't worth it) it should be here today.
Got a little off topic there, but we're good. As for the fix itself?
I used a thumb tack for the scraping action, take your time and don't dig deeper than the trace! (pic below for the CORRECT trace) As for the antenna wire, Cut the end that has the broken off port still stuck in it and strip that sucker. Split the outer metal wires into two stands. Use your teeth or a lighter to expose the signal wire. Tin your fresh wires (less is more, its small pads and wires!) and turn your attention to the ground pads. They are the large pads left where the plug was sitting. At this point your trace should be visible, your antenna should be tinned, and your fingers crossed! I had forgotten to tin the trace and pads but It worked out because I tinned the wires with a tad too much solder so it was okay. But don't be like me, tin your pads and trace.
Start with the ground wires first being sure to check the length of your wires before hand, and get them on there! Once they are secured move on to the signal wire. I found this to be hard, it is by far the smallest thing I have ever worked on. Have good lighting, steady clam hands, and a magnifying glass! You don't want to break anything else here, even if you don't fix the antenna your Zenfone is a great media device! When you finally have that signal wire on, take a smoke break you need it! Next, turn on that phone and test the connection. If everything is peachy put a dab of glue on your fresh solder joints for protection. When putting the phone back together be careful not to pitch or snag any wires. Also, I cut the corner off the copper heat sink so that I would sit flush with the new fix.
Sooo ya. That's about it folks!
Good luck chorgan and may the force be with you.
I'll see any replies to this comment, so ask away if anyone has questions. I'm no expert, but I'm glad to help!
Almost forgot: https:// imgur.com/a/xC9Rc (I had to put spacing in to submit the comment, still under ten)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I just saw this after my post about the the tape method. Thanks very much for the reply, pity I (hopefully) won't end up using it.
I had actually misunderstood the connector, I had been thinking that the two pads for ground were the onl y two contacts, and so one must be ground and one the signal wire at the core. That would have made for some heartbreak when I turned on my "fixed" phone. Hopefully mine stays cooperative, if not it's time to bust out the iron... or just buy a portable hotspot and a blokia. Anyway, I hope your luck is better with the new ZenFone.
Ps, I think my 4G may be a bit slower? I've had one drop off off where I lost signal completely but I have a feeling it's intermittently dying but not for long enough for the phone to register the loss. I'll try a speed test soon