Cracked Case

[ProfChaos]

My Pandora his developed a miner crack at the seam, some of which has already broken off. My pandora has never been dropped so I'm asuming its a manafacturing defect. Has anyone else encountered a similar problem?

Also has anyone had any experience replacing the case?

 

[agwellin]

I recently noticed a crack that runs between the corner of the R button and the corner of the nearest battery door latch. Super glue took care of it


Pandoras should just come with a free bottle of super glue, lol

 

[Nintendo]

My Pandora his developed a miner crack at the seam, some of which has already broken off. My pandora has never been dropped so I'm asuming its a manafacturing defect. Has anyone else encountered a similar problem?


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Also has anyone had any experience replacing the case?

Our very own Prometheus has experienced this problem before and would probably highly recommend you use some Sugru on it.

 

[mcobit]

I have sort of the same crack. but it doesn't really bother me.

 

[Sugar_Kane]

I think it was a result of the plastic mix that the factory went with, the team had no control over it. I'm not sure exactly what went wrong but I doubt if anyone that has been following the project for a long time is surprised; If OP could do the project over again then the Chinese plastics factory would probably be one of the first to go.


They're planning to move the case manufacturing closer to home so that they can have much better control over it.


I noticed that mine had developed a small crack on the left side of the hinge recently, I don't mind at the moment.

 

[Blue Protoman]

Mine has a small crack by the right speaker. No biggie.

 

[Keppy]

I've got a dent and a crack on where the screen meets the case, never been dopped etc, intend on RMAing it as the hinge is now loose and makes the screen a bit floppy.

 

[sparkymark79]

I have a similar crack at exactly the same place although at the moment it hasn't broken off it just bulges out instead.

 

[Asmo]

My 2 cents:


In common with a lot of cases, mine has a rough 'bumpy' seam along that part of the case (the base of the screen hinge). If you look closely from the keyboard side as you open & close it, you can see these raised areas can make contact with the other side of the case - if you're unlucky, this could be one possible cause of it cracking.


Maybe very - very - carefully buffing down any bumps on the seam might avert this.

 

[Prometheus]

Sugru definitely works on these (and also on any others that crop up - there are a few on my Pandora's casing, by now, including one coming out of the microphone hole, and one coming from the hinge location directly to the left of that crack, on that same piece of plastic), but you may (or, indeed, may not) find that they might worsen a bit more after a while and you'll have to re-apply it. It's simple enough to do, and it definitely does hold up once the cracks actually stop forming/spreading.

 

[ProfChaos]

Thanks for the tips guys. I 've never seen that Sugru stuff before but it looks pretty interesting might have to take a look.

 

[Prometheus]

If you go that route, there's a trick to filling the cracks with Sugru.


Instead of spreading a layer over the top and letting it set, what I did was roll a small blob of the stuff onto one index finger, and used it in the same fashion as the filler that you might use on a wall in your house, or on a car - I rubbed it over the cracks (and pushed it in a tiny little bit while doing so), and then smoothed over it a few times to simultaneously add more Sugru and to remove the residue.


After that, you have to let it set for 24 hours, but if it's in not-too-bad of a location, you can safely continue using the Pandora during this time. Make sure not to leave the Pandora anywhere where the non-set Sugru can have contact with fabrics or suchlike, though, because non-set Sugru does stain.


Also, Sugru will not stick to clingfilm (I gather that this is known as Saran-wrap in North America), so if you need to put a Pandora with an exposed-but-Sugru'ed crack on a surface where it might get stuck or cause staining, use that.

 

[Phelsumania]

ha ha i first stumbled across this post last night so of course my first reaction naturally was to check my pandas casing and i was so relieved to find it was still crack free. And would you believe it ive rolled out of bed a few hour ago just looked at my hinge again and would you believe it there now appears to be a hair line crack there, how eary is that? to first find out about this defect to then 8 hours later fall victim to the same defect. Made me laugh my ass of when i saw it. Its not any problem as there are some good solutions out there espectially Prometheus sugru suggestion touch of genius from a legend. and replacement cases are on sale in the store if the case dose finally give up. i believe this is the pandoras only issue i am aware of and suprise suprise its the one area the team had little control over due to the production taking place. you never know now the pandoras shipments are speeding up maybe one day the casing production might move closer to home and be produced by a company that can fufill its promises. i would imagin if this did ever happen there would be spare cases made available so anyone who wished to could upgrade there case. Either way i am still completely happy with my pandora, great job Evildragon, Craig and everyone whos been involved in the project.