Problem: Opening Pandora


Klumpen

Run away! Run away!
Joined
Nov 19, 2011
Messages
8,578
Location
Uncanny Valley
Yesterday, my Pandora had a fall of about 35cm and the display immediately stopped working,

so I guessed, that the LCD-Cable might be loose.

I wanted to open and replug it, but here is the problem:

I see, that there are 5 screws in the back and the three on top were no problem,

the two on the SD-side are hard to turn and just won't come up.

I fear ruining the screws heads trying it over and over again, because they can be turned with force but they just stay the same height

and still attach the two halfs of the shell without any gap.

What should I do?

As far as I can see into it, the screw on the right seems to be ruined already and that may have been the problem from the beginning,

because I have to give it a lot of pressure to stay in the screws head at all and my screws were all extremely tight and deep.

Left one is up now and looking better, but won't fall out and starts to grip again as soon as there is the slightest pressure on the case.

One of the screws from the top looks a bit broken off at the shaft, but this cannot be happened now, because they made no real problems.

Dafuq? I got quite a collection and always use the right bit, but there seem to be no way getting the last screw out,

there is not enough grip in it anymore, cheap metal?

Do I have to part with her again because of this?

I really do not want to drill it out. :/
 
Last edited by a moderator:
here we have a case of openpandora cannot be open :)

yeah those 2 screws on the sd card sides  won't lift up at least on mine.  what i did was unscrew them as much as I can and use a little force to open the base
 
Last edited by a moderator:
here we have a case of openpandora cannot be open :)

yeah those 2 screws on the sd card sides  won't lift up at least on mine.  what i did was unscrew them as much as I can and use a little force to open the base
A litte force does not help, because the one on the right is still tight, even after managing to twist it a bit further.

Should I use a little drill and destroy it, or should I send it in because of warranty stuff?

I got drills from 1mm to 5mm in 0,1mm steps, but not such a small tap.

This screw is done anyway.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
If those are the old screws as assembled in Britain, I fear that those indeed are rather bad ones. Mine arrived already slightly damaged purely from being put together. You could try putting super glue or epoxy putty on the tip of something longish, maybe a cheap screwdriver you don't necessarily need any more and hope that adhesive turns out solid enough after drying so that you can twist/rip the screws out.

Sounds like the threads (? - Gewinde) are broken, i.e. the plastic side has likely been damaged, also happened to my old black case after it 'crashed'. In theory you should be able to carefully pry the case open and the remaining pieces of the threads will sooner or later give and thus the screws come free.

Or try and look at the LCD cable plug by slightly opening the case from the side on which you removed the three other screws. It could be really fiddly, but you might be able to reset the cable from there unless I'm forgetting something.

Also, the cable is plugged in on the back of the screen, too - did you check there? Maybe that's where it came loose - I think you can open the screen part of the case far enough to check without touching the base at all.

At any rate I'd have ordered a new case yesterday if I were you and wouldn't want to part with it ;-)
 
I couldn't get the front two screws out of my Pandora either - turned out the well they sit in was just slightly too narrow with paint applied, so was gripping each screw head. I ended up drilling out the screws, reboring the wells and replacing the screws.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
@Kuru: The trick with superglue might work, maybe I find something to sacrifice for that,

problem is, that I got all my glues at work, were I just came home from

and the screw sits so tight, that the improvised helper might go off again instantly.

A new case again? This case is quite new already, I ordered it with my 1Ghz upgrade,

sadly the old screws were used as it seems.

@Levi: If I had a tap this size, I would not hesitate to do this, but I do not really need the screw on the bottom right anyway,

so this does not have to be made instantly. I just want this bloody screw out of my Pandora.

Hopefully it IS the LCD-cable, but anything else seems to work fine,

it boots properly and the sound works too. It was only a short fall anyway.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
FWIW, I did not have to tap my screwholes - just widen the wells on the bottom-bottom section using a drill bit freehand.  I chickened out before applying enough pressure to damage the plastic threads, and just reached for my drill.
 
Cable "seems" to be ok (you can definitely not say that about some parts of the case though),

but what is this?

Dscf1277_small.jpg


Dscf1279_small.jpg


Since it is so near the lcd-cable:

Can this be part of the problem with the non existent picture?
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Oof! Not sure how that managed to pop off in a fall.


That said, on my signed defective board it looks very like that component has been resoldered on, so I guess it's a fairly common failure.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Back
Top