Look! Mismatched branding!
by brian @ 21:53:53 - [perma-link]I finally fixed my phone. No more broken joystick button thing! No
more randomly calling people from my pocket! No more smacking the
phone around to release stuck buttons! Yay! I started by taking apart the "donor" Sprint PPC-6700. Its the same
basic model as my Verizon XV6700, but silver instead of black. I was
planning to completely disassemble it to get the good joystick, then
dismantle mine and install the working button in place of my broken
one. Unfortunately that button is just about the last piece you get
to as you disassemble. About 9 screws into the process, I reached the
"pull out the mainboard" step and saw a shortcut. I could just swap the mainboards, since that board holds the radio
module and save myself lots of work. The radio module is the only
part that is different between the Verizon and Sprint models (really
its just the "ESN" coded in the radio that Verizon associates with my
phone number). The case, keyboard, buttons, camera, and whatever else
are the same. Swapping just the mainboard saved me from having to
disassemble the screen from the keyboard. I didn't have to snake the
ribbon cables out of the different case layers, or route them back in. Now I have Sprint-badged Verizon phone. I went ahead and reassembled
the spare parts back into my old case and booted it up for a picture
(and to wipe out the memory). This fix should last me until someone releases a phone running
Google's Android OS (hopefully in the next 6 months, based on how long
the previous phones lasted before breaking).
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