Replacing a Zune 80 glass screen

My Zune has a history of breaking itself while I'm fixing it. Last time I took it apart, I got it to WORK again, but cracked the screen. This weekend when I was in a portable-electronics-screen-buying-and-replacing mood, I decided I'd grab a Zune glass as well.

So, let's get started. For the sake of completeness, I'll go through the entire process, even though it's partially documented here.

Required

• Zune 80/ 120 (I guess the HDD size doesn't matter. Second generation or above, non-flash, non-HD (where HD stands for High Def, not Hard Drive))
  
• New screen
• T4 screwdriver
• Tiny electronics flat head screwdriver (I prefer size 2.5 - 4.5) or a case opener tool

Procedure

1. Remove the plastic clip from the top of the Zune with the flat screwdriver or case opener tool
2. Unscrew the two T4 screws at the top of the Zune
   
   
   
   
3. Carefully, take the flat head screwdriver and gently pry, starting at the top where you just removed the T4 screws, and work your way all the way around. What you're doing here is undoing the clips all around the casing. **This is the part where I cracked my screen last time**
   


4. At this point, you should be able to remove the entire aluminum back, and see the Zune's nasty internals.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
5. Remove all that #$%@ tape!
6. Take out the 6 screws holding down the motherboard. There are three pairs, each pair is a different size. Keep them in order! *Note - when you take out the screws on the side, a metal clip will also come loose.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
7. For safety's sake, I removed the hard drive at this point. Lift the black flap on the ribbon cable connector. Use the flat head screwdriver to gently pry this up. Start from one end, and work your way to the other. This is a long tab, and will likely take more than one (probably two) pry-points to lift. (I know the picture shows the screwdriver in the middle. . . . disregard that :-|. . . . it was only for illustration's sake)
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
8. Now, gently pry the board up with the flat screwdriver. Go evenly and CAREFULLY all the way around until you can lift the motherboard out of the case.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

Whew. . . . now for the hard part.

Removing the Glass Screen from the casing

I won't post the failed attempts and pictures of me trying to get this glass out; I don't wanna upset those who get queasy at the sight of blood. . . .

Nah, just kidding. Bud it did take me some time to figure this out. The glass is held in with a strong adhesive. I tried pushing it out, scoring around the edges, and prying. Some of these worked better than other, then I realized that I could just heat it up with my heat gun! Then I realized that I don't have a heat gun. Then I realized that my wife does!

HA! lookit the guy on the box

Apply heat to both sides, pressing the glass out every so often. After the adhesive melts enough, you're in business!

Remove the white tape from the new glass, replace the old one with it, and heat to activate the new adhesive. Put everything back together, and you're in there like swimwear!. . .

. . . . unless you put the hard drive ribbon cable on backwards. In which case, you'll get this screen. Fix it, and you'll get this one!

Hacking into my Zune. . . . literally

OK, so over the past couple of years, my Zune 80 and I have had a love/hate/hate/hate/hate/love/hate/hate relationship. No matter how that may look in WRITING, the good truly has outweighed the bad. So when it zonked out on me this final time, I felt a moral obligation to try to save her (yes, "her". . . I actually named her Zoey). And since Zoey was [literally 2 days] outta warranty when I first started having this problem and Microsoft wanted $159 for service, I decided I had nothing to lose by finding a T4 screwdriver and trying to fix the problem myself.

The problem: I couldn't seem to turn her on anymore, no matter what buttons I pressed (heh heh). When I pressed the "Play" button, I got the "low battery" indicator image. While plugged up (AC or USB), the "charging" graphic flashed, but the OS would never load.

~~~...::flashback::...~~~

This had happened before, and I had simply given up on my baby. I just put her away in the box and used my PSP for a music player. I was sad, but it did the job. After leaving Zoey in the box for like 2 months, I came back, just to see what would happen, pressed the play button, and VIOLA!* She came right on for me.

~~~...::/end flashback::...~~~

*I know it's really voilà. . . just more fun this way

 ::siiiigh:: Back to reality. This time, I tried that and no luck. After exhausting all software options, my logic was that there must be something wrong with the battery. Maybe if I disconnected and reconnected it, then it would function again.If that didn't work I would go ahead and buy a replacement battery. Sooooooo, after a little deliberation, and a bit of mental preparation, I went ahead and got started.

Note: Though it'll go without saying, I didn't have a camera while actually taking it apart. This is more of a journal entry than a tutorial.

Procedure:

I got an idea of how to do this from Rapid Repair's Zune disassembly guide. I improvised some of it as well, as you'll soon see.

1. Since the plastic cover at the top had already been lost, I didn't have to remove that. I just started by removing two T4 screws at the top of the unit.
 
2. Now, this part was pretty tricky - removing the aluminum back. I suppose there should be an intermediate step describing how to loosen the backing first. So maybe I wouldn't have CRACKED MY SCREEN!
 
3. To loosen the casing, I took a very slim flat-head screwdriver, inserted it between the front and back casings and twisted slightly. There are clips holding the external case together. Twisting the screwdriver essentially gently unclipped them, and methodically pried the case open. . . too bad I discovered this procedure AFTER I had already CRACKED MY SCREEN!
 
4. Now, once the casing was open, there was a lot of tape everywhere. Instead of just going on a tape-removing rampage, I drew a picture of what I had, just in case some wire or ribbon cable got disconnected in the process (which, inevitably, it did).

I took this picture after I got it apart (obviously). Although it's pretty crappy quality, you can see I flipped the hard drive over to have a better look at the battery connections.

It was here, when I saw one of the four wires (black, blue, red, white) leading from the battery to solder points on the board had come disconnected. I'm not sure if this happened with handling or if it was the cause of my problem. If it had come apart after I opened the Zune, then I still had accomplished my goal of disconnecting the battery. If it was already apart, then I had found a problem. Whatever the case, I knew it needed to be soldered back on.

It was a relatively simple solder job. I used some fingernail clippers to strip the blue wire back some, then heated the solder joint and set it in place. Turned it over, and saw the beloved Zune boot logo!

YIPPEEE!!!!

But that's not the end. . . after I got Zoey all buttoned up again, I noticed a new issue - the little "Hold" icon in the bottom of the screen was lit, and no button presses registered. Great. I pressed the Zune in a certain spot, and noticed while applying pressure directly over this particular place, the icon disappeared. So I took it apart again.

Here's the drawing I made:

 

At this point, I noticed that the ribbon cable which controlled the hold functionality was not being snugly held in place. I pressed down on the ribbon cable connection to the board, then toggled the hold switch, and it worked fine. I replaced the tape, put the zune back together, and all is well again. . . . . except for the cracked screen.