If you’re solving technical problems, then you’re probably doing quite a bit of device disassembly. In this video, you’ll learn the tips and tricks needed to keep your projects organized.
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If you’ve ever worked on a laptop, a tablet, or a mobile phone, then you know that these are very different devices than working on a desktop computer. There are many, many different very small pieces inside of these devices. And they’re all specially designed for that particular model of that particular mobile device. There is not much room to work inside of these devices, so you have to be very precise with your troubleshooting and your repair.
Another interesting characteristic of working on these devices is that they are very easy to take apart. It’s much more difficult to get them back together again, especially considering all of the very small components and very small screws. Another important consideration when working inside of these devices is that some of these components are very delicate and very fragile. So you have to be careful that you don’t damage good components as you’re trying to fix the bad ones.
You’ll find that putting these devices back together will help if you documented the process every step along the way. As you’re disassembling these devices, you can keep all of these components separated and in order as you disassemble them. On laptops and mobile devices, you’ll find a lot of different cables– cables for video, cables for wireless– and all of these cables are going to different connectors inside of these devices. So make sure that you document where every single one of those is connecting.
You’ll also find that there are many different screws that are used inside of these devices. And these screws are different sizes and different characteristics. You’ll also find that there are screws in places that you weren’t expecting to find a screw. So make sure you document everything along the way.
With some practice, you’ll start to find that many of these devices will disassemble themselves in different sections. For example, to get inside of a laptop you sometimes will take apart the outer shell. Then you remove the keyboard. Then you remove a video connector and so on. This allows you to have a process that you can duplicate every time you work on one of these components. You may want to take pictures or video as you’re working on these devices so that you know exactly what you did when you disassembled the device.
It also helps if you have plenty of room to work. You’ll be taking apart a lot of different components. And you need to put them somewhere safe so that they’ll be available when you put everything back together.
I like to use containers like these that have different sections. As I move through each part of the disassembly process I can logically group the different devices into individual sections. If this is a process that’s going to take a number of days or weeks, you may want to use a set of containers that can be sealed. That way you can put it away without worrying that you’re going to lose anything in the meantime.
The repair techniques used on these mobile devices will probably be very different than techniques you’ve used in the past. So it’s very useful to have as much documentation as you can to be able to understand the process for disassembling and reassembling these components. Many manufacturers provide documentation that can help you with this repair process. And if they don’t, you can always go to the internet to find plenty of documents and videos that can help you with the repair process. A good example of this is ifixit, which has step-by-step instructions for repairing a number of the most popular consumer electronics.
On many of these mobile devices you’re going to need the right tools for the task. Some mobile devices may only require that you have a single screwdriver. You’ll certainly need a good tweezer, especially when working with those very small screws. But in many cases, you’ll need specialized tools, such as very small screwdrivers or some magnification that will help you see these very small components inside these mobile devices. It’s also a very good idea to have a big anti-static mat and somewhere that you can put some of these more delicate components to make sure that they don’t become scratched or damaged during the repair process.