A Cingular 2125 Disassembly How-to

(Revised 5/4/2006 and 10/23/2007)

Copyright 2006 by the Author at brcobrem@hotmail.com Reprints by permission only: Please contact brcobrem@hotmail.com (Reprints for personal use do not require permission) (Comments and corrections are welcome)

This disassembly project was the result of dropping my new Cingular 2125 on the kitchen tile floor last week. I dropped the device and it bounced up about six inches and back down it went. I picked it up and nothing looked broke. I dialed speed number 6 and it worked. I thought it was ok, until I tried to manually dial a number two hours later. I found that none of the numeric keys (ie. 1, 4 and 7) on the left side of the phone would depress. Now Im screwed Im thinking. I didnt want to send it out for repair because I didnt want to wait three weeks for a repair. Since the first symptom seemed to be mechanical (ie. no key depress), I thought I might be able to employ a little super glue somewhere and be back in business. So the next step was to remove the battery and the SIM card and have a look. In the battery case, three miniature Torx screws were visible. There is also a Void If Removed sticker that I resolved as follows: I have already paid $300 for this thing and own it. Someone is going to want another $100 to fix it. Now I will be up to $400. Im not going to get a warranty repair for damage that I caused. Time to scrape off the sticker and fix it. So I scrapped off the sticker and revealed the fourth Torx screw in the battery case. A miniature screw driver I had took out two of the Torx, but wouldnt budge the other two. So I went to the MoDaCo's Chat page ( www.modaco.com ) and someone suggested that it was either a #4 or #5 Torx. Armed with this, I started looking for a set of these miniature Torx drivers on the web. I was lucky to find that our local Home Depot store had a set of Husky brand drivers (#4 - #9) in a screwdriver-like handle device (ie. Husky p/n HD-74502 U) for only $6.00 US. Turns out the Torx screws are a #5 in my phone. I took out the other two remaining screws and then tried to open the phone. Using my thumbnail in the gap between the front and back cover, I was able to find the pressure points and get it pried open about the length of the phone. But there was still something under the camera area cover that was a problem. See this pic for location of the pressure points:

The back cover actually clips into these receptors (see red circles above), but you have to depress the receptors to release the cover clips form them. Also I have to apologize for the poor quality of these photos. I have a new camera and have not yet had the time to figure out how to do a decent close up with it. The next step was to figure out how to get that dark grey camera area case off. I employed the thumbnail method again and in about a half hour I was able to get it popped off (ie. this is the hard way). This exposed the final two Torx screws that would allow the back cover to be removed. Now here is the easy way to get that camera area case off: Use a long thin driver (or stiff paperclip), insert it into the two square holes at the top of the battery case and push in to release the internal camera area case retainer "posts".

< Additional helpful information and pics provided by RichardR 10/22/2007> The tabs for the dark grey cover are very fragile and do not need to be pushed very hard. You may want to note that the cover has some glue that makes it difficult to pry off once the tabs are popped. I have included a photo that shows the direction the cover comes off. I mistakenly thought it slid off and put way too much pressure on the tabs. I ended up putting a piece of a foam washer behind the tabs so that they would hold the cover on after I bent them.

Note: When you stick your paper clip up the two holes to push and release the "legs' that hold down the rear top cover, keep it parallel to the rear rear top cover. Tilting the paper clip down towards the circuit board could result in scratching it (I scratched some kind of metal screen that was back that but it didn't penetrate the screen, so no problem was detected). The bottom of the leg that faces the incoming paperclip actually has a little square indentation that you may be able to feel. It's not more than 1/8" square indentation. These flat plastic retainer posts will have a little "spring" feel to them. The retainer posts are about 1/2" long and are at a 90 angle to the cover (ie. they stick up form the cover). See pic:

Now that the rear cover can be removed (not yet ! ), you need to be careful not to damage the two gold colored ribbon cables. The keyboard ribbon can be seen as the third red circle from the left in the left pic below. The camera ribbon cable can be seen in the right pic below.

The first cable to be removed is the camera cable. What you need to do is open up the case a little (see pic below) and with a screwdriver, gently lift on the gold ribbon which will pop the camera ribbon's white plastic end connector upwards out of it's receptacle (also white). Note: during reassembly, you have to line up the white plastic end connector over top of it's receptacle and gently pop it back into place. Again, sorry for the lousy pic, but it will be evident to you where the ribbon connects to the circuit board. The ribbon's connector is like a rectangular peg that fits in the circuit board's connector's rectangular hole.

Now you will be able to lay the phones major components down in front of you. You can now see the gold ribbon component's male end as well as it's female connector on the circuit board.

If you are desiring to get at the keypad components, there is one more gold ribbon cable that you will need to release (ie. the keypad ribbon). Release it in the same manner (see leftmost red circle in the pic below). There is also a little rubber "boot" that covers the microphone (see rightmost red circle in the pic below). (More on this in the next paragraph).

At this point you will be able to pull the front cover away form the circuit board. Note that the gold ribbon sticking up in the pic below would actually be attached to the circuit board underneath the green circuit board as pictured below, In this pic, front cover was "opened" from the circuit board like opening a book. See pic:

In the pic below you can see another view of the keyboard ribbon as it was released form the circuit board. You an also see that the black rubber boot has fallen off as I was moving the covers around. You will want to be careful to reposition this boot correctly during assembly. It is obvious how it simply lays on top of the microphone component.

Once I had the circuit board separated from the from cover it was time to do the keypad repair. However, before I started to remove the little screws the hold on the keypad assembly, I turned the keypad assembly over and found that the numeric keys (ie. 1, 4 and 7) now worked and even had the little tactile "click" fell that is expected -- Happy Day ! So my job was done. I decided not to risk damaging the keypad by disassembling it from the front case. The keypad worked, nothing rattled, and the keys were at the same height and felt the same as the other keys. As far as I am concerned, it is fixed (and it's been a week and it still is working fine).

< Additional helpful information and pics provided by RichardR 10/22/2007> Another item that is easy to miss is that the menu buttons have an orientation tab on them. If you put the buttons in the wrong way, they seem to fit until you get the phone back together. If they are in the wrong way, they work, but are at an odd angle.

< Additional helpful information provided by RichardR 10/22/2007> The problem with my phone is that the navigation control stick was not working properly. I really like the phone, but I am on the third one in a year and a half. Since the phone is no longer under warranty, I didn't want to pay for yet another replacement. The problem seems to be that the navigation control switch gets pushed back into the phone with heavy use (my kids used to play games on the phone, but after they broke it for the fourth time, I stopped letting them use it). I fixed the navigation control stick by doing the following: 1: I brought the stick forward a bit by putting a very small piece of a credit card between the stick on the cap. 2: I also added a layer of electrical tape to the back of the control pad. There is already a small piece of rubber on the back, but it probably gets compressed over time. The navigation control works perfectly after this modification. The issue with your joy stick is likely the same problem I have have four times. It appears the circuit card that holds the switch gets pushed too far from the front of the case. This keeps the stick from moving as far as it needs to move to make good contact. Putting the tape behind the circuit card moves it closer to the front of the case and allows the stick to move freely. If you put too much tape, it doesn't work at all, however. < Additional helpful information provided by Brcobrem 10/22/2007> I too have had a problem with the joy stick. A couple weeks or so ago it stopped providing downward control. I got so mad at it that put my thumbnail underneath the top of the stick and really pressured it down towards the bottom of the phone (I did not push it into the phone, but rather in the stick's down direction) . No problems since then, but I could have broke it off I was so upset. Obviously <RichardR> you have found a more civilized solution: Thanks !

Reassembly of the 2125 is essentially a reversal of the disassembly. The only difference is that the camera case needs to be "hooked" on the small indents at the top of the back cover (see leftmost red oval circle in pic below). Having made that "hook", you will then be able to easily pop the two internal camera area case retainer "posts" back into position (see rightmost red oval circles in pic below). As I recall, you will also to "hook" the front and rear covers at the top of the phone first, then start popping them back together front the top down toward the bottom.

I hope that you find this article helpful. Thanks again to the fine folks at www.modaco.com for providing their Smartphone forums and chat room. As always, your comments, corrections and suggestions are always welcome Regards, Brcobrem@hotmail.com