Blackberry repair 101: Replacing a cracked LCD.

Sometime ago I stupidly removed my jacket hastily and in the process managed to launch my blackberry out of the inside pocket right smack on to tile floor.  The screen broke, giving me only half of a usable display.  I was pretty angry for doing this and was afraid of having to replace such a versatile little gadget and was not looking forward to paying for it.  Ebay to the rescue and I found the special tools required to make the repair and a replacement LCD for about $13.

This repair job was performed during my lunch break at work after watching a video of some guy do the exact same repair on youtube.

So if you're in the unfortunate situation where you've cracked your LCD, have no fear, you needn't spend the ridiculous amount to buy a replacement from your carrier or worry about insane repair fees.

Here we go:

 So here's the Blackberry with cracked LCD along with tools that make life much easier L-R: multitool, case opener, torx bit drivers.

1. Remove back cover, remove battery.

2. Using case opener, pry off the bottom clip.  This is the hardest part.  The case opener is like a fingernail that will not break or bleed and has extra leverage.  Don't use a metal flat head screwdriver!

Here the bottom clip is off.

3. Now using the torx bit driver, remove the top back screws.

4. This frees up the front cover/lens.  Remove this using the case opener.

Here you can start removing the keys and get to the insides.

5. Remove the keys.

6. Using the other torx bit driver, remove the keypad screws.

7. Remove the keypad.  There is a little rubber cement at the base, you can get rid of it it's just for positioning the keypad.

8. Remove the sides.

9. Lift motherboard and screen assembly out of the chassis.

That's all there is in there.  Amazing isn't it?

10. Now remove the screen frame, careful it's spring loaded.

11. Pop off the ribbon connection at the top of the LCD.

12. Off comes the LCD.

13. Here's the new LCD in protective baggie.

14. Load new LCD on to board and fasten the ribbon connection at the top.

15. Replace the screen frame/fastener.

16. Replace keypad and screws.

17. Replace keys.

18. Snap sides and lens back on.

19. Replace torx screws on back plate.

20. Replace bottom clip and insert battery and back cover.

....And you're good to go....

Back in business!

And remember kids to always get adult supervision before attempting any repairs on you're Crack-berry .......Dead screen is E-waste so dispose of it accordingly!

Swarthmore, a small place.

This was a while ago but I dropped a friend off here and then just walked around with my camera.  I like little out of the way places like this.

They say it's a "bus/train station town."

This place sells something called a "blondie," vanilla brownie with chocolate chips.  Its even better slightly microwaved!  (Thanks for introducing me to this Mary!)

Under the tracks and up to Swarthmore College.

Reminds me of HWS.

Facing the other direction.

Bell tower?

Back under the tracks.

I have never seen an array of utility mains all clumped together like this before.  

"It's going to be a long night in New York City......."

Went to see John Mayer in the round at the end of February for his "Battle Studies" tour.  First time I'd been to a concert in a 360 degree arena since Santana live at the Budokan in '03 or '02.  Didn't have the best seats but not bad.    I had invited my old friend Mary whom I went to high school with back in Japan.  I hadn't seen her since winter break in 2005.  It was good to see her again.  We nearly went to see Jack Johnson live in Tokyo for his "In Between Dreams" tour but she couldn't go at the last minute.  Nevertheless great performance, lots of catching up, wow it has been a long time!  I managed to snap some pictures with a little point and shoot:

The band had this four-sided mesh screen which was dropped down over the stage that had a projection of Mayer's "Who Says" music video which was very cool.  Pretty deep song too.

Here's a wider angle shot to give a better idea of the projection.

In the round.....

From left to right: Pino Paladino (bass), Steve Jordan (drums), John Mayer (lead guitar), David Ryan Harris (rhythm guitar).  The large vertical dark band right of center of the image is a column that supports the mesh screen.   

The encore performance, John was wailing on the blues and playing his strat on the floor Jimi Hendrix style!

As close as the camera would zoom.  


Madison Square Garden is an awesome venue.  Seating all around and concession stands all around the corridor behind the seats.  If you buy a beer on tap, they give it to you in a plastic mug that has a cylindrical space in the handle for a pretzel stick which you get with the beer!  


I wish John would have more concerts in NYC and perhaps at smaller venues to really get that rockin' atmosphere.  Later we met up briefly with another friend that I went to high school with: Yuri.  I think if I'm not missing anyone, I've run into 6 ASIJ alums in the geographic area.  It's nice to see old friends again.  

blinking caret

Will soon post recent photos and text of John Mayer, Swarthmore with Mary (microwaved blondies yum!), Skydiving, Blackberry repair 101, the new dent in my car and other stuff.  Been very busy/lazy lately.  My commute to Manhattan is stressful and downright dangerous not to mention expensive.  Work is meh, and I've been spending a lot of time micro napping.  I fell asleep last Thursday while stuffing envelope and dreamed I was still there stuffing envelopes.  My coworker tells me I was just sitting there with one hand on an envelope and the other on the stuff that was going to be inserted into the envelope.  Recipe for disaster.

Losing power and running water for a little over a week didn't help and discovering that you can't party/drink till the sun comes up in the Village (like we used to do in Tokyo) is kinda sad. So much for the city the never sleeps, liars!  But hey I met up with Mike and Brian and Katie in Brooklyn, shit has it really been 5 years?

Grad App. Results:

UCSB-No (phone rejection.....where have I heard that before? GREs not good enough and that I should take them yet again and re-apply for next year.)
UCLA-Nadda. (So much for getting my copy of "Guns, Germs and Steel" signed by Jared Diamond.)
UHM:-Mahalo but no dice.

Awaiting: UC Merced (guessing zip.)

Safety: San Jose State (i just don't know anymore.)

What to do after finishing the internship at AGS?  My boss thinks I should take a stab at being a foreign correspondent.  Journalism?  Photo journalism?  Huh?

Aerial photography and remote sensing companies still not hiring but impressed with my CV and will hold on to it for a set period of time.

Flight School in AZ or CA 90 days from 80hrs and Private certificate all the way to Airline Transport Pilot?  (need $40k and change, and then what? Fly regionals after dead-heading for less than $20k a year? (It's better than zero-k.)

I think it's safe to say now that even 10 months after graduating and only being able to get an unpaid internship  that I have to try something else.  It's hard not to be a pessimist now. I'm ready for the red pill!

Perspectives of Magnitude:

Outside Looking in...

Inside looking out...

Ubique!

Ay it's been a while since my last post.  Have been quite busy working at AGS for a little over a month now.  Done everything from e-mails to new agencies, envelope stuffing, editing promotional flyers, in general just stuff.  They've got me digitizing the archives finally.  I've spent the last 3 weeks photographing leather bound volumes of the Society's minutes one page at a time.  It's a long and slow process and it's difficult to ignore the hand written text that's over 150 years old.  It's interesting to see just how well previous generation's handwriting was compared to today's chicken scratches.  I managed to give AGS some ideas on how to make digitizing easier and more efficient than just simply holding a point and shoot above the page and snapping away.

I convinced the AGS staff and a Prof. Fritz Nelson (University of Delaware, polar geography specialist) that we needed a copy stand with some lights and that would hold a camera still directly over the material we were digitizing. Sounds simple at first but being New York City nothing is ever quite simple. After a 2 days of arguing with Adorama Camera over non-profit tax exempt forms, we managed to procure a very large copy stand and some lights.  Not a bad price either.  However we ran into some trouble not realizing that 100 year old pages don't lie flat for reproduction.  So I then thought of some ideas that could be used to hold them in place.  Paper clips were suggested but they can damage the paper by introducing creases and rust.  We tried fingers, but that leaves no hand free to fire the cable release for the camera's shutter.  After failing with metal rulers, we came to sheets of non-reflective glass and then non-reflective plexi-glass as the current solution.  Glass was determined too heavy and could cause damage to the already crumbling book spines.  So plexi-glass is what I'm using now.  It works well, is light, flexible and seems to get the job done.

I finished digitizing 13 volumes of 200 pages (1852-1903) each last week despite the mid-week blizzard (unusual for NJ, a reminder that I've got to get away from the east coast.)  Now I've moved on to 20th century material and a larger size volume.  More to come with digitizing old aerial oblique photographs of South America that were used to design the "Millionth Map" see links: http://www.life.com/image/72399641 ; http://geography.about.com/od/historyofgeography/a/millionthmap.htm It's huge, 1cm = 10Km.  All done by hand to mylar and then copied.

Also got to take a look at AGS's Flyer's and Explorers Globe, which was made in 1903 and still sent around the world today to the first people to take on unique expeditions.  Some notable people who have signed it are: Amelia Earhart, Dr. Livingstone, Neil Armstrong, Bertrand Piccard to name a few.  The last person who was supposed to sign it was Steve Fosset for the first solo, non-stop fixed-wing aircraft flight around the world.  Unfortunately Steve died in a plane crash in 2007.

Here's some images of the globe:

               Interesting?

It's getting very crowded up there.  Now people just sign and don't bother plotting routes.

      

                                                     Amelia Earhart's signature in the Pacific.

                                    Aldrin, Armstrong, Collins 1969.  Picture on a wall at the AGS.

Nothing much else happens, I ran out of heating oil on sat night and was staying warm using a wood stove and splitting wood all Sunday morning.  The delivery truck came Monday morning and topped off the tank.  I got to photograph some deer that were eating my bushes but that's about it besides eat, sleep, commute, work, traffic and not enough sleep.  I'm thinking of some things to do after I finish up here at AGS in mid April after the American Association of Geographers Annual Conference in DC.  (Managed to get a free ticket and will hopefully meet up with faculty from U Hawai'i at Manoa!)  A friend from Portugal and I are planning a transcontinental road trip form NJ to CA just to see what happens.   Hopefully I'll be able to sell my VW and get something a little more sporty and spartan for the drive ;)  Lastly John Mayer live at Madison Square Garden next week with an old friend from Japan!

Here are some more photos from Wall St, the South St. Seaport, home in NJ and underground at 34th St. Penn Station:

                                        Started to miss Japan and yaki-nikku so I tried this place.

         Bowl of guy-don.  Looks alright, tastes like microwaved poly-urethane and cardboard with nikku-tare.

                           Not worth the $10 I spent.  Though I do miss the Ito-en brand of Oolon-cha.

                 A cold, wet day at the Seaport.  My tolerance for east coast weather has reached it's threshold.

                    Just another view of the "Ambrose" lighthouse boat at the Seaport, I like the contrast.

                 "Guitar Ron" underground at 34th st. jamming to Wes Montgomery and Hendrix.

                                          This little one came to visit during last week's blizzard.

         Don't worry I'm not that good of a wildlife photographer.  Both these images where shot through windows.  However I was less than a foot away for this one.  Deer don't see well through glass I don't think.

                                                                             Cozy.