CalcPrgmr1

A few weeks ago, I was happily enjoying music from my X50v. Then the wind blew my headphone cord around my arm without me knowing, I moved my arm, and Axim fell to the concrete sidewalk below. Besides horribly scratching the silver case, the Axim made a rattling sound. However, it still worked so I decided not to bother. I got it back out to use it and again was listening to music when it just randomly locked up and made crackling noises. Reset, started song again, again noises. I found out that hitting it/shaking it caused the problem. I decided to take it apart (and ruin the rubber feet in the process, I'd super glued them on before because they kept falling off) and found that an SMD capacitor had fallen off and was rattling around inside.

It seems to run fine without it, though this capacitor was across two leads of a "161F" 6-pin chip on the backside of the board behind the TI Wifi chip. Is this capacitor important? I was going to try soldering it back on but the board is so packed that I don't want to risk messing anything else up. The chip is just to the left of the "D" in the Dell logo on the rear sticker.

Also, my headphone jack is messed up, I use my Axim as a music player and I think the jack is worn out, the right speaker goes out unless the plug is just right. Happen to know where I can get a replacement connector or how to bend the inside of the connector to make it work again?


EDIT: After a few hours of cutting away at the headphone port with a dull screwdriver, I am pretty certain the port is actually fine...I think the solder connecting the port to the board broke, I'm going to test this theory tomorrow when I can get to an electronics lab. For now I jammed some paper in and let the case force the port down.

kcallahan

Without seeing a circuit diagram, I'm guessing the capacitor is there for filtering purposes. I'd save the capacitor and see how the AX works over the next few weeks. You might hear some noise from the speaker or the screen itself might jiggle once in awhile. But, keep an eye on it.

Since you know where the cap goes, you can always take it someplace to be soldered back in.

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CalcPrgmr1

I'll probably just solder it back in tonight. I'm going to be in an electronics lab anyways so I'll have a good fine-point iron to use. I also need to solder the headphone jack (which, right now, is much more important than the capacitor, as my Axim is my media player).

After I get the insides all working again, I want to re-paint the outer silver trim on the front because it got all scratched up in the fall. Has anyone ever tried to repaint theirs? I will mask off the black parts with painting tape, fill in the chips and spots, then paint it with silver spray paint or something.

kcallahan

I assume then you have experience soldering micro-miniature circuits? I used to be a qualified 2M technician and it can be difficult to solder inside an AX without the right equipment. Good luck.

As for painting, here's a thread that may help. Decided to Paint My Axim X50v

You'll just need to use silver vice the color he used.

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CalcPrgmr1

It's one of the larger caps so I think it'll be fairly easy to solder. I'll ask someone who has done SMD soldering first though.

kcallahan

That's a good idea and I hope it works out for you.

BTW - Where in IL? I lived in Northern IL for many years and have relatives living in Zion/Waukegan. :)

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CalcPrgmr1

Southern IL (Belleville) but right now I'm in Missouri at college (Missouri S&T).

kcallahan

I graduated from SIU (Carbondale) but only spent one semester on campus.

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CalcPrgmr1

Fixed the headphone problem, multimeter shows that it was indeed a bad solder connection, a little bit of solder fixed it and now I can enjoy music in both ears again. I was unable to solder the capacitor because the good iron with the ultra-fine SMD tip was broken and I had to use a RadioShack iron. I didn't want to risk breaking it with an iron not designed for SMD work.