HOW TO REPAIR A FAULTY CELL PHONE

HOW TO REPAIR A FAULTY CELL PHONE-Where there is no cell phone repair engineer.[1] Your cell phone like any other consumer electronics has a lifespan. The lifespan can be shortened by damage resulting from one or more of the following. (1) If the cell phone dropped accidentally on the floor or any other hard surface.(2) If the cell phone dropped in water or any other liquid/chemical.(3)Electrical damage/burn resulting from charging with unapproved charger or abnormal voltage. (4) Software failure resulting from one or more of the above. As a result of these, the cell phone may cease to work or continue to function abnormally.When this happens, it is better to take the cell phone to an approved cell phone repair engineer by the manufacturer or to the manufacturers' support/repair center especially if your cell phone is bought on contract.Depending on the terms of the contract, the repair of the cell phone for you can be free or with the payment of a minimal charge.It is also possible for the cell phone to be replaced and the damaged one recycled by the nanufacturer as the case may be. On the other hand, the cell phone repair engineer or manufacturers' support/repair center may not be close to you or due to other factors beyond your control taking it to them may not worth it.For example, in Nigeria and most developing countries, manufacturers' support/repair centers are not common if not non-existent for the big players in the cell phone manufacturing industry like Nokia, Samsung,Motorola to mention but a few. Never the less, with the help of some basic tools,you might be able to troubleshoot and repair your faulty cell phone by following the basic steps descibed in this post(s). We define the cell phone repair engineer in this post as "a trained personnel in cell phone repair possibly by the manufacturer or the affiliate capable of removing/dismantling and replacing/remounting SOLDERED TO PCB components such as resistors,diodes,capacitors,amplifiers,central processing units(CPU), antenna switch,power ic,RFmodle,Flash ic and the likes.This is an area too exclussive to to the cell phone repair engineer, too technical for the layman and will not be discussed in this post. Cell phones with perceived problems from these areas including those that could not be repaired despite following the instructions should be refered to the cell phone repair engineer or returned to the manufacturer for appropriate action.
TOOLS REQUIRED. The tools required for cellphone repair can be classified into two groups:(1)Cell phone hardware repair tools (2)Cellphone software repair toolsHARDWARE REPAIR TOOLS: These include soldering/Rework Station/Hot air or Laser Station,digital and analogue multimeters,blowers,screw drivers,pliers,repair manuals,cleanig brush,magnifying lens,methylated spirit etc. CELL PHONE SOFTWARE REPAIR TOOLS: A computer, universal unlocking cables and box,flash files and software such as twister,grifin, red box etc. THE BASIC FAULTS OF THE CELL PHONE. Like everyother electronic device,three basic faults could affect the cell phone's electronic components.These are (1)Open circuit (2) short circuit,and (3) circuit leakage.A fourt fault ,software fault could result from the above mentioned faults.This fault affects the programming of the eeprom area. OPEN CIRCUIT: No continuity between the terminals of the component even when they are reversed. There is no reading or beeping in both directions. SHORT CIRCUIT: The multimeter beeps but does not give any reading. If it beeps but give a value, the component is good. LEAKAGE: Some diodes should read in one direction only if they are good.If such components read HANDLING in both directions it implies that they are bad.This is leakage. THE REPAIR OF A DROPPED CELL PHONE. When a cell phone drops on a hard surface accidentally,their is the possibility that some of its ics ( integrated circuit) could have lost contact from the PCB. resulting in malfunctioning of the cell phone. This problem is solved by opening the cell phone and using hot air from the rework station ( about 400C) to fire i.e resolder the ics to the PCB. Firing should only be in a flash as excessive could melt off some vital components causing irrepairable damage. Remember to make sure the battery is in good condition. Couple the phone and test it. HANDLING THE REPAIR OF A CELL PHONE THAT DROPPED INTO LIQUID/WATER. Open the cell phone . Wash it properly with methilated spirit or any available volatile liquid with a brush. and allow it to dry.Washing should be done as soon as possible because longer time could enhance rusting of vital components resulting in irrepairable damage.The tiny wiring on the PCB could be eaten up by rust or liquid chemicals such that repair may become difficult HANDLING THE REPAIR OF AN ELECTRICALLY BURNT CELL PHONE Electrically burnt cell phones are often very difficult to repair especially if vital components are affected. Always use the approved charger and stable voltage to charge your batteries to avoid this problem. N.B. The next post will look at some of the common problems of the cell phone and how to solve them.
Godak..