No Sound out of One Ear (Broken headphone Jack)

Sansa e200 v1 Headphone jack repair

 

I fixed my Sansa’s loose headphone jack!!!

 

The other day I plugged my Sansa e260 (v1) into the car tape adapter, hit play, and it started making all kinds of staticky noise- every time the headphone jack was bumped. I realized if I messed with it at all the LEFT channel would cut out.

 

So I started reading. These threads were helpful for pictures and instructions:

http://daniel.haxx.se/sansa/e200-devboard.html (general pictures of disassembled Sansa)

http://www.joustin.com/?page_id=10 (how to clean the scroll wheel)

http://www.anythingbutipod.com/archives/2006/03/sandisk-sansa-e200-series-review.php (assorted pictures and a review)

 

Here’s my walkthrough. I’ve uploaded a couple pictures I took and others from above that were helpful.

Notice the marked pictures!!!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/13591918@N07/sets/72157606323265244/

 

 

If you have halfway decent technical skills (or know someone else who does,) you can fix your Sansa!!
You’ll need a soldering iron, flux, solder, tiny phillips screwdrivers, clean STATIC-FREE work surface, and a steady hand.

Read through EVERYTHING below before starting !!!

 

Here are my steps:

1- Unplug the headphones, take the battery cover off and battery out. Always use screwdrivers that FIT or else they’ll mess up the screws, and keep the screws in a Safe Place!

2- Unscrew the four tiny silver-colored screws in the four corners.

3- CAREFULLY with your fingernail, pry the faceplate (black plastic) off the rest of the player. There are little notches on each side, start on a corner towards the bottom (usb cable connector end) and just slide your fingernail upwards on one side in between the black plastic and the silver plastic, then do the other.

4- CAREFULLY remove the inner circuit board from the plastic silver-colored case. I did this from the bottom end first, carefully prying the cable connector out of the case, then the rest, with the headphone jack last.

5- You now have just the circuit board and screen.

6- The headphone jack has 3 points where it’s soldered to the circuit board. Two are towards the top (headphone connector end,) one on the bottom right of the jack.

7- To see the bottom right one, I had to unplug the RAM chip, and keeping the tape on it, swing it down out of the way.

8- The bottom right connection was the one that was loose on mine- I couldn’t tell by looking at first, but the metal part from the jack was able to separate slightly from the solder on the board below it.

7- I’m not a professional solderer- I put a tiny amount of flux on the point with a toothpick, then cleaned my iron, then melted a small amount of solder onto the tip. I carefully put this small drop of solder onto the point and the flux helps attract it to the point needing solder.

8- I held the battery on and plugged in headphones, turning it on with my fingernail to test and make sure it was fixed before I closed everything back up.

9- When reassembling, make sure you carefuly CLEAN the screen off or it will show smudges and dirt inside of the case.

10- Put the circuit board back into the plastic case, headphone jack first. Then connect the black faceplate and the tiny silver screws. Finally put the battery and cover back on.

11- When I powered up, it said it needed 6mb to initialize the database and there was no music on my player. I restarted and it got stuck and didn’t boot up all the way (wouldn’t go into Rockbox, either.) I held the power down until it powered off, then finally powered on and my music was there and all is well.

[[I would recommend backing up any and all music and videos before starting this though…]]

 

UPDATE: BE CAREFUL to not use any de-soldering wick or touch any other pieces besides the headphone jack connector. I bought a few e250s from Ebay with the one-ear not working problem. One had a little black (transistor?) that is supposed to be on the circuit board melted INTO the solder on the headphone jack. (Someone else tried a repair??)  I fixed the jack but it still won’t play out of the left ear.


THEN I tried to fix the other one, and touched some desoldering wick onto the jack because it also looked like someone had tried a repair- I put the iron to the wick and it sucked up that stupid cursed little transistor as well…  No workey AGAIN…

Message Edited by AutobahnSHO on 08-17-2008 03:06 PM

Nicely done.  That same lower right connection was the one that had come loose on a player I worked on a few weeks ago.  Not much evidence to go on, but it would seem that particular connection is the most vulnerable of the three.  I’m thinking some sort of spacer (maybe a tiny bit of rolled up electrical tape) taped to the top of the headphone jack would create a snugger fit for the headphone jack pressing it against the case, possibly preventing further damage in the future.  I tried super gluing my headphone jack to the system board, but that turned out to be a singularly bad idea in my case since the jack quit working afterward.  I had used Solder5 instead of regular solder, so maybe some of the super glue interacted with it and reduced its conductivity.  One day I’ll revisit that player and try a little acetone on it. 

So you have a “could be working” player just sitting around??  :-o

If I had 3 more working players my kids would be all over them…  :slight_smile:

Good. clear, concise directions . . . maybe AutobahnSHO’s post should be “stickied” at the top of the board for future reference?

Will,

Thanks. Great job with the pix and the soldering!  Hope I don’t have to open up my Sansa … I get squeamish at the sight of electronic guts!:smileyvery-happy:

how do i unplug the ram chip

Hi there. I’m so lucky to have found this thread. I have the same problem with my e250. Its the bottom right connection that is loose as well. The metal part from the jack has a solid hold on the solder on the board below it, but its the solder itself thats become loose from the board. I’ve never soldered before, but I think I could take it on. Would it be better to melt bit of solder directly on the board, under the loosened solder, or use a conductive adhesive? I’d appreciate any advice.

speekmonkey: Just pry it with your fingernail a bit. It comes off, and snaps back on easily.

Message Edited by pixelthunder on 08-03-2008 03:11 AM

@speekmonkey wrote:
how do i unplug the ram chip

Gently lift it UP (away from the circuit board)

I DIDN’T take any of the tape off that keeps it connected to the circuit board.

@pixelthunder wrote:

Hi there. I’m so lucky to have found this thread. I have the same problem with my e250. Its the bottom right connection that is loose as well. The metal part from the jack has a solid hold on the solder on the board below it, but its the solder itself thats become loose from the board. I’ve never soldered before, but I think I could take it on. Would it be better to melt bit of solder directly on the board, under the loosened solder, or use a conductive adhesive? I’d appreciate any advice.

If you’ve never soldered before, try practicing with some wires or something. The biggest issue here is that generally you hold the solder iron to the two pieces you’re soldering and then add solder.  DON’T DO THAT here. IT will melt the board and/or the chips on the board.

I would NOT try to melt anything under, but if you get a “desoldering wick” you could carefully remove the solder from the tab on the headphone jack- then just solder that to the board.

Maybe take it to a TV or computer repair shop and ask if they do small soldering- if so, they should be able to fix it in just a couple minutes…

I just had this same problem hit my e260.  I took your advice and opened it up, but instead of soldering (I would have ruined it for sure) I just put some tape on the lower end of the headphone jack.  Now with the case back on the jack is pressed firmly into place and the left headphone works again.  New life for my Sansa.

That’s probably the BEST IDEA for people who AREN’T ELECTRONICS REPAIRERS!!!   :slight_smile:

-I tried to repair another and couldnt, I actually messed it up worse.

To properly support the jack, apply foam tape to gently press the jack into position, like 3M foam tape.

Most vinyl electrical tape these days uses really crappy adhesive, with the exception of 3M.  The competition just celebrated the 2008 Olympics, if you get my drift.  I hate the thought of your Sansa full of black goop.

For the “non-technician” repair, shall we call it, a wee dab of that conductive solder preparation (Solder 5?), on the solder pad / connection, followed with a bit of foam tape to support the jack properly against further damage, should last for years.

If you don’t have some proper foam tape, a small wad of the foam wedges used for makeup will do.  If you sneak this bit of foam from your wife or girlfriend, get her a replacement.

In any case, don’t tell her that the missing bit of foam was chewed off by a mouse, as she may start screaming and running about, and the newly repaired Sansa in your hand will quite possibly be dropped to the floor!  Be careful!

Bob  :smileyvery-happy:

I had the same problem - car noise, one earphone, and a wiggly jack socket.  Rather than resoldering, I just potted the connector onto the board with some epoxy.  You have to be careful where to apply epoxy, but that socket is not moving anywhere now.  The problem I saw was not with weak solder joints but poor contact with the floating pin as the socket moved away from the board.  It sounds great afterwards.

Hi thanks for this, my headphone jack is now fixed! I had the exact same problem but you don’t actually need to get the soldering iron out (well not in my case anyway). When the headphone wasn’t working I noticed if you pushed the connector on the headphones down it would play fine out of both, only problem is you have to hold it there.

I opened mine up following the instructions you gave but instead of taking the ram chip off and soldering, I placed a tiny bit of blu tac on top of the phone jack, then stuck a small bit of dense foam on top. The reasoning behind this is that the case will push down on this, thus having the same effect as pushing down on the headphone connector. This brings the third connection point back in contact and it plays fine.

This isn’t as good a fix as a solder job but it is certainly worth trying if you are not confident with a solder and don’t want to risk anything, afterall if this doesn’t work (It worked fine on mine but I can’t guarantee it will in every case) you can always still solder.

No SPAM in your ‘sig’ please!

@autobahnsho wrote:

Maybe take it to a TV or computer repair shop and ask if they do small soldering- if so, they should be able to fix it in just a couple minutes…

Thanks for the repair instructions and links, Will, but I don’t see these fingers making it happen!  There’s not much in the way of TV repair here these days, but there’s a computer repair shop or two around.  I think I’ll follow that up.

Steve

Great descriptions!  I also had the same problem with the BIG blob of solder on a refurb e250.  I dissected things a bit and came up with a way to fix mine.  First, the solder blob was a repair that connected the back headphone jack contact to a resistor (the thing you thought might be a transistor is actually a resistor of about 0.2 ohms).  Evidently the original circuit board trace broke between the headphone contact and the resistor.   On my Sansa, the solder blob had acturaly ripped loose the end of the resistor and destroyed it (the headphone jack had torque it).   I got the jack fully working again by just removing the resistor (use de-soldering braid) and adding a jumper wire from the rear headphone jack contact and the input side of the resistor thahat had been pulled.  I uploaded a few pictures to detail it a little…

 http://picasaweb.google.com/stickery/SansaHeadphoneJackRepair#5326628224637090706

 http://picasaweb.google.com/stickery/SansaHeadphoneJackRepair#5326624652983213314

http://picasaweb.google.com/stickery/SansaHeadphoneJackRepair#5326624667147332002

Not sure what value the resistor was adding… but since mine was trashed figure what the heck… nothing to lose.  Sound is fine out both ears - no static.

I suppose if your resistoris not trashed you can solder to the output end of it and retain its function…  the space is way tight though and soldering a little difficult…  mine solderiing was ugly but fully functional.

I was able to simplify my life a little as well by lifting the plastic headphone jack housing off the front metal leads (they were soldered to board).  the back headphone lead had broken from the board completely.  With it off, I then pulled that back lead out of the plastic housing of the headphone jack.  I was then able to do my soldering with the plastic out of the way.   I soldered the jumper wire to the board at the resistor contact and the other end to the rear headphone jack metal contact… pushed the lead back into the plastic housing and then pushed the housing back onto the two front leads…

Sorry, I did not get a few more in progress pictures…  but was really making it up as I went along and did not think it would work…  :slight_smile:

Hmm- I have 2 Sansas that need this treatment.  :dizzy_face: The resistor must be there for SOME kind of reason though?

-Is the volume any louder on one side?

-Does it cut out if you crank the volume up??

@autobahnsho wrote:

Hmm- I have 2 Sansas that need this treatment.  :dizzy_face: The resistor must be there for SOME kind of reason though?

 

-Is the volume any louder on one side?

-Does it cut out if you crank the volume up??

 

 

I too expected to hear a difference in the earphones… but can’t.  It cranks up without cutting out and the sound seems balanced side to side.  I also expected static or something… but again sounds fine.  And yes one would expect the resistor does something… maybe some slight change in frequency or something I can’t hear.  Dunno.  

This was sort of a hail mary approach in that without a fix the Sansa was pretty useless…  I had only spent like $25 for the thing…  had no idea where to find a resistor and if I did at what cost and was not sure I was even skilled enough to solder in a new one.    So… what the heck… I did not have much to lose.

If the resistor is intact though… I would try to keep it and put the jumper on the output side and connect to the back jack contact. 

stickery

2- e250 refurbs.

p.s.  I would be curious if someone else goes for it and and with what results…

Message Edited by stickery on 04-20-2009 06:57 PM