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