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One of my co-workers approached me with a bit of a challenge for the long weekend. Turned out his son had dropped his Motorola Q in some water, causing the following symptoms:
1. Screen was faint - there appeared to be no backlight
2. Unit would vibrate soon after turning it on
3. When the screen was held up to light, it appeared to be flickering
Over our lunch hour we shared a table, so we had a chance to look it over. The first symptom was the real problem - the water seemed to have caused the LCD backlight to fail. Symptom number two and three were just multiple notifications of overdue meetings that had not been dismissed (flickering was caused by the unit whipping through recurring meeting notifications from a week's worth of business).
This was all good news: The unit was working normally, only the LCD screen had been affected. I took the unit home, and last night did some micro surgery. Here's what I did:
But before we start, a couple of notes - I have not shown any anti-static protection in the pictures for purposes of clarity only, it should be worn for this type of work; AND if you attempt any of this, your warranty will be void for sure!!
The first step was to get at the screws. In the picture to the left, you can see there are four screws located at each corner of the unit. These can be accessed by removing the rubber feet covering them.
I managed to do that by using a very small jewellers' flat head screwdriver that I slid beside the feet, and then gently popped them up.
It's very easy to damage the feet this way - they are easily cut. Trick was to go slowly and use as little pressure as possible.
 Note that the screws are a torx type; I had to procure a miniature screwdriver set from an electronics tool vendor (Radio Shack in this case - although many other online vendors have them as well).
In the next picture on the left, I have removed the battery. Note the red "dot" in the lower right hand corner of the unit; this is normally white, but turns red if water hits it. This helps the company identify if the warranty is no longer valid. There is a second one on the main board inside the unit, I assume as added validation in case the consumer replaces the white disc on the outside.....
 The next step was to remove the rear case. After taking out the screws, there was still the fussy task of trying to get the case apart. It's held together, like most small electronics devices, with a series of clips that run all around the perimeter of the case.
This device has some surface mounted components that run close to these clips - extreme care had to be taken when removing the case. I worked my way around the case with a very thin flat head screwdriver, again from my miniature set, prying the back half of the case outwards slightly at intervals until each clip sprung free.
In the picture, you can see the back side of the case on the left, and the front side, with boards still in, on the right. Next comes the delicate act of removing the boards.
 First thing we had to remove was the plastic camera cover. This is held on by two clips. The first to spring loose is on the right; I inserted a small screwdriver inside the hole provided and gently pushed to the right until the clip popped out of the circuit board.
The clip on the left was then sprung by just pressing on it with the back of the screwdriver. Again, all of this to be done gently and carefully - if something had slipped, it could have knocked surface mounted components off the board.
 After removing the plastic cover, I removed the Mini-SD board by gently lifting it. It's held down by the press in connector on the main board, so lifting it just took a bit of patience prying up each corner a bit at a time.
Now that the SD board is separated, I inspected it for signs of water damage. This included looking for burnt traces; residue on the board; or corrosion on the components and shields. There was no damage apparent on that board, so I focused my efforts on the main board.
 Take a quick look where I have the screwdriver pointed to in the picture: This is the spot on the flex connector that connects the screen to the main board. To separate the two, I gently lifted that loose from it's press-fit connector (very similar to removal of the Mini-SD board).
When I looked at the components on the flex connector through a magnifier, I noticed corrosion on some of the resistors. This gave me a hunch: There is a separate flex connector on the same assembly that feeds power to the LCD lights. So....
 On the left you can see a picture of the unit with the main board removed. Unfortunately, this is more of my horrific photography, but you should be able to make out the flex connectors for the screen at the front.
My hunch involved the secondary flex attached to the portion to the left of the gold-coloured portion in the picture.
 Folks, this is as good as my photography gets. Yes, I am getting a new camera....soon......
In any envent, look carefully at the rightmost trace on the magnified flex connector. It's missing a small chunk, likely from being shorted by water.
The traces on the right and left feed power to the LCD lights, so my hunch was correct. Problem was: How in the heck was I going to repair a microscopic trace that fits perfectly into a microscopic connector??
The only solution I could think of was to solder a very thin wire across the broken section, then do the same on the left trace. Then, I glued the flex on top of its connector, and soldered the wires to the connector pins. Which was....stinking hard.
And assembly was the reverse of removal! The unit now works just fine, with a nice brightly lit screen.
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