Zire 31 repair

[philpalm]

I dropped my Zire 31 (in its case) about one foot high and discovered it is no longer working. Attempts at reset and hard reset have proven futile.

This is part one of my quest to find out what is wrong with my Zire 31. Today I went to the autoparts store to get a torx driver that would fit the screws in the back of the Zire.

When I searched for the smallest torx I came across the size 10, 9 and 8 (eight being the smallest available ). By the time I arrived home I discovered that I need an even smaller torx. I tried the trick of grinding the watch screwdriver to fit the flat screw into the torx slot but the screw was screwed too tight to turn.

Most likely I will have to go to a Electronics store and see if they have a smaller torx driver.

Here is a picture of the backside of the Zire 31:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/82647779@N00/2173995009/

[Dick Tracy]

Home Depot and Lowes sell torx sets that will have the smaller sizes.

[philpalm]

Thanks went to Home Depot and bought the torx set. It took the size 6 to open the back of the Zire.
Here are photos of it open:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/82647779@N00/2176232522/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/82647779@N00/2176231752/in/photostream/
Looks like it is more complicated than I thought and will have to send it to Dan T or Chris Short or the Brighthand person.....

[philpalm]

Received e-mail and messages from possible repair people and Chris Short will be used:
ips@chartermi.net
I basically will pay more to repair it than the price I purchased it....

Zire31 will have to have the motherboard replaced (as I have surmised) Which would have been something I could have done, but basically maybe Chris Short has seen enough Zires to know that that is the best solution which I can understand is not widely publicized....

[philpalm]

I guess procrastination has its uses. I was mulling over sending it to be repaired and decided today to fool around with my Zire. The battery became completely dead and I tried the hard reset and no reaction, no sounds or lights.

But recharging it, it came back alive, so I will see tomorrow what happens when it is fully recharged again.

Possible solution is that going completely dead reset the zire. Or maybe when I took it apart I accidentally fixed it. Tomorrow I will write what happened after being fully recharged.