Tinkering with a Sony Clie
Model PEG s360
*PSA follow these steps at your own risk. There is always a chance you could screw this up and completely brick your little PDA. This just an FYI type of post, and it's your choice to follow this tutorial for your own repair purposes. I'm not an expert, just a hobbyist*
I ordered this little hand held from someone on eBay in Canada. I suppose I should have expected the battery to be weak. This one arrived right dead. It was never designed to charge with the usb for PC cable, so I can't use it with my computer with a dead battery. I want to use this device for modifying and viewing contents on Church's Mind 3 aibo memory stick.
I'm a stubborn person. When my Zune's hard drive quit, I took it apart to see if it was replaceable. It was!
So let's see what's inside this bad boy... And if it's refurbishable.
Step 1: In the case of this model of Clie there are five screws to hold the case together. I removed those first.
Step 2: Now after that point, I carefully pulled apart the two halves of the case, pressing my finger nail into the seams to release any potential clips that I couldn't detect from the outside. Eventually it came apart, and the power button fell out of the top. It turns out it is not fixed to the case in any way, so be sure not to lose it.
Here's what the internals look like.
(screen already unscrewed above, be sure to disconnect the battery before this step, unlike what I did. There are ribbon cables, so fold out the screen carefully. I left it connected rather than risk breaking the brittle plastic)
Step 3: Now at this point, I knew the battery was theoretically fully discharged, so there would be little danger of touching my screwdriver to the board and frying it (trust me, you learn this lesson once) BUT a good idea if you're not sure is to disconnect the battery prior to any further disassembly.
For this particular battery and Clie, pull the plug in the direction of the arrow VERY gently and carefully. This plastic is brittle and nearly 20 years old, so care is important. If you refer to the picture after this one, you will see the little grey plug sits inside the little grey plastic inlet. Do not accidentally rip off the inlet, only unplug from it.
Step 4: Unscrew the screen with the gold screw at the bottom left corner of the screen. It passes through the board into the plastic below. *****Again, unlike what I did, do this AFTER disconnecting the battery *****
Next, unscrew the lower board from the plastic casing with the two gold screws.
Step 5: And gently, carefully, lift the board away from the battery. There are two ribbon type cables at the top connecting this board to the other. Rather than risk breaking the two cables by disconnecting, I opted to treat this pivot point like it was made of glass and just lifted it enough to check the model of the battery, and loosen battery from some of the glue underneath it.
After noting the model of the battery, I reassembled the clie (don't forget your power button at the top right!) I reconnected the battery after all the screwing was done, and tested it while connected to a wall outlet and charger to make sure it operated like it did before I took it apart.
Success!
Now I'll wait for the new battery for part 2 of this refurb.
