SZ Hard Drive Replacement Pics (plus anecdote)

Hi all,

I just wanted to post my 'experience' with replacing the hard drive in my SZ. I'm usually not squeamish when it comes to hardware, but I have to say, fiddling with the internals of my SZ is _not_ something I take lightly, so please understand the full impact of my horror when I lifted the hard drive flex cable off the motherboard.

To be fair, I _did_ do a search on the forums for advice and warnings on replacing the drive, but for some reason, the search feature was not working at the time and I only came upon this post _after_ the damage had been done.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/archive/index.php/t-54323.html

This very useful post has, in _capital_ letters, the very warning I should have heeded.

Alas it was not to be, and thus began the delicate surgical procedure of replacing the accelerometer. Fortunately, samples were generously provided by ST. Unfortunately, only the LIS3L06AL were free, not the LIS3L02AL that was used in the SZ. This required an additional pin connection which took the most amount of time to do.

For those who have absolutely no idea what I'm talking about, here's the link to the photos:

*Warning: not for the faint of heart*
http://www.flickr.com/photos/9941264@N07/2056673779/in/set-72157603271057106/

 

Glad to hear someone shared their self-repair experiences. I have done some small modifcations to Sony Consoles and PDA`s in my time but i have left my Sony SZ closed after hearing such horror stories.

How exactly did you go about finding information on the replacement part and ordering it? Who is ST? How much would SONY have charged for repairing it. I am interested in the method you used to solder the eight points at the same time when they were obscured by the chip and flex cable.

 

I was really lucky, the markings on the original accelerometer chip were readable _and_ was easily found on the Internet. The markings are not at all standardized, but "MLT" happens to be a marking that ST Microelectronics uses on some of their chips.

Usually, semiconductor companies have a free sample system for their cheaper chips. They didn't sample the original chip, so I just got the new version. The datasheets show exactly what to do.

I don't even want to imagine how much Sony would charge. I assume I would have had to buy a new flex cable which would have been maybe 20 bucks plus 60 dollars shipping, but it's questionable whether Sony would even sell internal parts like that.

The chip is like a QFN but is worse because there's no exposed metal on the sides of the chip. It's really more like a BGA. To solder it, you apply a small amount of solder on the pads of the chip, put some flux on the metal pads on the flex cable, then heat the chip with a hot-air tool which basically melts everything you don't protect. I almost completely melted the plastic connector, then I would have been in _real_ trouble.