How to repair the RIM 950
How to void your warrenty 101
Well the screen on my 950 pager was slowly starting to fade. One by One the vertical and horizontal pixels would start to go out, making it next to impossible to read the damn thing. I had wanted to contact www.blackberry.net about getting it replaced and they wanted a ton of money. And to switch my device to another one I had would run me a $50 activation fee (bite me!). So after talking to Tad for a while (The Toy Manager), I decided that the screen would be replaceable with a screen from another 850 or 950 device.
What you need:
- T8 - TORX Screwdriver
- Replacement 850 or 950 Pager
- 10-15 Minutes of time
Once I obtained a replacement pager, I took to the task of opening up the pager. Remove the battery, and the two screws, and bingo... its open... and some random little piece falls on the floor. Note: be sure to open things slowly while you look at everything possible!. The piece that fell on the floor is the reset button rod that sits in the back of the device allowing you to reboot it. I found this out later while opening the 2nd pager vewwy vewwy swwowly.
The bottom of the pager comes appart easily, but the top you need to push gently on the two notches at the top to get it to unlatch while you are tilting the bottom up. The reverse process of putting the top of the pager together first is the best route.
Once inside the pager, you find that replacing worn keypads is very easy, infact it falls to the floor just as easy as the reset rod. The screen is accessable from a flat ribbon cable connector, which requires you to push little black plastic piece located on each side of the ribbon connector UP. I will take a picture to demonstrate. Once these slide up the ribbon to the screen slides out easily.
Replace the screen and reverse the process and your set.
Whats Next:
Now that I know how to take it appart, I'm going to find some Vinyl Paint and make it so I can turn my entire pager RED. 🙂 Nothing like having it blend into your outfit to make a fashion statement.