11-13-2012, 02:07 AM | #1 |
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My lovely blue 350 is dying.....
...and i'm on an oil rig in Saudi Arabia.
And i've got another 20 days before i'm due to go home. The horror. Woke up one morning, and found some black lines/bars had developed on parts of the screen and some thinner lines of no eink. Have had to resort to reading my epubs using 'Kitabu' on my laptop... which is just not so good. Not at all. I've ordered a new 350... but could only find silver. Anyone tried changing 350 or 650 screens? May as well remove those 2 small screws from the back of the wonky blue 350 and see how it comes apart.... Coops |
11-13-2012, 04:37 AM | #2 |
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Hi
I would change the CASE not the SCREEN. This way you keep the electronical parts together (there exist for example different controller chips for the screen). I never had tried it, but the service manual for the PRS 350 could help: Service manual PRS 350 A. |
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11-13-2012, 06:36 PM | #3 |
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Wow !!!!
That's some very heavy gear !!
What a find, Analogus, that's going straight into Bookmarks, and I shall be saving the file. Many thanks, a real find. Appreciation for a solidly useful piece of kit. |
11-14-2012, 10:50 AM | #4 |
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As I recalled, there are four screws hold the mainboard to the case, the whole inner part can be popped out without disassemble small components. I might be wrong.
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11-15-2012, 05:55 PM | #5 |
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Or you can get a nice blue skin from Decal Girl. The one that is most like your PRS-350 is the solid navy, called Colormatch Navy.
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11-15-2012, 06:01 PM | #6 |
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I'd still kill to get my hands on a blue PRS-350, even a dead one for the housing. But being in the US, it's not very likely. I put that exact skin on mine, Colormatch Navy and it looks pretty decent. It's not as good as having the real thing in blue though.
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11-16-2012, 05:39 PM | #7 |
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Yeah, a blue 350. Wow. I've never seen one. Like Analagous said, swap the case. I wouldn't have thought it would be such a big job. Make sure you earth yourself first
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11-17-2012, 08:43 AM | #8 |
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My refurbished 350 from Morgan Computers (in the UK) is blue, unfortunately they only have silver and pink ones in stock now. Seems daft but whenever I use it one of the things I really like about it is the blue case, makes a change from the usual silver/grey/black while still being dark. And sitting in the official Sony cover which is blue/black, it looks terrific.
Last edited by soulfuldog; 11-17-2012 at 08:48 AM. |
11-21-2012, 05:41 AM | #9 |
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Thanks for the PDF manual.... helps knowing where all the hidden screws are.
I'll post pics when i get home to do it. The Sony Blue is lovely - don't understand why it wasn't more widely available - got mine by having a Dutch colleague at work pick one up for me. And like the mini iPad, the 5" reader is just that bit more portable, light etc without any real drawbacks. |
12-28-2012, 06:32 AM | #10 |
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Coops, did you ever swap the shell for your 350 and how did it go? A friend in Europe sent me a used blue 350, but the screen is badly scratched, even has a good sized gouge in one spot. The blue shell itself however is perfect and I'm really tempted to swap it. Depending on how you hold the reader, you can avoid noticing the scratches, and it works perfect as is, excellent contrast on the screen, but I know the scratches are there and it bothers me enough to want to swap it.
Looking at the schematics I can't really tell if the front of the shell will be any problems replacing and I don't want to kill 2 devices in swapping the shell. Or has anyone else swapped the casing on their x50 reader to know how easy it would be? |
12-28-2012, 07:13 AM | #11 |
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Haven't done this myself before, but I assume the first steps of your task will be similar to changing the battery.
There is a nice how-to video at youtube. |
12-28-2012, 02:43 PM | #12 |
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Yes, I've seen that video before and the back doesn't look like it's any problem at all. It's the front of the shell I'm a bit worried about, if anything is actually connected to the front at all other than just a few screws, or any delicate ribbon connectors that I could damage in removing it.
I found another silver one for $45 today, so I'll swap that one out when it comes. The 2 silver ones I have are both covered in DecalGirl skins that at the time were $20 for the matte finish, so I'd be ruining $25 and have to spend another $15 to replace it if I took one of these apart, so the $45 for one just seemed to make more sense. I'm going to have to my own shop of 350s soon! |
12-30-2012, 03:55 AM | #13 |
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I'll let you know once i've done it.... will take some pics of the project.
The Sony i received from an Amazon supplier was a 300 NOT the 350. Considering I had to have it shipped to a friend in US for him to ship onwards to me in Thailand, i'm not too chuffed... Have ordered another 350 on ebay, who ships direct Internationally, but may be a while before i get it. The 300 really doesn't compare at all to the 350. Thicker, longer,wider, worse screen... |
01-16-2013, 02:43 AM | #14 |
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I was going to do this last night, swap the shells, and then realized that minimally the power switch would have to be disconnected, and I seem to remember reading that the connector for it was somewhat fragile. The usb port I'm guessing will be just inserting it into the bottom frame and no connectors will have to be removed/reconnected.
Coops, have you done it yet? I'm starting to consider getting a good screen protector, but I love the smoothness of the glass when flipping pages, and the screen protectors tend to be a bit glossier and will show some smearing where I'll be constantly cleaning it. |
01-17-2013, 04:46 PM | #15 |
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Ok, I decided to just jump in and do it today, and it's not as bad as it seems. The power switch doesn't have a connection to the inner workings of the reader at all, so it's a pretty simple in and out swap. I've attached images for the screws that you need to remove. I used the silver shell for the images because the dark blue made it hard to see where the screws were placed.
I'd suggest doing it against something white or very light colored so you can find the screws easily. Magnetize your screw driver tip, it will make it easier. Pay attention to where the screws came from, they are different lengths, so sort them however you need so you know which length goes back where. Have some sort of small container to catch the screws in, they are impossible to find if you drop one or it rolls away. Remove the side trim and the back of the unit as shown in the video Mark Nord posted above for battery replacement. Then remove the top trim piece. There are 2 screws holding it place, one from the back of the unit and one from the top. Pry it off gently the same way you removed the side trim. See image Top trim.jpg. Next remove the 8 screws along the side of the front shell. There's 2 along the top edge, 3 along the side, and 3 along the bottom. See image Side screws.jpg. And finally remove the 5 screws holding the unit against the front shell. There's 3 along the top and 2 along the bottom. See images Front screws.jpg and Front shell screw holes.jpg. From this point, gently lift the free side of the reader up over the edge of the front shell and gently remove it out from along the solid edge. You might have to wiggle it gently to get it out of the U-shaped channel, but it should come out pretty easily. Now just reverse it all and done. The hardest part will be replacing the screws in the holes that are nearest the magnets, at least that was the hardest for me. And I did manage to drop a screw, but I used a strong magnet moving it around likely spots and found it without too much trouble. My blue reader with the horrid screen is now like new with a perfect screen. I put the bad screen in a slightly scratched silver shell on a used reader I got for $35.00 recently just for this purpose. Edit: Just to keep all info in one spot, here's a link to the Service Manual for the PRS-350 that might help you also. Last edited by Ripplinger; 03-09-2013 at 06:24 AM. |
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