[Lordvic]

as many readers may now, I have had a problem with my kobo wi-fi

The screen did the screwy thing. all the lines. and kobo tech after a drawn out month and a half was no help (not paying nearly the cost of a new ereader, with shipping two ways just fora screen issue that is known)

So, this got me thinking. Why is the Kobo wifi / original having this issue? What causes it? why is it relatively prevalent in these two devices.

So, my investigatory instinct took over. I grab my trusty screw drivers and went to work.

First observation: The case on the wifi / original is eay to open. While this might void our warranties... should they be honored in the first place, It requires no screws. however, around the perimeter of the screen and on the back of the front bezel is a tiny bit of glue. My assumption this is to keep the "build quality" up. no creaking of the plastic and make it appear to have a nice tight fit and finish. It works as intended.

Next I looked at the battery. if you're comfortable removing the front plate, the battery is cake. it is simply held in place by sticky tape. And to my pleasant surprise, the battery itself is attached to the logic board with a plug connector, and is easily replacable at this stage! Battery concerns should be moot as older devices with very little effort can replace this battery.

The D pad is a very simple contact button on the logic board. The rubbery buttons themselves do nothing more than apply presure to these. The rubber button has no contacts on them at all and the liklihood of it's wear and tear breaking the functionality of the D pas is not going to happen.

The Main Logic board itself is held into the back plate of the device, by 5 tiny phllips screws. if you want to remove this, you will need to get one of those tiny electronic screwdriver sets. I had slightly more difficulty on one screw as it appears that its head was stripped already. How this came to be? i dont know, but i was able to eventually loosen the screw with some fancy plyer work.

Next I removed the Logic board, which contains the entire workings of the device from the back plate

here is where things get interesting.

the E-ink screen itself appears that it is made of glass. or a Glass like substance. too "cool" to the touch for plastic, and makes an entirely glass like clicking sound if you tap metal against it.

This made me think about the screen problem which many are having. Where it appears to be "shattered" with lines everywhere, But the feel of it, and the appearance of the surface is intact.

The 'glass' itself looks to be under a millimeter thick. and the recognizable grayish front is an almost spray painted on layer.

I looked at the sides (haven't removed the screen from the board) but it was clear that where the screen appeared broken, there were cracks through the glass looking layer, and while everywhere else on the screen, the screen appears flush and perfectly attached to the circuit board, this side looks to have slightly lifted up. enough to slide a piece of paper under.

2nd Note: The ribbon for the screen that attaches to the circuit board is about 3/4's height of the screen itself. It also wraps around to the back of the board and bends / folded to reach there. (my opinion a terrible terrible design for any ribbon cable) where it attaches with a more standard style ribbon connector.

Flipping it over too look at that i was awed as well. There was a 2gb Micro-SD slot and card! 2gb sandisk memory that is easily purchasable off any shelf. this is simply in a slot like exists on any cell phone. Leads me to imagine possibilities of internal memory expansion, OS or firmware modification and a million other things. I haven't yet put this in my computer to read the contents.

This is where user serviceability completely ends. The screen itself appears to be glued directly to the logic board. aside from where it lifted slightly where it appears broken, there are no screws or clips visible in which to remove and replace the screen. The original reason behind this exercise, was to see if i could replace the screen on my own by buying online somewhere an "as is" partially broken device and salvaging the two together.

But it is apparent this is impossible. What I believe happens, when any device is sent in for a broken screen or logic board, is that the entire thing is replaced. What happens is Celistica (kobo doesn't do their own RMA) swaps your MicroSD card into a new / Refurbished device, and sends it back to you in an "all or nothing" replacement. this would explain why out of warranty repairs like this cost nearly the same as a brand new unit. In all likelihood, it is!

My questions when it comes to the build of this device, and likely other pre e-ink pearl devices is the screen and the aparent material it is made from. We are all lead to believe e-ink is not like an LCD in it's build structure, that it is more robust, and pocketable. That it can take a lot more beating. We have even seen demos of flexible e-ink.

So what is the material they used? Why is it shattering in not just mine, but if you look online, many peoples cases. Why is this happening suddenly? carry around the device for years without issue, then suddenly, one day, read, turn off, put down, turn on .. Broken.

Why if this is a known issue, and possibly a build quality issue with materials used, is Kobo being so strict with enforcement of warranty issues? This sounds like something Kobo should be considering extended coverage for, for aditional years.

What about Pearl? I have never had the chance to use one, Never mind open one up and have some fun with it. Does it still have the same build structure? quality of build? what exactly are the materials and the technological build differences between the two?

I know this was long and Wordy. But thank you for reading. This was meant for informative. I have already written off my Kobo Wifi as dead and wasn't going ot pay the replacement value for fixing this, so i felt like i would do a service and report on what i found inside. I haven't taken any photos, but if anyone has a particular photo they would like to see of any of these parts, Or further information, i would gladly report!