mikezq8ss
Member
So I've done a lot of searching about the OG Droid's non-tactile feeling power button. At first, they're great... but after some time some power buttons get kinda squishy and dont bounce back after clicking them. What I ended up doing to fix this (sorry, no pics) was I went on Youtube and looked up Motorola Droid Disassembly. A video from directfix.com showing the disassembly comes up, and walks you step by step through how to tear down the phone. You don't need the full video, as there's really no reason to remove the motherboard or go beyond that part.
One thing they didn't mention, when removing the screen that covers the speakerphone, BE VERY CAREFUL. Its incredibly delicate, and now mine is torn in half right in the center lol.
Once you get to the point where you can remove the buttons, pull them out and clean the crud out. Mine had a ton of **** in them, and I think most of it came from the spongy material Motorola used as the "spring" behind the buttons. That material broke down and, in my case, is the reason the button became garbage. I cleaned it out and when it came time to replace that material with something else, I selected an old earplug I had. Not the expanding foam ones, but the rubbery three tiered ones. I used pieces of the thin rubber (the parts that seal against your inner ear to block sound) and cut them down to fit inside the gap between the underside of the button and the little clicky thing that the button physically makes contact against when pressed. That part is custom fit, so there's no possible way to explain how to do it, I just used a razor blade and a cutting mat and instead of trying to slice the rubber I pressed down where I wanted to cut and pulled the surrounding material to let the pressure cut it rather than slicing motion. Once you start cutting pieces to fit, you'll see what you need to make it fit securely in place. Once it's in place, it most likely will not slip out, it kinda boxes itself in when you reassemble the phone.
All I used to do this was a T-5 torx driver to remove all the rear screws, and a sharp 90* angled pick that comes in the Craftsman screwdriver packs. Oh yeah, forgot about the razorblade, I used that too.
It really was simple to do, and I'm personally not worried about the warranty issue, these phones are getting older now
and I've already drilled out my camera so I can bring it into the secured facility where I work. I can't stress again how easy it was to fix, I was afraid that when I pulled it apart there was going to be an intricate mess of broken plastic, and disturbing it further would render the power button completely useless... but the foam crap just degraded. That's all it was, and now my power button is back to making clicky noises and functions perfectly again.
Why do all this? I like playing around with things, and there's no other phones out right now that I want haha... maybe the Bionic when it hits the ground, but until then I love my Droid and I got her all fixed up! Er.... minus the speakerphone screen part lol, but it isn't too horribly noticable.
If there is more interest in this, I can take pictures of what I did and do a mock run of how I fixed it. I mainly wanted you guys to know there is a way to fix the power button (in all my searchings I never saw anyone attempt to fix it), without using the warranty, if you're so inclined. Anyway, I'll check back later tonight and see if there's any replies. Later!
Mike
Sent from my Droid so when my boss reads this he knows I'm at least not posting from my work computer.
One thing they didn't mention, when removing the screen that covers the speakerphone, BE VERY CAREFUL. Its incredibly delicate, and now mine is torn in half right in the center lol.
Once you get to the point where you can remove the buttons, pull them out and clean the crud out. Mine had a ton of **** in them, and I think most of it came from the spongy material Motorola used as the "spring" behind the buttons. That material broke down and, in my case, is the reason the button became garbage. I cleaned it out and when it came time to replace that material with something else, I selected an old earplug I had. Not the expanding foam ones, but the rubbery three tiered ones. I used pieces of the thin rubber (the parts that seal against your inner ear to block sound) and cut them down to fit inside the gap between the underside of the button and the little clicky thing that the button physically makes contact against when pressed. That part is custom fit, so there's no possible way to explain how to do it, I just used a razor blade and a cutting mat and instead of trying to slice the rubber I pressed down where I wanted to cut and pulled the surrounding material to let the pressure cut it rather than slicing motion. Once you start cutting pieces to fit, you'll see what you need to make it fit securely in place. Once it's in place, it most likely will not slip out, it kinda boxes itself in when you reassemble the phone.
All I used to do this was a T-5 torx driver to remove all the rear screws, and a sharp 90* angled pick that comes in the Craftsman screwdriver packs. Oh yeah, forgot about the razorblade, I used that too.
It really was simple to do, and I'm personally not worried about the warranty issue, these phones are getting older now
and I've already drilled out my camera so I can bring it into the secured facility where I work. I can't stress again how easy it was to fix, I was afraid that when I pulled it apart there was going to be an intricate mess of broken plastic, and disturbing it further would render the power button completely useless... but the foam crap just degraded. That's all it was, and now my power button is back to making clicky noises and functions perfectly again.Why do all this? I like playing around with things, and there's no other phones out right now that I want haha... maybe the Bionic when it hits the ground, but until then I love my Droid and I got her all fixed up! Er.... minus the speakerphone screen part lol, but it isn't too horribly noticable.
If there is more interest in this, I can take pictures of what I did and do a mock run of how I fixed it. I mainly wanted you guys to know there is a way to fix the power button (in all my searchings I never saw anyone attempt to fix it), without using the warranty, if you're so inclined. Anyway, I'll check back later tonight and see if there's any replies. Later!
Mike
Sent from my Droid so when my boss reads this he knows I'm at least not posting from my work computer.
