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Fuze headphone jack flaky, how to open case?

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fredex:
Sansa Fuze (not plus) headphone jack has developed an increasingly intermittent left channel. I can wiggle the phone plug and it'll come back, but may or may not stay. multiple headphones all do it, so it's not the phones.

So, I'm wondering if anyone knows how to open the Fuze without destroying it, in such a way as to put it back together (and have it not fall apart later)??

If I could get into it, I might be able to see what's the problem, and do a tiny bit of soldering or super-glue, or similar.

thanks in advance!

xpmule:
Mine has done this too..

And in case people are curious there is not much fixable inside.
I tore my player apart and cleaned it carefully with 99% alcohol *carefully with cue-tips
put it back together but the problem still persists.

The outer plastic casing is clipped into place with no screws so i used a tool for cell phones for prying glass off cell phones
and a plastic guitar pick.. either will work if thin enough to jam into the spot.
Look around the outer edge and you will see where it connects and i think.. even a finger nail might start prying it apart LOL
So it clips back into place after words so it won't be broken if you pry it apart.
be careful though there is a ribbon connecting both sides !

Once you look inside though you will see a super small headphone jack that is too small to deal with really.
And if you wanted to resolder on a new one you would need to get a proper replacement (good luck with that)
Then the hard part woudl be taking it apart to get at the solder points which would require taking it apart a lot more (not a easy idea)

What i think the problem is the metal connectors inside the jack get loose and worn out over time and don't get a tight grip anymore.
Think of it as holding a Spoon in your hand but so loose it keeps slipping out of your fingers..
My goal from the start was to find a way to bend the metal inside to refresh the grip on the phones plug.
I could not find any way to get at inside the female plug ..it's just so damn small :(

I have worked on a lot of micro computer solder jobs so i was comfortable doing it..
for example i have recapped a lot of mother boards and power supplies that have worked fine to this day and that is super mega ultra small soldering !

Not much you can do i think but keep both connection points clean and avoid and excessive wear and tear if you can.

i had thought about trying to flatten out my headphone's pug so it was long and oval instead of long and round.
but i thought if it had a gold plating then i may just crack the coating and make a nasty messy LOL
i dunno i have lots of heaphones i should just try it..

fennectech:
many an mp3 have died this way for me     infact my laptop has done this too  the fuze can be opened with a spudger  but there isnt much you can do

mikenine:
I started having the same problem with my Sansa. I usually keep it in my pants pocket while listening at work - so any movement would start to make the sound cut on a channel. I first noticed that the plastic part of the case was loose enough to allow my headphone plug to wobble around .. so I measured the plug diameter and the hole diameter, and noticed that there was about .001-.002 difference. I tried a single layer of tape around the plug where there was no signal contact; that worked for a while, but the tape didn't stay in place, in one case it stuck in the hole! That actually worked well for a while .. so I transferred the Sansa to my shirt pocket, while doing something else, and that stopped the cutting out. What I think might work, and I'm going to try it later, is to get a block of rubber (like an art eraser), drill a hole in it (to match the headphone jack), then cut a groove/channel in it to grip the Sansa body where the plug goes in, so that it won't wobble around. That might work for a lot of conditions like this..I also might make a mini tool to wiggle the contacts, but that's gonna have to wait a while.

Mikenine
Update: I still think my idea will work, but have given it up for the time being. As time went on, the tape stopped working as a fix. The best thing would be to put an extension on your new player and leave it there until IT goes bad. I wound up just putting my music on an old Motorola Droid 4 and using it as a player, since, oddly, it wouldn't work as a damn phone. SIM card wouldn't work.

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