Gadgetory

today's gadgets for smaller thinner and lighter than ever before but to build these ultra slim ultra portable devices designers and engineers often make their creations more difficult if not impossible to repair well I'm bill detwiler and on this special episode of cracking open i'm going to show you five ways manufacturers are making our gadgets harder to fix and give you a few tips on working around these self repair roadblocks our first self repair roadblock is it new or unique to computers and mobile gadgets but tamper resistant screws are popping up on more and more devices Nintendo used try wing screws on the wii and gamecube sony used special security torx screws on the slimline ps3 and apple uses pentalobe screws on the iphone macbook air and retina MacBook Pro luckily our first roadblock is also the easiest to overcome with a little online research you can buy a driver or bit to handle any of these screws unfortunately some manufacturers are abandoning screws altogether choosing to glue components in place and that's our second roadblock whether it's the iPads front panel the galaxy s3's ribbon cables or the retina MacBook Pros battery removing glued-on components can be difficult and risky and it's best not to remove a working component that's glued in place if you absolutely must do so he can sometimes help weaken the adhesive but should be used very carefully if glued on components weren't enough today's gadgets are also filled with tiny very fragile connectors whether it's a board to board connector or a flexible flat cable connector today's tablets and smartphones are filled with them the keys to working around this roadblock are a little patience a light touch and if you really thin tools up to now I've been able to help you overcome the repair roadblocks on our list but the last two aren't so easy to work around at number four is a roadblock that manufacturers are using less frequently but that still pops up from time to time batteries that are soldered to the motherboard favored by some tablet and smartphone manufacturers there's no way to replace a battery like this without breaking out the soldering iron or wire cutters replacing a soldered battery is definitely one of the more difficult do-it-yourself repairs lastly there's one repair roadblock that's almost impossible to overcome and unlike soldered batteries device manufacturers are actually using it more frequently it's a fused front panel and display assembly whether it's the apple iphone or google nexus 7 a fused front panel and display assembly makes repairs more expensive because if one component breaks you need to replace both and while it's sometimes possible to separate the two components you often risk damaging the working half in the process so often it's just not worth the risk well that does it for our list of repair roadblocks I hope my tips help you the next time you need to fix a broken device now to see more step-by-step teardown galleries and my analysis of the latest tech hardware go to techrepublic com forward slash cracking open I'm bill detwiler thanks for watching