Gadgetory

the Nintendo switch mindset a rough few days and the violence isn't over just yet it's time to take it apart and review the switch from the inside remember don't ever attempt this on your own device unless it's totally broken and you have no other options I'll be linking all available repair parts in the video description so let me know if you need something specific let's get started for the past few consoles Nintendo has been using their own proprietary try point screw on the back panel and the switch is no exception for try point screws along the backside and five Phillips head screws along the side rail and then the metal joy conrail can detach from the console but be careful with it and don't pull it off completely just yet I'll show you why in just a second the bottom has two screws also Phillips head and the two little circles next to the screw is our Guiding post for the USB C port inside of the dock super smart because that will put less stress on the charging port when it's docked helping it last longer now I accidentally snapped my other joy Conrail off the console in my last video but normally this would have five screws holding it in place as well just pretend they're there lastly one screw along the top next to the heat bin the cooling system on this thing is actually pretty sweet I'll show you more of that once we get inside the kickstand is covering the last little screw and once that's removed the whole back panel can be pulled off the Nintendo switch console interesting that this particular device has never been open before yet there are still fingerprints all over the place really not that important but it is interesting to see a human had to assemble this at some point the SD card tray that is hidden by the kickstand is here and it's 100% modular with one screw holding it in and the same Lego light connection that we've seen on pretty much every cell phone there are six more normal Phillips head screws along the inside of this back metal panel then you can remove the metal plate from the console now this metal plate is interesting on two levels one it's got a series of foam pads along the back to keep the separation from the circuits and icky vibrations to a minimum and it's also got the largest glob of thermal paste that I've ever seen inside of a mobile unit but it makes sense when we finally get a look at the size of this heat pipe this heat pipe is used to wick away heat from the main processor which is the hottest and hardest-working component inside any computer or gaming system like this so the heat goes in two directions the first is due to large blob of thermal paste right into the large silver metal backing and the second is through the copper heat pipe along the fan and spitting out the top of the device I'll remove that heat pipe and look at that in just a second I'll disconnect the battery first which is smart practice any time you work on anything electronic I did warm up the screen for a second to try to soften it a super strong adhesive under the battery since this will probably be a repair people want to attempt in a few years when their own batteries start dying this is normally not good for the battery and is actually pretty dangerous if you use metal tool I wish Nintendo would have used the magic adhesive pull-tabs that we see in most cell phones these days these pull tabs cost pennies to manufacture and make repairs so much easier and safer for repair guys like myself maybe next time Nintendo the battery is pretty large capacity at 4300 milliamp hours remember how I said earlier to be gentle with these side rails there's a small ribbon cable that goes to the mainboard and this is what will be charging your joy cotton controller so if this breaks so does the charger to your controller and you know the controllers are kind of important there are dual speakers at the bottom of the game system these fire out through the holes below the front screen and the USBC port is here in the center soldered onto the mainboard keeping your screw organized there are three more here I'm pulling out the game cartridge slot and the headphone jack they are on the same circuit board there's a large ribbon cable attached to the top each ribbon connector has a locking latch that lifts up to unlock and then the ribbon cable can slide out then the board also has a Lego type connector under the heat pipe that unsnaps this thing looks pretty sweet and now you know if multiple games stopped being read player consoles this guy's probably the culprit and needs to be replaced if all else fails you might be able to digitally download your games to the console this is what I did with the Zelda game that I'm currently playing let's get rid of some more screws there are three screws holding down the copper heat pipe just over the processor try to keep the thermal paste intact as long as it's not dry and crusty you can probably just reuse it if it's all dried up you can probably just reapply some normal thermal paste that we find on Amazon I'll try to link some in the video description there's a bunch more screws on the main board into place remember to keep these organized your life will be easier if you do the other droidcon rail is plugged into the side of the motherboard unlatch the lock and the ribbon can slide out the speakers can be found in the bottom corners of the Nintendo switch and the interesting thing is is that the speaker con is made from the same rubber material that we saw inside the Apple earpods so while the Nintendo switch itself is not waterproof if any liquid accidentally falls into the speaker slots the speakers themselves can survive Nintendo did use quality speaker material the water damage indicator is right here next the corner of the battery and then we released the large ribbon that sits right below where the cartridge used to be and finally the beastly heat pipe can be removed this helps wick heat away from the processor without this the system might overheat and turn off if you remember I use a thermal imaging camera on my LG g6 teardown to see if the to actually work and they do and this heat pipe is even bigger than the ones we've seen inside of other smartphones it's even got fins up at the top to let the air flow through and let it cool down faster just a few more things to unplug like the volume and power ribbon and the sand ribbon I'll show you more on these in just a second one more wire cable on the left side and then this little guy right here is extremely interesting this is the built-in memory for the device and it looks like it's replaceable normally phones and tablets have their memory soldered directly onto the mainboard and it looks like this system might be able to upgrade and hold more memory in the future it will be easy for a Nintendo to start selling larger capacity switches because none of the board schematics would have to change if the memory is swappable like this just plug the new memory in and you're good to go finally here is the mainboard the brains of the device the charging port is directly soldered in place and not replaceable unfortunately but I imagine that the dock is pretty sturdy so wear and tear on the port should be minimal but even then it would be nice to see replaceable charging port like we have on most cell phones these days the last thing that come out of the frame is the fan with its three screws this fan coupled with the large copper heat pipe and heatsink should do a pretty good job of keeping the tablet cool especially since it's only running at 720p when it's not docked the super long ribbon cable at the top is for the volume and power button and then there is this last joy conrail on the side that we unplugged earlier now the screen the exterior plastic layer and the LCD layer are not glued to each other like we see on most cell phones they are actually independent components like on an iPad but they are glued to the console itself it has not been easy to find replacement parts for a Nintendo products in the past but if I do find replacement screens they'll be linked in the video description you'll need to use heat to separate the screen from the frame and then the new screen will have its own adhesive I personally want to play zelda later though so i'm going to leave my screen intact for now it's time to reassemble this thing and see if it still works when I put it back together putting it back together should be easier than taking it apart if you kept your screws organized fan goes in first then the motherboard gets set into place charging port in first making sure no ribbons or wires are stuck onto the board when you set it down into the frame everything has its own slot to slide into like the speakers I'll get the fan ribbon cable tucked into the slot and the volume ribbon tucked into its slot and make sure that they're both locked down at their little latches the larger ribbon is the same deal flip it in lock it down then the cartridge and headphone jack board can get plugged in with a little Lego light connector you'll feel it click into place and the heat pipe gets set down Grill side first and the three screws hold it snug against the processor remember if your thermal paste is super crusty you might want to glob some new stuff on if your console is overheating or something click on rails get put into place and latch down make sure to have a good connection before latching it in place ribbon cable that plugs into the cartridge gets flipped in and latch down and then the other droidcon rail gets lined up along the side and the two ribbon cables at the bottom near the speaker get tucked into place and latch down like the rest of them set down the black plastic bracket over the headphone jack and then we can set the 4300 milliamp battery back into place and plug it in I'm just reusing the same adhesive as before but if you buy a new battery it will probably come with its own adhesive get the rest of your motherboard screws into place assuming you had them all organized this should be relatively easy another interesting thing is that this black tape on the metal backing this is a super cheap way to keep the silver from shining through with the little grill slots on the back of the console pretty cost-effective way of keeping the controller looking clean and blacked out and a final screw next to the SD card slot after you finish plugging that into the mainboard like a little Lego and to fixing the foam pad over the top of the connector the foam pad will help it keep from accidentally disconnecting if it's ever dropped the back plastics can fall into place at this point with one screw at the top of the console two more screws at the bottom and five screws on either side of the Vice all these are your normal Phillips head screws and lastly four screws along the back with the little guy underneath the kickstand as well and it looks like everything works I can keep playing Zelda now at least until I take apart joy Kahn controllers to see how they work this poor system has been through quite a lot and it keeps on chugging I'm pretty impressed my name's Graham followers got to watch me stream this teardown live on Instagram we just hung out and talked for about an hour as I took this thing apart for the video follow me over there if you want to jump in and chat during the next teardown thanks ton for watching I'll see you around