Problem opening (disassembling) the bottom keyboard part

[John Veness 57]

Hi. I need to disassemble the bottom keyboard part of the phone, as my fingerprint reader is no longer working (I'm assuming the cable has disconnected), but I'm stuck at the point where I need to prise the outer shell off.

I have removed the screen part OK and undone the five screws but none of my prising tools are having any effect. Any tips from people who have done this?

Also, I keep on accidentally turning the thing on by pressing the power button! Is there any way to reliably turn it off "blind" (without reconnecting the screen)? Holding down power for a long time seems to cause a reboot rather than a shutdown. I have to reconnect the screen and shut it down properly whenever I accidentally power it on!

[VaZso 1,998]

11 minutes ago, John Veness said:

I have removed the screen part OK and undone the five screws but none of my prising tools are having any effect. Any tips from people who have done this?

It is holding tightly as per my experience...
I don't really have good advice but I have used a very thin prising tool near the edges which I could open the case with.
...do not use sharp tools as it may easily cause physical injury to phone's body...

Anyway, if you could dismount the base, ensure to open it gently as fingerprint sensor's connector can be easily broken if it is still connected or not fully released.

17 minutes ago, John Veness said:

Also, I keep on accidentally turning the thing on by pressing the power button! Is there any way to reliably turn it off "blind" (without reconnecting the screen)? Holding down power for a long time seems to cause a reboot rather than a shutdown.

I don't think any options exist to shut down the system properly without a screen.
By pressing power button, it makes a hard reset, so you are right, it is not the best way for a restart...

[John Veness 57]

Thanks @VaZso . It's the difference between thin and sharp I'm having trouble with! That is, finding something that is one but not the other.

Regarding shutting down blind, I even tried holding volume up or volume down while holding power, but those still did a reboot not a shutdown.

Edited January 18, 2022 by John Veness

[VaZso 1,998]

18 minutes ago, John Veness said:

Regarding shutting down blind, I even tried holding volume up or volume down while holding power, but those still did a reboot not a shutdown.

Also, that is more like the reset button on a regular PC, so it is not in connection with any software, that is a hardware solution.
...so unsaved data (for example) will not have any chance to be saved...

[EskeRahn 5,471]

I tried this:
Held the power button in for about five-six seconds, while still holding I held volume down in for an additional about two-three seconds, and it seems to turn off!
And it does so in such a deep way that it needs a very long press (about six seconds) on the power button to come back on.....

Note that if you hold in both too long the logo re-appear, but it still ends in the deep Off state in my experiments....

That function was new to me..... I was not even aware that a deep off mode existed....
I actually attempted to see if I could get it to boot into the bootloader menu staying at the same item, so I could roll down to Power Off in a predictable way....

[VaZso 1,998]

9 minutes ago, EskeRahn said:

I tried this:
Held the power button in for about five-six seconds, while still holding I held power down in for an additional about two-three seconds, and it seems to turn off!
And it does so in such a deep way that it needs a very long press (about six seconds) on the power button to come back on.....

Note that if you hold in both too long the logo re-appear, but it still ends in the deep Off state in my experiments....

That function was new to me..... I was not even aware that a deep off mode existed....
I actually attempted to see if I could get it to boot into the bootloader menu staying at the same item, so I could roll down to Power Off in a predictable way....

It may happen it is a (software) power-off sequence as primarily it does a hard reset but it does not really want to stay powered off (as power button is pressed), so I have pressed volume button then selected power off earlier.

I did not know they put in a poweroff like what you have found but it seems they have programmed this behaviour then (not at OS level but in the boot code).

[John Veness 57]

On 1/18/2022 at 4:04 PM, EskeRahn said:

I tried this:
Held the power button in for about five-six seconds, while still holding I held volume down in for an additional about two-three seconds, and it seems to turn off!
And it does so in such a deep way that it needs a very long press (about six seconds) on the power button to come back on.....

Note that if you hold in both too long the logo re-appear, but it still ends in the deep Off state in my experiments....

That function was new to me..... I was not even aware that a deep off mode existed....
I actually attempted to see if I could get it to boot into the bootloader menu staying at the same item, so I could roll down to Power Off in a predictable way....

Many thanks for this, although I when I try this it seems to always restart, not shutdown. I'm running stock Android if it matters.

As it happens, I just trained myself to stay away from the power button while fiddling with the device!

Edited February 2, 2022 by John Veness

[John Veness 57]

Anyway, I did manage to open the bottom (keyboard) part in the end, using an iSesamo device. The fingerprint connector was indeed completely disconnected but I managed to reconnect it. I put a little bit of extra squidgy stuff underneath it to try to better push it in place, as follows:

Before:

After:

[EskeRahn 5,471]

4 hours ago, John Veness said:

(I assume you meant "volume down

Yup, thanks, edited.