Nexus One power button fix

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Ra1stlin

Member
Feb 16, 2007
12
3
I just bought a replacement power button/ flex cable for Nexus of ebay. Took me around 30 minutes to replace it but its fully working right now. Its around 30 £ .

Item name it "Flex Cable Repair Parts for HTC Google Nexus one G5 1"

Just thought i let you know .
 
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Hollow.Droid

Senior Member
Sep 30, 2010
696
184
Is it a tricky fix? I replaced my digitizer just fine so hopefully this wouldn't be a major repair job in comparison. Would love to have my power button working again!
 

tr.slate

Senior Member
Jan 26, 2009
421
45
Austin
Just curious if to you it looked like a bad button connection or a bad cable? I know sometimes the buttons get crud in them so they dont make a proper connection...
 

commodoor

Senior Member
Mar 8, 2008
922
68
Venlo
Does anyone know why the power button breaks? I have my N1 a year now and (luckily) i never had a HW issue. anyways i was just wondering why it breaks :D.

Step by step pics would have been nice.
 

Hollow.Droid

Senior Member
Sep 30, 2010
696
184
Does anyone know why the power button breaks? I have my N1 a year now and (luckily) i never had a HW issue. anyways i was just wondering why it breaks :D.

Step by step pics would have been nice.

The power button itself has a small cylindrical piece of plastic which pushes against and presses a small connection that sorta clicks (Which gives you the tactile feedback you feel). I think the problem occurs when either 1) The piece of plastic either bends/breaks/gets damaged in some way that makes that contact much harder to produce 2) The connection is connected to the phone via a cable/flex, however due to the Nexus one design it is bent around in order to be below the power button, while this is fine for the majority some devices, including mine, have seen the flex become damaged for whatever reason and either function intermittently or not at all.

It's also interesting to note that there is nothing holding the flex or the connection in place except for the design itself i.e. the battery bay plastic holds it all in place. My power button was never that responsive (But got progressively worse) so this may explain why.
 

Ra1stlin

Member
Feb 16, 2007
12
3
Its always flex cable breaks and there is no way you can replace just the flex cable.You can find plenty of disassembly instruction over the net and yes you need to disassembly it to the pieces( still less to do than to replace digitizer.)I had a seal broken so i couldn't send it to HTC.
 
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commodoor

Senior Member
Mar 8, 2008
922
68
Venlo
The power button itself has a small cylindrical piece of plastic which pushes against and presses a small connection that sorta clicks (Which gives you the tactile feedback you feel). I think the problem occurs when either 1) The piece of plastic either bends/breaks/gets damaged in some way that makes that contact much harder to produce 2) The connection is connected to the phone via a cable/flex, however due to the Nexus one design it is bent around in order to be below the power button, while this is fine for the majority some devices, including mine, have seen the flex become damaged for whatever reason and either function intermittently or not at all.

It's also interesting to note that there is nothing holding the flex or the connection in place except for the design itself i.e. the battery bay plastic holds it all in place. My power button was never that responsive (But got progressively worse) so this may explain why.

Thnx for the explanation. I get it now. maybe it smart to always use trackball wake :p.
 

Hollow.Droid

Senior Member
Sep 30, 2010
696
184
Its always flex cable breaks and there is no way you can replace just the flex cable.You can find plenty of disassembly instruction over the net and yes you need to disassembly it to the pieces( still less to do than to replace digitizer.)I had a seal broken so i couldn't send it to HTC.

I did some googling and found a few images of that component, I remember taking it out and it was pretty simple so it should be just fine! Thanks for the info!
 

tekfrank

New member
Mar 16, 2010
1
0
Is it the Power button part that you changed ?

Hi,

I have found a photo of the power button part, can you tell us if you changed the full part shown on the photo ?

androidguys.com/2010/09/08/manage-nexus-broken-power-button


And i think you paid it way too much expensive ?

Thanks.
 

sa seba

Member
Aug 12, 2010
34
4
Vancouver
I just replaced my flex cable as well as the loud speaker as well.
iFixit has a few pictures and there is a video on youtube, of the taking apart process. Unfortunately I can't post links :(

There are two little rubber parts that will likely fall out during the mainboard removal. One goes underneath the connector beside the sim card and one is a part of the microphon.
I wish I could have taken pictures of where those parts go, but alas, my only camera right now is my nexus, so....

BTW, I bought my parts at Mobile Brando. Quite well priced as compared to many other stores of the kind.
 
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Skanob

Senior Member
Feb 19, 2011
598
631
Perth
was it the whole board that you've replaced? or just the flex cable for the power button. can you further elaborate the steps that you've done?
 

sa seba

Member
Aug 12, 2010
34
4
Vancouver
Hi,

That's exactly the item, at that very same store. I also bought a loudspeaker as well as both back covers there. The audiojack is on board and I believe the flex cable has nothing to do with the screen type. The screen does not have to be removed.

I used those pics: http://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Nexus-One-Teardown/1654/1
and this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cznogushN34&feature=player_embedded to figure out how to do it.

Basically, it's quite straight forward, given that you aren't a clumsy oaf ;-)
Remember the two rubber parts that might fall out when you pull off the mainboard assembly. (one at the bottom, for the microphon (http://guide-images.ifixit.net/igi/fpRmPyN6h12mtNvt.huge ,a bit to the left of the plastic tool) and one at the connector beside the sim card (http://guide-images.ifixit.net/igi/EOfeocuwhCRASB6M.huge , on the left part, somewhat down from the serial number sticker).
 
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laobo

Member
Jul 18, 2011
16
0
I have replace Power button for my N1. But you can reset your N1 by do'n need it. Except when you want flash rom!
 

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    I just bought a replacement power button/ flex cable for Nexus of ebay. Took me around 30 minutes to replace it but its fully working right now. Its around 30 £ .

    Item name it "Flex Cable Repair Parts for HTC Google Nexus one G5 1"

    Just thought i let you know .
    1
    Its always flex cable breaks and there is no way you can replace just the flex cable.You can find plenty of disassembly instruction over the net and yes you need to disassembly it to the pieces( still less to do than to replace digitizer.)I had a seal broken so i couldn't send it to HTC.
    1
    Hi,

    That's exactly the item, at that very same store. I also bought a loudspeaker as well as both back covers there. The audiojack is on board and I believe the flex cable has nothing to do with the screen type. The screen does not have to be removed.

    I used those pics: http://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Nexus-One-Teardown/1654/1
    and this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cznogushN34&feature=player_embedded to figure out how to do it.

    Basically, it's quite straight forward, given that you aren't a clumsy oaf ;-)
    Remember the two rubber parts that might fall out when you pull off the mainboard assembly. (one at the bottom, for the microphon (http://guide-images.ifixit.net/igi/fpRmPyN6h12mtNvt.huge ,a bit to the left of the plastic tool) and one at the connector beside the sim card (http://guide-images.ifixit.net/igi/EOfeocuwhCRASB6M.huge , on the left part, somewhat down from the serial number sticker).