Inside the Treo 700wx

[Bearxor]

I promised these pics when I got my digital camera back, and here they are.

Our unsuspecting victim:


Here are the locations of the screws:


To get to the top right screw, you must remove the piece of rubber covering it up. It's not the bigger one, it's the smaller one. The bigger one is for the external antenna connection:


When you remove the rubber piece, the screw will be covered up with a warranty void sticker. Use something really sharp and pointy to remove it BEFORE you put your screwdriver in there. As you can see in the first picture, I use a small pick for this job. Picked it up in some kind of screwdriver set at Wal-Mart. Comes in handy.

When you get all of the screws out, start prying it apart at the top of the phone:


The antenna will fall out very easily. Keep prying it apart at the top and work your way down the side. It's very hard to take apart. Just take your time, be careful and don't rush:




After you have the back off (notice the speaker, microphone and vibration motor are securely attached to the back of the phone. Very nice touch IMHO), you can remove the middle gray plastic piece. Same as before, take your time and do it carefully:


With the middle plastic part removed, you should now be able to get to the CDMA PCB with the camera on it. Remove the two screws holding it in, and lift firmly up to remove it from the phone:



With the CDMA modem removed, you can see that all of the chips are covered up with metal:



Never fear, this is easily popped off. Use a sharp, pointy object (like afore mentioned pick) and start at a corner of the shielding. Get it in there and pry it up. After it's pried up a little, start working your way around and the rest will begin to snap up. Just easier to start at a corner:


Here's the bottom of the CDMA modem with the casing removed. This pic is the reason I took the phone apart. There was some speculation going around that since HTC said they were shipping a couple of phones this year with the MSM7500 chipset, which is software upgradeable to EV Rev. A, that perhaps this new chipset is one of the major reasons in the 700wx's delay, as Sprint is also trying to get their Rev A network up and running. A picture, in this case, really is worth a thousand words:


This is the topside of the CDMA modem revealed:


This is the connector for the keyboard:


It lifts up and the ribbon cable slides out. With the ribbon cable disconnected, you can lift the main PCB out of the phone:


It's snapped in there, but there are no screws holding it down. You'll want to take the bottom of the PCB and push it toward the top of the phone while lifting up. Here is the top of the PCB with the screen attached:


If you had any gunk that made it's way between the screen and the plastic housing (like the corners and such, this would be an excellent time to clean it. Here is the LCD lifted up so you can see it's connector:


Do not remove the foam or black pads. They're kind of glued to the main PCB. Something that peaked my interest here was that HTC is using the same trick they used in phone like the Harrier. Looks like there is a solid metal plate behind the LCD with several contacts to improve reception. Not sure if older Palm Treo's employed a similar design.

That's as far as I go. As for putting it back together, take your time and make sure you have some kind of system for parts on the order you took them apart. My 700wx actually feels a little more solid now, but that could have been from the last time I took it apart.

Hope everyone enjoyed it and that it puts the speculation the the MSM7500 chipset to bed permanently.

[Wideawake]

very nice! thanks for this great post! I have to say u have "marbles" for doing that hehe

[budney]

Too bad about the modem chip, but I knew it was too good to be true. Also I have read that the Treo's antenna dose have a tendency to loosen and/or fall out. That screw by the antenna must loosen easy, causing the problem.

[Malatesta]

Thanks for those horrifying live dissectin photos

And at least we get to put that rumor to rest (sigh) unfortunately. Man would it have killed them to put that chip in? Sheesh.

This is also a great guide for those who want to modify or replace parts.

FYI, there is an eBay seller who is selling replacement "zero antennas" which are basically chopped down regular versions. Cell signal is supposed to relatviely the same and they're only $30. (personally, I like the antenna, it's what I grab it by out of my holster).

[Bearxor]

Originally Posted by budney

Too bad about the modem chip, but I knew it was too good to be true. Also I have read that the Treo's antenna dose have a tendency to loosen and/or fall out. That screw by the antenna must loosen easy, causing the problem.

The single screw that is covered by the rubber piece is the only thing holding the antenna in. If your antenna is loose and shifts around, you could very likely retighten that screw to fix your problem.

One thing that I thought about after shooting these pictures is that (at the risk of starting another rumor) the CDMA chipset seems contained completely to the add-in card, much like the 2032SP was basically just a CDMA compact flash card soldered onto a PCB and insereted in to what was (at one point) the Toshiba PDA's compact flash slot. Same for the G1000.

This is different than the 6600 and the 6700, in which the CDMA chipset is placed directly on the main PCB.

So I would say that THEORETICALLY a new CDMA daughter card could be deveoloped to upgrade the 700w or 700wx with a RevA compatible chip. The could always resell it as the Treo 710w or something.

This is extremely unlikely to happen but does seem to be technically possible.

[BiGMatTFRomJeRSeY]

Originally Posted by Wideawake

very nice! thanks for this great post! I have to say u have "marbles" for doing that hehe

i second that. LOL

[bit_bucket]

Okay, maybe I was looking at the picture wrong, but it said the chip was an MSM6500. That chipset IS EVDO rev.0 and rev. A compatible according the spec sheet. Here is the product spec sheet.

http://www.cdmatech.com/products/msm...t_solution.jsp

[Malatesta]

Originally Posted by bit_bucket

Okay, maybe I was looking at the picture wrong, but it said the chip was an MSM6500. That chipset IS EVDO rev.0 and rev. A compatible according the spec sheet. Here is the product spec sheet.

http://www.cdmatech.com/products/msm...t_solution.jsp

You're not looking at the picture wrong.

You're looking at the spec sheets wrong.

CDMA2000? 1X Release 0 and Revision A, CDMA2000 1xEV-DO Release 0 and GSM/GPRS networks.

I don't think you're acknowledging the comma that is in that sentence. It's 1x Rev A compatible, not EvDO Rev A.

If you know anything about the history of that chipset, it came out in 2003, before there was ever a Rev A with EvDO, so it's kind of impossible.

The MSM7500 is the 1st chipset upgradeable to RevA.

[Treo_newb]

A Clear spec view

http://www.cdmatech.com/docs_details...hip=27&chip=24

[bit_bucket]

Originally Posted by Malatesta

You're not looking at the picture wrong.

You're looking at the spec sheets wrong.

CDMA2000? 1X Release 0 and Revision A, CDMA2000 1xEV-DO Release 0 and GSM/GPRS networks.

I don't think you're acknowledging the comma that is in that sentence. It's 1x Rev A compatible, not EvDO Rev A.

If you know anything about the history of that chipset, it came out in 2003, before there was ever a Rev A with EvDO, so it's kind of impossible.

The MSM7500 is the 1st chipset upgradeable to RevA.

Your right, my mistake. I guess I was a little too tired to actually be posting about this.