gordonhamachi

The two gold prongs are just below the leftmost of the circled screw heads.

You can currently purchase a replacement earphone socket on eBay for $4.99. Search for something like "ipod nano 2nd generation ribbon cable". The earphone socket is attached to the replacement click wheel cable. Instructions for replacement are here: How do I replace the wheel assembly?

I had a white screen problem also. A close inspection with a magnifying glass revealed that I tore the rightmost edge (the image is upside down) of the display ribbon cable, and this is why the display turned white. The ribbon cable is fragile, tiny, really impossible to repair by soldering. I thought about using this Nano without a screen (somewhat like my iPod Shuffle) but ended up putting in a different screen that I happened to have on hand. It seems to be fully functional!

Before committing to the expense of a new screen, I would disassemble the stepped-upon part (presumably the screen) to inspect for damage. You might learn something useful. Maybe it is just the cable. Maybe some additional parts are also damaged and need to be replaced.

Your battery is not the problem. I tested my Toshiba Tecra M3 laptop and with the power adapter plugged in it will boot up with a flat battery or even with no battery at all. Because your laptop showed signs of life only with the new power brick, the old one is probably bad. Rather than throwing out the old power brick, you should troubleshoot it and see if you can repair it. When you power on your laptop, listen closely. You should hear the hard drive spin up almost immediately. If your laptop has been without power for a long time, it will beep and prompt you to press F1 to reset the date and time. If your laptop is completely unresponsive, disassemble and check the power button. While it is disassembled, you can inspect for signs of the spill you suspect that your kids committed. You can find a link to the Tecra M3 manual here: https://support.toshiba.com/support/mode... On page 209 it says this: The computer will not start. Make sure you attached the AC adapter and power cord/cable properly or installed a...

Troubleshoot this by typing with an external USB keyboard to see if the problem goes away. If it still happens, then try reloading Windows. If the problem goes away with an external keyboard, then consider operator error. Undesired cursor movement could be caused by inadvertently touching the trackpad while you are typing, with your fingers or the heels of your hands. If you are sure operator error isn't the problem, then a bad connection in the trackpad could be causing the problem. Troubleshoot this by opening the laptop and disconnecting the trackpad ribbon cable. Test to see if the problem goes away. If I recall correctly, the trackpad ribbon cable can be tricky to reattach if you go from the bottom (I had this problem with one of my Toshiba laptops). If this is the case, do some obvious disassembly and you will easily be able to reattach it by working from the top.

I’m not sure why it is necessary to remove the RAM. As far as I can tell, it can remain in place during this procedure.

I can confirm that it is possible to remove the front glass using fingernails rather than suction cups. It isn’t easy, but if you try you should be able to pry off the glass.

I did this twice: once at the beginning of the procedure and once again at the end, when I realized that a big pice of lint was trapped under the glass.

There are two small plastic positioning pin holes on the right of the optical drive. When you replace the drive, make sure to align the pins with the holes as you slide the drive back into place.

There are two positioning pins stick up from the back of the computer. When you replace the fan, make sure that the pins slide into the corresponding holes in the back of the fan. The pins are at approximately 10:00 and 7:00 positions (where the center of the fan rotor is the center of a clock face).

Not having braid, I tried my solder sucker. It still took a very long time to clear the holes.

I had success with a different technique. Leave the existing wires in place. Unsolder them from the old battery, and solder them onto the new battery. On my battery the wires were attached with a solder ball and no other mechanical connection (e.g. wrapping) so they came off easily. The wires are tiny and closely spaced, so take care not to short the battery.

If you go this route, I recommend unsoldering the outside wires first and then do the inside one. When installing the new battery, it should be easier to connect the middle wire first, and then do the outer wires. Again, take care not to short out the battery connections!

Although they are close, the danger is no worse than in soldering directly to the motherboard.

You learned a lot by making the attempt. Do not be discouraged. Next time you will be wiser and do better. There is no substitute for hands-on experience!

After taking my iPod apart a few times trying to cure the white screen, I discovered that I had torn the display ribbon cable. The only way to get a new ribbon cable is to get a new screen. I happened to have a replacement screen so I installed it and now it works fine.

Spit on the tip of my phillips screwdriver holds that tiny screw on until I can get it started in the hole

After much struggle I was able to clean the battery holes, insert the new batteries, and put the iPod back together. It was harder than I thought it would be. The iPod now works and plays music! Unfortunately, a new problem is that the display is now completely blank. When I push the middle button on the iPod, the display switches from black to all white for 10 seconds, and then back to black. I plan to disassemble again and see if perhaps I managed to loosen the display ribbon cable.

I tried using a heat gun to soften the glue, but it ended up melting the white plastic part.