One of our members Sciwhiz had put an amazing guide on how to repair a loose headphone jack on the Mpio MG 100, And I have nothing to add but a big "Thank You"!!
Hello everyone
There is a common problem in most DAPs nowadays, or probably since a long time ago. That is, for me, the headphone jack becoming loose. Since my first cd player in grade school, to my Sony minidisc in high school, my Creative Labs Muvo Nx and my MPIO MG 100, all of them have had the same recurring problem. After a few months of use, the jack would become loose. The cause of this is probably because I'm always listening to music 24h/day, but also because I move a lot. And so, the stereo plug keeps on pushing the springs inside the jack back until I have to do the manually-hold-the-plug-on-the-side trick to keep the contacts in the jack to touch the stereo plug. I thought everyone had the same problem as me, but it didn't seem so, since most people only listen to music during transportation and waiting periods. Most of my friends who have Ipods never complained about this particular problem. I've also owned the Ipod Nano gen 2 for over a year and strangely, it was the only player which did not have weak springs in the headphone jack. Unfortunately, that particular model is quite mod-unfriendly, so I couldn't crack their secret. Therefore, I thought I was alone in the world with this problem until my friend complained that his cheap, fake Sony mp3 player could only play on one side. After ripping apart the whole thing, I rebent the springs of the jack back together, and everything was fine after for a while. What happened next is not important. I'll tell it in another post perhaps. The thing is, after my ipod's database file became corrupted and I lost all my music, I decided: no more Apple products. So I got the MG 100, since during my Ipod period, a guy in my French course had it and presented it to me, and it looked like the ultimate nano killer with video/radio/voicerecord/A-Brepeat features. It has been perhaps 3 or 4 months already and the jack has become loose. So I dismantled it, and retightened it. And then I had this fabulous idea to write a tutorial of how to do this. Most tutorials on the web will tell you how to resolder a cold solder of a jack but not how to retighten them. I also included pictures to help. Although they were taken after the mod, on the way back. I wasn't going to post a mod if it weren't successful right? Well lets begin.
You will need:
-A jeweller's size Phillips screwdriver
-A mini flathead screwdriver
-A needle/paperclip/safety pin. Basically, anything that can double as a mini spike.
-An MG100 with a loose headphone jack.
-Remember to click on the images to enlarge them. There are instructions on a few images.
Ok first off, begin by taking the MG100 out of its clear protective cover if you haven't already. Then, with the Phillips, take out the screws on both sides of the MG 100 (4 screws total). Then take off the back plate of the MG100.
Now before, you do anything, ground yourself. Touch your computer's power supply, or any big piece of metal, bigger than yourself. Or ground yourself with a grounding wrist cable. It would be a shame to fry up 2 or 4 gigs of music with a static discharge. Then you should have something that looks like this.
Take the Phillips again and unscrew the 2 screws holding the mainboard to the frontpanel. You should have this now.
Take the flathead and slide the head between the mainboard and the lithium battery. The battery is glued to the front panel so don't worry about it falling out. Take care not to pierce the battery. Using the screwdriver and the battery, lever the mainboard up, then using your finger, hold both edges of the mainboard bring it up to about 60 degrees according to the frontpanel then pull towards the battery.
The whole mainboard should come out, and looks like this.
It would be good to unglue the battery from the case with the flathead screwdriver at this point. Then we have to Take off the hold/record panel. Simply lift up from the mainboard side, to unhook the hold switch, then pull towards the headphone jack/usb/record button side. This is what it looks like.
Outside
Inside
What was under it. As you can see, the Mic is not directly under the reset hole. You can see the jack clearly too.
The next step is to detach the screen. The top part is hooked on to the board.
The lower part has one side which is glued to the board. Using the miniflathead or whatever you have as a small spike, detach the glued part by pushing on the tab that is glued.
Once detached
The other side isnt glued. Pull towards the top by holding the edges and the screen should detach itself.
Picture of the hooks.
Left
Right
no hook on the bottom part
What is under the screen
This is a picture of the inside of the jack. Basically, it looks like a tunnel, with a bump on each side. The bumps are the contacts that touch the headphone plug. The left bump on the picture is the ground contact. The one on the right is the right channel contact.
On this picture here, we can see the contacts for the left channel more clearly.
Now then, suppose all the contacts are loose. We want to tighten them. Using whatever you have for a needle, press right in the middle of the 2 blades here. Not too much because then your headphone plug won't be able to enter completely anymore. Just enough to ensure a solid contact.That fixes the left channel contact.
Turn the mainboard over. You should have something like this.
Using the needle, press into the rear of the bump here to make it advance a little inside the "tunnel". Not too much though. Just enough.
Same thing on the other side.
Plug in your headphone plug to see if you can plug it in completely. If you can't loosen the contacts by pressing from inside the "tunnel".
Reassemble everything in reverse order.
Today, I went and got myself an ML 300. After having sure it could boot up, I disassembled it. The headphone jack has been updated. It is now easier to tighten the contacts. All you ave to do is push them with a needle at the top.
As some of you may have noticed, I have accidentally disconnected my battery from the mainboard while doing this yesterday. If someone would be kind enough to post a picture of which cable goes to which side, so that I may resolder my battery. That is the reason why I had to go get the ML300 this morning lol.
Disclaimer: MyMpio and I will not be held responsible for any damages, injuries, loss of hardware...
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