Faulty spare parts for 1520?

[Steve Thackery]

I've been rather suspicious about the unreliability of my 1520, with several of the spare parts I've received being faulty (or going faulty quite quickly).

The first time I broke the screen, the replacement had some very noticeable white blotches towards the upper centre of the screen. The original screen didn't have that. As it happens I broke the blotchy screen, too, and this time the replacement was fine. So, 1 in 2 of the screens I bought was faulty.

The USB board at the bottom of the phone seems worse. The microphone used for phone calls started working intermittently on mine, so I replaced the USB board (which has the microphone on it, plus some other stuff). It worked OK but after only a week one of the LEDs stopped working. The replacement for that also worked OK for several weeks, but then the microphone stopped working. I ordered another replacement and - from new - the microphone wouldn't work. I then started ordering them in pairs, from different suppliers. The one that arrived a couple of days ago was faulty from new - the right hand LED wasn't working. Another has arrived this morning and I haven't tried it yet - I'll let you know.

I strongly suspect that many of the replacements we can buy on eBay are rejects from the manufacturers - ones which perhaps failed some aspect of the QA process - and have found their way onto the market. The ones I've bought so far come from various eBay suppliers, and typically cost around ?16 or so. I have seen one supplier on eBay who are in China and claim their USB boards are genuine, original, OEM parts and they cost more than twice as much - ?35.

Of course, every supplier claims "genuine OEM", but the higher cost of these in China makes me wonder if maybe these are of better quality and reliability.

Has anyone else noticed a problem with dodgy replacement parts for the 1520?

 

[shawnmos]

I dunno. Both the 1520 I'm using now and another one which I fixed have had the blotching on the screen and the screens were both original.

If the replacement daughterboards aren't working it's probably the connection on the motherboard and not the part itself. The connector is failure prone.

 

[andrew-in-woking]

Hi

I bought my BNIB Yellow Nokia Lumia 1520 in November 2014 as an import from Hong Kong. From purchase the screen had a small light blotch in the top left hand corner. The phone worked fine until about two months ago when the LED's on the front buttons started to flicker. This didn't bother me as it was only cosmetic and as it started after I updated to Windows 10 Mobile, I assumed it was software related.

However, when the microphone stopped working I decided to look into it and found that there is a general problem with the connector for the lower board (LEDs and microphone) to the main board and that the recommendation is to put a filler under the plate holding the connector in place.

So, I decided to take the plunge and crack open my 1520, which by now was out of warrantee. To my surprise, when I removed the SIM and SD card trays and the IMEI sticker, the screw holding the battery cover in place was missing, which means I had actually bought a badly refurbished phone passed off as a brand new one!

I think that some of the parts that are sold as new may have been badly removed from devices, hence the damage.

Officially you're not meant to reuse screws which you take out of these phones but instead replace them with new ones. This could be a cause of the problems I had with the microphone board.

My phone is now fully functional, except for the light patch on the screen.

 

[cincykid76]

Can anyone explain why you are not supposed to reuse screws?

 

[andrew-in-woking]

I think it's because they're self tapping so you reuse one it may come loose over time.

 

[Steve Thackery]

I think it's because they're self tapping so you reuse one it may come loose over time.

I don't think any of the screws in the 1520 are self-tapping.

 

[gordonfink]

try a site called fonejoy out of England. All original Lumia parts. They are more expensive (sometimes a factor of 2), but so far, I've had good luck.

 

[Steve Thackery]

try a site called fonejoy out of England. All original Lumia parts. They are more expensive (sometimes a factor of 2), but so far, I've had good luck.

That's an excellent steer - thanks very much!

 

[920Walker]

Can anyone explain why you are not supposed to reuse screws?

It's a phone, not an engine cylinder head or manifold. The original screws will be fine.