Why isn't my Lumia 1520 vibration working after LCD assembly replacment?

[Robert Kirchhof]

I thought so , but was hopeful. I believed it could be a fuse. Like many others, my rumbler works when I apply power directly. Don't think replacing it would help.

 

[Steve Thackery]

I'm another with exactly this same problem.

I bought a secondhand 1520 which has had a new screen fitted. Vibrate doesn't work. Took the phone to bits and examined everything under a microscope - there is no apparent damage and nothing apparently missing. Due to an unfortunate accident I ended up changing the screen yet again, so it's now on it's third, but still no vibrate.

I applied 1.5V from a battery to the connection pads on the vibrator, and the motor runs just fine. This proves that the motor and it's short ribbon connector are fine.

I then pivoted up the main circuit board and battery, and powered up the phone. I used a simple diagnostics app to test the vibrator, and connected a voltmeter across the two pads on the circuit board. I can confirm beyond any doubt that the circuit board is NOT outputting any voltage. On mine, at least, the vibrator is not running because there is no output from the circuit board.

I have no idea why. I cannot believe that we are all damaging our circuit boards in exactly the same way when we remove them. There must be something else we are missing. I'm at a loss - does anyone else have any insights into this puzzle?

 

[avchdman55]

Replace Fuse F2100 - 100% Working

this is actually the correct answer for those whose vibration motor still works when powered externally. we are somehow shorting the pins on the motherboard and blowing this fuse.

for location of the fuse, when looking at the motherboard with the vibration motor terminals in the bottom right corner facing up, follow across horizontally to the left until after the big camera gap(or across the camera if its still connected), there will be an emi shield. you need to remove it with hot air gun. with the shield removed, start at the bottom right corner inside the perimeter of the emi shield area, and start moving up. about halfway you will see the first brown smd component(looks like an smd cap), this is the fuse. you can test it with your ohm/multimeter. if its blown, there should be no continuinity across the fuse. for testing purposes, you can remove the fuse and short the pins. this is dangerous to keep because if you short the vibrator terminals again, you risk blowing the power management chip on your phone and cause even greater damage to your device.

the fuse is a 0.5Amp fuse, so if you are looking for a replacement.

 

[Liam Wong]

this is actually the correct answer for those whose vibration motor still works when powered externally. we are somehow shorting the pins on the motherboard and blowing this fuse.

for location of the fuse, when looking at the motherboard with the vibration motor terminals in the bottom right corner facing up, follow across horizontally to the left until after the big camera gap(or across the camera if its still connected), there will be an emi shield. you need to remove it with hot air gun. with the shield removed, start at the bottom right corner inside the perimeter of the emi shield area, and start moving up. about halfway you will see the first brown smd component(looks like an smd cap), this is the fuse. you can test it with your ohm/multimeter. if its blown, there should be no continuinity across the fuse. for testing purposes, you can remove the fuse and short the pins. this is dangerous to keep because if you short the vibrator terminals again, you risk blowing the power management chip on your phone and cause even greater damage to your device.

the fuse is a 0.5Amp fuse, so if you are looking for a replacement.

Is this confirmed to have fixed the problem? I swapped the logic board on 2 of my phones to test the display and now they both have this issue.....

 

[Steve Thackery]

This is actually the correct answer for those whose vibration motor still works when powered externally. we are somehow shorting the pins on the motherboard and blowing this fuse.

<snip>

the fuse is a 0.5Amp fuse, so if you are looking for a replacement.

Yes! It works.

I don't have any surface mount device (SMD) facilities in my workshop, so I was unable to safely unsolder the EMI shield. Instead I cut it off along three sides with a Dremel and a very fine burr, and bent it back. The fuse is exactly where afchdman55 said it would be, and although I looked intact, it measured open circuit with my multimeter. I left it in situ and bridged it with a piece of wire from a 20mm 0.5A fuse which I broke open.

I then bent the EMI shield back in place and soldered it at several points around the periphery where I'd cut it with the Dremel.

The vibrator now works perfectly, and I am delighted.

So, my sincere thanks to krzychunh for telling us the problem (he wasn't a troll after all), and to avchdman55 for giving us enough information to fix it.

The one remaining mystery for me is why it blows in the first place. I'm as certain as I can be that I didn't short out the vibrator contacts, although is must have been something like that. Most odd.

 

[Liam Wong]

Thanks for the confirmation! I'll give it a try this weekend and report back.

 

[Tullphan]

Hate to resurrect an old thread, but I'm curious if the fuse was the issue & if so, where does one either get the fuse (If it'a a DIY job) or where could one send it to get repaired, & if so, the estimated charge?

 

[SatyenV]

I also have the same issue, powered the motor with 3.0 Volt separately that's working. there is some problem in PCB as When I used Diagnostic Tool from Store and triggered Vibration, I did not get any volt output from the pins on PCB.(If I try to see output on Flash points i get some 0.20 apx on a photo click, so the method is correct) I replaced new LCD Assembly with the old original one, but no luck. how the hell Changing LCD assembly can stop vibration Function, its just so pathetic :eck:

 

[Steve Thackery]

See my post at the bottom of page 1.

 

[Dared]

For those of you whose phones no longer vibrate - did you buy the genuine nokia replacement part? I bought mine from an official european supplier online (and let's just say, genuine parts certainly cost a lot). The reason I ask is because someone on another website commented that the replacement screen they got had less insulation on the underside of the screen, which they thought may have been possibly causing a short on the motherboard. They insulated these connections and then managed to get the phone to vibrate again (although if the fuse has already blown then this wouldn't do much).

So i'm thinking that possibly it could be down to a lack of insulation on the replacement screen? I am going to be replacing mine soon - fingers crossed!

 

[Dared]

So I did the screen and housing swap and my vibrate works! I used the official nokia assembly/disassembly videos on youtube and replaced the components (except the screws) like the side flex, vibrate module etc that the video said not to reuse. (i'm sure this doesn't do anything to prevent the issue from occuring).

My knowledge of electronics is limited, but surely you could only blow the fuse when the power is connected. So possibly when disconnecting or connecting the battery flex may be when the fuse blows? Not sure. Alternatively, perhaps an incorrect alighnment of the vibrate module to the motherboard may cause something, but again, not sure

 

[Cane Prevost]

Just did a screen swap on my 1520 and lost the vibration as well.

 

[Cane Prevost]

Well heck. Managed to fix mine. I did 2 things. The first was to completely remove the shield that covers the motor. The second was to put a few layers of painters tape below the ribbon where it meets the lcd assembly. This pushes it up towards the motherboard and makes sure it's in contact with the pins that activate the motor. One of the two worked. I'm guessing that it was likely that the pins on the back of the motherboard weren't making contact with the ribbon.

 

[hon62]

My L1520 could not be turned on for near 0ne year and I made up my mind to fix it last year end. I called service and they said they were no longer providing services to L1520 as it was obsoleted item. I bought it in 2/2014 and it became obsoleted just after 2+ years of entering into the market. Initially I thought it was the screen that didn't respond as well as a dead battery therefore I bought it from TxxBxx. I found that it was the problem of the mother board therefore I went back to buy a board from TxxBxx again. I changed the mother board and functions returned. Same as other guys information, the vibration has gone. I replaced the old one and vibration resumed function when I pressed the power button. I felt puzzled if the fuse was brown once we did something on the board why the old one still worked with the new screen?