Hardware Teardown - Coby Kyros 7015/7016

Coby Kyros 7015 and 7016 have same hardware, main difference is Android version.

A friend of mine has consulted me regarding one of his children's two Coby Kyros 7016 MID which don't detect previously installled games. I have installed ClockworkMod Recovery and upgraded these tablet's rom to CyanogenMod 7 before in the past. Upon further investigation, I found out that the internal memory and sd card has not been mounted.  Playing around with /system files including volds.fstab and some other various mounting methods using terminal emulator (in the device) and adb (using PC and Mac), I was out of luck. I finally decided that the problem most probably is hardware-related.

Opening up the tablet required moderate effort. No screws were used and the back cover was only held tightly by clips all around. Using my trusty old credit card, I pried it open, starting from the edge where the ports are located. Inching my way until all edges are free from the clips.

Once the back cover is free, I carefully removed 4 screws holding the logic board to the front case below (red circles). Unhook the digitizer from the clip (yellow rectangle) and resistive lcd screen flex cable (blue rectangle).

Carefully free the ports from the case then gently fold the logic board over the battery.

THE CULPRIT

Cheap devices came from cheap manufacturing process obviously. Wave soldering done properly should not have resulted in this. Because of mechanical stresses, the sd card slot module has come off the solder points in the logic board! 

Using my smd rework station, I tried to solder back the pins to the logic board using ample amount of flux. Reassembled. Unfortunately, it still does not work! So I had to repeat the process but this time soldering using a fine tip iron, thin solder, magnifying glass and lots of light. Pin by pin, I soldered manually including the 4 tabs at the edges of the sd card slot module for better support from mechanical stresses in the future. 

Reassemble by reversing the process. Finish!

EXTRAS
Since I have accessed the internals of the Coby Kyros 7016, I indulged myself of taking pictures while I'm at it.

The Battery
2450mAh 3.7v

Multi Core Module

• The Processor: Telechips TCC8902 (500-800Mhz) RISC type 32-bit 65nm
• GPU: ARM Mali200 
• RAM: Hynix 256MB
• Memory: 2x Samsung 2Gb
• Atheros Wifi Chip
• free USB port (1) 

Wifi Antenna (gold plate) attached to logic board by gray wire