25-08-2007
PDA Battery Replacement
The other day I embarked on a new challenge: I replaced my PDA's so called "unchangable" battery, and voided any warranty I had left at the same time.
I bought a new replacement battery off of eBay. My particular PDA is a HP iPAQ rz1710, which features an internal 950mAh Lithium Ion battery. Even though most PDA's will be slightly different in construction and therefore opening, you should be able to use this guide to replace close to any PDA battery. You should back up any data on your PDA before removing the battery.
WARNING: I take no responsibility for anything in this guide. You break it, your problem.
Step One: Remove the screws
OK, this one is harder than you think. I needed a Torx 5 size screwdriver and that was a pain in the a** to find. Eventually I bought one in on eBay.
Otherwise, physically removing the screws should be rather easy, unless yours are gummed up with dried sweat and stickers. Finding the screws shouldn't be a problem, mine were in the four corners (on the back of the PDA, of course).
Unfortunately, the back casing is not only held on by those four screws. My PDA (and probably yours too) held the backing on by little plastic clips on the sides, too. You know the tough little bastards that you pop with a screwdriver when you open just about any plastic thing these days? Those kind of little plastic clips.
Step Two: Pop the back off
There are six clips holding the backing on the rz1710. Two at the top, two at the bottom and two halfway up each side.
The trick to removing these is to find a nice small (but not sharp) screwdriver and slowly wiggle it until you can pop the clip. Be careful not to butcher the plastics, as it is rather soft but can be sharp enough to cut your hand once bent.
Starting from the bottom, the two clips are almost directly under the two little plastic bumps which guide your PDA into it's cradle. Carefully use your screwdriver to pry open the bottom two clips.
Once you have got the bottom two off, you should have something like this.
Because the two side clips are very tough, I suggest you work on the top two next. These two are slightly more difficult due to the placing of the black top, but you should be able to do the top left one just fine.
The top right one is more difficult, as the stylus creates a rounded groove on the top, meaning that you cannot insert your screwdriver to easily. You can pop it by placing your screwdriver in the side and wiggling it.
As you can see, I tried to pop it in the rounded groove, and all I managed to do is damage the case.
The next step is to pop the last two remaining clips that are in the centre of the two sides. These two should be easy now that the ones either side of them are free. Once again, just insert your screwdriver and it should come away easily.
Now that you have removed all the clips, slowly pull the bottom of the PDA upwards. The top will seem to be stuck. It isn't, it is simply the 3.5mm audio jack is fitted into the plastic shell.
By twisting the shell so that the speaker is slightly out over the PDA, you can move the backing forwards to release the 3.5mm jack from the shell.
There, your PDA is now open for the world to see.
