Registered: Mar 2001
Location: Chicago
Posts: 6

For those of you wanting to know I opened up my prism and dlx to check out the guts. Prism is easier to open (since it comes with the tiny screwdriver.) I posted the pics on the web. Feel free to check them out. Noticed anything? The screen on the prism is slightly thicker than the Dlx.


http://star-gazer.penguinpowered.com/~visor/index.html

Registered: Feb 2001
Location: Greenville, SC
Posts: 172

I figured he just took the back off, but this dude actually disassembled the thing! He must be a repair technician, or something. I don't think the "average Joe" would be so brave.

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"Life is what you experience between racing games"
Galley

Registered: Feb 2001
Location: mass
Posts: 56

Seraphim-

Nice pictures! A few coments:

1. In the third Prism shot, the chip that you call out as being the CPU is actually the LCD controller, made by Epson.

2. In the third Prism shot, the chips that you call out as RAM are not RAM. I'm not sure what they actually are, but I suspect they have something to do with the Springboard interface.

3. In the third Prism shot, the large chip to the right of the LCD controller is the ROM chip. There has been a lot of discussion in other threads about some of these parts being Flash. If you want to find out, this is where to look.

4. In the second Prism shot, the large square chip towards the bottom is the Mot Dragonball CPU.

5. In the second Prism shot, the rectangular chip above the CPU is the RAM chip.

For anyone else interested in heading into their Visors:
-Backup all of your data first!
-Don't force anything. The connectors should all come apart with gradual, even pressure.
-Disconnect power as soon as possible.
-Handle board by the edge. Don't touch chips. Never touch metal pins or traces.
-To discharge static, touch a metal part of a desk or table before handling the boards.

Last edited by pjs on 03-27-2001 at 05:01 PM

Registered: Sep 1999
Location: Seattle, WA, USA
Posts: 406

quote:

---

Originally posted by Galley_SimRacer
I figured he just took the back off, but this dude actually disassembled the thing! He must be a repair technician, or something. I don't think the "average Joe" would be so brave.

---

I'm always surprised at most people reactions to disasembly. It is not a big deal at all. Just take out 6 screws and pull out a few connectors. I took apart my new Prism 3 days after getting it

Registered: Mar 2001
Location: Chicago
Posts: 6

Opening up the visor is nothing at all. I opened my Dlx a while back. Make sure you have some form of warranty from BestBuy or what ever store you buy it from. Bestbuy warranty covers the screen and in the process of opening my visor, I scratched the wires connecting to the screen. Result: Pretty much a dead screen. Return and replace.

I was looking for the colour edge posts and someone described that the colour screen and the b/w screen are the same size and I wanted to confirm. They are the same size but not the same thickness. The colour screen is slightly thicker.

I made a couple of mistakes when I posted the pics with my labels. "pjs" corrected them. Thanks. If anyone wants to open them up, a couple of free advices:

1. Do it slowly. Don't rush!
2. Static!!!
3. DO NOT TOUCH any cables going into the screen. Most of us can not fix it and only HS replace the parts.
4. Backup all data -- Flash Modules and Backup Modules come in handy and worth the money.
5. What ever you are trying to modify, it's at your own risk.
6. Warranty from a store is always nicer than the HS. They will give you a new one. HS will give you a used one. =)

Any questions, post it and I will reply
-- Seraphim

(\�/)
_/_\_

Registered: Mar 2001
Location: Chicago
Posts: 6

new webpage

The dns for justlinux.com stop hosting penguinpowered.com recently. You can find the guts here:
http://star-gazer.servehttp.com/~visor/