Introduction
Use this guide to replace the battery in your Nexus 7.
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Power down your device.
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Use your plastic opening tool to wedge between the seams around the sides of the device. Pry open each side, one at a time. For some a finger nail may be best. The case comes up quite high to the glass.
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Work fingers around the seam between device and back cover. Use your plastic opening tool and fingers to separate each side until device and back cover are completely apart.
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Insert the plastic opening tool under the side edge of the battery connector, and gently pry upward to disconnect it.
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Use the flat end of a spudger or your fingernail to flip up the clear protective flap on the ribbon cable ZIF socket.
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Using the flat end of a spudger or your fingernail, flip up the thin portion of the connector (the white part, opposite of the side where the cable inserts) to release the cable from its socket.
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Slide the cable out of the ZIF socket.
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Using the tweezers, peel back the silver protective foil on top of the orange ribbon connector.
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Using the plastic opening tool, pry upward under the orange ribbon connector. It will pop right out of place.
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Now that the two main ribbons are disconnected, fold and hold them back with your fingers, or place the tweezers or a light object on the ribbons to keep them in place.
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Use the #0 Phillips Screwdriver to remove the four silver 3 mm Philips #0 screws from around the battery housing.
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Remove the battery from your device by applying pressure at the base of the battery and lifting it out.
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To reassemble your device, follow these instructions in reverse order.
20 comments
Don't be a goof like me and spend seven minutes trying to pry in the gap between the screen glass and the plastic. I thought that the plastic cover wrapped around the whole of the side and met the unit just under the glass. Nope...find the seam near the halfway point of the case side, between plastic and plastic. (The first photo here is not sufficiently clear to make this obvious.)
This is such a valuable comment. The photos are VERY misleading. Thank you for pointing this out!
q3cq3c -
1 If you look closely, you'll see that at the edge of the glossy, black screen there is a glossy, black, 1mm hard plastic band going all the way around the screen. This provides the beveling on the edge of the screen. Around that is the dull, black plastic case. Insert your spunger or fingernail between these two plastic bands. It is easiest to do near the middle both of the long sides. Gently slide up toward the corners popping each little snap. When you get near the corner, keep one fingernail/spunger in the gap you've created on the side, near the corner, then use another nail/spunger to go around the corner. Be careful here. This is the easiest place to damage.
Once the corners have popped, the end/short top edge is easy. The bottom edge is different since the micro-USB port is also there. I did not pry it open but lifted the other three sides and just slid the screen out from that end. I inserted the USB end first also when reassembling, snapping the other edges then corners in afterward.
I had a heck of a time doing this, spent ten or twenty minutes carefully prying, and I STILL cracked the case. At least on mine, the case was held in VERY well and required prying pretty much everywhere before it would let go. The tools I bought from iFixit really helped, but still a royal pain to open.
pacmanmaster -