Stylus won't go back into slot
 

Hi all, my N900 appears to have a bit of silver metal blocking the stylus slot, about 10mm in. If I had to guess, I think it's the semi-circular piece of metal "below" the headphone plug in image 20 of the RX51 service level 1_2 manual. Has anyone else had this bit of metal come adrift and set about repairing it themselves?

Re: Stylus won't go back into slot
 

had the exact same problem. I tried to push the stylus in despite the silver metal and now it won't go in all the way. Sadly I don't think there's a feasible way to fix it.

Re: Stylus won't go back into slot
 

Re: Stylus won't go back into slot
 

I am planning to have a crack at repairing it myself as I got the phone from the USA and I'm in Australia, so it'll be a bit of a pain to send it back for warranty repair.

Re: Stylus won't go back into slot
 

This is crazy.

This happened to me just now and came here to ask about this and saw this thread.

I think I'm gonna send it in.

Re: Stylus won't go back into slot
 

You guys think something is actually broken in there? Or the piece just got knocked out of place somehow?

Have a new touchscreen in the mail, and was planning on swapping it this week.

Once I have the phone open to replace the screen, getting to that stylus area is only a few more steps and looks easy. But if it turns out something is broken in there -

a) might be hard to put it all back together in that situation

b) sending it to nokia will be out of the question as it will probably be obvious that I took it apart

c) fixing it may be near impossible since that back end part has just about everything attached to it.

Originally it was getting stuck near the entrance. Then when looking at it with light I heard a rattle and shook the phone a bit. Now it goes in about 60% and I can feel something springy blocking it.

Any advice? Or has anyone taken the phone apart and can explain what could of happened?

Pretty sure the smart thing to do is suck it up and give up my n900 for a few weeks to nokia, but just checking my options.

Thanks.

Re: Stylus won't go back into slot
 

I took apart my n900 last night to swap the screen and try to fix this.

Turned out there was something broken in there. There is a little piece of metal, it's curved with a piece of plastic on it. It was 100% loose and I couldn't figure out where it went. My plan was just to take it out, and then maybe wrap the stylus with some tape to keep it in place.

Turns out the stylus still locks in place even without it. I can feel a lot less resistance than before, but still locks in place.

Swapping the screen was pretty hard, but if you just need to reach the bottom of the screen it's not hard at all.

Re: Stylus won't go back into slot
 

I took a picture of the part so you guys can see it.

No idea where the hell it goes.

Assuming it goes somewhere near the entrance to put a small amount of pressure on the stylus and keep it aligned. And then came became loose, and was blocking the stylus. Then when I shook the phone, it entered the cavity and fell to the bottom.

It's also possible the shape has changed a bit, since when I was trying to get the stylus in a few times, I put a little pressure on it, and might of bent.

It really doesn't make sense since there was nothing else broken in there, and couldn't find something the shape of a tall building where this piece can slide over.

Oh well, good thing it's not needed. And even better I didn't bother with nokia.

If anyone that is reading this takes apart their n900 sometime in the future, and this part is intact, please take a picture of it. Would love to know how this piece was on here.

Thanks.

Re: Stylus won't go back into slot
 

never had the problem but thanks for taking the time to report in some detail and do the pics. :)

Re: Stylus won't go back into slot
 

Looks like it goes bottom right of the image. Pushing against the stylus.

http://media.share.ovi.com/m1/s/1344...cb2da08b97.jpg

Re: Stylus won't go back into slot
 

Thanks for posting up your findings Breakd0wn. i am waiting on my ebay torx drivers to arrive before I rip into mine. i expected it to be a tension device on the stylus however the lock for the stylus is a tiny nub at the other end of the stylus slot so if the tension device is gone, the stylus will still be retained. i aim to fix my tension device - i'd noticed the friction had varied...sometimes a bit scratchy when sliding stylus in and out and other times normal.

Re: Stylus won't go back into slot
 

I had the same problem after dropping mine from a small height. Afterwards the stylus would not go fully inside the slot.
I solved the problem by opening the battery cover and nudging that metal springboard with a pointy knife back into place. No disassembly required.
The stylus channel is relatively open to view except from some plastic arches so you can see where that thingy is and nudge it back.
I did it a couple of months ago and after a couple of more drops it is still in its place.

Re: Stylus won't go back into slot
 

Righto, my torx drivers and leverage tools arrived so I got stuck into it today. Not such a hard job, the trickiest bit is getting the flex cable plugged in. I took some pictures:

In this pic look at the bottom right and you should see a tiny piece of curved metal. I think it should be stuck on with melted plastic, like how the stylus spring and that larger metal piece is. Now I've got the phone back together and am typing this I'm thinking I could have re-stuck the friction device with a dab of superglue.

http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b1.../IMG_6151c.jpg

Here is a picture with the friction device removed. The stylus is held in with that flat piece of metal running across - you can see the bent section at the pointy end - this clips into the stylus where there's a groove down near the pointy end.

http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b1.../IMG_6148a.jpg

The stylus is slightly looser now. I've actually taken the phone apart twice now - I took that friction device out and forgot I didn't have a photo with it in place so I put it back in. Took the photo and promply put the rest of the phone back together.... Next time around it only took a minute to take it apart so I may just try the superglue trick on it yet!

Re: Stylus won't go back into slot
 

I just got this trouble, glad to see these reports. But chicken to take my phone apart while it's under warranty. Nor am I eager to go w/o my phone for weeks. I ended up forcing that gizmo out of the slot with an opened paperclip through those tiny slots in the channel you can get from only removing the back. Now my stylus is very loose. Yes it slightly clips into place at the end but easily shakes out. I tried a little tape but it quickly gets mangled. I actually don't recognize in the photos posted so far exactly where this thing fits. I'll eventually get over my fear of voiding warranty and open it up and see if I understand then. Until then, any clearer explanation and/or photos would be very welcome!

Re: Stylus won't go back into slot
 

Happened to me too, wondering if any of the plastic that kept the spring there is broken.... trying to superglue it back on... What a medieval design....

Re: Stylus won't go back into slot
 

So the subject of this thread happened to me twice in quick succession - once a little bit ago, when I just saw a little piece of metal coming out of my stylus slot a little bit into it. I preceded to sorta *push* it back into the stylus slot wall with the stylus. Then today it came out again, and after a little it of fiddling, something broke off, rattled a little bit, and then fell out - little bit of plastic, a little over a square millimeter in size.

Anyway, some metal rattled around in there for a while too - eventually I was able to prod things in with the stylus itself so that now the last two-three millimeters of stylus-into-slot insertion are really tight.

Not sure if it's the same piece that broke, but I was really happy to see this thread and know that it wasn't something major-concern-causing. (Phone still rebooted fine once during this process, but I wasn't quite certain it being okay was actually a long-term okay-ness.