Replacing housing, any non-OEM worth it?
 

So my White n9 has been officially beaten up, usb door messed up, sim tray pops out every now and then, crazy scratches on the back.

I'm looking into replacing the housing. Can anyone recommend me a tutorial? Something easy to follow and least risk of damage. Last time I tried replacing a housing was on a blackberry 8900, broke it.

Also any recommended links to buy? I found this, is it worth not going for OEM? Anyone knows any housing outside the black, cyan and pink?
http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-White-Fu...-/380617152976

BUT looks at this, was looking up how much these things cost now, came across this. Where the heck can I get this orange housing????
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Nokia-N9-Unl...-/280861620741

Pretty sure its photoshop damit.

Re: Replacing housing, any non-OEM worth it?
 

i have changed mine...

originally my n9 was black, but i chenged for a white one.

i have buy this:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...:X:AAQ:US:1123

it's like an original one... the only thing that i am not fully happy is the with the camera lens and the metal sheet. it doesn't fill 100% right, but it's ok for me.

the body is perfect and wothout any rare sounds...

just be careful with the torx drivers, they are not normal torx, they are torx plus, but with a t4, t5 and a lot of firmely hands you can dissasembly your n9 without any issues.

excuse my stupid english hahaha :D

Re: Replacing housing, any non-OEM worth it?
 

Nicee thanks! The one on ebay looks to come with drivers so I technically should be good :) Hopefully that is lol

Re: Replacing housing, any non-OEM worth it?
 

yeah, it will come with the traditional t4 and t5, not the torx plus that you will need...

just press the screwdriver firmly with both hands before turning and you will be ok.

Re: Replacing housing, any non-OEM worth it?
 

I found this on my replacement too! around the lens the metal was not flush! otherwise perfect.

these might be reject housings? they are too good to be copies!

Re: Replacing housing, any non-OEM worth it?
 

yeah... good copies.

at least mine come from hong kong. and yours grazy?

Re: Replacing housing, any non-OEM worth it?
 

not sure to be honest! I would assume so! still think they are just housings that failed quality control!

They are too good!

Plus my screen is perfect too! I saw a few on ebay with no Nokia logo and wonder if they are just made in the same factory? with logo removed?

Re: Replacing housing, any non-OEM worth it?
 

This video from LE55ONS is the best disassembly/reassembly and component swapping video I've seen.

A standard T5 torx worked for me.And it was an excuse to get a set of small range mini drivers . . .

Re: Replacing housing, any non-OEM worth it?
 

my solution for this is to very carefully, with a wirecutter or a boltcutter, chomp off the left 'tooth' of the sim tray. the spring is only on the left, and without the tooth, the tray just slides in and stays in. this means that removing the sim tray requires pulling it out with your nail a credit card underneath it, but its not hard, and the only thing damaged is the sim tray, which are super cheap. i recommend buying a spare and trying this out.

EDIT: you may need to trim down the the bottom left of your microsim {oriented with the normal cutout on top left}. just shave a teensy bit more off until it slides in easily, and make sure you dont damage the contacts

EDIT: my case was a bit beat up, and the phone was old, so my sim became disconnected OFTEN, and i would miss calls. i couldnt even tell it was out visually, because it was always slightly lifted.
after i cut off a little of the sim tray and my sim, it never disconnected again, and i can remove the sim with my thumbnail no problem.

i stripped a screw with torx, and i was being nice and firm. i had to do it twice, tho {once to replace the battery a month before}.

youll PROBABLY be fine with torx, as long as you have strong steady hands and move with confidence, but if it goes wrong, its a HUGE PITA. it is MUCH easier to strip the screws than you think.
dont use the wrong tools, torx-plus are like 5 bucks!

Re: Replacing housing, any non-OEM worth it?
 

maybe you are right... maybe the chinese people are so damn good por piracy hahaha

Re: Replacing housing, any non-OEM worth it?
 

thats what i was saying... torx plus it's all we need for a good and non problem job...

Re: Replacing housing, any non-OEM worth it?
 

I bought a cyan housing and a screen/glass/digitizer from ebay seller oneby_tech, and are both awesome, both better than my original ones, as weird as that sounds. (And there was a nokia logo on the screen, despite the ebay pictures)

Re: Replacing housing, any non-OEM worth it?
 

the camera lens is ok? and the metal part? what about the sim tray?

can you provide the link for the housing please?

thank you!

Re: Replacing housing, any non-OEM worth it?
 

It was one like this http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/New-Blue-H...item51a958111f (the original link doesn't exist anymore, it was almost a year ago)

I didn't do any professional benchmarks on the camera lens, but it certainly looks ok. The sim tray and metal part were exactly the same as the original housing. The polycarbonate though had a better finish (more matte) and was smoother (the original one had some slight bumps visible at certain angles and lighting)

Re: Replacing housing, any non-OEM worth it?
 

ok, thank you very much!

Re: Replacing housing, any non-OEM worth it?
 

Does this look good?

Figured it was about time I fixed her up, she's definitely seen better days :/

Re: Replacing housing, any non-OEM worth it?
 

i ordered that same product a little over a week ago. i'm expecting it to arrive by friday. i'll let you know what i think!

i ordered the black housing from the same seller and it was almost perfect. like qwazix said, the poly carbonate finish was less shiny and more matte. it upset me at first because i was expecting the exact same finish as my stock housing, but after installing it i actually found i liked it better. less slippery and it shows far less finger prints.
however it wasn't perfect! i had a bit of trouble getting the sim tray in, and the USB door straight up didn't shut, it was crooked. instead i put the door from the original housing on. the finish didn't quite match, but it fit like it was supposed to and was better than having no door at all. also, the feel of the phone in the aftermarket housing was a lot more solid, surprisingly. my original n9 housing had a lot of give and it would creak. not the case with the new housing!

just be VERY careful with the ribbon cables. the guy at LE55ONS on youtube is fantastic, but he makes everything look so easy. :p truly it's not a difficult process, but i made the tiniest mistake when i tried to install new housing. i wasn't sure if the replacement housing included the speaker, which is covered by a ribbon cable, so i pulled back the ribbon which is tricky. you have to jimmy it back and forth to get it out from under the bottom lip of the housing. during the process i put the teeniest, tiniest tear in the cable. didn't even notice at first. discovered the new housing did come with the speaker, put the phone back together, turned it on and found a high pitched squeak is all that would come out of the speaker. took it apart and then discovered the tear. super disappointed because that cable runs underneath a plastic panel that's glued to the actual bottom of the phone. it's replaceable but it's a lot of work, so i just put my phone back in the original housing. couldn't risk breaking something in both casings. so i order the white housing, and once that comes i'll go back and try fixing the torn cable. if i break both i have the white casing as a fallback! although i'm betting i'll keep that handsome white housing either way. :D

Re: Replacing housing, any non-OEM worth it?
 

This is hilarious. I also bought that exact casing a few weeks ago. Eagerly awaiting its arrival. Need to get a torx plus screwdriver though!
Has anyone tested the included screwdrivers? Dont want to risk it unless anyone can say if they are good or not :p

Re: Replacing housing, any non-OEM worth it?
 

getting your own torx screwdriver is probably a good plan. the included tools from that seller are decent, but they have short handles which makes them a bit cumbersome to use, but they're fine otherwise. there are two really tiny phillips screws in addition to the torx ones, so i was greatful to have a screwdriver for those included cause i didn't have one so small myself. the blue lever tool is handy for unglugging ribbon cables, too!

Re: Replacing housing, any non-OEM worth it?
 

Thanks. I'm heading down to the hardware store because the ones included are stripping the mobo screws. Seems like I'm not the first one to attempt this considering mine is used.

housing arrived today! very glossy and pristine looking, definitely an eye-catcher. the quality is excellent; almost perfect except for one issue. like the last replacement housing, it feels more firm than the original. i think the "creakiness" on my stock housing was probably from dropping it too much. incentive to be more careful with this new housing!

back to the one issue i had: like on the last replacement housing, the usb door wouldn't attach properly, and i found out why. the door clips onto a metal bar that acts as a hinge, right? well the plastic clip isn't cut out all the way, and the excess plastic prevents the door from clipping to the bar. i tried using a knife to push out the extra plastic so it would fit on the bar, but couldn't quite get it. instead i put the original black sim tray and usb door on, and it looks kind of cool actually. i attached a picture comparing the two usb doors so you can see the difference. also, on the back of the replacement housing door there's a "made in china" label, but the original housing door is blank. attached a couple pics of the whole assembled device, too. :)

http://i.imgur.com/9l6S1ju.jpghttp://i.imgur.com/NShML1S.jpghttp://i.imgur.com/gA25Kzx.jpg http://i.imgur.com/RCldcmI.jpg http://i.imgur.com/vBnvwv3.jpg

Re: Replacing housing, any non-OEM worth it?
 

Awesome. Any tips on getting the motherboard screws out? I am worried I am going to strip mine. I cant seem to get a good grip with the bit. I also cant find a shop that sells a t4 torx plus screwdriver anywhere.

Re: Replacing housing, any non-OEM worth it?
 

The black USB door and SIM tray really look cool!

Re: Replacing housing, any non-OEM worth it?
 

push down hard, and turn slow :) i messed one of mine up a bit, but then found the bigger screwdriver fitted and used that.

like tommo said, pressure and take it slow. whenever i take a phone apart for the first time i go turtle slow to make sure i'm not screwing anything up, hahaha. and if you do accidentally strip a screw don't freak out, i lost one on accident but there's so many screws on that battery cover that one missing isn't gonna hurt it. lol.

this is the exact torx screwdriver i have and i can testify to its functionality. i picked it up at our home depot for 6USD, looks pricier online but it works well. it doesn't specify that it's a "torx plus" model but it's worked on 3 different nokia phones i took apart, a 700, asha 303 and the n9 as well.

it's a good thing it turned out cool looking cause it was the only option i had! hahaha :D

I ended up fixing the usb door, so I have a white one. Small drill did the job. The display doesnt fit well into mine, and I couldnt get the metal bar on the side of the cover in properly, so the screen sticks out a little bit on one side of the phone. I have foubd I cant connect to wifi now. So thats a big issue for me. Need to find a fix for that.

Re: Replacing housing, any non-OEM worth it?
 

I had trouble with that metal bar, too. I had to press down the battery cover and wiggle it a bit to get it to hook underneath the lip of the housing. It's easy to have it flipped the wrong way too, the LE55ONS guy shows the right way to put it back. Glad you got the USB door working! :D Not good about the WiFi, though. Hope you're able to fix it.

I found another small issue with the replacement housing. The headphone jack is faulty. Only plays sound out the left earphone, regardless of the headphones. Not a big deal cause I have two other jacks I can swap in, but it is inconvenient.

Re: Replacing housing, any non-OEM worth it?
 

My headphone jack works fine :P
Turns out the wifi works, the antenna is just absolute crap... any issues with yours?
I can usually get about 2 bars of wifi signal 1 meter away from the router. 5 meters and I loose connection. In certain places I can get 1 bar if I am lucky. Nexus 7 gets 4 bars of wifi signal where the phone gets 1. Not a huge issue as I can just use the nexus for wifi stuff and I have a good 3g plan, same goes for music. (Much better frequency response for the audio drivers.)

Also @kapu2, I see you're fairly new, welcome! :)

Re: Replacing housing, any non-OEM worth it?
 

Hi guys, I bought this white housing for my 64GB Nokia N9 and assembly was easy as pie.
Took me less that one hour in total. Now I do have two issues:

• WiFi reception is crap - as posted early by other users
• When in a phone call I cannot swith the display on again. Sucks especially if you'r stuck at some ones mailbox

Now I am wondering how to solve this. I woudn't care too much about the wifi issue but the call issue (it's still a phone after all) sucks hard. As all buttons and antennas were provided in the case allready I gues the wifi antenna is just crap (too short etc.) and I also think the second issue is related to the connection of buttons underneath the mainboard/battery-frame.

What's your thoughts about this? should I try to swapp the buttons and antennas from my original housing as well?

Another thing is that the display clips ar a little bit too high so there is some play between the housing and the display and the display also sits a bit higher than before. I think I will just live with that but is someone else having this issue?

Also my headphone jack is perfect and sounds fine :) Maybe your juck just sits a bit to deep in the housing so the plug does not connect correctly @kapu2?

Re: Replacing housing, any non-OEM worth it?
 

Is it not feasible to swap the wifi antenna from the original case to the new one? I don't have a new housing to check but this is something I'm interested in doing down the line.

@DJJonosound nope, no problems with the wi-fi antenna in mine. just the bum headphone jack. you could take out the antenna from the old housing and swap it in. a lot more work cause you have to heat up that plastic chassis and pry it up, but no wi-fi would be a deal breaker for me! :( and thanks for the welcome! i was thrilled to see there was an active community for my "dead-os" phone. :D

@derliebewolf the call display issue is strange...you can't wake the screen at all during a call? not by pressing the lock key or tapping the screen? doesn't the screen wake if you bring it away from your ear? i'm stumped. :confused: if you decide to swap out the wi-fi antenna you may as well switch out that whole plastic chassis since the power/lock/volume keys are attached to it. i really have no idea on that one, i'm sorry!

as for the headphone jack, i've tried different earphones and twisted and adjusted the jack all sorts of way but it just won't play out the right bud. oh well, it doesn't surprise me that it doesn't work; it looks like these housings ship with some bad parts, like yours and @DJJonosound faulty wi-fi antennas. it makes me wonder if that ribbon cable on the black replacement housing i bought was torn when i bought it...

Re: Replacing housing, any non-OEM worth it?
 

I have previously switched out all the innards from my n9 and transferred to one of those cheap white housings from ebay. I had to use a hairdryer and really to loosen the glue and really slowly and carefully take out all the pieces to transplant into the new shell.

It all worked well apart from the white doors which didn't look quite right. I've switched back to black since then as I think it looks more classy.

Re: Replacing housing, any non-OEM worth it?
 

Switching the antennas would probably fix the wifi issue.
Not sure about the power keys though. I might just give it a try...

Re: Replacing housing, any non-OEM worth it?
 

Be careful guys when you changing the housing. I have changed mine on my black N9 with a blue one, I have wachted the LESSON5 topic on Youtube to help me BUT when I finished to replace it and try it, the CAMERA didn't work, i have an error message, even the flash won't work, it freeze the phone. So I have flashed it many time, even TOTALLY flashed to really zero, it doesn't work..Btw the jack headphone dosn't work fine too, only one way works (the left or the right, i don't remember) and when I would't to change it by the one on my black housing, I have broken the back of the blue housing.

So if I can give you a tip : don't change the housing if it's not important, you can broke your pretty easily.

Re: Replacing housing, any non-OEM worth it?
 

My old case was really cracked up the top so the new housing was great. Try removing the camera module, dusting it off and putting it back in. Maybe you bumped it a bit when doing the replacement.

i just attempted to remove that chassis glued to the bottom but i just couldn't get it to pop out. the bottom half levered out easily but the top was stuck tight. i sat with the hair dryer on it for a good few minutes but it just wouldn't budge. i was worried about damaging the case so i gave up. :( honestly just think i'll buy another one off ebay and hope it doesn't come with any defective parts. that or switch back the original (but dented) housing. the white housing is certainly unique but i miss the old black housing and matte finish.

Re: Replacing housing, any non-OEM worth it?
 

I don't know if anyone can reproduce taht. But WiFi reception improved dramaticly with that white housing about a week ago! I haven't changed anything though, pretty strange...

Re: Replacing housing, any non-OEM worth it?
 

I have the same problem with the Sim/USB door being substantially worse quality than the rest of the housing..

But my audio jack no longer works, at all..

Any idea what could be causing that?
Did I forget to reconnect something?

Re: Replacing housing, any non-OEM worth it?
 

Is it easy to replace the digitizer ? I mean to take it out of the LCD and put the new one in. My screen is cracked :(

Re: Replacing housing, any non-OEM worth it?
 

I am considering replacing the housing of my N9 (64 Go black). A small piece of plastic is broken between the jack plug and the cover for USB plug, and dust can go inside.

I'd like to change for a white housing, but I don't know how well it ages. Doesn't it become yellowish with time ? New white housing are shinny. Does it remain shinny after 1 year ?

I am a little disappointed with how the black housing aged. It is one of the first series of 64 Go N9 and I used the official soft cover most of the time, but the polycarbonate lost its original apperance now. It feels like it was polished, some areas are a litte less dark, and it feels less strong than when I bought it 2 years and a few months ago.

So, any feedback on the white housing after more than a year usage?