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I’ve got microelectronics to fix. Camera’s done, next will be a pair of eMates…

Last night, I replaced the rear case cover on Sandy’s Kodak DX4530 digital camera. It must have taken a nasty bounce at some point a few weeks ago, because the clear plastic overtop of the LCD was cracked. It wasn’t in the middle of the screen (and thank goodness the LCD was OK!) but she wanted it fixed.

Amazingly, Kodak will actually send you service parts! Yay! They sent me the rear case piece (part 3f2130 I believe), which includes all of the buttons on the back and the dial and shutter on the top. Disassembly was basicially like this (following instructions from memory, standard disclaimers apply):

• Remove the battery and SD card.
• Remove all the screws on the bottom of the camera plus the one under the rubber cable cover, carefully pry up the bottom piece, the rubber cable cover (which is now loose), and the EasyShare dock cover. There’s two red and black wires underneath there – take note of how they are routed and make sure you put them back where they came from! They power the LCD backlight. Theoretically you could carefully unplug the cable with some tweezers but I didn’t.
• Be careful with the battery compartment lid – it’s not part of the bottom cover but it can now be easily dislodged and fall out. Once it’s out it’s a little difficult to put back, so just make sure it’s closed and locked at all times.
• Look on the bottom and notice the flexible cable that’s peeking out… that connects the LCD to the camera. The LCD is attached to the rear case, so be careful in the next step…
• BE CAREFUL HERE. Remove all the screws on the rear case cover (look at the new one to figure out where they are) and carefully pry it up from the non-card-slot side. Carefully put the camera lens-down and open the rear case up like a book, since it is still attached via the LCD cable!
• You should be looking at a PCB on the back of the camera. There’s a connector with a wide flexible cable attached to it. There’s also the backlight cable that we talked about before. Take note of how the backlight cable is routed again, it goes behind a metal tab to ensure that it doesn’t get squished.
• On either side of the big connector are some black locking clips. Take a very small jeweler’s screwdriver or a toothpick and carefully push these clips towards the cable. This will unlock the display cable and it should slide out easily. Don’t touch the contacts!
• Now, on the inside of the rear case is the LCD, behind a metal shield. Peel back the piece of black tape to reveal a hidden screw. Remove it and the other two screws, then remove the metal shield.
• Take your new rear case, remove the plastic insert inside. Pop the SD card slot cover out of the old rear case and put it into the new rear case.
• Slide the LCD into the new rear case. Take care with the backlight cable. Replace the metal shield, screw it in as before.
• CAREFULLY slide the display cable back into the connector until it won’t go any farther. While holding the two halves of your camera down so the cable doesn’t wiggle, push those locking tabs back so that the cable locks into place. Ensure that they’re locked all the way otherwise the cable won’t make contact and your display won’t work properly or at all.
• Now you can put the rear case back on. Fold it back over the camera, and pop it over the video out connector first. Once that side is on it should easily snap into place. Don’t force anything!
• Don’t screw the rear case on yet. Flip the camera over and look at the bottom. Re-route the backlight cable the way it was. Take the bottom cover and ensure that the cable fill fit properly and not be squished!
• Replace the EasyDock connector cover, and rubber port cover, put the bottom cover on, and screw into place EXCEPT for the screw next to the rubber port cover. You might have to squeeze the two camera halves together to get a good fit. If it won’t go together easily then you’re probably crushing the backlight cable. STOP and check – it’s rather fragile and I almost severed mine.
• Once the bottom cover is on, you can put batteries in and make sure the camera still works and (importantly) the display works. Try all of the buttons to make sure they work and are aligned.
• If it’s all good then put the screws back into the rear cover… and you’re done!

Yeah, that took me a good hour and a half last night to figure out.