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Installing Motorola Droid RAZR Motherboard

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This guide has been found to be exceptionally cool by the iFixit staff.

Droid RAZR motherboard replacement.

Author: David Hodson
Difficulty: Difficult

The motherboard of the Droid RAZR houses a number of critical components, including the SD and SIM card readers, vibrator motor, lower microphone, and microSD and micro HDMI ports.

Sections

Back Cover 3 steps
Battery 2 steps
Camera Cover 2 steps
Rear Case 2 steps
Motherboard Assembly 6 steps
Rear-Facing Camera 2 steps
Front-Facing Camera 1 step
Earpiece Speaker 1 step
Motherboard 1 step

Tools

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Edit Step 1 — Back Cover ¶

Insert a plastic opening tool between the back cover and rear case at the lower left edge of the back cover.
Pry the back cover up with the plastic opening tool to free the plastic clips.
Continue prying along the left edge of the back cover towards the top of the phone.

Edit Step 2 ¶

Work the plastic opening tool across the top of the back case to free the plastic clips.
The top edge of the back case is very thin. Pry carefully to avoid cracking or snapping it.
Continue prying down the right side of the back cover to free the remaining clips.

Edit Step 3 ¶

Pull the back cover away from the phone to remove it.
The back cover is attached to the battery with a generous amount of adhesive, so you may have to use quite a bit of force to separate the two pieces.
Since the back cover is made of Kevlar, it can handle a fair amount of twisting and tugging without breaking.

Edit Step 4 — Battery ¶

Use the tip of a spudger to lift up the red silicone cover over the battery terminal screws and remove it.

Edit Step 5 ¶

Remove the two 3.3 mm T5 Torx battery terminal screws.
Grab the blue battery removal tab and lift the battery out to remove it.
There is quite a bit of adhesive securing the battery to the motherboard. Work slowly to avoid deforming the battery.
Your phone will have a number of metal EMI shields on the motherboard, rather than the bare ICs seen here.

Edit Step 6 — Camera Cover ¶

Use a heat gun or hair dryer to soften the adhesive underneath the camera cover.
- The following steps were performed without the use of a heat gun. Notice that the camera cover cracks very easily if you do not heat the adhesive that holds it in place.
Gently pry up the bottom edge of the camera cover with a plastic opening tool.
Carefully slide the plastic opening tool across the bottom edge to free it from the adhesive.
Continue to use the heat gun as needed to soften the adhesive as you remove the camera cover.

Edit Step 7 ¶

Insert the plastic opening tool underneath the top edge of the camera cover.
Gently pry the camera cover up as you slide the plastic opening tool across the top edge to free it from the adhesive.
Remove the camera cover.

Edit Step 8 — Rear Case ¶

Remove the six screws securing the rear case to the rest of the phone:
- three 6.7 mm silver T3 Torx screws at the top,
- four 4.0 mm gold T3 Torx screws in the middle,
- and three 4.5 mm black T5 Torx screws at the bottom.