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This teardown is not a repair guide. To repair your Amazon Fire TV, use our service manual.

  1. Amazon Fire TV Teardown, Amazon Fire TV Teardown: step 1, image 1 of 2 Amazon Fire TV Teardown, Amazon Fire TV Teardown: step 1, image 2 of 2
    • Forget about using kindling—Amazon is pouring gas on the media box fire. Get ready to set your TV ablaze with these smokin' tech specs:

    • Quad-core, 1.7 GHz Qualcomm Krait 300 processor

    • Qualcomm Adreno 320 dedicated GPU

    • 2 GB LPDDR2 RAM at 533 MHz

    • 8 GB internal storage

    • MIMO Wi-Fi supporting 802.11a/b/g/n

    • Bluetooth 4.0

    • More than just a TV box, the Fire TV has power to spare for games, and for a little extra dough you can get this snazzy gamepad controller.

  2. Amazon Fire TV Teardown: step 2, image 1 of 2 Amazon Fire TV Teardown: step 2, image 2 of 2
    • The otherwise featureless black box has a rainbow of ports on its rear:

    • 5.5 mm DC Jack

    • Type A HDMI 1.4b output, w/HDCP

    • Optical Audio (TOSLINK)

    • 10/100 Ethernet

    • USB 2.0 Type A

  3. Amazon Fire TV Teardown: step 3, image 1 of 3 Amazon Fire TV Teardown: step 3, image 2 of 3 Amazon Fire TV Teardown: step 3, image 3 of 3
    • We've had enough of the etchings; it's time to get inside.

    • Go, go, plastic opening tool!

    • We dispatch the plastic clips to gain access to the Fire TV's internals. This hotshot may be tightly sealed, but it's no match for our icy blue opening tools.

    • On the flip-side we've got some runes:

    • Model CL1130

    • 6.25 Volt DC Input

    • Federal Communications Commission Approval

  4. Amazon Fire TV Teardown: step 4, image 1 of 3 Amazon Fire TV Teardown: step 4, image 2 of 3 Amazon Fire TV Teardown: step 4, image 3 of 3
    • Precision driving is not only a skill—it's a sport. We drive through a series of screws on the motherboard with precision far surpassing that of Imperial Stormtroopers.

    • With just a few turns, this board-in-a-box is on the loose.

    • Hey! Who left their bubblegum in our magic TV box? Gross.

    • This thermal pad is a bright pink hint as to the whereabouts of the main processor.

  5. Amazon Fire TV Teardown: step 5, image 1 of 2 Amazon Fire TV Teardown: step 5, image 2 of 2
    • Muppet news flash: Fire seems to put off a lot of heat. To keep this toasty box from catching fire, Amazon included a heatsink that fills most of the top case.

    • In addition to aforementioned hefty thermal gum wads. Ah, the sweet taste of cooling.

    • Keeping cool under the HDMI port, we find a little antenna, chilling all alone, not tied back into the system. With a tiny chip in the center, this looks like an RFID sticker, probably for inventory or tracking during manufacturing.

  6. Amazon Fire TV Teardown: step 6, image 1 of 2 Amazon Fire TV Teardown: step 6, image 2 of 2
    Tool used on this step:
    iOpener
    $19.99
    Buy
    • Our first attempt at removing the heat sink involves an iOpener and an overwhelming lack of luck.

    • So begins the epic struggle...

    • Fortunately, we're experienced with both fire and ice as we use the old ice-cube-tray-twist to dislodge this heatsink.

    • The judicious combination of warmth and wiggling vanquishes this mighty foe.

  7. Amazon Fire TV Teardown: step 7, image 1 of 2 Amazon Fire TV Teardown: step 7, image 2 of 2
    • The Fire TV is packing a pile of pyrotechnic chips:

    • Samsung K3PE0E00QM-CGC2 2 GB LPDDR2 RAM—the same we found in the Moto-X. The quad-core, 1.7 GHz Qualcomm Krait 300 processor is layered beneath the RAM.

    • Toshiba THGBM5G6A2JBAIR 8 GB eMMC NAND flash

    • Qualcomm PMM8920 power management IC

    • Atheros AR8152-B PCI-E fast ethernet controller

    • Pericom PI6C557-03ALE PCI-E clock

    • Texas Instruments DIT4192 digital audio transmitter

    • And on the back, a Qualcomm Atheros QCA6234XH integrated dual-band 2x2 802.11n + Bluetooth 4.0 chip, the same seen on the Kindle Fire 7" HDX.

  8. Amazon Fire TV Teardown: step 8, image 1 of 3 Amazon Fire TV Teardown: step 8, image 2 of 3 Amazon Fire TV Teardown: step 8, image 3 of 3
    • With the Fire doused, we direct our efforts towards the remote.

    • Replaceable batteries? Check. We dread the day when even remotes no longer house removable batteries.

    • Remote, disassemble!

    • Apparently the voice search is not as advanced as we hoped. Alas, we will resort to using a screwdriver and opening tools to pry open the remote/microphone combo.

    • Another component, another RFID tag. Looks like Amazon is rooting for a different kind of dystopian future than we'd all imagined.

  9. Amazon Fire TV Teardown: step 9, image 1 of 3 Amazon Fire TV Teardown: step 9, image 2 of 3 Amazon Fire TV Teardown: step 9, image 3 of 3
    • Round two of board-in-a-box primarily features a bit of Texan muscle:

    • Texas Instruments MSP430F5435A 16-bit ultra low power microcontroller

    • Texas Instruments CC2560 dual-mode Bluetooth Classic and Low-Energy (BLE)

    • Winbond W25Q40BW serial flash memory with dual and quad SPI (Serial Peripheral Interface)

    • MD v1.2 microphone, the same one seen in the Kindle Fire HD

    • Audience es305 voice processor

    • We've noticed a trend of battle-tested chips at this party. Many of the chips in the Fire have proven their mettle in other devices.

    • That's a wrap! Well, for this act anyway. Enjoy a remote layout by way of intermission.

  10. Amazon Fire TV Teardown: step 10, image 1 of 3 Amazon Fire TV Teardown: step 10, image 2 of 3 Amazon Fire TV Teardown: step 10, image 3 of 3
    • But wait...there's more! Round three of this teardown brings us to the gaming controller.

    • The controller is tamper-proofed with a variant of the tri-wing screw family. They look cool and resemble shurikens, but we don't know anybody who keeps a shuriken driver on their tool belt.

    • We do keep a tri-wing driver on ours. It's not a perfect fit, but the Pro Tech Screwdriver Set comes through in the clutch.

    • Outwitting the strange screws, we pop this controller open. At least there's no adhesive keeping it shut.

    • And to complete the trifecta, there lies the controller's RFID tag.

  11. Amazon Fire TV Teardown: step 11, image 1 of 2 Amazon Fire TV Teardown: step 11, image 2 of 2
  12. Amazon Fire TV Teardown: step 12, image 1 of 3 Amazon Fire TV Teardown: step 12, image 2 of 3 Amazon Fire TV Teardown: step 12, image 3 of 3
    • Next we pull the trigger...off the controller's motherboard.

    • We've touched the Flying Spaghetti Monster motherboard, and we're ready for some tasty treats:

    • CSR CSR8670 audio and Bluetooth system-on-chip

    • NXP LPC812 Cortex-M0+ 32-bit microcontroller

    • Winbond 25Q16DW serial flash memory with dual and quad SPI

    • Texas Instruments HC595 8-bit shift registers

    • NXP HC4052 dual 4-channel analog multiplexer/demultiplexer

    • Boy howdy, it's your lucky day, reader! A second (gamier) layout, just for you.

  13. Amazon Fire TV Teardown: step 13, image 1 of 2 Amazon Fire TV Teardown: step 13, image 2 of 2
    • Amazon Fire TV Repairability Score: 6 out of 10 (10 is easiest to repair)

    • Simple construction—upper case, lower case, heat sink, motherboard. Once it's apart, there's not much to keep track of.

    • The power supply is separate; should it ever need replacement, there'll be no disassembly required.

    • Standard Phillips screws populate the internals, making this box a worry-free affair once you're inside...

    • ...provided you never need to remove the heat sink, which is secured with copious amounts of extremely sticky glue.

    • The outer case is a very tight fit. Plastic clips are used rather than glue, but they're so stubborn you'd be forgiven for thinking otherwise.

    • A single board hosts all the vitals—clean and simple, but when it comes to repair, it's all or nothing.

5 Comments

What about the power Brick? It sure was a disappointment to have to have one when the Apple TV takes just a clean AC cord.

Also, how much power does this draw in standby. Is this another Power vampire.

As for repairable...it is only good up and to the point where it reduces reliability.

Howard - Reply

Regarding RFID. I am pretty sure that this is related to the binding device to the Amazon account. When I bought fire tv stick and turned it on, it showed already my amazon account and asked me to confirm. This could be only possible, if they read device ID in warehouse during processing my order and bind it to my account. Easiest way to do this just to read RFID tag during packaging, so they do not need to scan any paper labels on box.

For accessories: they could be used to bind them all together on factory with some special tool by scanning RFIDs fully automatically. Or may be available for QA if all components present in a package during packaging on factory, or even just for future use.

wbr

Mike

Mikhail N - Reply

I want to know where the reset pins are to initiate a restore. Mine is stuck on amazon fire TV logo one day I turned it on. It was after I loaded a kodi install file. Anyway when unloaded it and came back after an hour or so I get thisboot loop. Remote dont respond and I know it was paired and has new batteries. Also tried android but it ask for.a pin onscreen and that's not happening. I'm a technician and I know there has got to be some reset pins some.where. help if you can. Who's got the schematic??

Gadget mall - Reply

im pretty sure u just plug in a keyboard and a menu pops up. don't do like me and pop it open, i fried something. super !#^&@@

leon Cochrane -

Did you ever find a schematic?

Timothy Lanno -

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