Steps 1–14: Kindle 2 Teardown
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Step 9
Lifting the logic board and display assembly out of its plastic housing.
There is no protective covering over the display. The display seen from the outside is the actual E-Ink panel.
Step 10
Even with the battery completely removed, the screen displays a crystal clear image.
The display is held by a "window frame" of adhesive. Gentle prods and twists from all sides with an iPod opening tool separated the display.
Removing the display reveals a bunch of vias on the PCB. Nothing too terribly exciting.
Step 11
The logic board after removing the silver EMI shields.
The majority of the larger chips are made by Freescale, Samsung and Epson.
On the center-left side of the board is an outline of a SIM card with empty headers. Amazon left a opening in the plastic framework revealing this region. Was this left in for development and debugging?
Step 12
A close-up shot of the center area of the board.
The large MC13783VK5 is a Freescale battery power management chip.
The ISP1105 (smaller chip in the left enclosed area) is a USB transceiver.
Step 13
The main processor is in the upper left. The Freescale chip is labeled MCIMX31LVKN5C M91E CTAH0850V. It's a 532 MHz, ARM-11 90nm 14mm package.
To the right of the processor, the Samsung K4X1G323PC is a 32MB mobile DDR SDRAM chip. There another Samsung SDRAM chip in the lower right.
The large Samsung package in the lower left is the Kindle's main memory. It's a 2 GB moviNAND package, which includes both flash memory and the cotroller.
The co-branded Epson and E-Ink chip on the right is the display controller. It is a PFBGA package that supports "high speed screen updates (2048x1536 at 50Hz+)."
Step 14
The complete disassembly of the Kindle 2.
It seems to be the type of device that people will not bother modding... Or will they? Only time will tell.
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How is the display connected to the PCB? Can you show a side view?
iFixit Staff
The orange display ribbon wraps around the edge of the logic board and connects with a ZIF connector. We added a photo on this step with a side view that shows the display connector.
Is the display glued to the logic board? How hard would it be to remove?
iFixit Staff
The display is adhered to the logic board, but we were able to remove it without damaging either the logic board or display.
iFixit Staff
Just wanted to add a couple of comments to Luke's reply...
With a careful hand you can separate the display from the logic board in less than ten minutes. Just pry carefully on all sides. However, note that the display has a front bezel that attaches via several little "bumps" on all sides. If you're trying to remove the display, make sure not to dislodge the display's bezel by mistake, since the bezel will warp very easily and will have to be replaced.
Question, the wireless adapter in the kindle, looks strangely identical to Mini-PCI, if not Mini-PCIe, would it be plausible to take that and insert like normal on a PC? Wouldn't that be a sure way to tether? lmao.
just my 2 cents
Miro,
These Kindle 2's are slippery and not forgiving when you drop them. I've lost the screen on mine. It still reads but the background is very grey ... hard to read the black type. Amazon wants $200 to repair. I wonder if I can find the parts and replace them myself. Or if there is a way to reverse the type from black on white to white on dark grey. What do you think?
jjimbo
Very new to this ...
I also have a broken screen on a K2 [out of warranty]. Is there anyone out there repairing them?
Could you provide the input capacitance value connected to the Vbus of micro USB?
Hi,
is it correct the Kindle2 comes without a physical SIM-card, with other words the SIM seems to be emulated somehow?
Thank you
Please see
http://vdc.epson.com/index.php?option=co...
for info on the EPSON chip.
Hi,
K4X1G323PC is IMHO a 128MB chip:
it has 1G density and it's internal organization is x32, what makes it a 32Mx32 according to this document: http://www.samsung.com/global/system/bus...
But still, 1Gbit / 8 = 128MB.
nevertheless: you would not expect less than 128MB paired with such a processor installed...
Correct me if I am wrong.