What you need
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Disconnect any power to the speaker and wait a few minutes for the capacitors to fully discharge.
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Flip the speaker upside down.
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Remove eight 10mm Phillips #2 screws
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Remove the bottom panel by pulling upwards.
On my model, only 6 of the 8 screws hold the bottom panel. Looking at the picture above, where the screws are circles, the bottom row of 5 screws, the second and fourth screw are threaded for nuts, as opposed to the other six, which are threaded for plastics. These two screws can be removed once the bottom panel has been removed.
Like the previous poster said: in this step it is sufficient to remove the second and fourth screw cause these hold the front panel. Removing the front panel takes a bit of force and it is better to have the fragile WiFi antennas protected by the bottom panel.
The remaining six screws can be removed just before step 13 (which also misses a step, see my comments over there).
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Flip the device so that the grille is facing up.
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Locate the line on the right side of the speaker where the grill and the plastic meet, and place your plastic opening tool in the gap.
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Run the spudger along the gap, loosening the grille from the plastic. Repeat this process on the left side as well.
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Gently pull up on the grille, removing it from the front panel.
might be worth mentioning there are two strips of industrial velcro running along near the top and bottom that simply have to be pulled apart
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Remove the six 8mm Phillips #2 screws.
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Remove the two 10mm Phillips #2 screws.
In my unit the top two screws marked in red had a rubber plug in the hole as well. I had to remove them by sticking a knife in and carefully pulling them out.
I had the same issue but no problem getting them out.
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Locate the line on the right side where the front panel and back panel meet. Place a plastic opening tool in the gap, and run it along the gap. Repeat this on the left side.
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Use the opening tool to lift the front plate. If a plastic tool is not providing enough leverage, use a metal opening tool.
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Gently pull up on the face plate to ensure it has been detached from the enclosure.
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Lift up the front panel, forming a 90 degree angle with the back panel. Locate the locate ten pin connector shown. This is the wire that connects the front panel to back panel.
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Press down on the small tab located on the connector. With the tab firmly pressed down, pull the connector out from its socket.
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The faceplate assembly is now fully detached from the rest of the speaker.
my unit didn’t have the tab in the middle of the connector. It simply had to be prised apart (I used a plastic spudger to separate the two parts of the connector) and then reconnected carefully (I used the plastic spudger again between the pcb and the case to support the pcb as it was flexing)
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Remove the grey and red antenna connectors by lifting them away from the board.
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Pull cords away from the board.
Hi! Great guide. These three cords have been ripped away on my second-hand-unit. Where do they connect?
Thanks again!
Instead of these following steps, I unsrewed the 4 nuts, lifted the controlboard up, and kept the antennas connected, then I could remove the Powerboard with antenna connections intact…
Hi,
Because the connectors were glued I broke one of the connector from the board. Is that fixable? If I connect directly to the internet with a cable, do I need the antenna? Thanks
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Remove circuit board by lifting it straight away from the rear plate.
One step is missing…you also have to disconnect the cable to the top circuit board with the volume buttons and led…
On my model, the motherboard is held in place with another six (i think) screws which go in the steel posts that support the motherboard. This step is completely missing in this guide. Interestingly enough, in the bottom panel removal step, the photograph does not show the screws, as if somebody had removed them: i honestly don't think that in any revision Sonos would leave the motherboard secured only by the screws on the back, where the connectors are, because the motherboard would rattle with music.
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The larger of the two boards is the power supply board.
Told a friend I repaired my Play5 when I said he had one which didn’t do anything anymore fo quite a while.
Sure enough the PCB mounted fuse was dead.
Checked the bridge rectifier first before replacing the fuse and it turned out that 1 of the diodes was conducting in both directions..
Told him there was chance that the circuitry behind it was killed by the AC voltage.
After removing the bridge rectifier I put 30V DC on the circuit with a power supply on which I can limit the current.
Hardly any current so I assumed that at least the circuitry behind the bridge rectifier did not cause a short circuit.
To replace the bridge rectifier I first had to remove the 100uF 400V capacitor.
As they put a kind of silicone on the power supply part of the PCB this wasn’t easy…
During removal of the bridge rectifier I slightly damaged the connection between the + side of the bridge rectifier and the PCB.
I ended up by connecting the + side of the bridge rectifier with the + side of the other capacitor (next to J27706 on the backside of the board).
Replaced the fuse, connected the board to the mains and the fuse did not blow.
Reassembled the Play5 et voila, it works again!
I do not understand why they don’t use a separate power supply board!
Hi! Do you have the model of the rectifier diod and the fuse you ordered? I have the same problem!
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To reassemble your device, follow these instructions in reverse order.
To reassemble your device, follow these instructions in reverse order.
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9 Comments
Great guide but where can you get replacement boards from, if at all?
We replaced the parts listed in the description of this clip, and the unit came back to life: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2R8hKdGT...
The procedure is a bit unclear in the clip, suggest following the ifixit-procedure, or both.
Thank you for your work here. Youtube video also useful.
I needed to purchase quality solder iron plus tips, solder wick, and review how to desolder capacitors. Taking out the bad fuse and the rectifier were relatively easy, but the capacitors were covered in silicone, then the old solder on its terminals proved very difficult to melt. In the end, even with temperature of tip at 340, little progress was made, so I disassembled capacitor in situ, and finally with more heat the remnant of it and the two terminals popped out. Again ,I saw this technique on YouTube.
So, having had a live chat with sonos who told me I had no warranty and it was unfixable, and that the new sonos5 is not compatible with my current Generation 1 system, I got the thing working, with next to no initial knowledge.
Cost
£90 in tools- solder iron, tips, quality electronic pliers
£10 in components from Farnell
And about 6 hours disassemble, doing the biz ( the learning curve of desoldering, removing caps, fuse, rectifier) then reassembling
Just to add a “me too” comment. My problem was that the bridge rectifier had shorted, which had, in turn blown the red cylindrical fuse.
To test whether your bridge rectifier is duff, use a multimeter to check continuity between any and all of its 4 legs. There should be none at all, mine was beeping when I bridged two of the legs.
I had to remove the big capacitor in front of the rectifier in order to access it, but that was no problem (just make sure you put it back in the right way round).
About £1.50 worth of parts to save £350 on an “upgraded” unit from Sonos. It helped that I already had a soldering iron.
I followed this guide and the Youtube video. It turned out the cause of the failure in my unit was a real life bug. Somehow a mosquito managed to get into the unit through one of the bass reflex ports (see pictures in step 10) and cause a short between two pins in the connector that connects the audio board to the motherboard. After cleaning up and reassembly the unit came back to life.
By the time you actually reached the motherboard the capacitors will already be discharged sufficiently to a safe level, so just go ahead there's no need to wait in this step.
That said, be careful once you have the motherboard out and decide to test it on your table. The two large capacitors are directly behind the full bridge rectifier that's connected to the mains, so without load they carry the peak voltage. In Europe with 230V that means 325V, in 110V countries that means 156V (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alternatin... for more information about RMS and peak voltages).
Erik Mouw - Reply