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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.

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