BlackBerry Forums Support Community

delmarco · 10-17-2006, 08:29 PM

Honestly this is procedure was alot more easier than I thought it would be.
I've opened up many gadgets and even did light DIY work on my car and this was by far easier to do.

PART 1: GETTING THE 8700G OPEN:

(IMPORTANT: Wear latex or any kind of lab gloves or you will get fingerprints and dust on the inside of the screen!!! At on point you have to touch the inside of the screen with your finger to apply pressure when removing the ear speaker. Fingerprints, oil or dust on the inside of the screen is not only not cool but you won't really see it until after you reassemble the berry and then even worse-its hard as hell to clean the prints without leaving dust or micro scratches on the inside of the screen. Even if you have the torq 6 and are ready to do the op, DO NOT BEGIN the op until you get gloves. I cant stress that enough!)

Basically, you use a torq 6 screwdriver to open up the berry from the back to the front. There will be 3 screws under the battery cover, abd 4 more screws under the mid-case. The clips are kind of tricky at first, but remember un-clip in the direction from bottom to top.
The top clip on the rear-case is tricky because it overlaps with the dual clips of the front case. Both front and rear case clips into the mid-case with little clips along the sides, but at the top of the berry both the front and rear case connects with and overlaps on the mid-case (see pictures in PART 3).

The rest of the DIY op is history after you get the covers off.

delmarco · 10-17-2006, 08:32 PM

PART 1 continued:

delmarco · 10-17-2006, 08:35 PM

PART 1 continued...

delmarco · 10-17-2006, 08:40 PM

PART 2 MID-CASE & ELECTRONICS SWAP AND ASSEMBLY:

This part is the easiest part and I don't have pictures of the electronics since I only decided to post up this DIY after the fact and I'm not too keen on re-opening my new 8700v shell to take pics, so use your imagination and accept my apologies.

After you replace the ear mic and ear speaker onto the new 8700v or 8700g front case you can work on the mid case electronics.
What I did was just transferred the entire midcase and electronics into the new 8700v shell (more on this later). I realized that the factory sticker and IMEI number and T-Mobile 8700g phone info is permanently glued onto the mid case and I did not want to loose those if I need to call customer service in the future.
Anyway, if your old mid-case is in good condition you might as well just re-use it into the new 8700v shell. This was easy, after attaching the front case mic, ear speaker, and keypads from the old 8700g to the new 8700v, I only needed to start attaching my old 8700g mid-case to the new 8700v front-case. PART 3 will take you thru this with pictures.

NOTE: Make sure your new 8700v or 8700g replacement shell has a screen and a speaker phone mic on it. Mine did and I figured out why. These components seem hard to take or and replace especially the screen and its sealant foam.
Also the ear mic and speaker on the front shell do not need any extra attention from you. All you need to do is take them off the old case and place them in the corresponding places on the new case. DO NOT tamper with these! Once you re-assemble the new case
they will connect to the main electronics body on their own and work on their own.
That is all.

SECOND NOTE: 8700c keypads DO NOT work on 8700g and 8700v shells. If been getting questions about that. I'm not sure about other incompatibilities between the 8700c and 8700g bodies, but the keypad size and shape alone PREVENTS putting an 8700c electronics body into an 8700g or 8700v shell.

delmarco · 10-17-2006, 08:51 PM

PART 3 8700 FULL RE-ASSEMBLY...

This part is the hard part for several reasons. First, you are assembling the new replacement shell and DO NOT want to damage the screen area on both sides, nor do you want to break any connecting clips.

Once you've juggled the new mid-case and old electronics-body together, or perhaps you are re-using the old mid-case...I'll insert a note here because I can sense that questions about re-using the old original mid-case will come.

NOTE: YOU CAN RE-USE THE OLD ORIGINAL MID-CASE FROM THE 8700g TO THE NEW 8700v SHELL BODY.
YES, IT WILL FIT AND I RECOMMEND DOING SO SINCE IT WILL SAVE YOU TIME AND YOU WILL HAVE KEPT ALL YOUR IMPORTANT IMEI STICKER INFO THAT CAME ON YOUR ORIGINAL MID-CASE (under the battery)!

...so all you do it connect the mid case to the front case first, then screw the 4 mid-case screws in, then connect the rear case and screw the 3 rear case screws in.

Once you are done this insert sim card, battery and close battery case and viola you got yourself a BRAND NEW Berry for less than $30!

delmarco · 10-17-2006, 09:42 PM

PART 4: BUYING YOUR NEW HOUSING...they way I did on eBay.

PM if you want my seller info.

I don't think I want to advert eBay sellers here so PM me and I will provide all info on where I bought my housing from.

Here is what I bought for $24.00 USD, I got the 8700v OEM full housing shell, with glass cover and speaker phone.

The seller also sells new OEM 8700g front-case replacement shells as well for $17.00 USD, shipping was $7.00 for anything you buy from him.

He ships quick from Hong Kong and I recieved my item within 5-6 business days. He also provides tracking information and kind eBay feedback so I recommend him!

Another seller on eBay was selling alot of these 8700g and 8700v housing shells for $9.00 USD, see pictures below.

I DO NOT RECOMMEND buying these housing only because they DO NOT have the rear speaker phone and glass front. In my DIY I learnt that these two things, the glass front and the speaker phone seem to be incredibley harder to remove and replace and the glass front screen by itself would require more tools and possible some sort of glue and foam sealant that would match OEM quality.

bilabong356 · 10-17-2006, 09:54 PM

Great instructions, thanks! I just purchased an 8700g, once I get it I will have to see if i want to change the case. Is the 8700v case you bought on eBay the same quality of the 8700g OEM case? If the case is high quality and you reccomend it please PM me the seller info. thanks.

mike_187 · 10-17-2006, 11:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bilabong356

Great instructions, thanks! I just purchased an 8700g, once I get it I will have to see if i want to change the case. Is the 8700v case you bought on eBay the same quality of the 8700g OEM case? If the case is high quality and you reccomend it please PM me the seller info. thanks.

same quality, different colors, vodafone branded instead of tmo.
i would replace it if your housing gets really bad and worn out. unless of corse you want the different color.

delmarco · 10-17-2006, 11:32 PM

The replacement housing shell was definately OEM quality!
Not that I find the quality of the OEM plastic housing shell all that good anyway, but the screen dust sealant, speaker phone and trimmings on the replacement 8700v shell were said to be original parts by the seller and I found that to be true.

If you know me on this forum you'll know I'm picky about quality when it comes to my berry. The mods even banned me a few times before for harshly disagreeing with them on the questionable quality of the early 8700c cingular berries.
Good luck with your new 8700g!

Quote:

Originally Posted by mike_187

same quality, different colors, vodafone branded instead of tmo.
i would replace it if your housing gets really bad and worn out. unless of corse you want the different color.

Yeah my old 8700g shell was badly scarred from using the both the OEM and Seidio Holster. I no longer use those holsters and got a monaco leather case for my new 8700v berry!

MrKyoo · 10-18-2006, 10:15 PM

Sticky, nice job.

~MrKyoo

BBAdmin · 10-19-2006, 03:55 AM

Excellent thread!!!

delmarco · 10-21-2006, 08:39 AM

Thanks for the feedback.
I've been getting so many request for the
eBay seller that my PM box is full. I decided to post the link below to the seller's info below.
As of this week ending October 20th he is out of stock of the 8700v and
8700g shells. I emailed him yesterday and he will have more 8700 series shells listed next week.

You can also send him a message on ebay and request what you need and he usually responds quick and seems to be very knowledgeable of Blackberry OEM parts.

here is his eBay name: www-gsm4world-us

and the link:
eBay: BlackBerry 8700v 8700 ORIGINAL Housing (Vodafone) (item 110039739347 end time Oct-03-06 01:23:13 PDT)

sseligson · 10-21-2006, 07:50 PM

What is the purpose of changing the 8700g to an 8700v case?

delmarco · 10-21-2006, 10:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sseligson

What is the purpose of changing the 8700g to an 8700v case?

none really,
however if you are a veteran 8700g or worse yet owner of the 8700c, you already know that the cases wear out rather easily on these phones from something as simple as using the berry daily in its own OEM hoslter.

many hard holsters usually leave scars on the case as well as normal wear and tear gives the case a rather cheap look.

that is one reason I changed mine. The 8800 is due out soon and I would like to get the most money for my 8700g/8700v on ebay when I'm ready to sell it it.

Economically:
I paid about $300 for my 8700g last april when it came out, the OEM hoslter and Seidio holsters scarred the original 8700g navy blue case. I updated to a new silver OEM 8700v case for about $30. And right now according to eBay sales I can get rid of my updated berry for an average sale price of $390.00-$400.00 (it also has Zen). That is a nice profit, considering a that used and scarred 8700g would probably bring me $200 on eBay.

So that would be another benefit for someone who is looking to sell their used berry for a high price knowing that they want to update to the pearl or 8800 berries.

BOTTOM LINE: Its up to you what you do with your money and time. And its also a fun, relatively easy to do and safe project.

Good luck.

MOCAZEN · 10-25-2006, 01:21 PM

So is there a case in a dark color for the 8700c, I cant seem to find one.

wangta01 · 11-04-2006, 01:31 AM

Last week i managed to DROP my 8700C on a hard tile floor. Battery fell out, cover fell off, chipped side - not good. I had dropped it 2 times before, but nothing had happened. However, this time, when I put the battery back in, I noticed a huge @ss crack in the LCD!!!!! DOH!

So, I managed to get my hands on a junk 8700G that my company had. It has a software/hardware problem and was going to thrown out (think it was dropped in water). However, the LCD was still good, so I convinced them to give it to me for $50 and I spent this morning switching the LCDs. It was actually a pretty easy process and I now have a fully functional 8700c again, with a 8700g for parts - and more importantly a 8700g style keyboard, so now I can potentially use the 8700v,8700g cases!

However, my favorite cases are black - 1) the Rogers 8700c based case and the 2) Verizon/Sprint 8703e black cases.

Should I get the Rogers case, i can use my 8700c black/grey keyboard and it should look fine. However, i really want the 8703e case, and would need a black/grey keyboard to match! First, I can't even find an 8703e case, but secondly, who knows where I could find a keyboard. Doesn't seem to be a party that people sell.

Anyways, just food for thought - let me know if anyone sees an 8703E case or keyboard for sale!

MERK350Z · 11-05-2006, 07:33 PM

Just Want To Give Everyone A Heads Up And Tell You That The Housing From A 8707 Vodafone The Silver One Works With The Cingular 8700c I Just Changed My Cousins Blackberry 8700c Fits Perfect.

wangta01 · 11-06-2006, 08:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MERK350Z

Just Want To Give Everyone A Heads Up And Tell You That The Housing From A 8707 Vodafone The Silver One Works With The Cingular 8700c I Just Changed My Cousins Blackberry 8700c Fits Perfect.

Got any pics for us??