has anyone taken the c500 apart yet?

[Guest gtivinny]

i got a dummy and was thinking about swaping the insides over, but dont want to mark the housing!

if some one has done it let me know!

[Guest tomdog22]

i have disassembled mine. i got so much dust built up, i had to get rid of it. it wasn't that tough, more scary than anything. take out all hex screws, remove cover at top, by the camera, then gently separate. good luck.

[Guest Confucious]

Have you checked out this thread?

Most people seem to prefer to Pay £15+VAT and get HTC to replace the parts.

[Guest kurtfhouse]

I got a dummy phone today and swapped the covers over. It wasn't easy and there were times when my heart almost stopped!

The technique is to remove all the hex screws as above, and then to remove the cover where the camera is. Note that there are two clips at the top approximately by the on/off swith and by the IR port, you will have to be careful here as they can break easily, don't panic if they do as the cover will stay on tight without them. Pull the cover where the camera is from the top and eventually after some persuation it will come off.

Once the first cover is off there are two more hex screws to remove before the housing can come apart. The best way to pull the housing apart is from the top of the phone, it wont come apart easily but it WILL come apart just keep trying.

Once youn have separated the two parts of the phone you will need to take the Mini SD holder out of the old case and put it into the new, its hard to explain how but easy enough to work out when your looking at it :lol: and you will also have to move the vibrator over to the new casing, it just pops out and you just push it into the new case :D

Now inorder to remove the circuit boards from the front part of the phone you will need to remove a screw from the centre of the circuit board that is visible, you can then open out the phones inards like a book. On on the right is the main part of the phone and the now exposed screen, on the left is the old front cover attached to the phone by the keyboard. This is held on by a silver plate covering the whole of the keypad. To remove just take out the four screws holding in the silver plate. At this point the phone is free from its old housing (you will notice that all the keys are the rubber type keys except the 'joystick thing' which is attached to the phone.

Now using a bit of reverse engineering and and being careful you put the phone back together in its new undamaged cover.

A quick note, the metal bit attached to the back of the camera cover is the phones internal ariel so this will need to be transfered. If your bothered behind the ear peice of the phone is a bit of mesh which you can also transfer (I did but I'm sure not doing so will not have any real difference).

I have tested everything on the phone and it works a charm and looks brand new and all for £2.50 and an hour of spare time :wink: