Samsung N-7000 Repair

When the original Samsung Galaxy Note N-7000 was released in 2011, I acquired one from someone locally who had paid to have it shipped from India.  This is not a problem if you do not have any issues with the device requiring warranty repair since obtaining it requires that the device be shipped back to that region for repair.  This issue reared its head about 6 months in to owning it when the device began to act funny:  it would act like I was plugging in and unplugging a MicroUSB cable.  It would make the same noise and change the battery icon on the status bar to one indicating that the device was charging,.

An exhaustive search of the Internet and the XDA-Developers Forum for the N-7000 indicated that it was related to a bad component on the USB Charging board.  Since the problem seemed to rectify itself, I put it out of my mind until it started doing it again.  It seemed to do it regularly when the temperature got warmer but would rectify itself eventually so I just ignored it.  Then when school started, it began doing it again but this time, it would not let me turn on the phone unless it was plugged in to power and it did not go away.  So I searched YouTube and found a video showing how to replace the defective board:

The video made it look truly easy with the tools used.  So I then began searching E-Bay and found the perfect set of tools shipped on the slow boat from China for $2.99.

So I then ordered the tools, because at this price they would come in handy for a multitude of tasks.  I then searched for and found the board for $5.09 plus $.99 shipping on the same slow boat from China.  So, I of course, ordered this as well.

The screwdrivers arrived last week and the board arrived this week.  I had been nervous about doing it, afraid that I would somehow frack it worse then it already was and I was not planning on doing it today anyway.  Except that I sat down and I thought about what I had learned in the management class, about not being afraid of failing.  So I prepared myself to accept my failures and put them right up alongside of my successes and achievements.

I am glad that I did take the time to do this, since I now have a completely functional device and the total repair time took less then 10 minutes in total and was just as easy, if not easier then the video showed.  The only issue was that I dropped a screw on the floor, but found it almost immediately.  I then thought I had lost a screw and just when I had given up and decided to accept its loss, I found it.  So all in all an easy repair.  This is the power of User Forums and your fellow device enthusiasts on the internet, because chances are, someone, somewhere has had the same issue as you and they figured out how to fix it or work around it.

Creating An Internet Brand

When I decided to go back to school, I decided to document the experience via Social Media, a Blog and random picture posts.  So, I began randomly posting my musings as status update with my Facebook friends.  I have sort of a core following of my friends who comment and actively participate in my life online, through Facebook.

I use Instagram as OldGuyStudent and have blogs at the following locations:

Wordpress where I post random musings about life at American River College, the local Community College where I am a student.  It’s a very strange experience and I am just getting used to it because I have never been one to study or to do much reading and work on my own.  I am striving to change this and it has been a challenge.  The TV Show Community makes me shake my head daily as I experience the jokes in it first hand, in real life sometimes waiting for the laugh track, other times hearing the laugh track and others being the laugh track.

Tumblr is where I put random pictures.  I want to take a Digital Photography class and I hope to be able to find a way to get a Digital SLR camera and preferably a Nikon.  To go along with it I would love to have a Samsung Galaxy Camera as it is an amazing device.  It would be awesome to have it so that I could sync the pictures to my Samsung Galaxy Note where I could edit and manipulate them.

So, now I have created a Facebook page for OldGuyStudent where I will now post the random status updates and blog posts related to School, being a student and being an old guy.  My life has been an amazing journey up to this point and I have met some truly amazing people online and in real life.  My family and extended family are all online and connected to me through Facebook.  So I created the Facebook page for me to advertise to them the things that I like, use and find useful on this journey.

I am going to create a brand name out of OldGuyStudent and see if I can become an Internet Celebrity by letting the world see in to my warped mind because I think deep down, we are all a little bit warped in our own way.  So welcome aboard!