Motorola Moto X Motherboard Assembly Replacement

Step 1

Remove the five 3 mm T3 Torx screws from the headphone jack/speaker assembly.

These screws appear to have some yellow locktite on them. I rounded 2 of them, so take caution and make sure your screw driver fits correctly. Otherwise you will need to find a drill press to extract them.

stevengrey -

Is the glass glued to the LCD like the iPhone 5? Is it possible to repair a broken front glass without changing the whole assembly?

Alisio -

Yes and Yes. Just fixed mine.

Buy a Glass+Frame from ebay. Do steps 1-18 and 37. Then just open the bottom two torx screws, no more. They are the only ones connected to the front frame. Then heat&remove the glass, tear off the frame with pliers. Then you just need to clean the screen from residue and apply LOCA and the Glass+Frame.

Adrian Koch - 05/01/15

Yep, I rounded the bottom-left and bottom-center screws as well as my Torx driver, then slipped with the drill bit and went right through the mobo.

Coinneach - 29/01/15

All screws appear to be Torx T4.

ktmorimoto - 29/10/16

Step 2

Insert a spudger under the panhandle of the headphone jack/speaker assembly and pry it up from its recess.
Remove the headphone jack/speaker assembly.

The microphone assembly has foam tape adhesive on it and will want to separate with the headphone jack / speaker assembly.

Jacob Jaeggli - 20/05/15

Step 3

Push the tip of a spudger under the microphone assembly clip to free it from the earpiece speaker.
If the assembly clip seems to be missing, check the speaker assembly that was removed from the previous step.

Step 4

Use the flat end of a spudger to free the microphone assembly cable connector.
Use tweezers to remove the microphone assembly.

Step 5

Disconnect the front-facing camera cable connector.
Remove the front-facing camera from its recess with a pair of tweezers.

There is a thin black foam gasket (like a small washer) that is stuck to the front of this camera lens housing. On mine, the gasket was stuck off-center with the inner edge in the field of view of the lens. Using tweezers, I removed it and re-attached it on center. The image is now much sharper!

ktmorimoto - 05/11/16

Step 6

Remove the final two 3 mm T3 Torx screws from the SIM slot bracket.

On my XT1053 Developer Edition, the Torx screws on the sim slot bracket were not T3 like all the others, they were T4. Trying to use a T3 screwdriver resulted in twisting off the tip of the screwdriver. A T4 screwdriver removed them just fine.

geekapproved - 26/01/16

Step 7

Remove the SIM slot bracket from the motherboard.

Step 8

Insert the flat end of a spudger under the motherboard above the button assembly cable, and pry it out of the phone.
Be careful not to snag any cables.
The buttons may pop out of their recesses; take care not to lose them.

Step 9

Gently lift the motherboard out of the phone, rotating it from the SIM slot edge of the phone.
Do not attempt to separate the motherboard entirely; it is still connected to the display by the display cable.

Step 10

Lay the motherboard down to allow access to the display cable connector.
Use the flat end of a spudger to flip the retaining tab on the display cable ZIF connector.
Carefully pull the display cable out of its connector as you remove the motherboard from the display assembly.

When trying to put the motherboard connection back together I cannot get the flap to hold down. Anyone have a trick to help me get this connection to hold?

Dave - 08/12/14

I also struggled getting this cable back in, I actually assembled it thinking it was "in enough", only to find out I had to take it back apart and push it in further.

I found that you can lay the screen face down, with the cable upright at a 90 degree angle, then push the motherboard down onto the cable. When it goes in enough, it snaps in fairly well. If it's not in enough, it will be impossible to close the clamp.

Eric Moe - 02/04/15

There is a small black plastic piece which goes over the proximity sensor which can easily fall off. If it does, the sensor will malfunction and think that you are always close, which means you will not be able to hang up or do anything else with your phone while you are on a call and will just have to wait for the other person to hang up. I had to do more or less the whole job over again to reinsert this piece (I couldn't tell where it had fallen from and just hoped my phone would be alright with out it).

This is discussed in the thread here:

Can you disable the proximity sensor, Moto X?

You can see the black plastic over the proximity sensor in these two photos:

https://d3nevzfk7ii3be.cloudfront.net/ig...

Whereas it is missing in this photo:

https://d3nevzfk7ii3be.cloudfront.net/ig...

(The sensor is on the lower left in this last photo).

Malcolm Sailor - 10/01/16

When lifting the motherboard, note that there will be some resistance near the USB port due to an adhered foam gasket/funnel which channels sound from the tiny hole in the glass to the voice mic on the back side of the motherboard. Before re-installation of the motherboard, inspect the shape and hole in this foam gasket. It should look like cylindrical standoff about 0.1 inch tall. If it is not a clear sight to the tiny hole in the motherboard, sound will not reach the voice mic. I used the point of a spudger to re-form the hole.

ktmorimoto - 05/11/16

I connect the cable, but the screen doesn't give me an image. What could it be? The screen is new.

Kichiro Multimedia -

Motorola Moto X Motherboard Assembly Replacement

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