Damon

Almost every time we have had a customer bring a phone that has been in contact with rice, there is a piece stuck in the charge port and the headphone jack. So even if rice was able to dry your phone, you are possible damaging your phone by introducing foreign objects into the exposed ports.

Is the cost to swap out the battery on the Note 7 just waaay too much to make it worth sending back out on the American market with a proven safe battery? It seems like a no brainer to refurbish this phone and sell to the public to recoup some of the loss that Samsung had to take. Does anyone know how the reception in Korea was? People waiting in lines/camping out to get one of the F.E.'s?

Is it ok to place the sim card on the magnetic mat? I noticed that in the video Gwendolyn (sp?) set the sim card right on the magnetic mat right after she took it out. I'm afraid to do that with mine. Does anyone know for sure if that would mess the sim card up?

On Steps 17 and 18 you somehow magically removed the ear speaker/ ff camera bracket. You do need to remove that before you can take the lcd plate off.

The home button is actually separate from the screen. It must be transferred to a new screen to keep the fingerprints.

I think in Step 5 it isn't necessary to remove all of the connectors. You really only need to remove 4 connectors in total... the 2 camera connectors, the proximity sensor and the longer one reaching down from the upper left corner (digitizer cable maybe?). That way you can just lift the motherboard up while still attached to the phone 90 degrees to access the battery. I had good luck with some heat and 3 spudgers to remove the battery, just be patient. Oh, and exploit the weak point under the battery cable to begin the battery/adhesive separation.

Many places... It is super expensive still though, around $270 - $300.

Mengtor, Revamp Wholesale, or Repairs Universe are a couple to start with.

I have found that using a fresh razor blade is a little easier than the spudger alone. First lift up the small tab on the left of the connector. Then very carefully slide a corner of the razor blade under the left corner of the connector, making sure you are under the metal backing. Slightly lift up with the razor blade to make room for the spudger. Slowly lift the connector with the spudger and viola, it should come loose!

This was the hardest step for me. I ended up snapping the mother board at the corner because the adhesive just suddenly released. I wish there were a few more pictures and pointers on how to remove the charging port. Does anyone know a good place to get a cheap 32 GB mother board??