Hi !

I bought N 3230 and there was some dust inside the front cover.
It is very ugly to look, and want to know how was this happen ?

How can I remove the front cover ?

Reply me, please.

Sorry for my poor English.

Thanks.

The dust problem was already talked about somewhere on this forum. There was no solution dough. Before removing the cover urself ask the service in some phone store to do it first and show u how to do it for future.

The dust problem was already talked about somewhere on this forum. There was no solution dough. Before removing the cover urself ask the service in some phone store to do it first and show u how to do it for future.

I too had same problem that is dust on my LCD within 2 weeks of use. I went to Nokia and they cleaned it for me. Again after 1 week dust was back. I was pretty much angry. I did not go to Nokia care center this time. Instead I called Nokia Care Line and made them clear either you change my handset or pay the money back. They kept the issue dragging for 2,3 days saying there have reported to headoffice. But I kept them calling. They told me to bring then phone and they will REASSAMBLE it. So i took it again on May 10. It's been few days only now so I will see if the dust is back after few weeks.

I believe they should place a long thin rubber plastic material on the inside of the cover, between under the screen and above the keypad! This would prevent the dust from getting near the screen!

Also the gap between the keys would allow dust particles to easily get in!

The dust is back. Justr after few days of use. I am overseas now so when I go back next week I'll speak with them again. What I have failed to understand is wheter this problem is in few handsets or it is a design flaw.

I've now got this problem on my 4 week old 3230 and I certainly don't abuse my phone.

Appears to be a serious design flaw to me.

Grrrrrr

Ok what seems to be the solution?
I was thinking of getting the 3230, but now im in doubt!

SAME HERE!!!
I've bought the phone for just 3 weeks and dust starts to appear behind the screen. I've called Nokia and the first guy suggested me to bring the phone into the Customer Care Centre, i told him that is not acceptable!!! How practical is it for me to bring a phone in just for a clean up?!?! This is clearly a defect!!! He told me that is the best that he can offer and noted my complain.

I then called again today, and this time the lady was much more helpful, although she also suggested to me to bring the phone in for a clean up. But i told her this is a ridiculous solution. It's not practical at all and Nokia is odd to come up with a better solution than that. Therefore she notified her manager who i have given him some links on similar complains in various review forums. She told me that he will get back to me within the next 24 hrs.

Other than tat, the phone is very good, functionality wise is good and i love the 1.3MP camera. I just get very annoyed with the dust. Personally, i believe that Nokia should quickly come up with a different keypad that has extra padding on top which can close that unreachable gap!!! They should then send those keypads to the Customer Care Centre and we can get our phone fixed once and for all.

BTW, i've bought my 3230 three weeks ago in Australia. It is so weird that they are still showing the Nokia 3230 commercial on television and yet I’m having to request for a defect fix already!!! I have already told friends to NOT get this phone, unless Nokia can ship a upgraded keypad!!

Cheers
Tim

Im in Australia as well and have the same problem. The only thing that limits the dust is a cover. I have a cover on mine and have had the phone for a couple of months and the dust specs are just starting to appear and it makes it look shitty.

Luko

The problem is that its not Xpress On covers... which means u can't open the phone and clean it urself!

I still haven't received any call from Nokia yet despite it has been more than 24 hrs now (read above for my prevous post). However, i have received an email reply to my original email enquiry to Nokia about the dust problem:

"Thank you for emailing Nokia Careline.

With regard to your enquiry, we are sure you can appreciate that it is quite
difficult for us to determine the cause or determining the mentioned 'gap'
without physically assessing the phone.

In the event that your phone does not perform to specifications, we suggest
taking your phone to an Authorised Service Centre (ASC) to be assessed and
repaired by a qualified technician.

Kindly take along your Proof of Purchase to verify your warranty claims. You may
refer to the following link to locate an ASC in your vicinity.
http://www.nokia-asia.com/nokia/0,,32996,00.html

We apologise for the inconvenience caused and we trust that our technicians will
be able to quickly and efficiently rectify the fault that your phone is
currently experiencing."

Personally, this is as good as telling me to bring my phone in to get it clean. Regardless, i will call Nokia (ph. 1300 366 733) again tomorrow to ratify this problem. And yes, if they have an updated keypad, i will bring my phone in for a fix once and for all. Will keep u guys updated.

Cheers

thanks~~~

it is quite an annoying idiotic design flaw that they should have noticed in their development process... it's a failing project for Nokia.

I bought 3230 as for "user-friendliness interface"... however, "quality" isn't that up to my standards this time....

I have finally got a call back from Nokia. The lady this time told me that although Nokia has received similar complains but they are very isolated incidents. She suggested that I should bring my phone in for a check up (not just a clean up), and replace the keypad if necessary in order to seal that unreachable gap. That’s a more satisfactory reply and I will, hopefully, find some time to bring my phone in for a fix. Will keep u guys updated.

Cheers

Thnx buddy... let us know how it goes! ;)

I am still overseas, will probably go back at the end o this month and will speak woth Nokia Care Line again, I am not much hopeful though. Nokia suggested me that I start using the cover but I made them clear that I do not want to use the cover as I have never liked the idea of placing the phone inside a cover. It appears a design flaw and personally I don't believe they can fix it with just a better keypad.
Will post later when I go back and speak with them. In the meantime if any of you guys have their phones fixed for good pls do tell. Do you think Nokia will ofeer to exchange the phone with other model if they can't fix the problem?
My suggestion to anyone is not to buy this phone.

This dust problem is really starting to annoy me now. It's getting constantly worse on my 3230 and really shows up in the sunshine!

I would still advise people against buying this phone purely on this problem.

Has anyone managed to get there phone apart? I'v tried but can only get it partly dissassembled :( So i cant get under screen, i can see the problem, the foam around the screen is not thick enough under the cover, as the cover curves this leaves a small gap which lets dust it, if you want proof, put your lips over the D pad and blow in and the screen will mist showing where the gaps are, if i could get mine fully apart i'd add a small amount of padding and fix it. And hints from anyone of how the top speaker assembly comes off?

Duke.

Has anyone managed to get there phone apart? I'v tried but can only get it partly dissassembled :( So i cant get under screen, i can see the problem, the foam around the screen is not thick enough under the cover, as the cover curves this leaves a small gap which lets dust it, if you want proof, put your lips over the D pad and blow in and the screen will mist showing where the gaps are, if i could get mine fully apart i'd add a small amount of padding and fix it. And hints from anyone of how the top speaker assembly comes off?

Duke.


ive bought a different cover from ebay just because of this problem also got everything i need to take it apart get instructions hopefully, so if i get it apart ill post up a step by step guide, gonna sort some foam for mine and get it sorted, was there any seals do you know for how far you got?

Dident see any, but i could only get 3 screws removed and the keyboard out, i just couldent see how to get the top part of the phone apart, if i could then i could remove the front, oh well, let us know and if you can take pics of dissassembly it would be useful to, i was taking some as i went, but couldent get it all apart, oh well. And no i aint worried about any warantee on mine, was only an upgrade which cost little.

least you got further than me i aint even got a t6 screwdriver :rolleyes: one coming with that case i orderd tho

Just to warn you, it's looking like this phone is glued together :frown: so becarefull how you go about taking it apart, it's ok for me as i'm use to design work and stripping things apart but not everyone will want to attempt to do this to there phone.

Duke.

Just bumping this up to the top as a warning for anyone thinking of buying this phone :mad:

Hi guys I figured out how to take it completely apart and clean the screen. Whats even cooler is you can go to ebay and get some different colored covers and put em on instead so if your current cover is scratched etc. you can replace it or get some cooler colors.
Any ways Im sure you are all anxious to know how to take it apart
First you need a medium length fingernail (im not kidding) either yours or somebody elses
and a T6 torx screwdriver.
Turn your phone over so the camera is facing you and remove the back cover to the battery.
Next slip your finger nail under the gap between the cammera and the "top piece" as you can see in the picture it is hinged NOT GLUED. http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y208/jchun89/Top-cover.jpg
Still be care ful not to break the hinges and pry the top up slowly and must be from the back.
Next you can see four screws 2 on the bottom of the phone in the battery areahttp://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y208/jchun89/bottomscrews.jpg and top underneath the top you just removed.
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y208/jchun89/Top-screws.jpg
Undo these with your T6
Next Take you fingernail again and slip in between the gap in the side and the FRONT as depicted in this picturehttp://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y208/jchun89/Removing-front.jpg

dam you beat me to it lol, i orderd a blue replacment case from ebay, only bout 7 quid, also got t6 screwdriver, and a rather clever tool to wedge inbetween the gaps that gets the phone apart really easily, (note although the cases do have nokia stamped on them they are far from the quality of the original case for fit and finnish etc.

WELL DONE!!

although i will add.. for the nail-biters around..
a guitar pick works very well for prying open electrical items and wont scratch the plastic ;)

Ta muchly!

Ok dude afew questions for you:

first off, why is the hologram on ur battery messed up? and its weird that it says DEC 2005 on the sticker on the battery!

Secondly, your camera says NOKIA 1.3 MEGAPIXEL, when clearly all nokia 3230's have 1.2 megapixel written on them. the first batch of prototypes did not have any writing on them, except for NOKIA written in a faint grey/silver finish?!?

erm.... does that matter?

I think not.

Uhh it says DEC 2005 cuz thats when the warranty expires for the batter.... the hologram is messed cuz the camera cant capture it correctly and mine is a HK later realease so it says 1.3 mega pixels. as stated above this is of little concern and I am loving the dust free-ness and have also purchased a new case from ebay.

thanx ceecrb1 the guitar pick is a great idea. My fingernails did feel a little tingly lol

I'm waiting for the new cover from ebay and after I'll start my exercises on the phone... with the cover they give me also the T6 screwdriver and the opening tool (?) but I have also my guitar pick... I'll inform about the experience...
Cheers!

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=57245&item=6403532381&rd=1

I think these are the answer to the PREVENTION part of the problem....

a phone "condom" lol

Wow, been a few days since i last had a chance to get on here, thanks for the pics, there ideal, the reason i said about the glue was cause on mine i seem to have a glue strip between the camera cover plastic and the top hood, well it looked like glue, i just couldent get the hood off and dident want to break it so hence dident risk it, but now i can see how to get it apart i'll have another try then clean things up and see about a little extra padding on the bottom edge of the screen, that should reduce/stop dust getting in. Thanks to everyone who's been working this one out :-)

Duke.

this is far from an isolated problem, my 3230 was full of dust after 2 weeks, but now its been changed due to another fault.
so far the replacement is ok but then its only 5 days old!

i've ordered me some screwdrivers...
now i'm just on the hunt for some foam that i can use to pack the gap with....
I do know that the foam used to pack ammo in UK army ammo boxes is IDEAL... i just have to get some!

lol

I believe they should place a long thin rubber plastic material on the inside of the cover, between under the screen and above the keypad! This would prevent the dust from getting near the screen!

Also the gap between the keys would allow dust particles to easily get in!

has anyone ever solved the dust problem by adding something from the fone's gap? :frown:

First, I wonder why would someone disassemble the phoen on his own? It certainly would void teh warranty I guess., at least here in Hong Kong. What something else goes wrong in future. In Hong Kong Nokai will charge you HK$300.00 before they even touch your phone if you don't have the warranty. Anyways, I have given my phone to Nokai three time sto remove the dust and it is always back. Now they told me that I can select some other phone model. Looks like they have realized that this problem can't be fixed. So within that price range I have selected Nokia 6670. I selected this cos I need it to sync with my PowerBook.

why dissasemble and void warranty you ask...

well read some posts regaurding nokia's customer service.. also some ppl (like myself ) may be past the "returnable period" with the phone on their contract....


I've done it to mine.. and i packed the gap with some closed cell foam (closed cell is as the name described.. ie no big air gaps for dust to get through)

heres a pic...

agreed, my contract grace period is over, the upgrade cost (£80) has been deducted from my account and for doing it myself i aint fussed about the warrantee, i'm a design engineer and the boards in these phones are huge compared to the stuff i'v designed, lol.

Duke.

kinda ditto...
i've got a degree in computer science and electrical engineering....
so dusting a screen aint exactly..... taxing

I'll come back in a few days on the results of the "foam pad test" ... hopefully this will be the fix but if it still needs refinement i'll let you all know.

Well, there is no such thing here in Hong Kong that is = to what you guys call contarct period. Here we have to pay the full price. The max we get is may be around US$12.00 if we are on contract for 1 year, balance we have to pay in full and there is 1 year warranty. Since this phone was released here only couple of months ago so many people still have warranty period of about 10 months. Anyways, I understand you can crack open your phones but I can't. I simply can't afford to risk US$411.00 I have paid for this phone. Now at least I have hope that Nokia will replace / exchange it.
Good Luck Guys!

One thing i dont understand is why doesnt Nokia recall the 3230's?
I mean alot of companies like microsoft (with their XBox's adapters) and apple (with their powerbook's batteries) have recalled them and given the customers new ones!

But what Nokia can do in this case is... recall the 3230's... basically have every 3230 user go to their nearest Nokia Care Center, and the ppl over there can replace the covers with new covers that have Foam or some type of air tight design under the cover...
That way Nokia will save money and gain more consumers, and the customers come out happy! :)

they are too lazy, and they know that they are in control of the market, so they dont care

Wirelessly posted (Nokia3230/2.0 (3.0505.2) SymbianOS/7.0s Series60/2.1 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.0)

Hello every1 . I just purchased new 3230 . 3 week before. N same problem of dust is disturbing me since few days. Well i m little confused after reading all article. And able 2 decide what 2 do as the phone is still under warantee. And if anyone is able 2 exchange his handset . Please hlep me out. Contact me at my email :- vabs_1@rediffmail.com.

what to do...

buy a guitar pick, a t6 torx driver and a can of canned air....

It will end up in a far easier outcome than if you waste your breath trying to take on a large worldwide corporation.

Wirelessly posted (Nokia3230/2.0 (3.0505.2) SymbianOS/7.0s Series60/2.1 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.0)

But what about warrante clauses .If i broke the seal warrante will become void. And if phone cause problem again nokia care will not entertain me . Could nokia care cant themself fix this problem . As i m not confident enough 2 fix this myself. Or i would be highly thankful to 1 who could send me some clips reg this operation on my email :- vabs_1@rediffmail.com.





C ya


vabs
india

To be honest i never noticed any seal, and your only removing the covers, not breaking the actual phone electronics apart, the phone is surrounded by the shell design, the internals are all covered again which forms the main assembly as in the pictures, since i added my foam my dust problem is gone, so i am happy and my poor pocket is a haven for dust ;-) hehehe.

I can understand if you have paid so much for an item and your unwilling to open it, in a years time if i see something new i am sure my operator will upgrade me for another £80-120, so i'm not to worried about the bugs even now. Nokia could recall the phone, but i doubt they will, it functions and to them, that is all that will mater, unless there is a public outcry and a huge humillating press article about how poor the design and coding of this phone has shown, little will kick nokia's ass into dealing with it.

Unfortunetaly the poor service center guys will be the ones to get our tempers and really it aint there fault, so if you do go to a center, smile for the poor chap helping you there, he's just doing his job ;-)

Duke.

the solution that i gave was to buy a body glove
BUT THE PHONE IS NOT SO EASILY REACHABLE
you cannot se the screen very good
and the plastic sticks on the screen making more difficult to take it out

they have to improve the design .... :icon13: :frown:

by the way why my phone has 1.2 megapixel camera?

:o WHO TOOK 0.1 MEGAPIXEL OFF MY PHONE????????????? :o

:o WHO TOOK 0.1 MEGAPIXEL OFF MY PHONE????????????? :o

mostly the ppl who made the phone.. it is 1.2 ... do the maths.... (multiply # pixels horizontally by vertically ;)

Ok I have just taken my 3230 to pieces. I have had the phone for about 2 weeks so I presume it is from a recent batch. All around the inside of the covers screen is a foam layer which gets squeezed around the edge of the main screen. This seems to have stopped any dust getting through so far.

Also i brought a red case to replace the standard black one to stop me picking up my house mates 3230 by mistake. The fittings on the new case were not the same as Nokia's fittings. I would have needed to take all of the circuit boards, screen etc out and pfitted onto the new case. Needless to say I am back to black until I can get a case with Nokia fittings.

I have bought a case in bluefrom hong kong too, its slightly differently moulded, but once i can remove the rear cover ( its not willing to let go of the charger socket that easily...) I will be able to fit all the panels to my phone fine i think. Howeever this replacement case doesnt have the foam which is present in the original case at all, which i suspect means dust galore.....

Just a note, all the Nokia black cases should have the foam under the front cover, however it is so thin and due to the shape of things it does not compress and form a seal at the bottom of the screen, so dust gets in through the keypad and up the screen helped by static charging in your pocket, so even thought there is foam fitted there, it is understandable why some of us have added additional foam to cure this once and for all, mines been perfect since i modified it.

Duke.

detailed photos of your mod please??

My mod wasnt 100% fix.. but is improved..

i used some double sided cushioned foam, its about 1 1/2mm thick, i cut about 2mm wide strips and made a box around the phone screen, not on the cover, then squeezed it all back together, this way both foams meet and fill all chances of gaps, as both top and bottom are glued to its surface its near impossible for dust to get through the center point where the two foams compress, unlike extending the cover foam it might still leave a smooth surface on the metal for dust to creap under, dunno, but thats how i did mine :-)

Duke.

excelent...
now just to find some self adhesive foam.... suggestions?

self adhesive trim tape for cars. its double sided but just stick a bit of paper on one side or leave the cover strip on that side. its bout 1mm thickish too and will do the job.

Thanks for the pictures showing how to dismantle the cover. I've finally cleaned mine up after it bothering me for months. Luckily I had the correct Torx screwdriver from when I kept having to fit new screen elastomers to my 8210. I've added a little piece of foam to the lower edge between the keypad and the screen. It has to be very thin to not obstruct the up direction on the joystick. Hopefully this will keep the dust at bay...

please friends help me out , I have figured out how to clean & prevent future dust from getting into my screen , but I wondered whats the starting trick & with what tool to get the top speaker cover out ( Ive tried the finger nail with no any help) & even start to use thin sharp angles between the rear top case & the camera , but thing getting worse by the fact that I am satring enjered the margion plastic edge , so please (specilay those able to get pieces out ) , show me the way to sarting opening it from the begining (with what & how) , I need a true last demo l

The speaker cover is not about just getting your nails in the gap, its also about pulling that bit you get your nails into away from the phone, once you have your nails in the gap try to use them to leaver the cover outwards, this then releases the two little clips on each side. Once there out the whole thing will flip over and the front clips will let go and hay presto, removed speaker cover.

Duke.

the thing thats got my back up today is this dust problem ( see pic below) club nokia tell me i need to take the phone to a service centre every time it needs cleaning (that'll be every 2 weeks then) the service centre tell me there isn't a new seal available for the screen and nokia tell me that if i take the phone apart myself I'll be voiding the warranty, this then leads onto all the faults that i need to get fixed before the warranty becomes void. orange tell me they've never had one reported problem with the phone (well i know thats rubbish) club nokia tell me to phone the service centre but they have no fixes for anything and they cannot tell me when any will be available.
i already have a 3rd party fix downloaded to sort out the camera stretching problem (how can someone else do this before nokia can fix the problem?)

if the phone worked as it should I'd be very happy with its features ect, I'm just gettting really pissed off with the lack of help from orange and nokia. so today I've ordered a t6 screwdriver :mad:
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/rasuk/screen.jpg

At last . I am happy to open the top cover & flip it out (not by my nail) , thats hurt somewhat , but with a very thin fine metal piece , & getting one margin out then the other side , after that , the remain is simply done , just remeber to clean the inner screen with some leather tissue (or special eye glass tissue) , dont use usual tissue , it will not do the job , any how , the important trick , is to fill the gab below the black seal at lower inner screen margin , with some thin foam & that will prevent future dust from getting back & thats realy work & my handset return brand new again , thanx all friends for giving advise & assisstance .

Hmm thats odd...i bought my phone 2 weeks ago and i dont have any dust behind the screen :icon14: hope it will stay like that ;)

for those who have opened their 3230s:

after opening and modding, does your 3230 get all loose and creaky? i wouldn't mind opening mine up to clean the screen or changing to a 3rd party fascia, but i'm worried about the phone getting loose... just seems a shame if that'll happen, because this is the most solid-feeling s60 i've used.

Nope, once i'd reassembled mine its been perfect for no dust and it's still solid and functional as i baught it.

Duke.

Hi !

I bought N 3230 and there was some dust inside the front cover.
It is very ugly to look, and want to know how was this happen ?

How can I remove the front cover ?

Reply me, please.

Sorry for my poor English.

Thanks.

do u think if i bought a 3230 now of latest batch, the problem would be solved, i hope so.

Is there a way to get the little black strip of the camera off?
And do replacment cases come with this little strip?
Thanks
Rich

Hi guys I figured out how to take it completely apart and clean the screen. Whats even cooler is you can go to ebay and get some different colored covers and put em on instead so if your current cover is scratched etc. you can replace it or get some cooler colors.
Any ways Im sure you are all anxious to know how to take it apart
First you need a medium length fingernail (im not kidding) either yours or somebody elses
and a T6 torx screwdriver.
Turn your phone over so the camera is facing you and remove the back cover to the battery.
Next slip your finger nail under the gap between the cammera and the "top piece" as you can see in the picture it is hinged NOT GLUED. http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y208/jchun89/Top-cover.jpg
Still be care ful not to break the hinges and pry the top up slowly and must be from the back.
Next you can see four screws 2 on the bottom of the phone in the battery areahttp://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y208/jchun89/bottomscrews.jpg and top underneath the top you just removed.
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y208/jchun89/Top-screws.jpg
Undo these with your T6
Next Take you fingernail again and slip in between the gap in the side and the FRONT as depicted in this picturehttp://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y208/jchun89/Removing-front.jpg





can u help me how to remove the pannel of nokia3230..... i want the images can u tel me where i can get that......im tied of this phone....even i broke the 1 lock of plastic peace which covers the cam.... i wnt to remove that how..........????????????????????????? help......................

I take mine already two times to Nokia Service Point, and they had clean the dust. The second time, the clean process was great, because they give me a new one. A defaut unit?! But is a real problem.