Hardware Switch teardown

[Duo8]

That's not a bad thing, it's actually a very good thing because it means if you break the glass you only need to replace the digitizer and not the entire LCD, which is much cheaper.

You can do that with fused screens too, just more difficult.

 

[gnmmarechal]

I mean gaming systems.
Or even phones or tablets.

Surface Pro 4?

 

[Duo8]

It will be extremely easy to figure out the pinouts. If I physically had a switch then I could figure it out in minutes.

I hate to sound like a dink, but the flash memory is not a NAND memory, instead it is an eMMC, and there is a big difference on the technical level. In short, NANDs require a lot more pins for data and addressing and they are required, eMMC does not have nearly as many pins and some can be excluded from use if needed but will result in slower transfer speed.

Now that you know a slight bit about the difference, please try to use the correct terminology when discussing the flash memory.

The only reason why it bugs me is when the Wii U first came out, the manager at a gamestop kept telling customers that the Wii U's "hard drive" was 32gb. I had to correct the idiot because the customers were asking if they can upgrade the hard drive like the PS3/4 and XBox's. Correct terminology can make a difference for people to understand things correctly.

Unfortunately everyone will call it NAND. Just as with literally everything else.

 

[gnmmarechal]

Unfortunately everyone will call it NAND. Just as with literally everything else.

Hey, SysNAND sounds better than SyseMMC :3

 

[SLiV3R]

So... Can we play warez now? JK

 

[Kyubnyan]

Wait wait wait, wait a minute
Display manufacturer is confirmed to be Jdisplay only, who clearly said that display and digitizer is one, combined using some new technology. There shouldnt be a removable digitizer. Can you maybe take a picture of the digitizer and serial codes underneath it? Im really interested if they went back and used the same supplier as they did for decades now (with ds, 3ds, wiiu ) :o

Also AFAIK and researched, iPhone digitizer is not fused with the display they just use adhesive and stick it to the displays frame. So two seperate manufacturers: one for display (in case of 6s for example, mainly Jdisplay) and one for digitizer (a taiwanese firm i forgot the name of.)

Also thank you for a wonderful job and great high quality pictures! (unlike those trash pics of chinese teardown)

@Duo8
Screen looks absolutely fantastic, what are you talking about

Heh true, I'm just so used to calling the system memory a nand.

 

[Hiro_x2]

Do they make 64GB chips of that size yet? Would it be possible for a 3rd party manufacture to make a device to copy the data off the old flash chip onto the new and manually upgrade the internal storage of the unit? Would lead to some interesting grey-market hard mods for the system that way.

 

[Duo8]

Do they make 64GB chips of that size yet? Would it be possible for a 3rd party manufacture to make a device to copy the data off the old flash chip onto the new and manually upgrade the internal storage of the unit? Would lead to some interesting grey-market hard mods for the system that way.

They probably made 128GB version already. Thing is you need to be able to expand the partition and since it's probably encrypted it's not gonna be simple.

 

[Kyubnyan]

dumping the memory is gonna suck as it is, I can't even imagine waiting for a 128 gb dump.

 

[happydance]

so... is there a joycon teardown? excited to see the ice cubes inside

 

[Duo8]

so... is there a joycon teardown? excited to see the ice cubes inside

There is, just look around.
It's pretty simple inside.

 

[L-Sosav]

@L-Sosav

Can you confirm if the screen is glass or plastic?

Yes, a kind of plastic but no glass ! You need to twist slightly the touch screen to remove it from the main frame.

Wait wait wait, wait a minute
Display manufacturer is confirmed to be Jdisplay only, who clearly said that display and digitizer is one, combined using some new technology. There shouldnt be a removable digitizer. Can you maybe take a picture of the digitizer and serial codes underneath it? Im really interested if they went back and used the same supplier as they did for decades now (with ds, 3ds, wiiu ) :o

Also AFAIK and researched, iPhone digitizer is not fused with the display they just use adhesive and stick it to the displays frame. So two seperate manufacturers: one for display (in case of 6s for example, mainly Jdisplay) and one for digitizer (a taiwanese firm i forgot the name of.)

Also thank you for a wonderful job and great high quality pictures! (unlike those trash pics of chinese teardown)

@Duo8
Screen looks absolutely fantastic, what are you talking about

Thanks for compliments

I stayed a little longer after finishing the work (it's 6pm here in France) and disassembled the console again for you, the forum and...my own curiosity

The touch screen (aka digitizer) is not "fused" with the screen like AMOLED display (Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge for example) or slightly separated from the lcd screen.
It's "separated" like touch screens on Nintendo DS.

So if the touch screen of your Switch is broken or scratched, you can change it without changing the whole assembly (LCD+Touch Screen).

• You can remove the touch screen by heating the edges with an hairdryer for 1-2 minutes. A kind of double sided adhesive is present.

• LCD screen is not glued to the frame.

• You don't need to remove the motherboard to change the LCD screen

You asked for some references :

For the touch screen : K69168 (only one reference on the flex cable)

LCD Screen : LPM062M326A 1N6L63175 (can't find any information about the manufacturer ?)

I dissasemble many devices per month and found the Switch very very easy to repair ! The only "negative" point is the charging connector soldered to the motherboard (need to unsolder etc.).

The removable memory chip is a good point. (The firmware is probably stored inside ?)

(Sorry for my bad english)

Red = LCD flex/connector
Green = LCD Backlight flex
Green/Blue = Touch Screen Flex

 

[Kyubnyan]

Yes, a kind of plastic but no glass ! You need to twist slightly the touch screen to remove it from the main frame.



Thanks for compliments

I stayed a little longer after finishing the work (it's 6pm here in France) and disassembled the console again for you, the forum and...my own curiosity

The touch screen (aka digitizer) is not "fused" with the screen like AMOLED display (Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge for example) or slightly separated from the lcd screen.
It's "separated" like touch screens on Nintendo DS.

So if the touch screen of your Switch is broken or scratched, you can change it without changing the whole assembly (LCD+Touch Screen).

• You can remove the touch screen by heating the edges with an hairdryer for 1-2 minutes. A kind of double sided adhesive is present.

• LCD screen is not glued to the frame.

• You don't need to remove the motherboard to change the LCD screen

You asked for some references :

For the touch screen : K69168 (only one reference on the flex cable)

LCD Screen : LPM062M326A 1N6L63175 (can't find any information about the manufacturer ?)

I dissasemble many devices per month and found the Switch very very easy to repair ! The only "negative" point is the charging connector soldered to the motherboard (need to unsolder etc.).

The removable memory chip is a good point. (The firmware is probably stored inside ?)

(Sorry for my bad english)

Red = LCD flex/connector
Green = LCD Backlight flex
Green/Blue = Touch Screen Flex

If you have a multimeter, would you mind finding the dat0, cmd, and clk points on the emmc?

 

[L-Sosav]

If you have a multimeter, would you mind finding the dat0, cmd, and clk points on the emmc?

More information about the emmc here : https://www.reboot.ms/forum/threads/nintendo-switch-hardmod-emmc-facilmente-raggiungibile.4634/

 

[Duo8]

So the touch controller is on the gamecard sub board? Or is it on the digitizer itself?
Though the usb connector is soldered it appears to be reinforced.

 

[Duo8]

Also the panel is a JDI panel, judging from the name.

 

[StarTrekVoyager]

Pretty awesome. Looking forward to all the GPU/CPU related stuff though

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

EDIT: You wrote the GPU is @1 GHz ? The leaks were saying 700 MHz docked Or prehaps it's underclocked -.-

 

[L-Sosav]

So the touch controller is on the gamecard sub board? Or is it on the digitizer itself?
Though the usb connector is soldered it appears to be reinforced.

Yes ! The small touch controller is soldered on the gamecard sub board, with the touch screen flex and 3,5mm jack connector

 

[GerbilSoft]

They probably made 128GB version already. Thing is you need to be able to expand the partition and since it's probably encrypted it's not gonna be simple.

IIRC, both Wii U and 3DS make use of the eMMC's CID as part of the encryption process. The CID is unique to every eMMC chip; therefore, you can't simply swap it out, even if you copied the entire eMMC to another one. Switch probably does this, too.

Also, EDEV and SDEV units have 64 GB eMMC modules, so it's entirely possible for Nintendo to offer upgraded systems down the line. I doubt there will be any chance of them offering a way to upgrade existing systems, though.

 

[fatsquirrel]

Yes, a kind of plastic but no glass ! You need to twist slightly the touch screen to remove it from the main frame.

Thanks for compliments
I stayed a little longer after finishing the work (it's 6pm here in France) and disassembled the console again for you, the forum and...my own curiosity
The touch screen (aka digitizer) is not "fused" with the screen like AMOLED display (Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge for example) or slightly separated from the lcd screen.
It's "separated" like touch screens on Nintendo DS.

You asked for some references :
For the touch screen : K69168 (only one reference on the flex cable)
LCD Screen : LPM062M326A 1N6L63175 (can't find any information about the manufacturer ?)
I dissasemble many devices per month and found the Switch very very easy to repair ! The only "negative" point is the charging connector soldered to the motherboard (need to unsolder etc.).
The removable memory chip is a good point. (The firmware is probably stored inside ?)
(Sorry for my bad english)
Red = LCD flex/connector
Green = LCD Backlight flex
Green/Blue = Touch Screen Flex

Oh boy that was a ...DAMN FINE REPLY I DARE SAY. Thank you very very much for this!
I feel sorry for asking though since you stayed after work. (Im a guy that rocket propellers back to home when I'm 1 millisecond beyond my working time)

Sorry back on topic..
This is very odd indeed. LPM indicates that the display manufacturer is JDISPLAY but why on earth did they go for third party digitizer when JDISPLAY already makes displays with integrated digitizer.
Also they seem to have used a different manufacturer than they did in the past (all their digitizers were made by NISSHA, Japan starting with serial NB-XXXX. There seems to be nothing written on the bottom side of digitizer now so I really wonder.
I don't think that the markings on the cable (K69168) are relevant to the digitizer...? Well, dunno.
Again thank you so much for these photos. I'm looking through them like forensics

PS You should be much more proud of your English. Its stellar. (dont have switch yet so...wiiu emoji will have to do)

 

[fatsquirrel]

server lag out, double post