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Kellen

Kellen

It’s not often that you get to merge personal passions into a professional life, but that’s what Kellen did when he launched Droid Life in 2009. After working years of unsatisfying jobs in the medical and property management fields, he took a risk to try and create an online community while playing with the coolest gadgets on the planet each day, a risk that has turned out to be incredibly rewarding. Outside of Droid Life, Kellen is your typical Portlander who drinks way too much good beer, complains often about the Trail Blazers, and can be found out on the streets for a run, rain or shine.

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139 Comments

  • Opened up my N7. There are 2 screws missing.. Anyone know where I can get some? I don’t want to do the return and set everything up again…

  • I had the lifted screen on the left side of the tablet. Opened the case with thumbnail and two credid cards. Two screws were missing. Found two matching screws in my tool box of my remote controlled helicopter 🙂 and they fit flawlessly! So the fix worked for me! I got a tablet with the serial number starting with C8…

  • No kidding – I just opened up my Nexus 7 and – tadaaaa – there NO screws at all! 😀 Seriously… I’ll have that one replaced…

  • I’ve used every possible tool I have and can’t get this damn thing off lol. Been building PC’s for 15 years and can’t get the damn back off to tighten the screws.

  • So this is obviously a problem, because mine has the same issue. I’ll be fixing it, but I have a feeling if the problem comes back I’ll be returning it.

  • Just a heads up, I had the screen lifting issue, tried fixing it myself which didn’t work, so I had them send a replacement device… SAME issue, tried fixing it with no luck again, and this time the screen also flickers… so I’m sending the second one back for a refund… done wasting my time.

  • Mine was also lifting a bit on the left after a day of use and this fixed it for me. However I very carefully used a Swiss army knife to pry off the cover. I didn’t have anything plastic that would work.

  • thank you for posting this i had the same problem with the left side of my screen sticking up a little which was annoying very simple fix and very happy thank you

  • My screen was lifting on the left hand side. This fixed it no problem. Took a couple of minutes! Definitely no warranty tape.

  • i noticed my screen raising a bit and feeling a little loose yesterday evening. this morning it was worse, so i popped the back off to do this fix. when i popped the back off i noticed that a screw was actually missing! i looked around at teardown pictures and all of them had the missing screw. i contacted google and just wanted them to ship me a matching screw, but they couldnt. instead they are going to send me a replacement. i will do a backup/restore swap then ship the defective one back.

    i would upload a picture, but it isnt working.

  • I had a slight screen lift on the left side. Tightening the screws seems to have fixed the problem. I would say the difficulty is about the same as replacing the back cover on a iPhone 4. As long as you have the right size screwdriver and know how to be careful with the small screws this is a very easy fix. Thanks for losing. I have a feeling it is going to be a widespread problem. Other than that I am loving the nexus though. Great product.

  • I have 2 Nexus 7’s, both received from Google on Tuesday and neither one has this issue, or any issue.

  • I noticed my screen was moving slightly. I took a guitar pick and got the
    bottom popped open in one place, then slowly worked my way around and
    got the back off. snugged up about 5 screws that were looser than i
    thought they should be. Then put cover back on.

    At this point, I put an old leather wallet on the glass, and stacked
    about 5 heavy books on it to gently squish it back together and “seal
    up” the loose adhesive. Let it sit overnight and it seems good now!
    We’ll see in a few days…

  • Did this trick. Extremely simple and pleased with the result. Problem is that after light use the issue came back. Now its time to bring it back.

    • There’s something out there called “Loctite” which as applied to small screws like this and holds them in place. It is basically a type of glue. Since small screws cannot be torqued down very hard, it’s somewhat important to use this stuff when assembling a device like this. My guess is they rushed to get units shipped, and forgot to use loctite on some units, thus the screws are backing out during shipping. If you want the fix to be permanent, you may want to pick up a tube of this:
      http://www.loctiteproducts.com/p/10/15/t_lkr_blue/overview/Loctite-Threadlocker-Blue-242.htm

      • I was going to suggest the same thing. I use it all the time and it works great. Also, it’s not permanent–just strong enough to keep the screw tight until you want to unscrew it yourself.

  • Used my thumb fingernail to remove it, came off easily. Tightened the screws all around, particularly around the mid to upper left side – FIXED.

    (although the issue didn’t bother me much) – I just like to take things apart! :p

  • Looks like it’s easier to open up the back of the Nexus 7 than it is to unbox it.

  • Thanks author, I was able to fix the screen lift up. I started separating back plate from the headphone area. I am relieved now.Hope this is a permanent fix.

  • I notice a slight creak when I hard press one spot on the left side, but only when I push hard. Not going to risk damaging it. Didn’t even notice anything until I read all the doom and gloom articles about it online.

    But cheers to DL for posting how to fix it, not BITCH about it.

  • Thanks for the post, my screen was lifting slightly on the left side and this fixed it!

  • What’s sad is that my unit was fine out the box but I still wanted to open it up. Only one screw was a smidgen loose.

    Some notes:

    Never use metal pry tools to open the case. Don’t listen to anyone telling you to do so. One slip and you could scratch the display, break a clip or puncture your skin. I used a very thin piece of plastic followed by a slightly thicker plastic ID card that I had lying around.

    Don’t apply a lot of force to the screws. These are number 0 size screws and don’t require much force. You could end up stripping the thread making the issue worst. Just tighten until you feel slight resistance.

    Compared to a iPod touch this was as easy as opening a bathroom door. I ended destroying that touch. Battery and rear panel replacement is no issue on the Nexus 7. If/when Google decides on a 10 inch version they should follow the same design. The issue here was with a few lazy assemblers.

    • That’s funny you mention that, I also destroyed an iTouch. It was my first and last iProduct.

  • I seriously got nauseated when I saw this post. Anytime a company ships a couple hundred thousand new devices you can expect a few dozen units with issues. Even the almighty Apple has their forums blowing up with QC issues on launch day. This doesn’t make the product a lemon, just a normal electronic device. Posts like this just fuel the haters.

    • I agree that this stuff happens, but the post is a good way of letting everyone know what the problem actually is. Even if they don’t feel comfortable fixing it themselves, at least they’re informed.

    • Just because we want Android to “win” doesn’t mean hardware manufacturers should get a pass for hardware faults. These loose screws are an easy fix for consumers, but why the hell are they loose to begin with?

      • I agree! …..I was just curious to see what’s inside. It’s interesting to see that it looks like they are planning on releasing 3G/4G model. Actually I think it’s rather well made. Maybe better than iPad from what I see. Design and layout are well thought out.

        Like buttons (unlike Fire) are in the perfect place, the metal v style band is a whole easier to keep hold of one handed and I actually prefer the snap on plastic cover for easy consumer battery replacement and color change. It’s a solid build too.

        The size is it’s killer feature w/ this much power. Great screen and side by side gaming the same games (Dark Knight Rises) to New iPad Retina, Nexus 7 Wins hands down; why? Because 4:3 is a terrible aspect ratio for Games n Video. Consumers buying iPads don’t realize what they’re missing (including best friend, who’s not a gamer) w/ screen that crops much of the action Nexus gets to sides. Retina has very slow response w/ ghosting and for some reason iOS version in general is jittery and buggy at times Nexus isn’t.

        The worst part for me is that the iPad and all 10″ or larger tablets are clumsy, bulky and tiring to hold for long periods. None of them are perfect though. With warmer temperatures… sweaty fingers drag on the screen & mistakes are made. But Nexus 7 has options for control that iPad doesn’t. Like simply getting a OTG dongle, hooking up a PS3 controller for a whole new experience, that in my opinion beats the touch screen interface all to hell! ….also really nice have real GPS, that $500 iPad doesn’t, NFC, etc!

  • Really? Send the stupid thing back and get another. The more people are willing to do this garbage the more companies are going to sell broken devices and keep their QA at a minimum.

      • I don’t think its extreme you pay your hard earned cash you shouldn’t have repair a brand new product. Buddy

  • Did this already, but I can still push the left side screen down slightly with very little pressure. I don’t know what to do anymore 🙁 Love it too much to return it and wait a week for another one that could possibly have the same thing

    • Try it again but tighten both sides maybe? If not that see if you can order the screws from somewhere. I used to do phone repairs and can tell you that often one or two of the screws(sometimes more) put into these devices are stripped partially. If this does not fix it then it may mean that the threading itself is stripped.

      Might just be easiest to send it in to Google or Asus if that is the case..

      • I actually tightened it once, saw the problem was still there, grabbed a smaller screwdriver and did it again. Is only my 2nd day of having it so I still have some time to decide if I should return it or not. But tyvm for the advice!

  • With such pathetic quality control, this may have changed my mind and I should wait for the refurbished ones.

    • It really is not that pathetic. There is no such thing as a product that has no bad eggs released and typically those bad eggs are a lot worse than a couple loose screws.

    • Without an incidence rate, how have you determined that their QC is pathetic?

      • By a few of the articles that I have read about the N7’s issues, so far. If YOU have the information, please post it here, because I would love to read about it. Just out of curiosity, (and trying to understand the human mind), would you tell me why you feel defensive over an inanimate object?

          • It’s really comical how defensive some folks are about their devices. Surely someone can explain. n.

          • You need to first establish that he is actually being defensive. Asking you to prove your claims doesn’t define him as either owning the device, or even liking it. And trying to back up your point with some random articles you’ve read with no links provided is utterly absurd.

          • Um…the article you’re commenting in perhaps? The one about the lifting screens/loose screws? You did read it, right? There are several articles on the interwebs about this issue and the dead pixel issue. You seem like an intelligent guy, so I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt. I’ll ask you…are YOU being defensive?

          • Unlike you I have no interest in owning a Nexus 7. Unlike you I also don’t make buying decisions without first making sure that a problem with said device is actually widespread or if it’s blown way out of proportion by blogs that tend to source each other.

            But yeah, I can be really defensive over silly inanimate objects that I feel passionate about. I don’t know why. But recently I discovered a guy who is utterly obsessed with people who are defensive over inanimate objects. That’s just straight up creepy.

          • Woah, you live how you want to buddy….I won’t judge.

            Let’s break it down shall we? I never said the problem was widespread. But let’s try to agree on something. If I receive a unit that should have tightened screws and it does not, and the screen lifts from the unit…for that particular unit, was the Quality Control good? Or was it pathetic? See, I believe for that unit, the quality control was pathetic.

          • That’s not how QC works with a large company shifting thousands upon thousands of units a month. True story.

          • What is not how “QC” works with a large company? I really thought the question was a pretty simple one. Is the quality control on the unit that is broken good, or not? We all understand that things go wrong, but do we come to expect lower quality because it’s “hard for a big company moving thousands of units per month! Sniff…sniff.”

          • Quality Control is for an entire run. A low percentage of defects across a line of a particular product equates to good quality control. It’s not on a per unit basis.

            Let’s say that an excellent level of Quality Control would put you at a 0.3% defective rate. If you make 100,000 units in a run, that would mean that 300 units of that run or less being defective would equate to excellent QC for that run of product. It would not be true to say that 99,700 units had excellent QC and 300 units had really bad QC. It doesn’t work on a per unit basis, like I said.

            [queue “The More You Know” music]

          • What you describe is not hard to understand at all. It makes sense. However, at no point did I make reference to an incident rate, nor the statistical information pertaining to quality control for the first run of the Asus Nexus 7. For the units that are of bad quality, they are bad quality, no matter what the incident rate is. It’s been my experience that waiting a bit tends to see these issues go away….which would suggest something. That they could have picked up on it themselves. I appreciate your information though.

          • You said, “If I receive a unit that should have tightened screws and it does not, and the screen lifts from the unit…for that particular unit, was the Quality Control good? Or was it pathetic? See, I believe for that unit, the quality control was pathetic.” I’m merely pointing out that unit quality != quality control. You improperly used the term.

    • Guess I was lucky because my Nexus 7 had no issues but I went through 3 iPad’s before getting one without problems. Visit macrumors. You got many people complaining about issues that require replacement. Granted you should not have to do this but the fix described here is very simple. Try opening a iPad while applying the right amount of heat to the display. That’s not fun.

      • I’m glad to hear you didn’t have issue with you N7. I’m not interested in an iPad though, at all. I am very interested in this N7, and I am hoping that the refurbished units (should they come about) will be better than the original run. Never know.

        • How do you know something is really wrong with the original run? This is very common for a hot new product release: blogs will take any issue found and post it up while linking to each other. Could be a widespread issue, could not be. This happened for almost every gadget released in the last couple of years (probably before that, but I’ve only been following it since I’ve gotten into Android stuff).

          • I didn’t say there was anything wrong with the original run. I can see that people are having issues. All I said is I hope a refurbished unit will be better. I don’t know if it will or not, but I can certainly hope.

          • You said, “With such pathetic quality control, this may have changed my mind and I should wait for the refurbished ones.” This implies that the original run had horrible quality control making a high percentage of the units prone to problematic issues like the loose screen one found here. The fact is, we have no idea what the percentage is and how that would compare to a batch of refurbished units. It’s all pure conjecture, on your part.

            People have also reported zero issues. How are you hoping “a refurbished unit will be better” than a zero issue, brand new unit?

          • Refurbs tend to be cheaper. 🙂 I did not mean to imply that the Android world should panic and be in despair because the N7 is an epic failure. Maybe a bit hypersensitive?

          • I’m going to go bang my head against a wall now because it’s less frustrating than this and far more productive.

          • Yikes, nobody is making you police the comments. You’re free to not comment whenever you like.

  • Why the hell would anyone open up their device to fix a manufacturing defect? Send it back and get a new one!

    • I do it all the time, saves time and lets me keep the device. I have had bad experiences with the actual companies doing repairs so now I do all of my own and whatever my family needs. As long as you are careful most of them are extremely easy to do. This one for instance would maybe take a minute and poses little to no risk to the device.

    • Because a DIY could be less hassle than going through the return process?

  • I’m not an anti-Android guy (have a shiny new SGS3 rockin’ new 4G in my area) – but this is ridiculous. Waiting on a mini-iPad for my 7-inch needs.

    • My unit doesn’t have this problem. This is the slickest software that I’ve ever had the pleasure of using.

    • I had a nearly $2000 macbook pro back in the mid 2000’s where the power cable caught on fire. And you think this is ridiculous?

  • Is anyone else having charger issues? mine won’t charge with the asus charger, but it does charge with my motorola one

  • I had a thunderbolt that did this. I took it back to Verizon. If I had a Nexus 7 doing this, it’d be back to Google right away. I’m not ruining my warranty on day one.

      • I thought there would have been some sort of seal but other comments suggest there isn’t. In that case, go for it.

  • Its a samsung nexus, you always have to pay full price for it,then fix it yourself to make it work

        • Its still a nexus and you still have to make it work like it should have from the start,just like a sammy nexus

          • Your personal experiences with Samsung Nexus devices or otherwise are not to be used as a generalization to all Nexus Devices, and especially not to those made by a different manufacturer. Everyone’s experience is different.

          • Well ya got to admit,after going 5 gnex phone and many on here have had the same experence,makes one a bit bitter

          • 5 phones?
            Either you had no stones and replied with ” Yes sir, may I have another? ‘, or you wanted to be a troll.

            Or, you are just full of it.

            Personally, I wouldn’t spend a whole lot of time online proclaiming I was any of those. The

          • I’ll feed the troll.

            What’s wrong with all devices in the Nexus series? Or are you just overgeneralizing because…actually I’m not sure why you’d be so pissy. Maybe you’re an Apple diehard.

    • In other words, you could further damage your device. Just send it back to get a new one.

      • If it’s as simple as this, why not? This took 5 minutes, a return takes a week. I can’t express how is this was to do.

          • Is it entitlement to pay for a product that is supposed to have a tightened down display, and expect your device to have tightened screws and then it doesn’t when it gets to you? Otherwise, maybe they should include a mini screwdriver set with the tablet since you aren’t entitled to get what you pay for.

          • Nobody’s holding a gun to your head and forcing you to take the easy route. That said, why wouldn’t you want to do this if it fixes the issue? Probably takes less time than even calling to get a return authorization, never mind the actual return.

            If you’d like to wait longer for no good reason, be our guest.

          • Well, personally, if I had ordered one and this happened to it, I would fix it myself. But my expectations would have been higher. I just want to be clear on what an entitlement mentality looks like. Expecting to get what you pay for does not fit it, in my opinion.

          • It fits perfectly. The device costs almost half of what the cell phone counter-part costs, with twice the specs. You are getting more than what you paid for and thus the moniker fits perfectly.

          • It has a cost that is half of something else….so did the cell phone people get what they paid for?

          • Terrible argument. Even Asus has admitted that they are selling the device and cost…nearly no markup. Some analysts claim that Asus is taking a loss on the device itself.

            Just tighten the darn screws for crying out loud…

          • It’s not a terrible argument at all. What is a terrible argument is to say….”asus said, asus said.” Anyhooters, it’s been fun.

          • …again, irrational people do irrational things. I completely understand what you’re saying. Our society is just becoming incredibly spoiled as a whole.

          • What you paid for??? OK, let’s talk about what you paid for…You paid $199 for 7″ tablet, packed with NVidia’s quad-core Tegra 3 processor, and preloaded with the most amazing mobile OS that the world has ever seen. If you’ve ever bought a bedroom set, you know that you pay $3000 for something that you have to assemble yourself when it’s delivered. And all you need to do is take 3 minuted to tighten a couple of screws…

            I highly suggest you get over it.

          • Get over what? What is “it?” I didn’t purchase one, so I didn’t pay for anything. Does it say on the package or any website that you would need to assemble certain parts of the unit? “All you need to do is take 3 minutes to tighten screws…” Tell me, if it’s so simple for the buyer to do it, why couldn’t the folks that manufactured it do it? Why don’t they just leave all the screws undone and let buyers assemble them? Wouldn’t it be cheaper?

          • No manufacture delivers a product with a 100% efficiency rate. Some units will have defects. The iPad 2’s screens were turning yellow when it was first released. Toyota, in all its glory, has a 3% lemon rate on it’s highly reliable vehicles. Bottom line is: if you’re going to get an item with a defect, a loose screw is pretty much at the bottom of the list of major issues.

        • Kids obviously can’t grasp how simple this fix is so they get their panties in a twist and such. It’s simple, you want to DIY then use this fix if you do not feel comfortable in doing it then send it back. Other than that STFU and don’t troll the page for presenting users with a SIMPLE fix to an issue that seems to be pretty common. kthxbai

  • Any warranty tape that can be damaged by removing the back cover? Id rather send it back to Google than void the warranty.

      • No, if it was Apple you wouldn’t have to screw around with a messed up screen.

      • So you’re saying Google ships broken devices that needs the back to be popped off to be fixed while Apple doesn’t?

        • It’s iDiots like you that give Apple a bad name. First off: Apple is notorious for shipping BROKEN…. yes broken screen i7 Macs. Some that WON’T boot up. Macbook Air? Defective out of box are not uncommon. Come now? You think only iPhone 4 had bleeding screens, drop calls if you hold it wrong, and other assorted maladies. Even NEW iPad Retina has screen issues. No not Samsung’s fault, Hon Hai’s assembly process!

      • I’m wondering if these issues are the results of a week of shipping in 120 degrees heat in the back of trucks and sitting on door steps? Heat is one of the worst things to do to electronics other than getting them wet.

  • mine is not sticking out to far… but it is and it does make a sticky/clicking noise. I did this and its still making the noise… so
    I just called in… was probably on the line for 5 mintues… if that. The lady was very helpful as well. I just said I had a defective Nexus 7 and first thing she asked is if it was pixel issues… I said no that the left side of the screen was not fully secure. She had to send it up to a different group of people but said I will get emailed the status and should get a replacement device as soon as possible… so this should be interesting to see…

  • Like I’ve said Asus is horrible in the hardware department but really great with the software updates and such. I know from experience because I have a Asus tf101.

    • Software and updates have nothing to do with Asus with this device; it’s all Google.

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