Here is a teardown of SanDisk’s latest. The disassembly was straight forward being that the housing was held together by plastic clips on each side. Once inside, the removal of the LCD is just a matter of releasing it from a set of clips.

This may not be something you want to do for fun since it may not go back together as tight as it once was. So I would urge you to only use this guide as a repair reference if you are going to take the Fuze apart. Otherwise please enjoy this journey into the depths of the Sansa Fuze’s internals.

If your Zen is in need of repair or you just feel like looking at its guts, take a look at this simple guide. The method of opening the Zen is non destructive and can be opened with a few simple tools. You will need a #0 Phillips head screw driver, a slim pocket knife and/or a set of plastic pry tools. A credit card or driver’s license will work in place of the plastic tools.

The difficulty of this disassembly is moderate with nothing overly difficult, but it’s more getting the guts to dig into your fully functional Zen.

Cracking open the Sansa Clip may not be for the faint hearted since getting into it may render it useless. Although not impossible since the Clip is snapped together and not glued. Regardless, I broke mine so you wouldn’t have to. =)

So what makes that Sansa Clip sound good? Well, I’m not an electronics engineer, nor am I well versed in chip design, but I did find something interesting. Sound quality has some to do with the SOC (system on chip) and / or the DAC (digital audio processor), but it also has to do with the sum of the components, how they are laid out on the main board, and also how they interfere with each other. Then unusually, but smart thing I found inside the clip was a metal plate shielding the circuitry from interference. This is the first time I have seen this out of the many players I have disassembled that did not have wireless functions.

Below there are a few pictures for your browsing. Also be sure to check out the Clip review if you with thinking about purchasing one for the holidays.

Don’t feel like waiting for the next get 16GB flash MP3 players? Then make your own. One of our forum members had put together a nice tutorial on upgrading your 1” hard drive based Creative Zen Micro to a full-on 16GB flash player.

In this particular instance there is not much saving on battery life since the current draw is close to the same, but you may see a few minute improvement. With a compact flash upgrade you may also see an improvement in data durability.

If you are interested in doing this same hack, forum member trikon000 has put together easy to follow tutorial as well as a disassembly guide.

[16GB Zen Micro | Zen Micro Disassembly]

It’s always interesting to take a look inside of gadgets so once again I cracked open one of SanDisk’s latest creations, the Sansa Express. While there is nothing inside that is user replaceable, it may come in handy one day if you break or jab a button. Some industrious readers have been using these guide to buy broken player off of eBay for pennies on the dollar to pull together parts- fixing them and reselling them.

The disassembly is simple with 4 screws and a snap to the entire process. The ribbon cable may be difficult to new comers. Deataching it requires you to flip up a little brown bar over the cable with a flat head screw driver. You will understand when you see it. Other than that, follow the chronologically ordered pics and you will be on your way to Sansa guts.

Creative dropped the Zen Stone seemingly out of nowhere to compete head-on with the iPod Shuffle, doing so at half the price with more to offer. Creative’s screenless player is a very basic offering - only audio playback and data storage. However, the player does step out of the current Zen lineup feature set by offering up true MSC drag and drop, catering to all operating systems.

The Zen Stone makes a great secondary player to your audio arsenal, handy for the gym or any place you need a simple, truly portable music solution.

Read on for a look at all the features Creative has managed to pack into this player, as well as a peek at the Stone’s insides, disassembled for all to see.

Cowon’s new portable media player, the D2, is a touch screen flash based player with a really great form factor. Along with Cowon’s usual great sound quality, the D2 sports a very impressive and rarely found feature of a 16.2 million color screen. But this isn’t a review, it is another guild to cracking open your precious gadget.

The disassembly is fairly easy if you are somewhat mechanically inclined. But the guide may not be useful as the battery looks to be custom and not user replaceable even if you can get into the player. Nonetheless, Cowon has pretty good customer service and will repair their devices at a reasonable cost. Really, this guide is just for the pr0n of it… enjoy…

Please be sure to check out the in depth iAudio D2 review for another candid look at this fine player.

It is time to crack into a new gadget. The SanDisk Sansa c200 series, more specifically the c240, is splayed for your viewing, repairing, hacking, or Rockboxing pleasure. Just follow the detailed step-by-step pictorial. It is a very simple teardown and I didn’t feel the need for instructions. If you need instructions, you probably shouldn’t be taking it apart.

One very interesting note, as you can see, is that SanDisk is now using its own flash memory. Previously, in the e200 series it was using Samsung memory. The e200 I took apart was a very early version so SanDisk may be using their own memory in the e200s now on the shelves.

I disassembled the Gigabeat S series for two reasons: to see if the battery is easily replaceable and to see what kind of processor is inside. It turns out that the battery is indeed replaceable with what looks like an off the shelf Toshiba battery. It is fairly easy to get to with the removal of five small screws on the outside and two small screws on the inside. A novice with tiny Philips screw driver should not have too much difficulty replacing the battery. However I wouldn’t recommend going any further, because things get a lot more complicated…

Also check out our indepth Gigabeat S30 & S60 review.

So you just got the new iRiver clix and you cannot wait to crack this mass of electronics open... The task is a bit easier than it may look. All you will need is a Swiss Army knife, small Phillips and flat head screw drivers and a little bit of patience and you will be staring at your micro components in no time.

Pssst… Want to know what is inside the Creative Zen Vision:M? Here is your chance to take a look inside, and if you are daring enough, take it apart. Below I have provided step by step instructions on the teardown without breaking this portable wonder.

Disappointingly, there is not an extra three millimeters to squeeze in a bigger two platter 60GB or 80GB hard drive. This goes along with the earlier discovery of the larger docking station inserts. It is possible however to replace the 3.7v li-ion battery.

So grab a tiny screwdriver set (Phillips and flathead) and a pocket knife and you are ready to take your Zen Vision:M apart.

The Sony Network Walkman NW-HD5 is the successor to the NW-HD1, NW-HD2, and NW-HD3. (Sony skipped the NW-HD4 because in Japanese the number four sounds like the word for “death”.) This particular model is a 20GB, and they have yet to release the 30GB version to the United States. The player weighs 4.06 oz (115g), measures 2.36"x 3.49" x .56" (59.9 x 88.7 x 14.2mm) and comes in silver, red, and black. It includes SonicStage® software, headphones (MDR-E931LP), carrying pouch, USB cable, and AC power adaptor. It accepts MP3, ATRAC3, ATRAC3plus and will convert WAV and WMA files. They claim a battery time of 40 hours. Continue reading for the full review.