How to fix loose headphone jack

[mattbatt]

Through over-use I seemed to have made the headphone jack on my e260 too loose the headphone kept falling out. I took the sansa apart and found that it was relatively easy to fix the problem.
I have some pictures posted on my flickr page
http://flickr.com/photos/mattbatt/25...n/photostream/
http://flickr.com/photos/mattbatt/25...n/photostream/
http://flickr.com/photos/mattbatt/25...n/photostream/
After poking at the jack for about a half-hour I realized that the plastic part lifted off of the pc-board independent of the headphone contacts. If you lift up on the outside part of the jack you can access the jack contacts and bend them in slightly with a sharp object.
The ground contact is what holds the plug in. You can access that from the bottom, inside, or microSD card side. You can just bend that with a safety pin. I stuck a small piece of rubber-band behind the contact to give the plug more resistance.
You should test the connector before you put it all back together I bent the left in too far and had to bend it back slightly. Hold the battery in place. Wiggle the connector around make sure you have it in both ears and such.

GOOD LUCK

[CrowdAds]

[carpenter940]

That's a good way of fixing it. Also, for those who have trouble holding the battery in place while testing then try this... insert the USB cable very slightly into the player and it will power up and play music without going to the "connected" screen.

A caveat when removing the black outer casing of the headphone jack. Make sure the headphone is not plugged in when removing and it will come off a lot easier. Also, do it slowly so as not to pull the posts off the board! The Left channel (furthest back on board) is the post most likely to come loose so if you can hold it down with something like a pen it would be good.

[helpme123]

thanks for the tutorial. this might come on handy in the future.

[kungfu.chinaman]

Mine's sticking, like it's solidly glued down. I've got a v2. Any suggestions???

[carpenter940]

I took a look at your links and from my experience you have the contacts mis-marked. here is a photo of my sansa when I fixed a pulled up contact. I checked my info against this site.

[gabe565]

This will probably be useful in the future (with any headphone jack) thanks!

[mattbatt]

Originally Posted by carpenter940

I took a look at your links and from my experience you have the contacts mis-marked.

DOH! I know better than that what was I thinking! tip=left ring=right sleeve=ground. It's the same with 1/4" connectors until you get to pro-audio 1/4" which are tip=positive ring=negative sleeve=shield.
Like I said I know better than that and I have fixed it. Thank you for pointing that out to me.

[baseeight]

Thanks, my left audio is dropping out and its not the headphones, this guide will work perfectly it sounds like to fix that. Thanks, i might give it a try today.

[advcomp2019]

Baseeight, are you sure it is in not the EQ bug?

[mammothx]

Originally Posted by mattbatt

I stuck a small piece of rubber-band behind the contact to give the plug more resistance.

I was pretty upset when I received my replacement e280v2 with a headphone jack that was very loose; the headphone/aux cable kept falling out with any amount of pull.

Needless to say, I fixed the problem better than I could have imagined. I used a pin to wedge a tiny piece of rubber band under the last contact (tip contact) and now the jack holds my headphones/aux cable in super tight. I am so happy about the fix.

Thanks, mattbatt, for the post and idea to increase resistance with the rubber. I highly recommend this mod!

[matmat07]

I found that out myself too, for the rubber band, I just used the one on top of it. I had to force the screw to close it but now it works great as before. Still, good post for the other people

[sharehard]

thanks for the instructions but... my headphone jack seems to be glued firmly in place. Andy thoughts? Any hope?

[kungfu.chinaman]

Doh... I got problems... Jaja...

My contacts have come unsoldered 3 or 4 times... xD. Gotta fix them again.

[mskjlk]

Just a note for those of you in the UK. Consumer laws say that a product should work for five years without any manufacturing or component fault that causes a break down, assuming normal wear and tear.

This certainly seems like the case with the loose jacks on these, otherwise, superb players.

[ev1lchris]

I took everything apart, easy.

Then I put everything back together again....

The unit powers on but it looks like the LCD is not displaying anything. Were there any subtle connections I might have unplugged and overlooked?

I've had this player for a good four years or so and unfortunately now the headphone jack is acting up.

[xaolindragon]

I can part apart everything until separating the entire chip from the inner metal part. Like I've removed the metal backing and the front plastic layer before, but I'm afraid if I try to pry the chip off the inner metal part that I'll end up ripping something off and damaging the player.

Is it really safe to remove the green chip off the inner metal part? Or is there a safe way to do so?

[xaolindragon]

I really hate to bump a thread, but I would extremely appreciate a reply.

[swing4thefence]

I just tried this fix and I just accidentally broke the bottom connector off the circuit board but I bent the connector down a little bit and it still works. It's a pretty temporary fix though. I'll have to see how long it actually lasts.

[swing4thefence]

I got it put back together but I still have my original problem. When I insert the jack all the way, I get 1 channel. When I back it out about 1/4 inch I get both channels.
any advice?

[xaolindragon]

Back here again. Hopefully someone will have a response.

Can I just peel the green chip/board off the metal? Like there's no special way of doing it? Just peel it off?