This is a bad thing unfortunately.
Any fix attempted will be temporary at best...The NIC
port for the Newt 2x00 is probably it's most weakest
part. I eventually gave up on mine and just put in a
SER-001. I never use my NIC, but when you need it,
it's nice to have.
Here is a little background on this port.
The port has a metal sheild that covers the main body
of the NIC and is soldered to the surface of the main
PC board. This is done just to hold the device firmly
to the motherboard. The NIC's pin connectors are
extremly tiny and the spacing is very-very small.
Impossible to work on without quality soldering
equipment and some kind of magnification. If any of
the pins to the NIC are bent, it is almost impossible
to align them again so that they match the solder pads
on the main board.
What makes this so fragile is that there is no hold
down, or clamp holding the NIC to the motherboard.
What it has is, that there are two dents drilled into
the mother board (the holes don't go all the way
through) and there are cooresponding "bumps" in the
plastic of the NIC. These bumps fit into the dents on
the MB, and prevent the NIC from sliding. The metal
tabs on each side of the NIC are surface soldered to
the MB. This keeps the plastic bumps firmly set into
the dents. Everything works well for a machine that
certainly wasn't designed to be a working device 5
years after it's discontinuation.
Here is where the problem lies...the bumps are
plastic. If you shove connectors into the NIC, you put
pressure on the plastic bumps. Eventually one of both
of the bumps will sheer off. The next time you insert
something, you will most likely pull the metal tabs
off of the MB, which will eventually lead to the
connector's pins to pull up as well...so you see, this
is something that would happen over time.
You cannot reform the bumps in the plastic...getting
to line up would be more trouble than it's worth. You
can try encasing the NIC in epoxy, but you really
don't have a lot of room there. Optimally, the NIC
should have been physically attached to the case of
the newt, and not to the MB. That's just poor design.
It's OK if you occationally plug something into it,
but it certainly wasn't designed for constant plugging
and unplugging.
I've repaired my NIC twice. The first time with Super
Glue (doesn't work. Two reasons, the glue doesn't hold
up to the heat generated from soldering and the glue,
being a crystaline structure only shows strength on
one plane, pressure in two axis will sheer the glue
along the lines of crystalization.) The second time I
used a lot of solder, hoping to create a "solder dam"
that would hold the NIC in place. In between the two
times I tried to repair it, I sent it to Apple and
they repaired it as well...none of the three times
worked, so I just resolved myself that I had already
wasted $50 of my time, so why not get a SER-001...
Unfortunatly, these little gems are going the way of
eMate ram upgrades and Hen's teeth...
Yeah, there aren't really any true options. I was just
glad I was able to get the NIC fixed well enough the
first time so I could get a back-up done...now that I
have ethernet and Basilisk, I don't use the NIC any
longer.
Ed
web/gadget guru
http://newton.tek-ed.com (download Newton packages)
http://npds.tek-ed.com (my NPDS server and it's new
subdomain)
--- Oliver Leaman <oliverleaman_at_hotmail.com> wrote:
>
>
>
> The port in the side of the 2000 that the dongle
> fits into on my machine has
> suddenly become loose and is shaking around in the
> vicinity of the edge of
> the machine, but is not making the connection any
> more. I suppose over the
> years it has become damaged by the constant sticking
> of the connecter in it!
> Is it possible to fix this, would a small amount of
> glue perhaps do the
> trick, or does this require a major job? I use it
> for the keyboard, so it
> would be nice to have it operating again.
>
>
>
> Oliver
=====
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