Palm Zire 72
Opening the case, battery access.

WARNING!  WARNING!  WARNING! 
The following procedures will void the warranty of the equipment, and/or may destroy this precious product. Use them at your own risk. Also if you are not careful enough, you might hurt yourself.


I am the happy owner of a Palm Zire 72 handheld; however, in the past few months, the wear-and-tear finally started to show up in the form of constant decreasing battery time.  I was a little bit frustrated by the high prices that PalmOne & others asked to replace it. Since the battery isn't supposed to be user replaceable, there were no manuals; also, over the net I didn't find very good tutorials on the topic, so I wrote onem for my own reference.
Required tools:
  • T5 screwdriver (hexagonal star-shaped head)
  • flat or cross-head screwdriver set
  • "case-opener tool", or you can use with an equal success two plastic rulers (details below)
Step 1:

- remove the back label; it sticks to the metal with the help of a double-sided adhesive band. There are several like this inside the device; they are pretty good quality, and will not unstick easy.
-there are three screws visible now, that have to be removed:
  • a cross-shaped one in the label area,
  • two hex-shaped on the bottom
-Step 2

- lift-up the mesh,  starting from the bottom edge. It is held in position with the screw, on the bottom, adhesive tape behind, and small hooks at top edge:

- at the top edge there are now visible two  other screws which must be removed.

Step 3: separation of the back and front covers, right edge
 This is the most difficult step, because it's counterintuitive. The covers are so tightly fixed, that you might believe that there are some other hidden screws; there are none, only small hooks, but very well made (Palm-style quality). On some other tutorials over the net it is suggested to use a flat screwdriver, or even butter-knives to open the device. DO NOT USE THEM, they will cause nasty dents on the edges.
 Start with your bare hands, pulling apart the covers on the right edge, top (where the stylus holder is). Notice a small gap appearing between the back-cover and the stylus-holder:
Step 4-5: separation of the back and front covers, bottom edge

Continue to gently, but firmly separate the covers, alongside the right edge; the gap should appear as in bellow figure. There are two metallic hooks on the bottom edge; the right one is partly visible in the picture:
Palm Zire72 case opening - bottom

In order to continue, you will need a "case opener tool" as I saw in other tutorials about Palm Tungsten series. They seem to be pretty similar with those plastic levelers used for getting the tube out from a bicycle wheel. A friend of mine (Raul) had the idea to use a sharp plastic ruler instead - plastic being softer than aluminum, will not cause dents, but is strong enough to separate the covers. In the picture bellow, the ruler was inserted right between the edges, like a wedge; then pushed towards the left (where the unopened hook is), until this hook snaps:
Palm Zire 72 opening case
Do not worry if the top edge bends a little; it will be ok.

A high-res version of the picture is available here.



Step 6: separation of the back and front covers, left edge

This is easier than the right edge; bare hands are enough.

VERY IMPORTANT: be careful, there is a connector cable between the motherboard (in the bottom cover) and the display (in the top cover). Do not pull the covers too far.

The VoiceRecorder button can be removed by sliding it upwards.

The front buttons are held together in plastic sheet, and can be easily removed.
left edge open, palm zire72


Step 7: Main connector cable

In the image the cable is shown  detached. 

The procedure to do it is easy, insert a small flat screwdriver between the display part of the plug (in the front cover) and the cable part of the plug (i.e. that yellowish hard plastic around the plug).
After the operation, do not open too much the covers, they are attached at the top through the plastic cover.

WARNING!
Before the procedure, check if the power is turned off (during the opening, the power-on button can be accidentally touched).
 connector cable Palm Zire 72

Step 8: separation of the back and front covers, top edge

This was tricky....   I couldn't figure out how to unmount this; fortunately, Raul was very very careful and made it ok. It is held in place by plastic and metallic hooks, also.

 With great care and some force you can bend a little the plastic cover, to release the audio jack. Do not try to take it out, it won't.

 Instead, keep increasing the distance between the back and top cover, until the back will slide out. Only after they are detached you can take out the top one.

 palm zire 72 top edge

The cover has two main hooks on the sides; they are tightly fit between the case edges and the socket of the top screws. Also there are small hooks for longer edges.  Sorry for this pic. being fuzzy.
plastic cover

Step 9: Completely separated:
palm open
The circle in the left marks the digitizer connector cable. It is very fragile, so be careful if you want to remove it. The right circle shows the battery connector. I managed (with Bhaskar's help) to successfully remove the battery and replace it with a normal one, used in phones. I will describe this soon in another tutorial. It is not very difficult, only some circuitry should be re soldered.

[TODO: complete the screen removal tutorial]
[TODO: complete the battery tutorial]



Many many thanks to Raul Muresan, for the tips, some delicate engineering of the case, and providing a high-res camera used to take these images.