So HMV have gone bust thanks to the likes of those tax-dodging bastards at Amazon. Not that I’m surprised as I can’t remember the last time I visited HMV, and I buy all my music DRM-free from those tax-dodging bastards at Amazon because.. well.. it’s cheaper and just works. And it isn’t iTunes.

The demise of the high street isn’t rocket science though. Why would I want to travel into a town centre, pay for parking, push through groups of nauseating teenagers/fat chavs, get hassled by chuggers and beggars and spend extra money on goods which I could just order online from my bed while completely naked and half drunk... or, for that matter, half naked and completely drunk?

People forget that for years the entertainment industry has been releasing overpriced crap - bad films, bad albums, change of physical media formats, all for the sake of parting a fool from his money. Why would I buy a CD album for over a tenner when I can just buy only the tracks I actually like as DRM-free MP3's from Amazon that I can playback on any of my devices or over the cloud?

Why would I ever spend £26 on a film because it happens to be in Blu-ray format when I can snaffle a decent second-hand disc off Amazon?

But I digress. This is one (rare) instance where the high street was cheaper than Amazon and an Asus Google Nexus 7 tablet was actually cheaper from Argos or Currys. And I could get it the same day. Oh, and neither Argos or Currys are in the town centre so I don’t even have to fork out for parking. It’s win-win!

Faced with a choice of Argos or Currys I chose the former (obviously). I mean, I just want to walk into and out of the shop without having to speak to a spotty wanker trying to sell me accessories or an extended warranty thanks very much.

I was disappointed however to get home and find my shiny and, admittedly, rather pointless new gadget wasn’t working, however and a quick search o’ the ‘net found others with the same problem which turns out to be a design flaw that can be easily fixed without any tools.

The problem is down to a dislodged battery. The battery has too much room to move as a gap of a few millimetres exists down one side and the lack of a non-locking connector means a good knock or drop will cause a partial or full disconnection. In my case, it was a very slight partial disconnection which left the backlight working but wouldn’t allow the device to boot or the LCD to operate. The fix is simply to plug the gap with something. I used a bit of cable sleeving as it was to hand, but a little bit of folded paper such as a sweet wrapper should suffice!

To access the gubbins, use a thumbnail to prise off the rear cover by running it along the outer edge of the casing where the brown cover meets the metallic silver side bezel. You shouldn’t need to apply force and the cover should pop off easily. If you’re a nail biter, don’t use a knife or anything which may penetrate too far into the device.

Once the cover is removed, the battery and its connection are easily accessed. In the picture below the stupid gap which ASUS should have picked up on in product testing is arrowed red. The battery (A) and connector (B) can be seen.

 

IMG-20130116-00047

This is all the fault is - notice how the battery connector is *slightly* askew towards the top end where the black wire is. Yes, it only takes a veeeeery slight dislocation of the connector like this to bring the mighty Nexus to its virtual knobbly knees.

 

IMG-20130116-00048


After securing the battery, the rear cover can be clipped back into place and, hopefully, your Nexus is back in business. Incidentally, when your Nexus gets old and stops holding its charge, presumably you'll be able to buy a replacement battery (if you know where to look) and fit it as above after pulling out the old one.