WARNING! This page is intended as general information, not as repair instructions.
I would not have attempted this if I didn't have experience with surface mount soldering, and a good temperature controlled soldering iron with a very fine tip.

Someone posted on a newsgroup asking if anyone had any ideas about fixing a Sony Network Walkman NW-E99 that had a problem with its headphone jack. I said I'd take a look.

When I got the player, I plugged it in to my headphones, and found that the left channel was erratic. When the connector was pushed in one direction, there was no sound. When it was pushed in the other direction, there was sound. Since the signal for the left channel is in the tip of the 1/8" connector, this suggested that something had been bent out of place.

To continue my investigation, I had to get inside of the player. There are no obvious screws or seams in the acrylic cover, but I was able to gently pry both sides away and then slide it off. Then I found that the case was made in two halves, with clips inside the battery box. It came off fairly easily. The buttons are held in with double-sided tape, so they can just be pulled off with pliers.


There are two boards connected together in the player, and the headphone jack is in between them. I removed the top board.


I plugged in my headphones and wiggled the connector. I saw that the pin for the tip went through the board, and had a blob of solder on the other side. I also noticed that this blob moved when I wiggled the connector. I removed the screw holding the bottom half of the cover on, and pulled it off. I saw that the pad had been ripped off of the board. You can see the three pads for the headphone jack in this picture:


The board, after the solder and damaged pad have been removed:

I scraped the coating off the trace and soldered a short wire from the pin to the trace.