yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Asus  Eee Pad Transformer Prime] Enzymaticracer:
Hi whycali,

Thanks for the information and pictures. I do have one question. I'm coming up on having my prime for a year now and so far had no luck with trying to do the exchange through Best Buy. If I get stonewalled 1 more time I'm going to give up on that and attempt your grounding fix.

I don't have any braided wire, and am looking through amazon for some now (looks like a nice cheap fix).

What width of wire/desoldering wick do you recommend?
[Asus  Eee Pad Transformer Prime] whycali:
The stuff I got at radio shack was 1.5 mm
[Asus  Eee Pad Transformer Prime] sevendigts:
Has anyone found a solution for Wi-Fi? It has gotten to the point where I can't even use the wireless mouse and kyb on my pc when Wi-Fi is enabled on my TF300. When I'm about 10ft from the router my link speed is 1mbps, 2ft 11mbps.
[Asus  Eee Pad Transformer Prime] Enzymaticracer:
Well, I was unsuccessfull in returning my prime (yet again), so I will be attempting your fix in the near future.

I will post how it goes.
[Asus  Eee Pad Transformer Prime] buxtahuda:
Yup, warranty's finally coming to an end so I too will soon be modifying. One year and no major issues, think I should be safe.

That with these Ubiquiti Unifi AP's is going to make my network usable for quite a distance. Can't wait to be able to enjoy the weather or a cigarette with some music or video that doesn't constantly buffer.
[Asus  Eee Pad Transformer Prime] PanF:
amazing mod!:silly:. I would not dare to do so:laugh: sorry for my english
[Asus  Eee Pad Transformer Prime] Enzymaticracer:
Thank you whycali!!

I just added these 3 pieces of desoldering braid to my prime. It was a bit easier than I expected to open my prime (likely because it had been sent in for RMA already), but opening it went off without a hitch. Took no more than 20 minutes to do.

I performed the surgery mid-afternoon today, ran 3 speedtests immediately before and 3 immediately after to get an idea of any improvement in an identical location.

Pre-op:

Down: 2.59 + 2.87 + 2.96 /3 = 2.81 Mbps average

Up: 4.49 + 4.34 + 4.46 /3 = 4.43 Mbps average

Post-op:

Down: 7.82 + 4.80 + 5.20 /3 = 5.94 Mbps average

Up: 4.46 + 4.57 + 4.53 /3 = 4.52 Mbps average

So clearly right off the bat I have more than double the speed down. After that I walked around my house to my normally poor performance areas of the house. Although I did lose speed in those areas, my prime's signal was rock-solid... I was finally able to stream video without buffering or losing the signal completely.

So far very happy right now. You are the man! (of course now I'm think my old linksys WRT-160N needs to get the boot in favor of a newer, more powerful router)
[Asus  Eee Pad Transformer Prime] Enzymaticracer:
So I just wanted to report back after several days post-op.

My prime's WiFi is definitely significantly improved. My range increased marginally (likely due to location of my router), but the throughput is amazingly improved across the board. I also have a much more stable connection. No longer does streaming video stutter or Google Play downloads take forever.

Thanks Again
[Asus  Eee Pad Transformer Prime] whycali:
If you try the mod 2 from this thread http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1911024 you should have gps as well
[Asus  Eee Pad Transformer Prime] Nightpath:
I did the shim trick but did a bit different. I lifted both antennas off, put double sided tape under it, then a piece of cardboard, then more tape...put it back together and my dB went from 64-70 to a consistent 44-48. I have yet to try the GPS but a 50% gain in wifi signal isn't bad at all.
[Asus  Eee Pad Transformer Prime] num1gever:
was just surfing the web for solution for an issue on my tf101, when i saw this modding post.

have to say - GREAT modding dude! very professional work.

keep up modding!
[Asus  Eee Pad Transformer Prime] zaincawasji:
Help needed

I am having the same issue. I was using my prime one day when suddenly the display stopped working and i started getting those multi coloured lines across the screen. It works when i connect it to a tv with the HDMI cable. Since my warranty has expired, I managed to open the prime but I don't know which cable to remove as it is attached to the LCD in a number of places (I'm a noob at this sort of stuff). Any help in this regard would be much appreciated. Thanks for all the good work!
[Asus  Eee Pad Transformer Prime] lennie paz:
Whycali, would you be kind enough to circle the exact brillo like contacts that you pushed down with a screwdriver to fill the void and make a better contact?
[Asus  Eee Pad Transformer Prime] whycali:
between the pictures at this post http://xdaforums.com/showpost.php?p=35734332&postcount=1122

and this one I dont think I can be any clearer without a video
[Asus  Eee Pad Transformer Prime] sahilcc7:
I have circled in red.
[Asus  Eee Pad Transformer Prime] lennie paz:
Thank you. I just wanted to be sure, because there are 3 of those pads behind the ones you circled. So basically, you put the braid along that top edge on top of those pads, and pushed down on the rest of the pad that the braiding is not sitting on, correct?
[Asus  Eee Pad Transformer Prime] whycali:
There is an area of prepared metal under those three pads that were prepared to make grounding contact but do not. I made the material make contact where it was intended.
[Asus  Eee Pad Transformer Prime] lennie paz:
You are referring to the 3 pads that are behind the 2 you circled, right? On my first attempt at improving my wifi, I just put the braiding on the top edge of the pads, but didn't push down the pads to make better contact. It didn't seem to really improve my wifi, and I still can't lock on any sats.
[Asus  Eee Pad Transformer Prime] whycali:
show some pics of the braid on the material. btw it was not me with the circles, i had the arrows. when I pull my prime back apart the braided wire is actually stuck to the mesh material.
[Asus  Eee Pad Transformer Prime] lennie paz:
I made them smaller, sorry.
[Asus  Eee Pad Transformer Prime] whycali:
holy high def huge. if you can get er closed with that were you have it that should work. I would recommend not using more than you need though only due to closing the tablet issues and potential undue stress on that top edge of the glass.
[Asus  Eee Pad Transformer Prime] lennie paz:
Hahahahahaha, how do you make the pics smaller on this site? I edited my post with some red arrows pointing at some pads. Are they the pads you pressed down with a screwdriver to make better contact?
[Asus  Eee Pad Transformer Prime] whycali:
I dont know how to make the pics smaller. those are not the pads. the correct ones are the ones from the pics posted by me and sahicc7 and me. they are the ones connected to the braided wire you have laid down.
[Asus  Eee Pad Transformer Prime] lennie paz:
So the part of the pads that doesn't have the braid on it, is where you pressed down on with a screwdriver to make better contact? You pressed down to fill that gap that I pointed the arrow to, right?
[Asus  Eee Pad Transformer Prime] whycali:
yep, they prepared the metal for contact that wasnt made, so I made it.
[Asus  Eee Pad Transformer Prime] lennie paz:
Did you press down just hard enough that it filled the gap, or did you press pretty hard and really flatten the pads out?
[Asus  Eee Pad Transformer Prime] whycali:
yep
[Asus  Eee Pad Transformer Prime] vampirulro:
wifi improvment ?!?

Hi, to all of the members in here; I am fairly new to this, but I just came across a prime, and to my surprise I found ou that the wifi was crap.....

I read almoust all the notes I could find on the subject and it made me Wonder:

What if there where the antennaes are, on the back aluminium cover, one will brill holes (thiny ones) just as the holes of the speaker (15mm x 30 mm or something like that) ?????? Whill that maybe reduck the blockage of the back plate ?

OR what if one would cut a similar out ( a similar size whit the one to be drilled, just where the antennaes are) of the aluminium back plate ???

Anyone think of that ???

I am not realy a fan for any kind of exteriour modifications to the original; I do not think that we could out design a big producer....I agree, it has to Work, but it also have to look good.

I just hope I made you thinking.

---------- Post added at 12:02 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:57 AM ----------

Hi, to all of the members in here; I am fairly new to this, but I just came across a prime, and to my surprise I found ou that the wifi was crap.....

I read almoust all the notes I could find on the subject and it made me Wonder:

What if there where the antennaes are, on the back aluminium cover, one will brill holes (thiny ones) just as the holes of the speaker (15mm x 30 mm or something like that) ?????? Whil that maybe reduce the blockage of the back plate ?

OR what if one would cut a similar out ( a similar size whit the one to be drilled, just where the antennaes are) of the aluminium back plate ???

Anyone think of that ??? And, of course fit some sort of plastic in the window, so that it would not look like hell.

I am not realy a fan for any kind of exteriour modifications to the original; I do not think that we could out design a big producer....I agree, it has to Work, but it also have to look good.

I just hope I made you thinking.
[Asus  Eee Pad Transformer Prime] zdebel:
On the other hand, a lot of devides have metal back plates (they can act as a ground plane), and they do get decent reception. I think that the main issue is the contact, that's why so many of those fixes improve the signal.
[Asus  Eee Pad Transformer Prime] tshoulihane:
Small holes are no good. A slot which is a multiple of 2cm might be worth trying - but unlikely that this is the only significant factor (as others have tried to research before)
[Asus  Eee Pad Transformer Prime] lp_stealth:
If the tests go as well as we hope they do then I'm there shouldn't be a need for this one
[Asus  Eee Pad Transformer Prime] _Gir_:
Try to skip the pogos altogether and solder where they meet the board.
[Asus  Eee Pad Transformer Prime] RipplingHurst:
Very interesting. I hve a weakwifi too (and weak gps), imsureall open mine if we find a solution.

Or maybe we should demand a recall.
[Asus  Eee Pad Transformer Prime] Erusman:
Yes. ROTFL look at this picture of Wlan antenna. Now look very closely at

what i circled in red!!! OMG! no wonder my wifi wasn't working!!! PCB has

design flaw!!! Its not even connected to the so called antenna! I used volt

meter to test as well. NO CONNECTION! So messed up.

No wonder Asus pulled shipments there. They knew the PCB had a design

flaw. lol! How many of us have this bad PCB MP30K wifi antenna!
[Asus  Eee Pad Transformer Prime] lp_stealth:
WOW! 10 char
[Asus  Eee Pad Transformer Prime] blinky44:
So in your other picture was a wire attached to the copper tab that is sticking up in this picture or was it just tied down to the cover or helping to hold the card into the cover. I see it was glued too. It may be that pad is acting as a ground or something else and is not part of the antenna. How does the pogo pin connection get to this copper pad you circled in red?
[Asus  Eee Pad Transformer Prime] Erusman:
This pcb is glued to front half of prime. Pogo pin pushes against copper pad

circled in red to make connection on this pcb. The connection suppose to

follow all the way up to the top of those thin soldered on copper antenna.

It DOESN'T. There is a gap in the design of the PCB. GPS side is completely

connected. Wifi side is not.
[Asus  Eee Pad Transformer Prime] Erusman:
Here is a better pic of pcb.
[Asus  Eee Pad Transformer Prime] RipplingHurst:
But you did get an improvement on the gps side, right, using wires?
[Asus  Eee Pad Transformer Prime] e.mote:
The antennas are the etched copper "loops" which the exposed copper pads are part of. It's a PIFA design common in mobiles. The copper tab on top isn't the antenna; looks like it's connected to ground.

Instead of thinking about blue-sky solutions like drilling holes through the shell and mounting ext ants, the existing ants sound like they're good enough as long as there's a good connection. If you want to improve antenna performance, you can try using a different PIFA pulled from a router like the Linksys E-series. For GPS, there are various ceramic patch antennas available, check eBay.

BTW, you probably snapped off the breakaway plastic pins at the bottom edge. Those are anti-tampering pins. RMA may be a problem in the future.
[Asus  Eee Pad Transformer Prime] jdudb:
Everone is talking about the bottom back of the prime being glued to the front, I very much doubt that. How would Asus service it? If you bother to look carefully at those original takedown pictures you will see two sliding catches at the bottom. Now if you look in the dock mounting slots you will see there is a small round recess in the back of them where a tool could slide the catches to the right. I just don't know how the original "takedown artist" who obviously ruined his prime did not spot them even after he dissmantled it (broke it up). It is obvious to me in his photos.
[Asus  Eee Pad Transformer Prime] Erusman:
Yep. My GPS didn't even work. Connected wire to pogo pin and had

all 15 birds in view with GPS test app. Took less than 10 sec.

While wires connected i took the prime outside in my yard about

50 feet from my router. Full bars on wifi. speedtest 30mbs & 5mb.

(note these are just alligator clips. clipped to the pogos lol)

GPS worked perfect.
[Asus  Eee Pad Transformer Prime] kristovaher:
A great thread guys!

This confirms some things for me. It seems that my Prime has the WiFi and GPS connected and there's no problem with that, since I get WiFi without issues when moving around and it finds GPS satellites quite quickly even without WiFI.

It won't fix the backplate issue though, since the signal is weaker thanks to the backplate. You can see the average signal strength of satellites being much less than that of certain phones (my Prime and Galaxy Nexus both find GPS as quickly as as many satellites, but Prime simply shows the GPS signals as being weaker).

So this pogo-pin fix is something that should be done only if your WiFi is really bad and GPS does not work at all. I don't recommend anyone, that gets GPS satellites and relatively stable WiFi to crack open their Prime's, I doubt it will fix much unless you intend to attach further antennae to the setup.
[Asus  Eee Pad Transformer Prime] lp_stealth:
So are those copper tabs directly connecting the antenna to the aluminum back? Wouldnt that make the whole back an antenna?
[Asus  Eee Pad Transformer Prime] e.mote:
>Now if you look in the dock mounting slots you will see there is a small round recess in the back of them where a tool could slide the catches to the right

Those pins aren't weight-bearing, ie they're not designed to hold the shells together. Their apparent purpose is for anti-tampering, since you need a special tool to engage the slider and avoid breaking the pin heads. Without such tool, I don't see a way around breaking the pins.
[Asus  Eee Pad Transformer Prime] jdudb:
I think you will find that those pins do hold the bottom of the prime together and as for the tool, any small thin rod would work such as a tiny screwdriver.

Edit: I have just tried it and they do slide to the right with a satisfying click although my prime is still too precious to me to dismantle!
[Asus  Eee Pad Transformer Prime] Erusman:
The copper loops on top are the antenna. And they are not grounded. Look

at this pic. Where the copper loops on top go they have some felt material

against the aluminum so it doesn't ground.
[Asus  Eee Pad Transformer Prime] demandarin:
Good results so far. Others tests you mentioned sounds good. No rush now that you have the hard part done. So the bottom is glued? The top held together by plastic tabs? R they still intact to snap shut or will you have to figure a way to close it?

Sounds good.

Yeah, makes sense on the partial connection. ASUS jaw probably gonna drop when they see this...lol. especially if he fixes the wireless issue. It will look very bad on their part that a guy with patience n determination fixed their tablet when their own techs couldn't or wouldn't. That plastic tool has to be mighty thin to fit into bezel crack of prime. I need to take another look to see if he took a pic of the tools used by themselves. Plus the way he has it now, once he snaps it back shut, no one can tell it was modded.
[Asus  Eee Pad Transformer Prime] e.mote:
>I think you will find that those pins do hold the bottom of the prime together

The pins are made to be broken; that's why the elaborate slider setup. They're also flimsy, ie non-weight-bearing.

>and as for the tool, any small thin rod would work such as a tiny screwdriver.

If you have enough clearance to stick a jeweled screwdriver in, it would mean the heads are already snapped off.

The halves are held together by soft adhesive. You'd have to heatgun the area, pry it up enough to break the adhesive, but not enough to snap the pins. Then you have to stick a slim-jim tool and feel around to engage the slider, with sticky glue all around.

In short, it's a nightmare. I've opened enough CE toys to know that I wouldn't want to open this thing up. If I do, it would be within the return period, so if anything happens, I can return it to the retailer rather than RMA. Since any tech servicing the unit would know that it has been improperly opened.
[Asus  Eee Pad Transformer Prime] Screwedupsmitty:
I am impressed. Very nice work
[Asus  Eee Pad Transformer Prime] demandarin:
Damn! WTF was Asus thinkn SMH ...no wonder some people have ****ty wifi. Its probably only trying to pull signal from the Auxiliary wifi or second wifi antennae. Asus put in 2 to hopefully overcome backplate. So some peoples might be operating off of one. This is getting bad for Asus. Really bad. No reason these devices should ship out like that. SMH

I think your project has potential to produce night n day difference wireless results. Getting more n more interesting as i read on. Let me keep reading to see what else you discovered..lol
[Asus  Eee Pad Transformer Prime] demandarin:
I agree, for the most part..lol. bit if he can go out in his yard 50ft. Away from router, through barriers n all n still get full bars with fastest speeds then this might be something to consider if you want the best/ultimate range. If he getting full bars 50ft or more away outside, then just imagine how much further he go go n still pick up a decent signal.

He getting full bars at 17yards away. I'm betting he could get close to 100 yards away(exaggeration but still..lol) n still pick up signal. DAMN! I wanna see how far can he go n still pick up signal. With his mod, this might make his prime have best wifi reception strength of any known mobile device..lol
[Asus  Eee Pad Transformer Prime] junrider:
well we also have to consider since he is using alligator clips, to connect the contacts and pogopins together. The alligator wires are acting like an antenna. To achieve the actual performance results hell have to make the contacts stay without the wires dangling out acting as antenna.
[Asus  Eee Pad Transformer Prime] demandarin:
Yeah..I was just being over optimistic. Still amazing results though so far away from router. I have a feeling good things going tl come as a result of this thread. Either people Modding their own prime or Asus stepping up and fixing this finally. No more runarounds or beating around the bush. I'm pretty sure even closed with backplate, his results or mod will yield far greater results than a stock prime. Then just imagine if reallybdoes attach some external antenna for his personal liking, reception will be crazy.

I think the one idea someone said of running wires to headphone jack to allow installation n removal of a custom made antenna sounded cool. It'll allow you to add the extra reception strength if needed or can't pick up signal at all.
[Asus  Eee Pad Transformer Prime] undercover:
Cool! Going to keep an eye on it.

Sent through the wormhole from my Sensation.
[Asus  Eee Pad Transformer Prime] tshoulihane:
Good work on opening it up. As has already been pointed out, your croc-clips and wires are antennas in themselves. Looking at your GPS screen shot, although you get a signal, it doesn't look like a great signal (no better than my prime was before I flexed it and updated to ICS - not got a signal since, but not left it for long either)

A slightly more accurate test might be to try wedging some aluminium foil in the gap between the pins and the antenna pad to see what effect you can get.

Any bit of metal longer than about 5mm will have a non-trivial impact on the RF performance (good or bad) and a good low frequency connection isn't always essential to get an antenna to work. GPS is much much more sensitive to weak signal than WiFi.
[Asus  Eee Pad Transformer Prime] Erusman:
I haven't attempted to open the bottom. Everything I need to look at is right

on top. I do know that the top left and right corners are glued down using

two sided foam tape. Not hot glue.

I have not broke a single plastic clip. It was very easy to open. And you could

open it and snap it back together and asus would not even know.

Trick is using plastic tools. I took pictures of them. One was just a blue plastic

hard drive rail I had for an old computer case. Dremel down to a sharp edge.

Other plastic tool was and old RJ45 install kit prong "Leviton" brand. You get

them when you buy the RJ45 kits. Heck I imagine you could use any plastic

tool as long as it is sharp enough.

What you want to do is position first plastic tool center top of prime. Jam it

right in the seam, between black bezel and aluminum frame. Push it down

in there hard. This will give you enough room

to insert other plastic tool in and lift the bezel up. Then its just a matter of

working down the left and right top. When you get to a corner just pry up

very slow... wedge it. Foam tape will slowly give in.

I am sure there will be alot more people opening their primes here soon. :D
[Asus  Eee Pad Transformer Prime] dagrim1:
Pretty awesome, ordered some of those plastic tools as well. Just for the heck of it. Thanks for doing this and keeping us up to date.

Wonder what the easiest fix is/will be :)
[Asus  Eee Pad Transformer Prime] 1SiK1500:
pretty exciting stuff. cant wait to see further testing. Please document everything as best as possible. I see this thread going for a while!
[Asus  Eee Pad Transformer Prime] jupppo:
Great Work!

I concur with the postings above. Please document the opening step by step, preferably in a video.

It also would be great to have some guidelines how to improve WIFI and GPS seperatly. May be there are some solutions with conductive adhesives to glue the connectors to the pogo pins or so.!

Really super Job so far. I hope some tech reviews look at this and bring the real truth about this issue to the public!
[Asus  Eee Pad Transformer Prime] bex:
The bogus paid advertising tech reviewers contributed to this fiasco in the first place. Anand really let me down, as an engineer he should have done at least what ERUSMAN is doing now, who in this last post has shed more light on the Prime issues than anyone since its launch.
[Asus  Eee Pad Transformer Prime] ilostmypistons:
Anand has been untrustworthy and I don't believe anything on the site anymore. The benchmark tests are usually cherry picked to favor certain products. How could the GPS have been completely missed in the review
[Asus  Eee Pad Transformer Prime] oremy:
good job!

wandering how soldering will end up!
[Asus  Eee Pad Transformer Prime] bex:
Gary Key needs to provide some input from ASUS Corp on these recent discoveries. Hopefully we can see a revised hardware version with soldered points.