First, I started hearing rattling inside the phone. I first thought I tightened a screw too much, it crushed threads on a screw hole and fall off.
Afterwards I noticed that the modem sometimes unexpectedly turns off as if with kill-switch—most of the time when I on the go. I first attributed it to the same problem as with MicroSD often becoming inaccessible until reboot (or followed by unintended hard turning off).
Just now I saw the modem stopped working right after a rattling sound. I rebooted the modem with corresponding kill-switch, confirmed it working again and shook the phone. The modem stopped working again.
I unscrewed the panel hiding the modems (after turning the phone off), and, to my surprise, the metallic shielding of the BM818 fall off. It was rattling and, probably, short-circuiting something in the modem. It appeared that it was soldered to the PCB.
It seems like it is working perfectly without the shielding (which I removed), but is it OK to not bother? My first thought was that maybe it was also used for connecting different grounding lines on the PCB.
It’s advisable to have the shielding there. Two reasons: it may be part of shielding to prevent/control signal interference to the electronics and often those are also used to dissipate heat. Interesting that it’s knocked loose.
Nope, but a temperature shift from negative Celsius in winter to its normal heated state probably did the trick. And yes, it also had a few dramatic falls on a concrete over its lifetime (but not recently).
Maybe that doesn’t really matter if you just order a replacement card and get a local specialist to install the card (or install the card yourself with care since the card is intended to be replaceable).
I did not notice a difference in modem performance or reliability. Can you tell me if that cover is purely cosmetic (in which case I don’t care) or if it has a technical function and would need to be re-attached or replaced?
Purism just said:
will have to check with our techs, but it is best if we replaced that as well.
(I was replacing the wifi/BT card as well at the time so it made little change to me)
I never had an A modem do this, but my E modem (for traveling to europe) lost its shield similar to what you describe.
I used it for months with the shield plate removed. Have not had any notable functional issues. Sometimes I toggle the modem off and on again to get signal working, but I’m still using Byzantium and I think that’s just how the software is right now.
Both A and E it is shame module for L5, to consider that G is much better plus improvement longevity for L5.
Also it is a shame from Purism to not tracking Libre VoLTE,H. Abierto Firmware.
