I fixed a broken bluetooth headphone by doing nothing? What can I do?

Thread Starter

rambomhtri

Joined Nov 9, 2015
557
Hi, a friend of mine was really sad because his headphones got broken. They are a Beats bluetooth pair, kind of expensive. What happened is that they charged fine, the battery showed 100% status via 5 LEDs, but when you tried to turn the headphones on, they would do nothing. It is fairly simple: one button turns them on and off, long press for pairing, and then it has 3 other buttons to pause and volume up/down. I took the headphones, tried to charge them, they charged fine, all 5 LEDs light up fine, but the button to turn them on was not working.

So, I took the covers out. First, I noticed that a flat cable connector consisting of 5 cables was not plugged in 100%, but tilted like 10-20º, one side a little out. I plugged it in correctly, and as I expected, that was not the problem because I checked the button again and still was not working. So, I took the battery out and for the next 3h I disassembled them almost completely to access all the cables and connections and started to check for continuity. First, I started by the button switch, it was fine, and worked my way into the other end of the circuit. Every single connection was OK. I plugged out some cables here and there, but everything seemed to be fine.

Kind of desperate, I assembled them again, plugged in the battery, put the covers, and BOOM! The button finally started to work. I was kind of shocked. I paired them with my phone, put a track with 2 different tones on each L/R side, disassembled them again, and started to wobble every cable and connector, looking for some lose end or cable that triggered any problem with the headphones. Nothing, constant tone, not cuts. I tested the button as well for quite some time, although a momentary switch is more complex to test. Actually the definitive test would have been to maintain the button pressed (quite inconvenient/hard), put the multimeter in the furthest side of the circuit to check the maximum distance with a constant sound, and wobble every cable and connection in the way. But, that would be kind of overkill.

Anyways, I've been using them for hours and they just work fine. So... what's the problem?
Well, since I don't know what the hell did I do to repair them, I can't know what was the original problem, and I can't attack it to check if it is solved or not. Now I'm worried I give them back and he gets happy just to experience the same problem after a few weeks.

What would you do?
 

AlbertHall

Joined Jun 4, 2014
12,345
Maybe removing the battery reset it. "Switch it off and back on again?"
Return them explaining what happened.
If it happens again start by disconnecting the battery for a while and see if that fixes it.
 

Thread Starter

rambomhtri

Joined Nov 9, 2015
557
Yeah, that would be the first thing I would do, reset them by hard reset AKA press for a few seconds the ON/OFF button. The problem is, the button was not working, tested by me several times, so it was quite obvious that a cable was broken or a connection was in bad condition.

Exactly what is your theory?
I can't comprehend how removing the battery would fix a non working button, which I believe must be a physical problem, rather than a "software stuck" thing. If they were permanently turned on and there were a problem, I would agree that may be something got frozen or stuck in the software/firmware, but since the headphones were turned off I can't make that assumption.
 

AlbertHall

Joined Jun 4, 2014
12,345
I had a laptop which every now and then would fail to respond at all to the power on button.
The solution was to remove mains power and the battery, wait a minute, and then reconnect power and the laptop resumed working normally - until the next time.
 

Thread Starter

rambomhtri

Joined Nov 9, 2015
557
But since the Beats were turned off, the micro would be as well, right?
In a PC... so, there's the BIOS, which is constantly receiving power by the battery of the MoBo, I believe. You did a clear CMOS, which resets the BIOS. That's really weird that a stuck BIOS is causing the power on button to not work. I've seen ones where the BIOS turns on but immediately turns off, but being not responsive to the button and suddenly working after a reset?

Nah, I'm thinking about it and I'm an ignorant here: when you plug in the battery, that's 3.7V there all the time. What happens when you turn off the headphones? Where and how are those 3.7V cut?

Oh... OK, I guess even turned off, there must be something as well turned on, relying on the battery, that checks the ON button. So basically I've just unlocked HAHAHA, that all devices are constantly running, right?
Every single device has a "BIOS" that is checking the ON button besides other things. And probably the BIOS in the headphones got stuck, although sounds weird.

Jesus, I never ever realized that, it's a huge statement: EVERY SINGLE device is running always at all times!!! Amazing.
 
Last edited:

AlbertHall

Joined Jun 4, 2014
12,345
All of this is just supposition. It may be that you 'cleaned' a connection by unplugging and replugging a connector.
If it happens again, then try the battery thing and then you will know whether that is what fixed it.
 
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