Xperia Arc S distorted sound – earpiece replacement

After a year of active usage of my SE Xperia Arc S, I have faced a problem when sound, coming from a small front speaker became distorted. All voices had a buzzing effect as well.
Fortunately you can easily find an earpiece replacement for 2-3$ on ebay.
I have even bought a set with tools, to disassemble my phone. (Search for “Replacement Ear Earpiece Speaker+Tool for Sony Ericsson X12 Xperia Arc S” )

The replacement procedure in pretty simple, you just have to be careful and have a bit of patience. No soldering is required for the replacement.

Here is a procedure to replace the front speaker:

1. Detach the back cover, remove Battery, SIM and memory cards.

2. Unscrew 4 torx (star) shaped and 2 cross shaped bolts. Open HDMi cover.

SE Arc S back

3. Separate the covering panel. This can be easily done using your nail, or special tool starting from one of the phone corners.
Move the tool in clockwise direction and make a small gap between the screen and silver panel on the side of the phone.
Then increase the gap gradually until the panel comes off. Be gentle doing this as the side frame is pretty thin .

SE Arc S back
SE Arc S back

4. With the panel removed, locate the camera and gently bend it to the left, it should come off very easily.

SE Arc S back

5. On the right of the camera hides the earpiece we are going to replace. Move the small contact plate to the left, and pull it up gently. This will uncover the front speaker.

SE Arc S back

6. Extract the ear piece by using a flat screwdriver or an plastic tool, included in the earpiece set. It has a sticky coating on the other side. Remember the position of the speaker.

SE Arc S back

7. Put new earpiece in, press it down the socket, so it is firmly in place. Place the small covering plate back, make sure it is locked on the left side as it was before.
Position the camera back on it’s place, you may hear it clicks when locked.

8. Put the covering silver panel back on the base on the phone, as before – push it firmly down, so there is no gap left, do it gradually – moving clockwise around the borders.

9. Insert memory, SIM and Battery back. Turn on the phone and test the earpiece. Congratulations!

4 thoughts on “Xperia Arc S distorted sound – earpiece replacement

  1. Thanks for instructions. I just changed earpiece to my arc s and now it works fine without any distortion 🙂

  2. Thanks for good instructions! I didn’t have to glue the speaker to get good sound. I also noticed that at step 4, I only managed to tilt the camera 10-20 degrees to the left, and that was enough to open the contact plate.

  3. hey i have a problem with my micro phone and speaker sound is not coming not going even ring tones are not working what should I do??/

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