Actiontec Q1000 Teardown

– Meet the Qwest Q1000 modem, a cool creation by Actiontec.

– Check out the port side—it’s looking sleek with the antennas off.

– Surprisingly, there are zero screws in sight!

– We’ve got DSL and Phone connections ready to go.

– A total of 4 Ethernet ports to keep you connected.

– Don’t forget the USB port, reset button, and of course, the power jack for all your plugging needs.

– No surprise here—the screws are hiding out under the rubber feet!

– Nothing to worry about here, just a little housekeeping.

– Carefully detach the two antenna wires from the WiFi card. One of them is also taped to the back of the board, so give that a gentle peel.

– And there you go—the circuit board is all set free!

– Looks like someone went a bit overboard with the thermal paste. No worries, we’ll clean it up. First, remove the back cover to get access underneath. Inside, you’ll find the Broadcom BCM6366 and BCM53115 chips—just some of the hardware keeping things running smoothly. If at any point you feel stuck, remember you can always schedule a repair with the pros.

– Time for the Wi-Fi card to come out of hiding—let’s lift its shield and reveal the magic inside.

– You’ll spot the BCM4322 chip hanging out on this card.

– Here’s a peek at the inside of the top case.

– You’ll see the antenna connectors are fastened down with screws.

– The antenna connectors sport shiny gold-plated coax connectors and the trusty standard Wi-Fi antenna connectors. They’re here to keep things running smoothly.

– What’s hiding under the heat-shrink? A ferrite bead, working its magic to keep the interference at bay.

– Testing out the light pipe with an LED throwie…

– The light pipe takes light from tiny surface-mount LEDS on the motherboard and refracts it to the panel.

– Here are all the LEDS:

– 8 of the LEDS that work with the light pipe

– One more surface mount LED

– A white LED for illuminating the Qwest logo

– A dual-color (red/green) LED for the WPS status indicator.

– Here’s the shell that used to house the DSL modem—now it’s just hanging out, empty and ready for its next adventure.

– And check out the detachable Wi-Fi antennas! Nothing left to take apart here—mission accomplished.

– Repairability score: 8/10

– Just four screws hold the whole device together—nice and simple.

– The Wi-Fi antenna connectors are attached with screws, and the cables aren’t soldered down, so they’re easy to deal with.

– You can swap out the antennas if needed.

– Heads up: the heat sink is soldered on, so taking it off is a real challenge.

– The Wi-Fi card is both soldered and glued in with silicon adhesive, so trying to remove it could damage the card or the device. If you’re stuck here, you can always schedule a repair.