Fix for weak/flaky flashlight
Posted: Tue Feb 25, 2025 6:41 pm
HI all. I bought a Montana 700 second-hand and it works great but I noticed the flashlight was really dim, like barely visible, and sometimes flickered (not the flashing based on the settings). I went through support and they had me factory reset, then offered an exchange at $160, which I declined because if I'm going to spend $160 on a flashlight, it's going to be epic.
So I found the 6x0 disassembly guide on this site and used it as a reference to open up the unit and found that the LED is a small sub-board that gets powered through some leaf springs to the main board. The leaf springs had some corrosion on them so I cleaned them with an eraser, applied some thick silicone grease to hopefully prevent future oxidation and re-assembled and it's good as new! I'm sure I got lucky with some parts because those connectors, especially the ribbon to the touchscreen, were pretty fiddly to get reattached, but I'm quite pleased.
I've found nearly nothing about this particular issue online, so figured I'd share here in case some day there's one other person with the same issue.
--Matt
So I found the 6x0 disassembly guide on this site and used it as a reference to open up the unit and found that the LED is a small sub-board that gets powered through some leaf springs to the main board. The leaf springs had some corrosion on them so I cleaned them with an eraser, applied some thick silicone grease to hopefully prevent future oxidation and re-assembled and it's good as new! I'm sure I got lucky with some parts because those connectors, especially the ribbon to the touchscreen, were pretty fiddly to get reattached, but I'm quite pleased.
I've found nearly nothing about this particular issue online, so figured I'd share here in case some day there's one other person with the same issue.
--Matt