How to Open up Disney Princess Boombox DB3000-P CD Player And Fix The AC Connector

My daughter somehow dropped her CD player and the power connector in the back of the CD player came loose, as seen below:

This seemed like an easy fix so I decided to open the CD player up.  Then I discovered that opening it up wasn’t going to be so easy–they used torx head screws and the screws were so deep into the plastic body that my precision torx bit driver would not fit down into the holes.  I was determined to get the thing open so I’ll share with you how I solved this problem.  One thing to note is that you’ll need a precision tool set that includes a torx-10 bit like I have linked above or something similar to do this repair.

There are two screws hidden under rubber feet so you’ll need to pry of the feet as shown in the picture.

As it is you likely can insert your precision screwdriver with the Torx-10 bit in it and it will fit down the hole but the holes are tapered and get smaller as you get closer to the screw head.  I was unable to push the screw driver all the way down till the torx bit seated down into the screw–it gets so tight you cannot unscrew them.  Come on engineers–do you really need to put torx screws in these?

The holes are tapered so you cannot loosen the screws

Step 2: Drill the holes larger.

I found that I could use a 5/16″ drill bit and drill out the holes slightly larger, so I could fit my screw driver down in the holes and it wouldn’t effect the strength of the case enough to matter.

Drilling the holes larger with a 5/16″ bit

I don’t think I ever drilled all the way until I was hitting the screw head but I just drilled a ways and then tested the screw driver and then drilled a little more until the hole was deep enough.

Step 3: Unscrew the 6 screws from the bottom of the case.

The screws will most likely not come up with the screw driver so be careful not to loose them in the next step when you take to bottom of the case out because they will fall out.  Once you get them out this is what they’ll look like:

One of the 6 screws from the bottom of the case

Step 4: Lift off the bottom of the case.

This is what you’ll see:

Bottom of case removed

The bottom cover will be connected to the top by the power wires but it’s pretty stable so you don’t need to worry about anything coming loose when you open it up.

Below is what mine looked like–one of the risers that the screw screws into had broken off:

Broken AC Connector bracket

Step 6: Sand the area around where the piece broke so the hot glue will adhere better.

I used some random 200-grit sandpaper I had laying around.

Sand the area around where you will apply the glue so it has something to adhere to

Step 7: Clamp the AC connector in place and put on a generous layer of hot glue.

The glue is going to run so make sure you have it level so the glue does not run all over.

Clamp the connector with a spring clamp and lather it up with hot glue

Let the glue dry before proceeding.

Step 8:  Reinstall the bottom of the case.

Make sure you line up the seams carefully when pairing up the halves:

Make sure to tuck in the correct seams before installing the screws

Step 9: Reinstall the six screws.

Reinstall the six Torx-10 head screws

Step 10: Reinstall the rubber feet.

I have had a big roll of double-sided 3M adhesive, which I’ve linked in the material list at the top, that I often use in cases like this.  Stick the rubber feet on the adhesive and then cut around them.

Sticking the rubber feet on the double-sided adhesive

Peel off the backing and then put them in place.

Peeling off the backing of the adhesive

Now you should be back in business and hopefully you’ve breathed new life into your daughter’s old CD player.