Jetbeam C-LE v2 driver died

[perfconnpc]

My year and half old C-LE's driver took a dump a week ago. I tried to turn it on and got nothing. Figured maybe it got turned on in my pocket and drained the battery. Popped in a fresh battery and still nothing. I played with it for a while and it finally came on but the UI is all screwed up. It won't switch through all the modes (low and medium are missing) and sometimes it doesn't come on at all until I tap the tailcap a bunch of times. I ruled out the tailcap, switch, and any grounding issues.

I contacted Jetbeam and they no longer produce parts for it so I'm SOL. So much for the 'lifetime warranty'. I'm thinking of putting a different driver in it but can't figure out how to get the driver board out. There don't appear to be any retention rings holding it in. I tried prying the board out the back with a sharp edged knife and it won't budge. Also tried tapping the led from the front thinking maybe the whole pill was a pressed-in fit but no luck. Anyone removed and replaced a driver in the Jetbeam C-LE?

 

[matrixshaman]

You might clean contacts and then try running a 14500 battery in it (3.6 volt) as some C-LE's would work with that. It might bypass any failed boost parts of the circuit however the 3.6 volt was known to occassionally kill the C-LE or I think at least kill the boost part of the circuit. If it does than you have no reason to not try modding it. Good luck with it.