In what is probably my most awesome Daily Awesome so far, I have successfully replaced the broken glass in my phone! I decided that I wanted to fix it even if I got a new phone. I've never had any trouble with this phone that warranted complaint, and I hate the idea of something going to a landfill when a simple repair will do.
I used this guide to repair my LG MyTouch Q.
http://www.repairsuniverse.com/htc-mytouch-4g-slide-take-apart-repair-guide.html
This isn't the greatest phone in the world, but I was able to get it for free and it has a big advantage for a blogger - a slide-out Qwerty keyboard. The backup if I couldn't do the fix was a new Galaxy Relay, also a slider.
Anyway, here are the awesome pictures.
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| Right after I started to pull the phone apart. You can see the damage on the left. |
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| Popped out the motherboard. This was the scariest part, but not the hardest. |
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| Another part of the sandwich. |
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| That metal bit is the actual sliding mechanism. The LCD is below this level. |
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| There's the LCD and the exposed glass. The hardest part was removing the glass bits from the plastic frame. I ended up using a screwdriver, and blow dryer to heat the glue. |
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| Once I got all of the bits of glass out, cleaned the table and placed the new glass, this was the result. I strayed from the tutorial by applying the adhesive strips to the plastic instead of the glass. |
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| Keyboard back in. |
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| It was SO HARD to not power it up at this point. I had to finish replacing the screws. |
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| Powering... |
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| It's on... |
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| and the new screen works! |
If you attempt this project, make sure you order the digitizer and GLASS. My first order only had the digitizer. I'm not even sure how that would work, as the glass was so difficult to get out of the frame. Also, that plastic tool (safe pry tool in the tutorial) is really important. I used it for most of the work and a screwdriver would not do. In the end, the only hang up was that I put the SIM card in upside down. Once I flipped it over, it was good as new!
On one hand, I'd smash my phone to bits if I tried that.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, I don't actually have a phone. No danger of that happening.
Awesome job with this, and I feel like you deserve congratulations for even attempting it in the first place. Fragile, intricate workings and electronics are too intimidating for me to mess with.
I had the advantage of a backup plan if I screwed it up. The awesome really was in the attempt, as that was it's own reward. I'm really glad it worked! My attempt to repair my first Netbook was not nearly as successful. Yay, parts!
DeleteAs far as delicate repairs, I started on antique lighters. (Funny, as I've never smoked.) "Broken" lighters are generally cheap and the parts easily scrounged from other lighters or purchased at tobacco stores if you even need them. Most of the time, you can take them apart, oil them, and put them back together with great satisfaction. It's a really low risk project, and prepared me for greater risk taking later. Just some background in case you have any budding engineers in your life. :)
SO, SO awesome. All of the recent posts. I'll remember that website if I ever break my phone...
ReplyDeleteThanks!
DeleteI can recommend a good site for the parts, too. http://stores.ebay.com/gadgetfix
MyTouch parts are hard to come by, apparently. No one locally would even touch my phone. I had to do the repair myself. As relatively easy as it was, I'm really surprised.