Close shave today…well, at least I *think* I escaped?
Yesterday, I dropped my iPhone. After quickly dusting it off and making sure I hadn’t done any obvious damage I carried on about my day thinking nothing more of it. All was fine first thing this morning too, but then I got a phone call mid-morning to find my iPhone displaying a plain white screen. Googling the symptoms, I was a little concerned to discover the fault referred to as ‘White Screen of Death’, with lots of victims relaying their experiences of Apple repairs costing several hundred dollars…
Concerned, well out of warranty and in the hope of avoiding a costly repair, I decided to have a look-see inside the phone myself to see whether anything was obviously amiss. On the outside the screen itself was not cracked, not leaking and all appeared in tact. The digitiser was responding (I could hear the familiar clicking) so I was hopeful a pull apart and reassembly, checking everything was properly seated would be worth a try.
A quick search of Youtube revealed a plethora of ‘pull-apart-your-iphone’ DIY videos and tutorials. This particular video was most helpful. (Thanks, Gaird8).
Other videos were considerably less informative. What? Reboot your phone? That might fix it? Why didn’t *I* think of that??
Anxious to get the repair done, I grabbed whatever tools I had close by. I had no spudger, just a knife and a few screwdrivers, which did the job.
All in all, the pull-apart was pretty easy. A couple of screws, some tense moments prying the screen out and then disconnecting a few cables and the screen popped out. Re-assembly was straightforward too, although one of the tiny ribbon cables was a bit of a bugger to get back in (cable 3 if you attempt this…). So far my phone is back to normal and everything appears as it should. I’m not out of the woods just yet, but I’m fairly confident the fault was just a dislodged connector (cable 1). One thing I have learned from the exercise too is that if I DO have problems and need to replace the screen or more, I won’t hesitate to have a go at it myself.
Incidentally, replacement LCDs for 3G iPhones can be had on eBay and are also readily available elsewhere online. Best deal I found though was at dealextreme.com where they also sell the digitiser glass, tools and any other bits and pieces you might need for such a repair. Luckily, I think I escaped and so far *crosses fingers* all seems OK, but if I needed a new screen, that’s where I’d head.