Well, mostly failure, let’s be honest.
Removal of the glass involved two tiny screws on the bottom edge of the phone. Then you use a suction cup to lift the glass up out of the rest of the body. Since I didn’t exactly have a unified surface to pull on, I put a piece of packing tape on the face of the phone and used that to apply suction against. It’s at this point that you’re holding a metal/plastic chassis that has the glass embedded in it on one side and the LCD screen on the other. Removing the LCD screen was theoretically easy but I still somehow managed to crack it. See picture above.
Removing the broken glass from the other side of the chassis was a pain in the ass.
I put everything back together hoping that the screen might just be a little wonky, which I could deal with, but as you can see it’s basically shot. So I’ve ordered a new LCD screen (again from eBay), that comes pre-applied to a chassis and new glass. I should have gone that route to begin with I guess, but I didn’t know I was going to break the LCD. Still, I’ll come out ahead of sending it out to be repaired, and certainly well ahead of a new one.
The good news is the phone still works fine otherwise. Makes calls, does everything. So hopefully it will be fully operational by this time next week.
7 responses to “phase 1 – partial failure”
That’s tough ! (Hope the rest of the repair goes well.)
It should. I know my way around in there a little better now.
You may be the only one in america repairing an old phone instead of getting a new one. I’ve never had an iPhone, but I’ve been somewhat disappointed in the sturdiness of various iPods I’ve had. They seem to start to do quirky things right about the time that a new version is released.
Maybe more people will start trying to repair these items as the economy gets worse and worse. Although it should never be okay to run out and replace something that costs as much as a smartphone, regardless of the economy. That’s just obscene and I’m embarrassed.
I agree that things seem to be designed to fail these days. The iPod Classic that Amy bought for me a few years ago is still going strong, so I count myself among the lucky. I don’t ask it to do much anymore though. It basically sits in my car and plays music.
The glass on my phone finally had a run in and has 3 hairline cracks. I’m just living with it.
Can’t you just buy a used 3G or even a new 3G for $50 or less now?
I probably could have lived with it too, until I pick up a 5, but you know me – always looking for trouble. Once I dragged my fingers over the broken surface enough times it was pretty smooth to the touch, but there was enough fragmentation that I couldn’t really read anything without squinting.
There’s a second layer of glass bonded beneath that I believe registers touch, which should be unharmed. It will hold things together well if you leave it be. I’m basically a certified iPhone technician at this point so I can help you out if you decide to go that route though.
The last time I noticed (which was a while ago), used samples were still going for a couple hundred dollars. Maybe they’re cheaper now. I didn’t look because I didn’t want to be bothered migrating all my shit to a new phone. It went fine last time but it made me nervous. I guess less so than cracking the phone open, but see above.
Susan, you made me second guess the repair so I went out and looked around. A $50 phone appears to require the signing of a new two year agreement, which would lock me out of any future incentive upgrades for those two years. Not interested. I’d like to have the option of at least considering an iPhone5 this November.
I saw a water damaged 3Gs on eBay for two hundred real American™ dollars and several other broken handsets hoping to part fools with their money. Used units seem to go for $200, so unless your game is to repair a broken one and try to pawn it off as new, I’m just not sure what the angle is on the high priced broken sets.
New units are in the $350-500 range. So, not good. I’m content. 🙂 Final tally for the repair came to $48 and a little sweat on the brow, BTW.