To perform open heart surgery on my Shift (lcd replacement)!!! - Shift General

Well to make the story short, I took out an old lcd screen protector that left glue residues on my Shift's screen... Tried my best to take it out but it simply didn't want to come off...
Searched the web and in a bit of a panic mode tried everything, from antiseptic alcohol to toothpaste, and finally vinegar... The glue partially came out, but a mixture of all these substances got inside my screen and little by little consumed its light like a candle
But the good news after some silly self reflections was to find a replacement part and so I did.. ($90 including shipping and required tools from a eBay Chinese supplier) and just today I got the package, so I'm ready to rock..
To avoid screwing up again, I've managed to get my hands on the original service manual for this device and will follow step by step the indicated dissamble procedure..
So bare with me while I find myself a complete day to work on this project, while updating the status and answering any questions you may have (if you are in the same mess as I am right now).. I just hope the damage is just on the lcd screen, it would be terrible to realize once inside I require other parts (I would think not, since the device is working fine except for the screen, even the touch function still works!)

Did you broke your screen or simply there is glue on it ?

Related

Touchscreen not responding, backup question

Hi all,
Looks like my Sprint Vogue is flaking out on me. The touchscreen is suddenly and without warning not working at all. Everything else works (all other buttons, activesync, all functions). I'd like to do a hard reset before giving up on it, but I'd really like to sync my contacts/messages/photos/etc before doing that. So here's the problem- I use Dashwire to sync, and I'm unable to hit the "SYNC NOW" button!
Any ideas on how to switch to and activate the bottom left and bottom right menu buttons without being able to touch them? For example, the Inbox and Menu buttons on the Mail app screen, or Album/Slideshow on the Photos and Videos screen? If I can get to those I'll be able to activate the sync. Any help would be great!
Thanks,
Bogus
There is a application called "MyMobiler" which allows you to control your phone over ip/usb/bluetooth. If i remember correctly launching the installer on your pc while your phone is connected to activesynch will install it without having to press anything.
Awesome, thank you. That did exactly what I needed it to!
Once it finishes sync'ing I'll give the reset a shot and see if the screen is really borked or not.
No problem glad i could help. If the touchscreen refuses to work you might wanna try replacing it. The part is called a digitzer and they go for 15-20 dollars online. I bought one and it wasn't difficult at all to replace.
Yeah, that's the plan. Hard reset didn't fix the problem, so I'm guessing that part is busted. Between this site and PPCG I found the guide for taking apart the phone, so it's looking like I'll be doing some minor surgery in a few days.
bogus83 said:
Yeah, that's the plan. Hard reset didn't fix the problem, so I'm guessing that part is busted. Between this site and PPCG I found the guide for taking apart the phone, so it's looking like I'll be doing some minor surgery in a few days.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How would the touch screen instantly not work?
maybe someone let it fall and put it back to normal like nothing happened
and i know what u mean.I dont wanna give up my vogue. EVER,
but im 15...by the time im 30, i wont remember what vogue is.LOL.
Actually, it seems to have developed a very small air bubble in the very upper left corner. I'm pretty sure that's causing the digitizer to think there's constant pressure in that area, evidenced by the "Start" menu occasionally activating when I turn on the phone. I ordered a new digitizer anyway- the set of torx screwdrivers I'd need to open the case cost the same as a new digitizer and the screwdriver I need. I don't really understand how the air bubble formed (or even what it is contained in), but one way or another I'll resolve the problem next week.
And I just turned 26- I'm sure by the time I'm 30 I'll be sporting a Touch Pro 4 running Windows Mobile 8.5
Well, the digitizer and tools came much faster than I'd anticipated (I won the auction on eBay on Friday, paid same day, and got it in the mail today, shipped from CA to NY!). So I dove right in. It was a straightforward affair- remove the four torx screws from the back under the cover, remove the speaker, pry open the front from the mainboard, disconnect the keypad circuit board from the mainboard and the digitizer from the keypad board, push out the old digitizer, swap in the new one and hook it all back up.
Not for the faint of heart to be sure, but for someone who likes to tinker it was a lot of fun. Took maybe 15 minutes because prying the case from the mainboard was difficult. More accurately, the top plastic case is extremely thin and fragile- if you do this you'll almost definitely crack it in at least one place. If not, you'll crack it pushing the digitizer out from behind. But I'm not that worried about cosmetics, I got my Vogue second-hand off-contract, refurbished, so it wasn't exactly mint to begin with.
On the plus side, the repair worked like a charm! I tested every touch feature I could think of and as many areas of the screen as I could, it actually seemed to respond better than when I initially got the phone. The odd part is I could still see the air bubble in the old screen, and couldn't flatten it out even by squeezing on both sides of it. I wish I knew how it formed so I could prevent it from happening again, but I'll just have to be careful.
So to anyone considering this project:
If you're worried about damaging the casing and have insurance or a warranty or something like that, take it to the phone company to get it repaired.
For anyone else, the $15 bucks for the screen and three tools is a lot cheaper than buying a new phone. Plus you get the geek cred for repairing your own phone.

Just fixed my Digitizer

I have just got my replacement digitizer in the mail 2day from Hong Kong and installed it just now, all is working perfectly as new again. I did a hard reset when the touch screen was first playing up, so I have lost all my themes, settings etc but luckily my office docs etc are still intact.
Anyhow, I made a video on how to replace the touch screen, its only quick as I did not go from the disasembly part, as there is already videos and tutorials on this, so I just documented on the actual digitizer replacement, which is actually basic 2-5mins work, but I thought a vid would be good for any noobs needing it in the future.
Once I edit it all up I will post the video here.
If anyone needs help on replacing the digitizer just ask. DON'T be tricked into buying the LCD + Digitizer if you only need the touch screen, as it is very easy to do without the lcd, though some ppl disagree.
Thanks for reading, thread will be updatd with Vid asap.
Hi X86
I have a crack on the upper plastic case, thats prob. why I have dirt showing on screen. In your opinion where is it located and can I clean it ?
It seems as if (if the crack is on the actual original housing, not just a add-on case) that dirt/dust has fallen down inbetween the digitizer and the LCD, so you can see it through the touchscreen right?
This is fairly simple to fix, you will either need to patch up the crack with silicone or something (best from the inside so it does'nt look messy) OR buy yourself a whole nw housing which cost about US15-$20.
Then just pull your elf/in apart and use cotton tips and wipes to thoroughly clean the LCD and insides.
If you need any help, just let me know via PM or here.
?Good Luck!
Thanks
That was my feeling, now I just need courage to take apart the casing (either repair or replace )
Thanks for bringing up this issue in the forum and extending your hand to others.
I appreciate it alot.
Hi x86
I have read the sticky for disassembling the elf. Can you tell me if it's necessary to unscrew anything and remove the rear speaker in order to remove the front panel ?
Edit: I think I found the answer in the next pics, the 4 screws attach to the front panel, right ?
Hi, i've just entered the world of winmo. i've recently wrecked my Elfin. But i can't seem to figured it out whether it's the LCD or the digitizer is broken...
1) my Elfin's screen turns to white with a few red and black stripes on the lower left corner, it doesn't react to any touch gesture.
2) i can still activesync the device and seems that my SD card is still working, i could copy out my PIMcontacts...thank goodness
3) the alarm still rings the next morning, i assume my device is still operating, of course now i've taken out the battery.
4) i've ask the phone shop for repair enquiries and they said that the replacement parts are not for retail selling in my country, Malaysia... so it needs to send back my Elfin to OEM and takes about 3 weeks time and cost around USD $ 130 bucks....
5) my friends told me it wasn't worth it, thus i was thinking of looking for help online and finally i found this thread...
6) can anyone offer few pieces of info? i thank you 1st.
bjonmy said:
Hi, i've just entered the world of winmo. i've recently wrecked my Elfin. But i can't seem to figured it out whether it's the LCD or the digitizer is broken...
1) my Elfin's screen turns to white with a few red and black stripes on the lower left corner, it doesn't react to any touch gesture.
2) i can still activesync the device and seems that my SD card is still working, i could copy out my PIMcontacts...thank goodness
3) the alarm still rings the next morning, i assume my device is still operating, of course now i've taken out the battery.
4) i've ask the phone shop for repair enquiries and they said that the replacement parts are not for retail selling in my country, Malaysia... so it needs to send back my Elfin to OEM and takes about 3 weeks time and cost around USD $ 130 bucks....
5) my friends told me it wasn't worth it, thus i was thinking of looking for help online and finally i found this thread...
6) can anyone offer few pieces of info? i thank you 1st.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That sounds like both a Digitizer and LCD issue.
Red and white strips is caused by the screen, while the phone not sensing your fingers is caused by digitizer.
But you still managed to use something like mymobiler to rescue your stuff right?
Yeah, you're in Malaysia right? In Singapore, to get this items, we have to get it off ebay or dealextreme.com.
But be careful with this, it void warrenty.
If you send it to HTC service centre, it may cost $160> Singapore dollars.
Cheers,
Jeremy

Touch HD (Blackstone) Screen & touch repair, pics and tips inside!

Hi XDA peeps.
I would like to share my notes and pictures of my recent repair i performed on my touch HD. If you end up suffering from the Newton_Ring problem or cracked lcd, and decide to purchase a factory assembled LCD + Digitizer, you can use the Official Service manual and this thread, to perform the repair.
The Battery and the Battery cover have been removed.
Lower mainboard cover and inner housing have been removed
the Digitizer & LCD (preassembled) replacement Part, beside the damaged Blackstone.
Removal of the GPS Coaxial cabling.
I'll skip past the wifi coax removal, but will like to note that you will find a spare coax socket on the mainboard next to the wifi one, so dont get those mixed up when reassembling it!!
both Coax cables removed. (bad quality picture)
Removal of the Ribbons Mylar
this is the removal of the Ribbon plug.
Removal of the Volume buttons and its petite PCB. Take your time, dont break the ribbons or damage the pcb trying to remove this.
Removal of the mainboard phillips screw.
Power PCB slot removal, this ones tricky.
Unplugging of the 5 megapixel main camera, a nice and easy step.
Note: Please be aware that the whole Top PCB is very fragile and does actually bend, hence the term Flex PCB, be gentle with this component.
You wont see this part of the repair listed in the official manual, infact when I had a google around, there was little to no information on howto perform this anywhere.
Let me make one thing certain, if you've just spent like an hour on the above, while following the Official service manual, squinting at the poor quality photos (or my poor quality photos ) and you're feeling a little impatient, take a decent break before attempting the above!
Because, for the above procedure, you need to tear off the 3 layers of Digitizer and LCD from the front of the phone, if you don't take your time with how you do it, you'll dent your frame (a lot).
you won't find this in the service manual, if you worked out its significantly easier do a factory pre-assembled Digi+LCD replacement, and if you don't purchase the housing along with LCD and Digitizer, then you'll need to take the front Speaker piece grill, and transplant it to the new part.
Note: that you don't need to add any extra glue to perform any of this.
Next you simply gently fold a ribbon so you can place the new part into the old frame, and you'll end up with something like this:
I also did a lot of very minor aesthetic damage to the inner area of the frame, between the frame and the touch screen.
Take your time to prevent this, also if you don't care for the old part at all and aren't replacing a LCD or Digitizer standalone, you can pretty much gain access to the layers from one corner then tear the layers away from the glue with your hands.
Next proceed to rebuild the phone following the above in reverse or keep following the service manual (or both, is probably the best way IMO)
Note: Don't forget to place the camera back into the reassembly as you're re adding the coax wires. The service manual won't instruct you to do this.
Install back your flexible and mainboard pcb. as above.
The above is with all the boards, cables and camera installed back into place.
Verify the replacement part is good before fastening in the shell casings.
Lastly the two shells are fastened back on and the battery is put back into place.
Note: When installing the main shell, be very considerate of the camera, while at the same time, ensuring that none of the coaxial or the vibrator cable falls out of their desired places.
OK, if you have the HTC Service manual PDF, and need to repair your Blackstone (and want to DIY), it can be done albeit some instructions are clearly omitted from the official service manual.
One final note, When researching on what part to use to perform the repair of my Blackstone mobile, I read a great many people have attempted to repair their Blackstones and failed miserably, so even if you're savvy with repairing small electronics, the general suggestion is to get a pre-made digitizer & LCD, it is without a doubt well worth the price difference of a Digitizer or LCD standalone.
Thank you for taking the time to check this out, I hope someone may find it useful and save them from a bit of misery.
you are fantastic! i will try to replace the screen in next days...your guide is the best!
very thanks
excume friends, but i'm from venezuela...... i buy a HTC TOUCH HD in miami, the february 2009, ,i phone present this problem, the LCD work fine, but the touch no responding, anybody know where can buy it...... i don´t know how call the replace..... digitalizer, LCD.... how???
Thanks and excuse me by me bad english........ i know, soooo bad.....
Believe me it's almost imposible to replace just digitizer.
I have similar problem few weeks ago, and I buy pre-made LCD+Digitizer and replace it without any problem. I bought my from ebay. UK reseler. 65 euro. I heard that you can find it for lower price but I was searching on ebay.de so maybe on US ebay you can find for less money.
Don't bother to replace just digitizer, just to go 40$ less. Sometimes is batter to give 40$ more but to do job without any problems. (PS It's very, very hard to detach factory attached LCD from frame without braking it!)
Good luck!
Thank you so much, look for us on ebay or on amazon.com to see them .... any questions do not hesitate to do that around here ...... thanks again
Greetings, I got this on ebay usa,
h**p://cgi.ebay.com/HTC-Touch-HD-T8282-Digitizer-Screen-Repair-Part-TL-/290471976452?pt=PDA_Accessories&hash=item43a17a9e04
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
... What do you think? Does this serve me?
my baclstone started acting funny with screen alignment getting messed up and than it completely stopped responding...
even the touch sensitive hardware buttons donot work no more...i have hard reset many times did task 29. i have changed different roms and went back to stock rom but screen doesnt respond at all... not even the backlight turn on to full brightness when screen is tapped?
anyone have any idea whats broken lcd or digitizer or both... or maybe something else.... and there is no official htc repair shop so i probably gotta fix it on my own
Got Touch HD from someone I know.
He has scratches on the fone screen, so he decided to DIY by replacing the screen, he did not manage to screw everything together so he gave it to me...
I have tried to follow instructions both here and another thread which points me to videos that I can watch...
The problem is that I have black screen, I can hear the sound when turned on. Just no life on screen.
The screen was super glued on so there was no reponsibility of removing and check if eveything OK.
Could it be that the screen defect?
Have google but found no info on how to attach screen to the fone !!!
There was just one ribbon cable, I believe from the screen to the main borad and it is attached to the main board....
OK
Have had some free time over the weekend, disassembled the phone and found that 1 of the fles connectors was loose. Reconnected and all was perfect...
Now I have a fully working phone
Thanks for the guide....
Don't try to replace only the digitizer...i suggest to disassembly the phone first to buy the digitizer.. to see how much is hard to detach to lcd without broke lcd! if you can detach you can buy only digitizer!
i bought the digitizer but i broked my lcd to try to change...with Lcd+touchscreen's block I ve changed in 10 minutes and it is perfect!
Glad to see this has helped others.
My main intention was to cover the steps missed by the not so comprehensive service manual, if it was more comprehensive i probably wouldn't have started this thread to show how I repaired mine. was quite a few too many important steps missing really. (re-adding the camera, etcetera)
Hi all,
I just replaced the lcd screen of my blackstone and got a new touch screen, I put all together but the touch screen seems to be dead. Is there anything I should check? you always talk of touch panel and digitizer like two different layer, does this mean that I should have 3 different pieces (LCD - digitizer?!? - plastic touch panel)? Because I only have two, the LCD and the "glass" with an outgoing flat cable. In the case I am not missing anything, should the touch panel work even if not in contact with the screen ?
If you got one pre-assembled (which we call LCD + digitizer), it would actually just be one whole piece.
If you have two pieces, then you have a LCD screen (the glass one AFAIK) and a plastic layer (the digitizer)
My replacement part came in as one, and in the OP I disassemble, and remove it and place the new on in the old ones spot.
Sounds to me like youve gotten the parts not pre-assembled by the manufacturer, unfortunately its common for non- pre assembled ones to not make contact to eachother properly when you assemble it, some people reported being able to do it, and others from what i've read found either partial or no touch capability, but it would likely be the digitizer contacts are not touching the LCD contacts (kind of a ribbon on the plastic piece)
It maybe worth just getting a pre-assembled replacement. if youve already used the current one and cannot fix it.
No it's not preassembled but you probably solved my problem. you basically say the touch panel and the LCD MUST be in touch in a specific point to close some contact (maybe the lower LCD ribbon must touch the lower part of the touch panel?)!! If you confirm that than probably that is my fault. I've seen some videos on youtube where the touch panel works even if it's away from the LCD but it was not a blackstone and probably not a resistive touch panel.
Please confirm I got it right, you probably saved my blackstone.
as far as i know, the digitizer will have some kind of ribbon, on the LCD theres contacts or a socket for that ribbon, you can see (poorly) in the pictures I took, where I show the LCD and digitizer and a layer (digitizer and face place layers) of torn apart.
I looked around my room for my old damaged screen but unfortunately I can't find it I think I may have disposed of it.
lucky, ebay type sites do have some pictures of the digitizer and its ribbon as you can see in this picture - link (I googled this and found it here
that ribbon would likely attach to the lcd panel, I'm quite sure if they aren't making proper contact the touch won't work.
But, having said that, before I made this thread, while reading about others who did a repair without a pre-assembled part, they mentioned that the digitizer part contained many tiny bubble like resistive cells in the digitizer layers, its imperative you don't damage the any of these touch cell things, because if they somehow get damaged, even if you get the digitizer ribbon to make proper contact with the LCD board/slot/contact (which ever its supposed to plug into), if those tiny cell break in the digitizer the touch wont work (could be partial, or could be overall interoperability) and if that happened, it would be a circumstance where you'd need to source another digitizer.
this is more or less an elaboration on my prior post I think.
What I can say for sure is before I fixed mine, after some searching around on these forums and on others, I found that most of those who did not get the digitizer, face plate and lcd factory pre-assembled did not fix their handset (only a minority did), they either ran into a problem with the digitizer making contact with the lcd panel, or they somehow damaged the digitizer resistive cells.
Also, since I did do mine with a pre-assembled part, I cannot say absolutely that the resistive cells will be between the faceplate layer and the second layer of the digitizer replacement part (like you see in my pictures, I ended up with 3 layers) it could be that the resistive cells are exposed on the back of the last layer and need to sit against the lcd, once again though, I'm not sure about it because I did opt for the more expensive easier choice to fix mine up.
Hope you get it all working smog
No way, tried to push lcd and digitizer together without any result. I don't believe there is something that can be broken on the back of digitizer (Resistive cells???) but I hope you are right, I am waiting for a housing I bought from HK it's complete with a new digitizer ... we'll see
Thanks a lot
Hello, great guide but I am still having a problem and I wonder if it's with what I bought; Off ebay I got the plastic and the glass attached to each other as I assumed thats all I needed because my lcd works fine. So I connected it all up and it only slightly works, where you touch the screen is actually showing up as quite a bit below (depends where - top left corner works fine but if you click the center of the screen the phone thinks you're clicking at the bottom).. I have tried calibration with no luck.. Any help/suggestions greatly appreciated.
Thanks
Afraid that theres not a lot you can do, if you havent fully reassembled it yet you could try reapplying the digitizer layer but I think that even trying that could make it worse then it is.
Like i said a few times, I wouldn't try replacing the digitizer on its own, I read up on it before repairing mine and concluded it was too much risk or trouble and just got an all in one lcd + digitizer which I used in the guide.
anyway these phones are quite old now, its hard to justify spending on an LCD and digitizer to fix one up.
you need to decide if thats worth it to you or not.
Infact, my blackstone has Newton rings again on the replacement screen, im not certain what squashed against it hard enough to cause them but it happened recently, the digitizer on mine is still working even with the newton ring damage so Im not planning on replacing the screen again.
Okay thank you very much for your help,
Are they still good phones though? I have a nokia 5800 from around the same time and i'm bored of it now but can't afford a new one so i bought this one really cheap as broken and was just going to fix it.. Or is it not really that much better?
Thanks again for your answer
they're considerably faster then nokias usually, i had the 6600, 6260, 9300i and they were all considerably slower ARM processors.
but It will all come down to what OS you run on it, if you do put a WinMo 6.5 rom on it it will be slow to the degree where its unusable. but if you use a 6.1 rom on it then it will never suffer from slow downs (unless the rom is hybrid 6.1 with 6.5 stuff like the one i use).
It also can do heaps of stuff the nokia can't, assuming your nokia is a series 60 or similar.
the Os can do tethering and heaps of other neat things, winmo also has got a fair range of apps, tho dated now, the variety is nice and gives you functionality, you could obtain a lot of this on a nokia symbian phone but winmo (based on wince) is just even better then symbian.
I think it all comes down to how much it will cost you to fix, I have a better phone so i cant justify spending over 50 dollars on fixing a slower older one, but to someone who doesnt have a better phone it may be quite viable to spend that to benefit the improvement over their current worse phone.
ideally, I would say just skip over it, its not truely that fast, you need at least a gigahertz phone to be fast. a HD2 or something, if you can get one like that quite cheap and in good condition, it would be worth more then spending a bit on the blackstone (touch HD).
just my opinion though
I would repair my blackstone again because i get use out of it each time its healthy even though I have something better its still handy to have, i love the audio output on it over my htc desire, but i wouldn't be spending the amount i spent on another repair screen like it did back when it was the best potential phone i could have had at the time.

Weird colors.

Hi everyone.
I remember some user made a topic with same problem, but i am not able to find it.
Theres some weird solution, like when you mix oil with water, inside or on top of my LCD. its in middle of the screen and the touch itself doesn't work properly where that weird patch is.
I tried drying it up but to no avail. I placed it in front of an air heater 7 to 8 inches apart. without battery, with screen side in front and then back side in front. first for 15 mins then for quite a bit of time.
First it went away but it appeared again when i turned it on. Did the drying again but it came again after some time (<-- didn't count it) i didn't even put the battery in it this time. Now i cant just keep it off so i am using it.
Any proper solution to kill this water thingy between lcd?
don't tell me to open it and clean it. The sale value would go crapppyyy low.
Hi,
I think your device has newton rings (use search in this forum to get more details). If your case matches, then send in to HTC service, this is usually covered under warranty.
If your device is not under warranty, you'll need to change the digitizer.
NOO!
This is it! i am done with this crap. Now i need to spend money in this stupidity?!?!? i just spent loads of money getting new PC, now i have to somehow ask my dad to get this repaired ? :/ and he will kill me too. whot its been 5months i got his.
I use the scotch tape to clean LCD's, but never knew one can fix it this away. nop i didn't helped.
Tried lighter trick, nop didn't helped. It moved/disappeared then came back.
i am extremely angry and disappointed.

loose buttons but not something to worry about!

What a story!!
I bought a galaxy note 4 right on launch day first thing in the morning. Ive had just about every phone but have been waiting for a while now to get my hands on the new note 4.
I ended up buying the phone at the St . Bruno shopping center in Quebec, Canada and once i singed all the papers for my contract and got home, I finally open the box and took the phone out of the box. I loved it, it did everything one would expect from the highest end phone on the market.
A week later however, I started noticing that my buttons, especially my home button were slightly loose and my phone was also developing a weird oil spot under the home button.
So I went back to videotron but this time at St. Catherine street corporate branch store and the manager there obviously didnt know much about phones because he looked at it and proceeded with putting windex on a paper towel and wiping my screen with it and than told me that theres nothing wrong with it.
After frustratingly explaining everything to him, he told me that if the phone makes calls and works, than these issues arent covered for any kind of exchange as its not affecting the functionality of the phone. My logic tell me however that if one buy's a ferrari and realizes that the paint is f-up, wouldn't the dealership do something about it??? Anyways, without any luck I eventually left disappointed.
The following week After exhaustive attempt to solve the matter with Videotron to no avail, I found out that there was a store here in montreal called Service Absolute which is a samsung repair center that I could bring my phone to. I called them first to not waist more of my time and was than informed that yes they could help me but that it could take nearly a month before they would have any parts for this phone.
So after patiently waiting, I finally got a call back from them and droped off my phone the following day. I only had to wait two days before i got my phone back and thought that the turn around time was great! Only after few minutes of playing with it however, I noticed that the phone's new screen which now didn't have the oil spot was actually lifting from the housing about 1mm at the top of the phone and that the buttons were all still loose.
Its easy to imagine at this point how infuriated i was with all the time spent dealing with a phone that should of been right in the first place.. All the waiting, calling and runaround I got only to get a phone that was now even worst!! I could actually see inside my phone and behind the screen. Dust was starting to get inside the phone and under the camera lens and so on and I was really starting to freak out and was completly desperate to fix this issue asap to prevent things from getting worse and worse.
So I decided at this pont to take matters in my own hands and use my old trusty screwdriver to take this thing apart and get
To the bottom of the loose buttons and screen seperation.. I know! Scray [email protected]$ but it had to be done because at this point I needed a working phone for work and nobody seemed to help me. So after watching a few youtube videos, I unscrewed the screws at the back and gently seperated the phone from the metal frame with my fingers.
The whole assembly came out of the metal frame the same komd of way the old HTC phones used to. After doing so, the first thing i found out was that if your going scatch your phones metal frame which makes up most of the phone outer surfice, it's no big deal as it can be swapped out for around 40 to 50 bucks.
Next I noticed that all the buttons (volume and power) aren't adheared to the frame but only clipped in with a few pins stratigically placed. So its normal that they have play and wiggle. They're not gonna break and we're likely engineered to be this way. The wiggling is not really important as it won't affect anything on the phone's motherboard.
The next thing I noticed was that the glue between the inner midframe (the part that holds the motherboard to the screen assembly) also wasn't glued properly and was able to gently seperate it from the lcd/digitizer assembly without a heat gun or anything.. after doing so, the home button fell out and was simply dangling from its flex cable. It wasn't actually glued in place or held in with clips or anything. It's only connected to a flex cable on the left side of the button but thats it. I was easily able to pull it out and inspect it. It was built to be completely free floating between the midframe and the screen.
Which means that again, no need to worry about anything breaking as the home button is not a solidified part to start with and only in place where it is because of the space tolerence engeneered in the screen's home button whole. So it being slightly loose is normal and something that will eventually happen to all note 4's sooner or later. The slight looseness actually makes sense to me as any dust material that will get in between the home button wont get stuck as as much as if the space toleren was less. In my opinion, I thik that iPhones have less issues like this as the home button is part of the screen assembly and is also round.
In the end, I wasn't able to adhear the screen back in place as I didnt have double sided tape but manages to send it back to samsung and get it serviced again. I clearly asked them to fix it properly this time and it looks like they finally did and glued it back properly now.
This was a crazy experience and all I can tell you is that I definatly got an up close look of this phone and decided to keep it afterall as it's still better than a refurbished one and also because it's super easy to repair if anything ever broke on it.
Anyways i know this is a long post but I thought I'd share my experience with everyone and put some of your worries to rest.
Cheers!

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