I smashed the screen on my Tab a few weeks back. While I didn't take a video of the replacement, here are some notes and tips on my experience:
If the glass is cracked but you can still see the display fine (i.e. no rainbow or black ink spills) then it is just your digitizer that is broken. Your top priority at this point is to not break the LCD because the digitizer is relatively cheap (~$35 shipped from China, $60 from the US). This also goes for the picture being fine but the touch not working at all.
Buy a replacement digitizer. I got mine from ebay ( http://www.ebay.com/itm/270938561127 ).
Gather tools:
A clean towel to use for your work area to prevent scratches and scuffs
A little plastic prying tool (likely to come with your ebay order)
A thin and sharp utility knife/razor
A three prong screwdriver. The seller I used sent a few other screwdrivers but not the three prong one. I used one I got from a Nintendo DS repair a while back.
A heat gun will make this a lot easier. I guess a hair blow-dryer might work in a pinch.
I did not see any good videos for the disassembly. The one I watched ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=thTt6G27NV8 ) really screwed me over because it didn't show removing two screws first.
Here are my written steps for replacement:
Use a needle to pry out the two caps on either side of the USB charging port
Use the three prong screwdriver to remove those two screws
Insert the pry on the bottom middle between the plastic frame and the glass. Push down firmly so it wedges in up to the L shape.
Slide the pry along from the middle to either end and around the corner. You will feel the frame pop away from the innards.
Continue working the bottom half of the frame apart until you can insert tweezers or something else under the unit and lift it up and out of the frame.
Be careful to lift the bottom half then pull it out away from the top. Otherwise, you will crack the audio port which extends from the unit and fits into the hole in the top of the frame.
Set aside the frame and place the unit on a clean towel. If you have a broken screen, you are going to be dealing with lots of tiny slivers of broken glass.
On the circuitry side of the unit, you will see three big flat ribbon cables. The middle one is the digitizer. Use tweezers or the pry to *gently* lift up the tan colored plastic locking hinge on the far side (opposite the cable). It will pop up and the cable will easily slide out. Go very slow and carefully here. Don't mess with the black plastic because it will chip right off.
Now comes the painful part. Removing the old digitizer. Take a cigarette break if you need one. Maybe a Valium. Basically, almost all of the black trim part of the glass is thick strong glue binding it to the unit. You need to separate this glue to be able to peel the glass digitizer away.
Hold the unit upright with one hand and use the heat gun to loosen up the glue holding the digitizer to the unit. Run it along one edge for less than a minute until the glass is a little too hot to touch.
Quickly insert the razor as close to the glass as you can and about 6 centimeters in. Slide it along the side that you heated. Don't make any prying motions or you'll just crack the glass more.
Continue with the remaining three edges. Heat then separate. You may not make much progress the first time around, but by the second time, you should see the glass starting to peel away. It took me about 5 to 10 minutes per edge and it is grueling work.
Once you can safely peel the entire glass digitizer away from the unit, use the razor to lift up and peel off any of the flat black tape/glue that was left behind. Most of the unit where the glue goes is gray. On the sides there are two parts where you see black plastic. It is okay to leave glue residue as long as it isn't bunched up.
Vacuum up any stray glass slivers. Make sure you set aside tools screws and screw-hole-plugs before vacuuming.
Installing the new digitizer
Use an LCD spray and cleaning cloth to clean your LCD. Don't leave any dust or fingerprints as it will look bad once everything is put back together.
Remove the back covering of your replacement digitizer revealing the glue. Obviously, try not to touch the glue.
Align the digitizer above the unit, make sure the camera hole is on the correct side. Very slowly lower it down and try to have it perfectly in alignment when it touches. You will be able to nudge it a tiny bit, but the glue is strong and if you get it crooked, you are going to have to try to quickly lift it back up without cracking your new digitizer.
Once you have it in place, remove the front protective film and free the new cable. Wrap the cable around to the back and very gently insert it between the contacts then push the locking hinge down.
Testing and reassembly
Power it on and see if it works. Just push down the little metal bump closest to the edge where the power button would be on the frame.
When happy with the test, turn it off again and hold the unit above the frame.
Check the orientation then insert the top part first to fit the audio port into the hole. Line up the rest and then push down on all the edges to snap it into place.
Breathe a deep sigh of relief.
Appreciate the time you put into this, hopefully I never end up in a similar situation.
Could have used some more return key though lol
Sent from my Ceramic White LTE Galaxy Note using XDA Premium App
Wish I would have read this first. I broke the housing by the 2 bottom screws. Dayum! I haven't touched it since. Supposed to get the digitizer Friday. Wish me luck!
Its really easy to replace the digitiser on WiFi version. Use Stanley knife and hair dryer to loosen it off and remove middle flex cable. Videos on youtube
Sent from my GT-P7510 using xda app-developers app
Any picture of these 2 screws cause i do not see it on a p4 here.
I still have one here with a cracked glass but it all still works even the touch screen.
But i do not see the screw so a pic would be nice
Opuske said:
Any picture of these 2 screws cause i do not see it on a p4 here.
I still have one here with a cracked glass but it all still works even the touch screen.
But i do not see the screw so a pic would be nice
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
They are covered by plugs on either side of the charge port. Gotta pry the plugs out first.
Sent from my EVO using xda premium
Ok so i am on a mission this weekend then to try and do that then
Opuske said:
Ok so i am on a mission this weekend then to try and do that then
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
One tip: be really careful not to touch the inside surface of the glass. I ended up with a fingerprint on the inside that drives me nuts every time I clean the screen. Wear gloves if you've got them.
Otherwise it was no sweat. I used this as a guide but with a hair dryer instead of a heat gun.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUI2gDQbdDY&feature=youtube_gdata_player
Sent from my EVO using xda premium
Quick question
I really found this post very helpful, but I do have one question. What if when I was trying to pry the tab up to pull out the digitizer, I cracked the black plactic on the other side. Would this cause the new digitizer not to work when I finished replacing everything and put it back together?
Best tutorial on the web (much better than those godawful youtube videos).
Thank you!
Did u get an answer??? I need to
AylaAtreides said:
I really found this post very helpful, but I do have one question. What if when I was trying to pry the tab up to pull out the digitizer, I cracked the black plactic on the other side. Would this cause the new digitizer not to work when I finished replacing everything and put it back together?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Did you get an answer??? I did the same thing...
DEinspanjer said:
I smashed the screen on my Tab a few weeks back. While I didn't take a video of the replacement, here are some notes and tips on my experience:
[*]If the glass is cracked but you can still see the display fine (i.e. no rainbow or black ink spills) then it is just your digitizer that is broken. Your top priority at this point is to not break the LCD because the digitizer is relatively cheap (~$35 shipped from China, $60 from the US). This also goes for the picture being fine but the touch not working at all.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just when I thought I knew the difference between the LCD and the digitizer I read your post. You said if the glass is cracked but you can see the display just fine the digitizer is broken. When you say "see the display fine" I presume when the device is on you can see whatever it should be showing? Correct me if I am wrong. Silly me I would have thought if the glass was cracked you need the LCD. Are the glass, LCD and digitizer 3 separate parts?
Anyway on my Note 10.1 2014 edition the display suddenly went black while I was using it. All indications are the device is working because I hear notifications if I sent email to one of the accounts registered on the device. Given this limited info which part(s) do I need. The glass is pristine in that there are no cracks or scratches. Do I need the digitizer, lcd or both? How can I determine what I need for sure?
Thanks in advance,
~metafizik
The digitizer is the touch sensitive glass, the LCD is under that and it makes the pictures.
If you crack or damage the LCD, you will frequently see something that looks like an ink spill or a rainbow pattern.
If you crack or damage the digitizer, you can still see pictures fine, but some or all of it might no longer respond to touch.
In your case, it sounds like your LCD is not working, but unfortunately it is hard to say whether that is the only part that stopped working since it wasn't due to damage to the screen.
DEinspanjer said:
The digitizer is the touch sensitive glass, the LCD is under that and it makes the pictures.
In your case, it sounds like your LCD is not working, but unfortunately it is hard to say whether that is the only part that stopped working since it wasn't due to damage to the screen.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you for the information. I agree there is no telling what might have caused the problem especially given some other problems that proceeded this. I had recently replaced the battery and even with the new one it was draining way too quickly. I concluded it might be the ROM I was running had become corrupted because Google services was using the lions share of the battery instead of the screen. I downloaded and installed a factory Lolipop image and it was running fine for about half a day when the wife started playing around with live wallpapers we had never tried when it went black.
At this point I am reluctant to spend $ replacing the Lcd given it might be something else altogether.
Thanks again,
~metafizik
Accepting offers on my 32GB Note 10.1 2014 edition. As described above the display has gone dark but system is otherwise working fine. Includes very nice MoKo Wireless Bluetooth Keyboard Cover Case and the tablet's battery is new.
Related
OK, so I managed to break my A 70 LCD be rolling over it asleep on the sofa. Woe and despair. Anyway, problem now solved so I thought I'd do a quick guide.
I got the LCD replacement on Ebay - there are a bunch of sellers fpr about 85US including shipping - this compares to the Archos fix price of about 190.
All you need toolwise is a T5 screwdriver and disassemble the unit as per the Utube teardown
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aL7wTCBZ5m4&feature=player_embedded
The tricky part of the process - and hence this post - is taking the screen out of the casing and seperating the digitizer from the screen. The item you need for this is a hairdryer. After seperating the unit, you remove the screen and digitiser from the casing by going around the casing on the outside rim of the screen with the hairdryer and gently prise it out.
Then the only hassly part - the digitiser (The digitiser is the capacitive screen component) about 1mm thick and well glued to the LCD casing using soft sticky glue. Seperating this was a worry as whatever about the LCD, break the digitizer and you wont find one on ebay so it's Archos or the bin. Again, I went around with the hairdryer, carefully using a razor blade to seperate the two making sure the blade cut away the glue from the lcd casing without touching the digitizer glass.
That done (and the stress over) simply placed the digitizer (which has little markings all around for placement - didnt need any recallibration) and reassembled the unit.
The only thing was that it seemed to take a while for the touchscreen to work right, and I thought I had borked this somehow but just seemed to get working normally.
Anyway, hope this is useful to someone.
machatta said:
OK, so I managed to break my A 70 LCD be rolling over it asleep on the sofa. Woe and despair. Anyway, problem now solved so I thought I'd do a quick guide.
I got the LCD replacement on Ebay - there are a bunch of sellers fpr about 85US including shipping - this compares to the Archos fix price of about 190.
All you need toolwise is a T5 screwdriver and disassemble the unit as per the Utube teardown
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aL7wTCBZ5m4&feature=player_embedded
The tricky part of the process - and hence this post - is taking the screen out of the casing and seperating the digitizer from the screen. The item you need for this is a hairdryer. After seperating the unit, you remove the screen and digitiser from the casing by going around the casing on the outside rim of the screen with the hairdryer and gently prise it out.
Then the only hassly part - the digitiser (The digitiser is the capacitive screen component) about 1mm thick and well glued to the LCD casing using soft sticky glue. Seperating this was a worry as whatever about the LCD, break the digitizer and you wont find one on ebay so it's Archos or the bin. Again, I went around with the hairdryer, carefully using a razor blade to seperate the two making sure the blade cut away the glue from the lcd casing without touching the digitizer glass.
That done (and the stress over) simply placed the digitizer (which has little markings all around for placement - didnt need any recallibration) and reassembled the unit.
The only thing was that it seemed to take a while for the touchscreen to work right, and I thought I had borked this somehow but just seemed to get working normally.
Anyway, hope this is useful to someone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You don't actually to Remove the digitizer from the case, a simpler method is to separate the LCD from the digitizer by unclip the lcd metal clips around it, you will be able to just remove the LCD it self (back light etc can be put back) do the same with the new LCD, unclip those metal, remove the metal frame and put the new lcd into the old metal frame (which is glue to the digitizer and the digitizer is glue to the case).
Yikes, I was worried about doing something like that but in taking apart the old lcd I see it's easy as pie.
Hope I won't need to do this again though.
Ok so let me get this right. Archos does not cover accidental screen damage? and they would charge me $190 for repair?
Sent from my ADR6400L using Tapatalk
If you crash your car, do you get e free repair?
Dammn! I Broke mine yesterday, guess this guide will be useful for me after all...
Super easy to change the LCD on the 70, just take the time and do it slowly, for lcd order it's about $70USD :
http://item.taobao.com/auction/item_detail.htm?item_num_id=9004146795
Poo tried this and now the device won't turn back on
The Screen of my Archos stopped registering my touches. It displays everything fine though.
I opened it to see if any cables loosened, which was not the case. I put it back together and it works not worse but also not better than before. If anyone could give me a hint which other parts I could check for this issue, this would be very appreciated.
Hi guys, The bezel on my note is quite weak, and have noticed quite major chipping which is annoying to me as I love having a perfect phone!
I found this on ebay: http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/OEM-Hous...lePhoneAccessories&hash=item19e3905929&_uhb=1
Wondering how easy it would be to replace? Looking at teardown videos no-one actually takes the bezel itself off.
Isn't the bezel part of the chassis mean most other parts attach to it?
Sent from my SM-N900T using Tapatalk
Limeybastard said:
Isn't the bezel part of the chassis mean most other parts attach to it?
Sent from my SM-N900T using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can take the mainboard off it quite easily as shown in the youtube teardowns.
The bezel can't be replaced. The complete display assembly needs to be replaced. The display is glued on the frame and bezel and is very likely to break when trying to pry it loose.
jusutus said:
The bezel can't be replaced. The complete display assembly needs to be replaced. The display is glued on the frame and bezel and is very likely to break when trying to pry it loose.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have just replaced one for a customer and it can be done. It takes a lot of patience. The lcd & digitizer are glued together, and the back of the lcd is glued to the frame. The frame has all the small pieces in it. You have to remove everything from the phone down to the screen. When removing the screen i found it worked best by heating the back, then the front, and then the back once more. I started at the top left corner where i could push the glass out with a plastic pick tool i have. Once you get the screen out a little you can stick a saftey pry tool or second pick in there. Then you slowly slide it around one side and the other to the bottom. Once the sceen is separated from the edges you have to slowly and VERY carfully hey your spudger under the lcd and slowly slide it around to separate the glue, doing this on one side and then the other. With any luck you can get yours out too. If your looking at getting a whole new assembly you might as well try any ways.
i have trouble believing this is an oem part of under 20$...smells like a scam to me
polish_pat said:
i have trouble believing this is an oem part of under 20$...smells like a scam to me
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have purchased s3 l710 and c-spire housing parts from them this past year. Parts I received were oem 100% All markings and materials were the same as the parts I was replacing.
Seperating samsung display from bezel on s3, note 3, and s4 is a difficult repair for the novice repair tech.
DMOYER said:
I have just replaced one for a customer and it can be done. It takes a lot of patience. The lcd & digitizer are glued together, and the back of the lcd is glued to the frame. The frame has all the small pieces in it. You have to remove everything from the phone down to the screen. When removing the screen i found it worked best by heating the back, then the front, and then the back once more. I started at the top left corner where i could push the glass out with a plastic pick tool i have. Once you get the screen out a little you can stick a saftey pry tool or second pick in there. Then you slowly slide it around one side and the other to the bottom. Once the sceen is separated from the edges you have to slowly and VERY carfully hey your spudger under the lcd and slowly slide it around to separate the glue, doing this on one side and then the other. With any luck you can get yours out too. If your looking at getting a whole new assembly you might as well try any ways.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Can you do it for my Note 3?
I need to change my note 3 middle frame....
Guys pls sent me the link
rishanhakim said:
I need to change my note 3 middle frame....
Guys pls sent me the link
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Same here. Even I need to change my silver bezel. Third grade quality bezel on a first grade phone. I always take utmost care of my phone and this is what happens to it due to usage within 1 year. Any suggestions plz.
speedykol said:
Same here. Even I need to change my silver bezel. Third grade quality bezel on a first grade phone. I always take utmost care of my phone and this is what happens to it due to usage within 1 year. Any suggestions plz.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Grab a case
Sent from my Limited Edition Note 3 LTE using Super Tapatalk
First time trying it. Watched some videos on line before I try it.
Below are my experiences I would like to share. See attachments for before and after pictures.
1 Make sure you heat it enough. Some people mentioned hair blower not enough. Some people mentioned yellow spots with heatgun. I was a little hesitated on heating regarding yellow spot warnings but I ended up separated the lcd and digitizer layers on top left corner but everything still functions fine just visually not perfect.
2 I used guitar picks and even metal sheet to separate glass and lcd. I don't actually see in anyway you could damage the lcd if you heat it enough and make sure you go in flat.
3 I used LOCA glue. Started with building dams on four sides with double sided tapes. I would recommend 2 mL at least. I used 1.6 mL and was not enough. Ended up with some small air bubbles and after curing showed up as small black circles which affects the viewing a little bit.
Seems like you didnt clean the dust in the second picture.
You must clean very well before putting the new glass.
mocito said:
Seems like you didnt clean the dust in the second picture.
You must clean very well before putting the new glass.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It was because first applied not enough glue added more but could not get rid of all air bubbles. cleaning was not too hard with alcohol.
added
1 temperature of hotplate 55C not enough, 70C worked well.
2 tried molybdenum wire broke. did not try floss. and really don't need them since guitar pick and even metal sheet worked well.
n7100 replacement glass cost
loveleo said:
It was because first applied not enough glue added more but could not get rid of all air bubbles. cleaning was not too hard with alcohol.
added
1 temperature of hotplate 55C not enough, 70C worked well.
2 tried molybdenum wire broke. did not try floss. and really don't need them since guitar pick and even metal sheet worked well.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wow...this is awesome. Where did you get the replacement glass from? and how much did it cost?
I accidentally dropped my Note 2 from above waist high, the impact taken at edge of the device got passed on to the larger portion of the glass, and the glass developed long cracks (but LCD and touch response was working fine). I took the device to the official service center, they said they had to replace the entire screen assembly (glass + LCD screen + top face plate) as they said they can't replace only the glass. The charged me something like $150 bucks for the replacement.
Wish Samsung had designed this better to make the edges shock proof. Also, I thought the note 2 had gorilla glass, but that doesn't seem to be the case.
degakc said:
Wow...this is awesome. Where did you get the replacement glass from? and how much did it cost ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Search eBay, etradesupply.com or parts4repair.com cost would be approx $20.
Sent from my GT-N7100 using Tapatalk
As you will no doubt be aware all of the external parts of the note 2 are easily replaceable. It's literally it's best feature, what's the point in having beautiful sleek aluminium phone if it's hidden under a case because you're scared to death of scratching it. Forget the case, go o'natural.
(Still I'll keep my screen protector on thanks, don't fancy doing this after a night in the keys pocket, d'oh!)
Sent from my GT-N7105 using xda app-developers app
Dont 7se a hair dryer to heat up i tried that way and ended up snapping the screen itself as it didnt heat up enough so new screen replacment was in order and expensive
I got my hands a E970 screen with a cracked digitizer. I hoped to use it to replace my cracked E960 screen,with a cheap 30 buck digitizer. So I carefully checked the pin-outs and it looked good. I then plugged it in and what do you know,worked just fine. So for what its worth,if its useful to anyone else,the LCD screen from an E970 will in fact work in an E960. Unfortunately it didnt work out. The screen,like the nexus 4 display,was glued t the front frame. I tried getting it out and ended up destroying the lcd. However,I did experiment with heating the front and separating it with a molybdenum wire. That part seemed to go smoothly. If anyone else has to do this,heres my best suggestion. Get some sandpaper,perhaps 80 grit and glue it to a board. Then sand the edge,moving parallel to the plane of the screen until you have ground away the frame and exposed the edge of the glass digitizer. Repeat on all four sides. This way you should be able to get to the adhesive under the digitizer without further cracking any glass. Remember,the front of the digitizer is cracked,so the lcd is vulnerable. I would get a piece of window glass and cut it to about the same size as the glass digitizer. Then used adhesive transfer tape to bond it to the front cracked glass.
Keep in mind,Ive not separated one successfully yet,so this is a combination of a report of my experiments and my educated guess on how to proceed in the future. It goes back to a previous attempt I did on a broken LCD. I conjectured that if I were to separate the plastic digitizer from the FRONT glass,I could more easily peel it away from the LCD. SO I took separated about a mm of the digitizer from the front glass. Then I ran a qtip dipped in acetone along the edge. The acetone was drawn into the gap by capilary action. I then waited a few minutes,repeated the acetone dipped qtip procedure,and then carefully slid the corner of the foil coated plastic package of a nicotine patch through the gap. The packet is very very thin,way thinner than a credit card,but very stiff. It easily removed another mm or so of the adhesive,and better still,left a gap,so that your not forcing the display to bend. This went well until I got near the last half inch of a shard of glass,about 1/3 of the way up the display. At that point,I applied a bit of upward force and that shard,about two inches long,with a sharp point,held only by a the last half inch by perhaps 1/3 inch section of adhesive shattered the LCD under the point. The lesson learned is,a cracked digitizer is going to have this lever effect on the shards that crack the lcd with a tiny amount of force due to the combination of the long lever arm and sharp point. So the glass is to hold that all together and keep it from doing the lever thing.
My experience tells me that ,yes,those techniques you see on the internet with the credit card and the heat gun MIGHT work,but your going to need a lot of skill. And that skill is developed by trashing DOZENS of LCDs. And its still not going to be 100%. Probably no more than 50%. My guess is that these were developed by people who repair these for a living. If you do,then you probably have a big box of broken displays. Some only have broken digitizers,some broken LCDs,and you think "If I had a way to reuse some of these parts,I could make a bunch of extra money" so you start with the broken ones,and then when you get something that works,even 50% of the time,you can make 50 bucks or more extra profit per screen you can fix,from parts that were previously worthless junk to you.
But I want something 100%,not for my nexus,but because more and more phones are made like this,and in the future they all will be. So I want to make a procedure that will fix it all the time. So far,I suspect that you have to choose one part to save. Either the frame or the LCD digitizer stack. I may try working around the edge with a plastic tool and heat with a glass bonded to the front and see if I can get the glass free of the frame without destroying the LCD,but Im not optimistic,first Id like a sure fire way to save an LCD.
My feeling is that if you bond the front glass to a ridged substrate,you can then use the sandpaper to grind the edge away. If you do it parallel to the plane of the screen,it should be very gentle on the display,avoiding any damage. Then you can perhaps with the aid of heat,cut the digitizer away from the frame. Im thinking at this point,you need a screen separator.
So Im going to make one. My plan is that I will make a device from plywood. It will have a backing and a part that slides. The part that slides will have a heated piece of aluminum with a thermostat that holds it at 175F and an inductive heating coil behind the aluminum. This "carriage" will slide back and forth,and there will be an guide that will constrain its motion to one axis. The "carriage" will actually be made from two blocks,one that will be in the guide,then a second that bolts to that,using some studs,and washers and wing nuts. Between these two plywood layers,I will uses sheets of paper as shims to adjust the height so that a 0.08mm molybdenum wire (I have 100' of it I got off ebay) is at the right height to separate the screen. The screen will be stuck to the glass with adhesive transfer tape,the edges ground away,then mounted to the separator with adhesive transfer tape,and shimmed to the right height. I can then heat it to temperature (the glue *I* use SHOULD be strong enough to hold it in place,if not,I just buy one of the higher temp adhesives. I can then separate the digitizer from the front glass AND the frame. At that point,the LCD should be free of the frame. Now,if the digitizer is OK,I can simply ,carefully clean the adhesive off of it and repair it using a 12 dollar front glass.
Some people use optically clear adhesive that is uv cured,because its easier to get a bubble free bond without a vacuum oven or autoclave so I will just use an optically clear adhesive transfer tape. I however have access to a vacuum oven at work,so I'm good to go. Even if I did not,I suspect that there are other options. I might try one of those vacuum storage containers they sell at target that go with those "food saver" vacuum packers. (I want one anyway to freeze food in,very handy. Buy 40lbs of chicken breasts when they come on sale for 1.89 a lb and freeze them! Pays for itself in no time) My hope would be that ,perhaps of first heated to say 180F or so,then placed on paper to avoid melting the plastic container ,you and a vacuum pulled,it would remove the bubbles. But I have access to the oven so I don't care much about that.
If not,then I can probably make sure the wire is on the other side of the digitizer and separate it from the lcd instead. Then the same procedure can be used to bond the LCD to a new digitizer/glass assembly. But first I need to find some more broken LCDs to play with. But hopefully my experiences will help others in their quest. The end result of what I have determined though is,Im going to have to make the separator,becuase while its obvious that its POSSIBLE without it,its just not reliable or practical.
Hello,
I just realized I have posted before on the Nexus 7 first gen forum, then I came back here to share my experience with my 2013 model.
I got a Nexus 7 2013 tablet with a broken digitizer for free, I started watching info and videos on the net on how to separate that digitizer from the god LCD.
The heat gun solution looks a bit too hard to control. I chose to try to make my own heat plate.
I have made the heating plate based on stuff found around the house, also I borrowed some stuff from work until I will receive the controller I ordered from Ebay.
Basically, I got an aluminum plate cut from a scrap piece, drilled holes to hold those lock down clamps, everything is just made to resemble those professional separation machines.
There are 2 small round heaters underneath, each around 200W, more than needed for this application.
I tried heating the assembly up to 85 deg C and the lcd metal back cover starts to lift up, separating from the lcd glass itself, oops, had to press down on it and lower the temp to around 65 C ,now it sits in place.
I bought 2-3 broken digitizers with screens from a guy that repairs tablets just to practice before I really try to do the digitizer change on my own tablet..
I will put pictures of the removed and cleaned LCD’s, the digitizers were just used to practice the LOCA glue removal, I throw them away after. Too many glass pieces.
Here is the name of the video: Nexus 7 LCD separation from digitizer, fast LOCA removal. Please turn on CC on the video to see more info.
The separation of the lcd is done with guitar wire 0.007”, not sure if smaller diameter it will do better or not.
I had a problem on one practice screen, I cut thru the front polarizing film on the lcd. that’s why I started the separation from the lcd connector side, wire gets better there between the digitizer and the lcd.
One great thing I found is by using silicon grease, it makes the sawing much easier and you only need one pass to separate the lcd. Apply in small quantities beside the lcd before you pass the string.
After separating the lcd, cleaning up the loca glue is also easy, thanks to my other interesting finding I did, by using essential oils.
There are so many out there, like tea tree oil, oregano oil, tried them, they all do a good job.
I finally used the citronella oil because it was only 4$ for 15ml, probably you can do lots of cleaning from one bottle and also repelling the mosquitos around you.
As you can see, apply small drops, spread uniformly with your finger, then wait, after 4-5 hours the glue comes off very easy.
If any excess oil, absorb-it with a paper towel. If it’s too much oil, not good also.
The good thing about oil is that it will have much less ( more like zero) chances to go inside the LCD panel and make spots, like the alcohol can do.
Finished the cleaning with some 99% isopropyl alcohol ( from the pharmacy).
I’m sure after this, some people will try to sell “ miracle” loca glue remover. Hope this post will remain here to give some great info to those searching.
This is valid for any kind of lcd loca glue cleaning, is it a phone or tablet, it will work.
I think I will try to reapply the uv loca glue to the new digitizer, I will wait for the ordered glue to come.
With all the things I purchased maybe is not economical for one tablet, but the experience I got is priceless, I’m happy to share with others.
Thanks for the tip!
How did you assemble new digitizer with the LCD back together? Did you use LOCA glue? If yes, where did you get that?
Hellou,
Thanks for the tips.
Do you know where to find aluminium bar at size 7-10" diagonal in RO?
Thanks
Appreciated your tips re grease and oil. I've done this several times, so I know it can be done with some patience. The big question is, where do you get a separate digitizer that works. I've tried at least 5 that partially worked (dead bands, mostly), but found none that totally did. If you have a source, it'd help greatly. Thanks again.