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I bought this phone on Ebay and instantly fell in love with it. It was pretty much perfect for me, I loved the big screen for my big sausage fingers, I loved how responsive it is, etc. The only thing I wasn't in love with was the battery life, but I got used to it too.
Like any responsible owner I ordered a screen protector and a flip case the day I bought the phone. Unfortunately they did not arrive as quickly as the phone did (within three days).
So I was at work one day and had put the phone into my top shirt pocket. As there was a big spider on one of our cameras, I decided to grab a stick and remove it. I found a nice stick that I liked and threw it up in the air while walking towards the camera whistling. It was a nice sunny day and I was in a good mood, what a perfect morning. Or so I thought.
I threw the stick a little too ambitiously into the air and couldn't quite manage to catch it. It dropped on the ground in front of me. Still in good spirits and still whistling, I bent down to pick it up.
*Flap!*
All of the sudden my good mood was gone and I'm pretty sure a dark cloud swiftly moved in front of the sun.
My new shiny Desire HD was lying on the ground. Face down.
I stood there for what may have been twenty seconds, but felt like an eternity, not sure whether I dared picking up the phone. Finally I summoned enough courage to do so. To my disappointment I had to realise my worst fear, the digitiser on the phone was smashed into a hundred pieces.
For the remainder of the work day I was in a very foul mood and really quite angry with the guiltless spider.
When I arrived home karma had played a cruel joke on me and had delivered the screen protector and flip cover in my absence.
I soon started researching how to replace the digitiser and finally found a disassembly guide on the internet. It seemed somewhat complicated and had a very annoying voice doing the narration, but I ignored these signs of impending doom and pushed on. Some of my conviction that I could do it stemmed from knowing that I was quite nimble (with the exception of stick throwing).
I ordered a digitiser off Ebay and checked my mailbox twice daily for the next two weeks or so. Finally it had arrived.
I had the majority of the tools ready thought I would need, the rest I would improvise. I did not have a metal strip as was mentioned that I would need, but I found an old floppy disk and cut up the metal cover which gave me something that looked remarkably similar to what was in the video.
It took a lot of effort and a lot of pausing, rewinding and replaying the youtube video but I finally got to the stage that I had removed all parts except for the LCD and the broken digitiser.
I put the metal strip into it as demonstrated in the video. The tactile response was poor and I hoped that I had cut what I needed to cut. I spent a good half hour doing this. Then, as I did not a have an oven that I could regulate perfectly, I decided that I would take two new condoms. I washed them and dried them to get rid of the lubricant and put the screen assembly first into one and then into the other. I started the kettle and made sure that my water had exactly 60 degrees. I then dropped the wrapped package into it and let it sit for 10 minutes. I took it out and tried to remove the digitiser to no avail. Back in it went at 65 degrees for 10 minutes. Still nothing.
Then I had the idea that it might be easier to take the digitiser out piece by piece. I took a very small screw driver and took out piece after piece. This must have taken me at least an hour, but I finally got the top layer of it out. When this was done, I had a little more space to play with and I decided that I would try to cut it out from the top. It was looking really quite good and the entire assembly started moving out, but on my final cut, I noticed that I had severed the LCD cable.
After this I continued to try and cut it out, but I realised that I hadn't been as close to getting it out as I had thought. I put it into the oven which was around 70 degrees, just as an experiment. I could still not get the glue to relinquish its hold of the LCD screen.
Grumpily, I took a larger screwdriver and levered the LCD screen out. It bent but didn't crack in the process. Maybe this is what I should have done in the first place? (Not that I would recommend it)
Back on Ebay I went and ordered a new LCD screen.
Today it finally arrived. I attached the new digitiser to the new LCD screen and then started the video yet again to see how to reassemble the phone. Unfortunately it was very hard to do this as the video was in the wrong order. I downloaded the video off youtube and reversed it. Interestingly the voice was much less annoying in reverse.
During the reassembly process I wanted to blow some lint off the screen that had landed on it, along with the lint I blew the box of screws off my desk. After a good ten minutes of searching I had found all but one of the screws. I figured that it had been swallowed forever by the carpet as even my rare earth magnets couldn’t find it, or the underpants gnomes had taken hold of it somehow.
If I had thought disassembling the phone was hard, I was in for a rude awakening. Reassembling it was extremely difficult. After using what felt like a good metre of sticky tape, I finally managed to get everything back together. I figured that the missing screw probably wasn’t doing anything important anyway.
The only problem that I appeared to have was that I hadn’t glued the digitiser back in place and it was constantly in danger of falling out of the phone. I decided that I would the phone into another case that I had bought while waiting for the first one. This was a silicon case and should force the digitiser to stay inside the phone.
First I wanted to test the phone however. I put in an old sim card, my memory card and started it up. My heart nearly skipped a beat when I saw “HTC” appear on the screen. Strangely it stayed there for some time. I sighed loudly and took the battery cover off.
Checking it, I couldn’t see anything that I had done wrong. So I put it all back together and turned it on again. Again the “HTC” appeared and after a while the booting logo followed. The phone simply took a while as it was a new sim card.
When android started up, I tested features and they all seemed to work except for the reception, I just couldn’t get any. I already saw me having to buy a new phone, but then realised that I was being an idiot and that I should put my current sim card into it.
After doing so, everything worked perfectly. I was very happy. Even my plan to keep the digitiser affixed to the phone with the cover worked well.
In Conclusion: It is possible to replace the digitiser (along with the LCD), but it is very difficult.
Nice story
TTIUWP
Damn that spider ;p
Sent from my Desire HD using XDA App
Wow.... That's quite an epic tale. Glad it had a happy ending... Thanks for sharing - hope I never have to come back to this post!
Sent from my Desire HD using XDA App
I hate it when I drop my phone. Once while laying hot asphalt my blackberry landed face down on it for a few minutes before I noticed.
Ahaha 'sausage fingers', great tale and glad you got it sorted ;-)
Sent from my Desire HD on the moon...
Id be in floods of tears.. you poor man haha.
You made me laugh and cry at the same time.
So I set my phone on the table, tried to pour myself a glass of water and spilled some water inside the phone. I tried testing the phone out and everything worked fine...except for the earpiece (where the water entered), I couldn't hear the person on the other end. So I immediately turned it off after (should've done it at the very beginning I know), blow dried it with hot air with the phone facing downwards until it got hot. Then I put it in a bag of rice overnight, just for safe measure and when I turned it on the next day I could hear the other side again, but the problem this time is the proximity sensor, which isn't detecting me.
Now I'm not able to use the keypad or go to speaker. My question is, is it easy to fix a proximity sensor without replacing it? I'm debating on whether I should sell it on eBay now, I think I would still get back the money I paid for it and maybe even a bit more.
How do you think you going to sell a faulty phone and get your money back at the same time?
Should've taken it apart and put the pieces in rice, not just the whole phone. Don't know if that could still fix the situation (since you already turned it back on), but you could always try that now.
TrueBrush said:
How do you think you going to sell a faulty phone and get your money back at the same time?
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Well, everything works except for the proximity sensor. Seems like everyone is buying Nexus 4's on eBay for $150-400 more than the asking price, I don't think I'm over-assuming that I might get most, if not all, of my money back if I were to sell it.
tylerxian said:
Well, everything works except for the proximity sensor. Seems like everyone is buying Nexus 4's on eBay for $150-400 more than the asking price, I don't think I'm over-assuming that I might get most, if not all, of my money back if I were to sell it.
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Click to collapse
it's just disingenuous, hence you could look like kind of a **** for mentioning the possibility.
If you mention clearly that the phone is faulty on ebay, I would not say anything about it. However, if you hide this information and try to sell the phone as a 100% working, I'm wondering if this can be called fraud/misleading.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda premium
kypeth said:
it's just disingenuous, hence you could look like kind of a **** for mentioning the possibility.
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It's not disingenuous if he describes the damage fully in the ebay ad.
Wouldn't surprise me if some desperate saddo did pay list price for a damaged nexus 4.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using xda premium
kypeth said:
it's just disingenuous, hence you could look like kind of a **** for mentioning the possibility.
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My bad, but I would have definitely mentioned about it in the description if I were to sell it. I don't plan on deceiving anyone about any defects the phone might have.
I just looked into the issue about proximity sensors some more. Turns out it was my crap screen protector (Xtremeguard) that caused the issue, I took it off and voila, it detected me again. Guess I don't have to sell it afterall!
Haven't you heard, the 6months old rumour about the nexus 4 being waterproof wasn't true!
MatAuc12 said:
Haven't you heard, the 6months old rumour about the nexus 4 being waterproof wasn't true!
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Click to collapse
but it looks like it could be waterproofed pretty easy... there's no big holes other than the headphone/usb jack, speaker grills has cover
hydrophobic coating should do pretty good
James.UBC said:
but it looks like it could be waterproofed pretty easy... there's no big holes other than the headphone/usb jack, speaker grills has cover
hydrophobic coating should do pretty good
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Click to collapse
What about a clear coat of PlastiDip?
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda premium
you should never dry it with hot air or blow dryer (next time use compress air)
Moved to Q&A
Sent from my Nocturnalized One XL using Forum Runner
So I was doing laundry and thought I had everything off the bed. I gathered up my Nexus 4 with my sheets and didn't realize it was in the washer until it had been submerged for several minutes. I dried it off and have had it under a fan for a couple days. I am going to put it in rice for a couple more.
Should I take it apart and put it in the rice?
Update: I have a little precision screw driver set but even the really small ones don't seem to fit the Nexus 4 screws. I guess I will just have to put the whole phone in the rice.
Do you really think someone is going to pay you full price or more if you mentioned you spilled water on it and the sensor does not work????? This is one of the dumbest things I have ever heard.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda premium
tylerxian said:
So I set my phone on the table, tried to pour myself a glass of water and spilled some water inside the phone. I tried testing the phone out and everything worked fine...except for the earpiece (where the water entered), I couldn't hear the person on the other end. So I immediately turned it off after (should've done it at the very beginning I know), blow dried it with hot air with the phone facing downwards until it got hot. Then I put it in a bag of rice overnight, just for safe measure and when I turned it on the next day I could hear the other side again, but the problem this time is the proximity sensor, which isn't detecting me.
Now I'm not able to use the keypad or go to speaker. My question is, is it easy to fix a proximity sensor without replacing it? I'm debating on whether I should sell it on eBay now, I think I would still get back the money I paid for it and maybe even a bit more.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
tylerxian said:
Well, everything works except for the proximity sensor. Seems like everyone is buying Nexus 4's on eBay for $150-400 more than the asking price, I don't think I'm over-assuming that I might get most, if not all, of my money back if I were to sell it.
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Click to collapse
Just sell it for parts - NOT FULLY WORKING on ebay, don't be misleading because it will just get you negative feedback and everyone will think you are a scammer, meanwhile paypal will get the buyers money back 100%..
Be stand-up and fully explain all the problems with a good description. You'll be surprised how much you can get for a cutting edge broken/not fully working smartphone.. Look at all the broken iPhone 5's for sale and how much people are getting for them at no-reserve auctions.. its pretty nuts.
Misfit77 said:
So I was doing laundry and thought I had everything off the bed. I gathered up my Nexus 4 with my sheets and didn't realize it was in the washer until it had been submerged for several minutes. I dried it off and have had it under a fan for a couple days. I am going to put it in rice for a couple more.
Should I take it apart and put it in the rice?
Update: I have a little precision screw driver set but even the really small ones don't seem to fit the Nexus 4 screws. I guess I will just have to put the whole phone in the rice.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Update? I'm wondering how waterproof this thing really is.
kristoff125 said:
Update? I'm wondering how waterproof this thing really is.
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Hi all,
my nex4 had a little bit of sand and water go into it, which rendered it useless.
Now it will not even turn on.
i have had the I.C circuitry cleaned off sand and also blown dry, still no luck. It will NOT turn on
I spoke to Google saying the phone wont turn on, they have agreed to give replacement.
Will there be any problems when i send back the old phone?
PS: i no its my mistake that i should not have let it come in contact with water, but hey it deftly was not much.
My galaxy S and S2 have taken abuse, but still function. This is definitely my mistake, tho.
Ramu
darkkid85 said:
Hi all,
my nex4 had a little bit of sand and water go into it, which rendered it useless.
Now it will not even turn on.
i have had the I.C circuitry cleaned off sand and also blown dry, still no luck. It will NOT turn on
I spoke to Google saying the phone wont turn on, they have agreed to give replacement.
Will there be any problems when i send back the old phone?
PS: i no its my mistake that i should not have let it come in contact with water, but hey it deftly was not much.
My galaxy S and S2 have taken abuse, but still function. This is definitely my mistake, tho.
Ramu
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Click to collapse
will google find out about water damange and charge me extra? pls advice.
Ive had my nexus 4, for about a 1week. I'm very careful with my phones. Had the iPhone since the 3G-till the 4S switched back and forth beetween android. Having the G1 and the G2 then G2x and the GS3 now I have the nexus 4. Never having problem with a cracked screen on ANY PHONE. After a long shift at work 12hrs at a (Nissan dealership) I take my phone out of my pocket and the back is cracked?!?! Not once did I drop it or bump it in my jacket. So my only conclusion is that the phone is very sensitive and maybe with the slight pressure with crack? Anyone have same problem or info? Currently waiting for Google to send me my replacement. Hopefully I'm under warrnty for the crack. (fingers crossed)
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda app-developers app
You must have bumped it or bent it. Glass doesn't crack by itself. Otherwise there would be tons of these posts on here.
That being said the back glass does look pretty thin, so a hit in the right (wrong) place could do the damage maybe. I dunno. Mine is caseless and it's still perfect.
AW: Back panel cracked in my pocket never dropped?
Maybe heat and cold diferences Do you have a pic of it ?
Sent from my HTC One X using xda premium
There are a few posts out there with this issue.
One off the top pf my head is:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1999345
Not sure if it was in that thread or another but I saw a user say they had it on their desk, heard small popping/crackle noise, and the back of his N4 spider webbed from the bottom corner, which would support the idea of the temp changes causing it.
Bull****.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda premium
Because of its size it seems easy to angle it in a way where it can get flexed. I experience this using my.phone in my pockets often.
Two weeks of your time and $64 + shipping there is what it cost me. Google will not cover damage as a warranty claim and LG won't quote a price to repair. Good luck
Hi
christianrms said:
Two weeks of your time and $64 + shipping there is what it cost me. Google will not cover damage as a warranty claim and LG won't quote a price to repair. Good luck
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Click to collapse
These phones can't really be kept in a trouser (pant) pocket without some potential problems. I think the main issue is when you go to sit down, your pocket bends into a right angle, and your phone wants to follow that shape. Being a fairly large phone it can't get find a space in your pocket where it isn't under some forces trying to bend it.
Eventually your phone starts to bend slightly, this at best may just cause the glass back to pull away from the back adhesive, at worse it bends enough to break the glass. It seems a similar issues were the cause of Wi-Fi antennas disconnecting internally on the HTC One X.
These type of devices are not called "pocket phones", they are called "smart phones" and don't respond well when stuffed into a trouser pocket.
Regards
Phil
My nexus 4 cracked as well. Had it inside a warm gym changing room then put it in my coat pocket ,which btw is big enough and located so that it wont bend the phone at all. I then went outside (imin the uk where it is snowing hence cold) then pulled it out and it had got a crack on it. Not happy to say the least, and no its not covered by lg warrenty.
PhilipL said:
These phones can't really be kept in a trouser (pant) pocket without some potential problems. I think the main issue is when you go to sit down, your pocket bends into a right angle, and your phone wants to follow that shape. Being a fairly large phone it can't get find a space in your pocket where it isn't under some forces trying to bend it.
Eventually your phone starts to bend slightly, this at best may just cause the glass back to pull away from the back adhesive, at worse it bends enough to break the glass. It seems a similar issues were the cause of Wi-Fi antennas disconnecting internally on the HTC One X.
These type of devices are not called "pocket phones", they are called "smart phones" and don't respond well when stuffed into a trouser pocket.
Regards
Phil
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's the reason I wear baggy drawers! Carry a lot of things in them including this fragile glass phone! :good:
Anyone know how get LIGHT Straches off screen not deep are about 1cm long
Cheers
Got a few myself . .one i can actually feel by running my nail across but a few hours just very tiny and not visible until turned a certain way . .anyone got any tips to remove them?
Got the same here. Very tiny hairline scratches, you have to look really hard to see them. I'd expect many would notice they will have these scratches if they look close enough. Let's hope the glass regenerates in due time lol
Seriously though, it was quite disappointing to see. But I'm over it now, until I see some good quality reviews on screen protectors I'm just going to continue down this path of so called nakedness.
Sent from my SM-G935F using Tapatalk
Got a screen protector straight away, you can never be too careful and accidents do happen. Hope you manage to get them out.
Sent from my S7 Edge
I'm not too thrilled with the screens so far. Had my phone for 2 weeks..
just got back from vacation and on first day on vacation phone dropped out of my pocket with a case and hit the concrete 3 1/2 foot drop. Hit right on the bend on the display and cracked like it was cheap glass. I was so pissed. Here I watch fall tests left and right and this thing cant even handle a little fall. I was coming from a note 4 and I never had a phone break so easily. After looking around it looked like many people with 6 edge had/has issues of it breaking easily or breaking even from heat changes from charging. Now I get to have the fun fighting with samsung not to [email protected] me over too much or go with a repair shop and pray.
Anyone using a wallet-style case with their phone ? I can bet that some of the Samsung official wallet-style cases are not too friendly with the screen, especially the Clear Cover case which is pure plastic and at least the S6 Edge model scratched the screen very badly.
Anyone else have very faint surface scratches on the back of their phone? No idea how I got them on this supposedly sturdy phone, but they are there. The phone has been on microfiber resting at all times.
My question is this, anyone think we can polish the back to get light scratches out?
Sent from my PH-1 using Tapatalk
I have this same thing going on, day 3 with the device. They're not that noticable but I know they're there and that's what bugs me. Somewhere I read said it could be scratches in oleophobic coating... IDK. JerryRigEverythings scratch test didn't show any markings until around 8 on the hardness scale.
Sent from my PH-1 using Tapatalk
sk33ls said:
I have this same thing going on, day 3 with the device. They're not that noticable but I know they're there and that's what bugs me. Somewhere I read said it could be scratches in oleophobic coating... IDK. JerryRigEverythings scratch test didn't show any markings until around 8 on the hardness scale.
Sent from my PH-1 using Tapatalk
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Click to collapse
Yea I saw the video. That's what has me annoyed. Essentials talk of durability is well documented. Add that to the fact that no cases are readily available means you kinda need to just put up with whatever happens. I'm wondering if we can just use a mild polish on the back to alleviate any minor scratches. Mine are almost invisible, but I their presence at all on a phone I baby, bothers me.
I think baking soda and water would do the trick.
Sent from my PH-1 using Tapatalk
I began to see fine scratches on the back of mine within days. I carry it in my front pocket with nothing else. I'm not aware of any rough treatment at all. I feel disappointed as well.
Same problem here ,another thing to be disappointed besides the Camera.
Same here
I was getting some as well. Try the polish out and see if it works? I don't think anyones tried it yet. Also if you don't mind covering the back you can always throw a skin on it. Also makes the phone a lot less slippery
I had quite a few on my first unit. My replacement unit I have none so far but I put a dbrand skin on it the minute I took it out of the box. My first one also had some scratches in the titanium near the charging port and a nick on the side that came from who knows what.
NeutronBomb said:
I had quite a few on my first unit. My replacement unit I have none so far but I put a dbrand skin on it the minute I took it out of the box. My first one also had some scratches in the titanium near the charging port and a nick on the side that came from who knows what.
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Click to collapse
Interesting. Have you complained to customer support about scratches? I wonder what their take is.
Sent from my PH-1 using Tapatalk
NeutronBomb said:
I had quite a few on my first unit. My replacement unit I have none so far but I put a dbrand skin on it the minute I took it out of the box. My first one also had some scratches in the titanium near the charging port and a nick on the side that came from who knows what.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I also have fine scratches on the back of mine, with scratches near the USB c port. I also have a replacement supposedly on the way, but for freezing & random reboot issues. What did they replace your phone for? How long did it take for you to get the replacement?
Mine was for bad light bleed and the coating on the titanium coming off. Now I have to exchange again because the one they sent me has no speaker grille.
They sent the replacement next day air after they called to confirm. I had already sent my defective device in. This was before they started doing advanced replacement.
I wish you hadn't said anything.. I have them too
Maybe they could be polished out, but if it scratches this easily they are destined to return.
The phone is not supposed to be scratch proof. I'll be surprised if they'll take your phone back just because of slight scratched. Put it in a sleeve to install vinyl backing for peace of mind.
Mine had scratches from day one... lol Just placed my replacement order yesterday but I don't expect to get it anytime soon. Phone is off and collecting dust til I get the box to return it. They stated they wouldn't have any new devices (hopefully ones w/o much of the hardware issues like the speaker grille) in stock until this week when they emailed me last week.
I ended up getting a replacement from essential and placing a skin on the back to protect from getting these fine scratches. I don't hate it as much as I thought I would, I miss the shiny back but I like not having scratches and finger prints all over the back. Wahoo!
Sent from my PH-1 using Tapatalk
Had mine for over six weeks, and no scratches here.
I have a ton of scratches near the camera and magnet ports. No idea how they got there since I carry my phone in my pocket with nothing else in it. The only thing I could think of would be resting it on it's back on a table and sliding it to pick it up? Odd how it is only around the top part. Fingerprint sensor and below is spotless.
Malacant said:
I have a ton of scratches near the camera and magnet ports. No idea how they got there since I carry my phone in my pocket with nothing else in it. The only thing I could think of would be resting it on it's back on a table and sliding it to pick it up? Odd how it is only around the top part. Fingerprint sensor and below is spotless.
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Click to collapse
Close to that area are the magnets, magnets attract metal and sand, sand is one of the few things that can scratch glass and ceramic. Sometimes even if we believe or not we have sand in our packets due to daily life. Then we have scratches without knowing where we scratched.
Sent from my SM-N950U1 using XDA-Developers Legacy app
I don't understand people complaining about micro scratches like it's something wrong with the phone? If you live in a place that has sand then you should have some type of protection on your device if you don't want scratches. Sand (silica) is harder than any coating and will scratch any phone. It also can become ubiquitous. One of the persons here literally has a user pic with them on the beach! Why make it Essentials fault when your failure to protect your phone is the issue?
I got my scratches at my corporate office in my cube. Nowhere near beach or anything of that sort. Was just playing with it and setting it up. Anyone who's not using any protection on the back and have been using it regularly saying they don't have any scratches, please share a close up video of your phone's back in nice HD detail close up so we can be in awe of your magical device with no scratches. Be sure to move it around under a bright light too. Lol. Be real people, you're gonna get scratches without a protection, whether it's a skin, case or whatever.