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HTC G1 Screen cracked (digitizer) - G1 Parts order

Hi,
I'm new to this forum so i'd like to say hello to everybody first
I have a g1 with the screen cracked. When I say the screen is cracked I mean that upper glass area; The lcd does not seem to be cracked in any way so there is no bleeding at all. Touch still works very well even in the cracked area.
I seem to have come across only 1 ebay auction that was selling a digitizer and everywere is absurdly expensive to buy. Any ideas where i can find one ? At 189$ i'm half way to buying a new phone tbh.
Also I saw in this forum that some people had the same problem and people told them that they would need to replace both lcd AND digitizer, however i clearly saw in the htc dream service manual that they are two separate parts with separate part numbers. Is there some particular reason for this ?
Just to clarify, can any tell me the order in which components are placed in the htc g1 ? Im assuming they are as follows:
Touch Screen Digitizer
LCD Screen
cover and hinge
in that order..Am I right in my assumption ?
Thanks,
Mewt

Bump. I would like to know as well.

Check it out:
This listing just got put up on eBay today. This guy has 50 digitizers for sale:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&item=230336383436

If you are sure the LCD is intact, you should just buy the Digitizer. The LCD can easily be seen by opening up the phone.
http://cgi.ebay.com/HTC-T-MOBILE-GO...5|66:2|65:12|39:1|240:1318|301:1|293:1|294:50

I can confirm you can replace the digitizer WITHOUT replacing the lcd.
I just did it. A car ran over my G1 a while ago and I've been lurking on ebay ever since waiting for digitizers to be listed. With a new digitizer, a Torx screwdriver and about an hour I have just replaced the broken one and the new one works perfectly.
Of course that also means I now have a spare G1 since I bought another one in case I couldn't get a replacement.

I will be doing the same shortly.
Actually this is the best price I have found on a digitizer
http://www.perfectesell.com/gog1glscdico.html
Any tips on replacing the part? Does the phone have to come completely apart?

I can't buy from that buyer as he doesn't ship to Malta but thanks, now I know what I need to look for and will be doing so. Hope I can get my g1 working well again...I just hate trying to read messages with cracks in them
Thanks all for your replies

Its quite fiddly but as long as you have the manual you should be okay.
There's a few things tho. Page 23 doesn't really show you how to disconnect the camera very well. On the underside of the main board there is a connector like the one for the screen. It is released by flipping the paddle lever think 90 degrees down. Otherwise the camera connector gets pulled out when you remove the mainboard.
It should go without saying you don't need to disassemble the bottom "chin" part when you remove it. Oh and page 24 has an error, those aren't the 2 screws you need to remove, its 2 long ones, one is in the top right of that picture on page 24 the other is to the right of the one circled.

Mr_dev said:
Its quite fiddly but as long as you have the manual you should be okay.
There's a few things tho. Page 23 doesn't really show you how to disconnect the camera very well. On the underside of the main board there is a connector like the one for the screen. It is released by flipping the paddle lever think 90 degrees down. Otherwise the camera connector gets pulled out when you remove the mainboard.
It should go without saying you don't need to disassemble the bottom "chin" part when you remove it. Oh and page 24 has an error, those aren't the 2 screws you need to remove, its 2 long ones, one is in the top right of that picture on page 24 the other is to the right of the one circled.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
hey would you say the average person would be able to change the digitizer or do you have to be a handy man.. taking anybodys replys ONLY if you''ve done it

Well I guess I am the average person but then I've taken many a pc and laptop apart and put it back together again so maybe not...
There's nothing that requires great skill in it. As long as you're gentle, patient and careful (taking apart a G1 is like making love to a beautiful woman...). Keep track of what screws came from where and don't try and force anything.
Remember you need some torx head screwdrivers. but you can get these on ebay for very little.
I have to admit I feel a bit smug when I see forum posts from people who advise you sent it back to T-Mo and pay a $100+ excess for them to do it. As if!

Ah, my screen is just gently scratched, but it's annoying sometimes. I might look at into this if it gets any worse.
Just looking at the back of the screen when the G1 is open, it looks like I'd have to take the whole phone apart...are there guides I can look at?

Here is some sites that helped me out.
This is an easy to ready explanation to what you are looking at.
http://www.phonewreck.com/wiki/index.php?title=T-Mobile_G1
This is where I found the service manual a while back
http://www.intomobile.com/2008/12/18/dissect-your-t-mobile-g1-with-the-htc-dream-service-manual.html
This was where you can find the digitizer. (I dunno which one it is... but I think its the clearpad) only thing I could not find a match on part numbers anywhere
http://www.synaptics.com/solutions/products
And this is the address and Houston local number for HTC America. (i didnt check the number so i'm 72.34763% sure its right(just do a little social engineering to get to where you need to be.) )
http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&i...-95.551229&spn=0.009187,0.015986&z=16&iwloc=A

same boat here. cracked digitizer. seems like the g1 is the only phone, for which you can't buy one.

Mr_dev said:
Well I guess I am the average person but then I've taken many a pc and laptop apart and put it back together again so maybe not...
There's nothing that requires great skill in it. As long as you're gentle, patient and careful (taking apart a G1 is like making love to a beautiful woman...). Keep track of what screws came from where and don't try and force anything.
Remember you need some torx head screwdrivers. but you can get these on ebay for very little.
I have to admit I feel a bit smug when I see forum posts from people who advise you sent it back to T-Mo and pay a $100+ excess for them to do it. As if!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
hey i have a question i replace my digitizer but now the bottom part of the touch screen... closest to the menu button doesnt work. what do you think can be wrong

Pull it apart again using the service guide section 2.2.3 and make sure all connections have complete contact. If something is not sitting right the circuit may not be ringing out correctly. Once you have gone through all the steps 2.3.2(lcm assembly) and everything looks connected properly, assemble, reboot and test. If it is not fixed you may have a bad digitizer I'm hoping for the fact that most of your screen is working its just a connection problem.

Mr_dev said:
Its quite fiddly but as long as you have the manual you should be okay.
There's a few things tho. Page 23 doesn't really show you how to disconnect the camera very well. On the underside of the main board there is a connector like the one for the screen. It is released by flipping the paddle lever think 90 degrees down. Otherwise the camera connector gets pulled out when you remove the mainboard.
It should go without saying you don't need to disassemble the bottom "chin" part when you remove it. Oh and page 24 has an error, those aren't the 2 screws you need to remove, its 2 long ones, one is in the top right of that picture on page 24 the other is to the right of the one circled.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
When you reassembled what did you do about the tape and gaskets? Were you able to buy new or did you use something else? Thanks!
Matt

s02mike said:
Here is some sites that helped me out.
This is an easy to ready explanation to what you are looking at.
http://www.phonewreck.com/wiki/index.php?title=T-Mobile_G1
This is where I found the service manual a while back
http://www.intomobile.com/2008/12/18/dissect-your-t-mobile-g1-with-the-htc-dream-service-manual.html
This was where you can find the digitizer. (I dunno which one it is... but I think its the clearpad) only thing I could not find a match on part numbers anywhere
http://www.synaptics.com/solutions/products
And this is the address and Houston local number for HTC America. (i didnt check the number so i'm 72.34763% sure its right(just do a little social engineering to get to where you need to be.) )
http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&i...-95.551229&spn=0.009187,0.015986&z=16&iwloc=A
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i'm willing to try replacing it myself as well and i was wondering how much your purchased your new digitizer for. would the one suggested earlier at this link: http://www.perfectesell.com/gog1glscdico.html be good? it seems a lot cheaper than other ones and i dont want to buy a faulty and cheap one that may not work as well or break. any other tips would be GREATLY appreciated. TIA!

Here's the correct page on the Perfectesell site:
http://www.perfectesell.com/htcgog1glscd.html
Same price ($65) as the ebay auction that ended.
I dunno what that $12.95 thing was... price doesn't seem right for glass, touch sensing wizardry

mattcairns said:
When you reassembled what did you do about the tape and gaskets? Were you able to buy new or did you use something else? Thanks!
Matt
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Some of the gaskets i didnt fully remove so i just place em down... and some of the tape i didnt reuse.
bloob9 said:
i'm willing to try replacing it myself as well and i was wondering how much your purchased your new digitizer for. would the one suggested earlier at this link: http://www.perfectesell.com/gog1glscdico.html be good? it seems a lot cheaper than other ones and i dont want to buy a faulty and cheap one that may not work as well or break. any other tips would be GREATLY appreciated. TIA!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I bought my digitizer on ebay for about 25 dollars i think. then i bought the screwdrive kit for 7 dollars also

s02mike said:
Pull it apart again using the service guide section 2.2.3 and make sure all connections have complete contact. If something is not sitting right the circuit may not be ringing out correctly. Once you have gone through all the steps 2.3.2(lcm assembly) and everything looks connected properly, assemble, reboot and test. If it is not fixed you may have a bad digitizer I'm hoping for the fact that most of your screen is working its just a connection problem.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thanx i took it apart again and that fixed it... i have 2 more problems 1 major 1 not. i dont know but i normally got 3g service in my house and now i dont what could b the problem.
second is that the screen doesnt swivel smoothy as before

Digitizer Non Responsive

Hey guys.
Owned the phone for a few months now and have started to notice a really odd problem. For a while the screen was being fairly unresponsive to touches and I couldn't figure out why. Taking the screen protector off fixed it temporarily but now the issue is back.
I finally realised that the issue was a black smudge that would appear whenever I pushed too hard on the screen. I'm assuming this registers as a touch on the screen and prevents it from working. Rubbing the stylus over the area usually makes it dissipate and the screen becomes responsive again, but it would come back not long later after general use.
Also there's some fairly odd rainbowing underneath the digitizer that moves around when you press on the screen. It circles around the smudges when they appear.
I know that all sounds fairly vague, but any help on the issue would be great. Is a new digitizer in order or could it be fixed by just dissassembling it? I've tried using a suction cap to make the problem go away, the rainbowing disappears but slowly comes back again. Also I haven't dropped the phone, left it near anything etc, besides the digitizer problem the phone works fine.
Thanks in advance!
(On a side note, I bought the phone off eBay and had to use a serial number locater to determine the region of the phone. Found out it was destined for India when I'm in Australia. Fairly odd, but what are the warranty implications? Is it still covered?)

Same problem here!
I've sent it to HTC for repair, since my Diamond2 has 1 year warranty and I only bought it in May/09. HTC said that screen issues are excluded of the warranty and that I have to pay about €70 for the screen repair, because, they say, the problem is due to misuse - wich I don't think is true.

Daisjun said:
Hey guys.
Owned the phone for a few months now and have started to notice a really odd problem. For a while the screen was being fairly unresponsive to touches and I couldn't figure out why. Taking the screen protector off fixed it temporarily but now the issue is back.
I finally realised that the issue was a black smudge that would appear whenever I pushed too hard on the screen. I'm assuming this registers as a touch on the screen and prevents it from working. Rubbing the stylus over the area usually makes it dissipate and the screen becomes responsive again, but it would come back not long later after general use.
Also there's some fairly odd rainbowing underneath the digitizer that moves around when you press on the screen. It circles around the smudges when they appear.
I know that all sounds fairly vague, but any help on the issue would be great. Is a new digitizer in order or could it be fixed by just dissassembling it? I've tried using a suction cap to make the problem go away, the rainbowing disappears but slowly comes back again. Also I haven't dropped the phone, left it near anything etc, besides the digitizer problem the phone works fine.
Thanks in advance!
(On a side note, I bought the phone off eBay and had to use a serial number locater to determine the region of the phone. Found out it was destined for India when I'm in Australia. Fairly odd, but what are the warranty implications? Is it still covered?)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You have collapsed your layers between lcd and digitizer.
Some folks here use duct tape to repeatedly pull the layers apart and it fixes their issue for a while.

Thought it'd be something along those lines. I'll give the duct tape trick a try, can you point me to some other threads? I tried searching but was probably using the wrong terms.
Also vasco that's complete bollocks. I've kept my phone in its case the whole time I've had it, never put any pressure on it or had it in a rough environment. I'd throw a few customer complaints their way, especially if other people have had the same issue. Nice to know I'm not alone at least.

Daisjun said:
Thought it'd be something along those lines. I'll give the duct tape trick a try, can you point me to some other threads? I tried searching but was probably using the wrong terms.
Also vasco that's complete bollocks. I've kept my phone in its case the whole time I've had it, never put any pressure on it or had it in a rough environment. I'd throw a few customer complaints their way, especially if other people have had the same issue. Nice to know I'm not alone at least.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
search for "newton rings"

Daisjun said:
Thought it'd be something along those lines. I'll give the duct tape trick a try, can you point me to some other threads? I tried searching but was probably using the wrong terms.
Also vasco that's complete bollocks. I've kept my phone in its case the whole time I've had it, never put any pressure on it or had it in a rough environment. I'd throw a few customer complaints their way, especially if other people have had the same issue. Nice to know I'm not alone at least.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The issue is being discussed here:
http://forum.xda-developers...522813
I've already filed a complaint to the comm's regulation office. I'me presently waiting for their response.

had the same issue.. I just replaced the digitizer, it's a bit tricky but certainly possible.. yours is not that old so it should be repaired under warranty if you can have that done (have no clue about your situation there..)
digitizers are cheap on ebay
disassembly:
http://www.pdacenter.ru/razborka/htc-touch-diamond2/

Daisjun said:
Thought it'd be something along those lines. I'll give the duct tape trick a try, can you point me to some other threads? I tried searching but was probably using the wrong terms.
Also vasco that's complete bollocks. I've kept my phone in its case the whole time I've had it, never put any pressure on it or had it in a rough environment. I'd throw a few customer complaints their way, especially if other people have had the same issue. Nice to know I'm not alone at least.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Here is my thread about this.
I am in the same boat as you - phone was destined for somewhere in Asia, and I am in Australia. I contacted HTC, and they also told me that the problem could be caused by misuse, even though I KNOW it wasn't, as my phone is always in it's case unless being used, never dropped etc. It sucks, but I think I will just replace the digitizer myself.

Help, black 'liquid' spots, what to do

Hi Guys,
This morning I suddenly noticed black 'liquid' spots 'behind' my screen. The screen stills works perfectly, but not sure what to do with these spots.
Should I bring it in for repair (reflashing to original ROM, etc)?
These are spots like we used to see on LCD screens, if you press the screen, they get bigger. If I take out the battery and press from the inside, the spots move as well. I reckon there is some pressure build up in the device and would like to open it myself, but that would void the warrenty of course.
Attached 2 photos, 1 with screen off (clearly visable) and 1 with screen on (not really bothersome).
anybody seen this before?
FTrippie

ink bleeding, u should get it to repair asap, lcd is messsed up
My mistake, the other members are right, I am sorry as I could not see your pictures correctly because I was browsing with my hd2.... it is not ink bleeding, for that, you have to have the lcd broken..... anyway, I am glad is not bleeding, now, lets learn from the other members.... cheers..

There are quite a few threads with people having the same issue, I don't believe it's bleeding like suggested above, it is the layers of the screen sticking together. I had the same problem on my old LG Viewty about three years ago - sometimes it goes away on it's own (when the phone gets hot for example) and sometimes you need to get a replacement. If it's new I suggest you speak to either your provider or HTC.

Use a suction cup to carefully pull the screen a little bit and it should disappear.
Brgds... /TubGirl

Same thing happened to me, and few other members... Have a look here.
Grtz
Lukas

Thanks for the quick response guys!
Yep, it's exactly what happened in thread mentioned
(did some searching but couldn't find it before)
the suction cup idea might be a good one, will check it out and let you know. If I can solve it myself it would be much better than sending it in.
thanks!

(newton ring ) this is dueto great pressure happened on the screen if not fixed in short time the screeen will be corrubted .
note; (it is not covered by warranty)

Nope, in my case no pressure whatsoever. It just happened overnight. If it would be pressure, it would be from a faulty manufacturing and elements of the device not fitting well.
Just read the whole case in the other thread, I think I am in for some treat.
Will start with calling my dealer, which is Vodafone Spain.

ftrippie said:
Nope, in my case no pressure whatsoever. It just happened overnight. If it would be pressure, it would be from a faulty manufacturing and elements of the device not fitting well.
Just read the whole case in the other thread, I think I am in for some treat.
Will start with calling my dealer, which is Vodafone Spain.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
mab be it would be from a faulty manufacturing but fix it fast before the screen corrubts from over pressure as this happened on hd1 and they did not want to fix it under warranty

If this happened to me and I couldn't get rid of it, I would go ballistic if HTC claimed it wasn't covered by the warranty. What a total piss take.

i can understand the newton ring effect on resistive screens, but on capacitive screens using glass - i find it hard to believe.

Yes, ardsar. My thougths exactly.
I had Newton rings on my touch hd. And I was informed that that is imposible on capacative screen because it is made of hard material, top layer cannot fall on the lower one.

Whatever it is, I hope it's not a recurring issue. In my thread three HD2 had that issue, and now another one...

Exactly Lukass, I hope this is just coincidence.
I just reflashed the original ROM and will take it this afternoon. In the end I decided not to try to get rid of it myself, since it is now plain visible. And I only had it for 2 weeks, so of it goes.
Let's see what they say.

I had this, repaired by repair service under warranty. The report said it was newton ring.

well, I just brought it in, estimated return is 11th March, let's hope that it will be quicker!
cheers!

Yes it is a newton ring caused by pressure perhaps if you keep the phone in the trouser pocket which is tight.I had the same but as repaired under warranty in 2 days.

Be careful not put to much pressure when putting the battery in, since its a very thin layer between the battery and the LCD. I think this can cause the LCD come in contact with the digitizer if you are not careful.

propably heating issue
has anyone got the idea that this may have been caused by heat? maybe when the internal components of the phone heats up this causes the gap (spot) on the screen. can anyone confirm what is behind the spot? is it the processor? i've got this idea because before switching to hd2 i was using SE xperia x1 and maybe most of you are aware of the cracking issues of the silver casing. well according to my local SE representative this cracking was caused by heating when using wifi. it was covered by warranty since it's a manufacturing defect. HD2 also heats up when using wifi and maybe thats what causing this problem. well its just my idea. feel free to share yours.

how to fix liquid spot
ftrippie said:
Hi Guys,
This morning I suddenly noticed black 'liquid' spots 'behind' my screen. The screen stills works perfectly, but not sure what to do with these spots.
Should I bring it in for repair (reflashing to original ROM, etc)?
These are spots like we used to see on LCD screens, if you press the screen, they get bigger. If I take out the battery and press from the inside, the spots move as well. I reckon there is some pressure build up in the device and would like to open it myself, but that would void the warrenty of course.
Attached 2 photos, 1 with screen off (clearly visable) and 1 with screen on (not really bothersome).
anybody seen this before?
FTrippie
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i had the exactly the same problem, and fixed it!!!! what i did was to heat it up with a hair dryer while it was on charge(this causes the battery to heat up as well) the spot started to shrink slowly took around 2 hours, but it didnt solve my problem total, as when it cools down the spot would comeback but not as large as b4. so getting pissed of with it i put it on charge from my laptop and placed my hd2 behind the air vent of my laptop(where the heat escapes) and continued working, i forgot my phone was there for about 5-8 hours. when i remembered it was there i moved it, whole phone was very hot not so hot that i couldn't hold it but hot enough. the spot had gone totally. but i thought it would comeback when cooled, so i decided to cool it slowly placing it back behind my laptop but moving it further away at 10 min intervals until it was around a foot a half away from the heat. i now have my hd2 working fine. with no spots.... my theory on this is that the liquid had been pushed else where within the phone as i couldn't see any liquid seeping from the phone so by heating the whole phone wherever the liquid was it thinned and cover the spot but upon cooling it would compress again dont quite understand how i worked around that but it worked

Button light leakage easy permanent fix

This fix might sound crazy but it works
i have 2 evo's version 002 both with pretty bad light leakage under the buttons. One has 3 buttons and the second 2. In the dark they are very visible and i was getting annoying ready to return both. I tried the blowdryer trick but that did not work.
This is what i did about a week a ago, it only takes a minute.
Go get one of this which you might have laying around your house.
http://www.oppictures.com/singleimages/400/SAN82001_1_1.JPG
Go to a dark area where you are able to see the leakage and start painting let line between the plastic and leakage. try pushing down the plastic to and using the pen to paint some of of the inner cover. Get a towel and remove the ink that got into the screen and bottom cover.
After doing this my phone have not shown any leakage. i have tried water in a towel to see if it would remove the ink and show light leakage but no leakage what so ever (do not try alcohol). This fix is invisible to the naked eyes, i have 4 friends with evo's and they could not tell what i did, even after telling them they still did not know where was painted
This is an easy cheap fix, it takes about 2 minutes and anyone (and i mean anyone) can do it.
So please if it make you feel better returning bu

eduardmc said:
This fix might sound crazy but it works?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Are you asking us? i dunno, did you try it?

i dunno....seems ghetto, seems htc should have used done better r&d.

Hmm, I'd just like a $200 phone to work in the first place, not start falling apart 7 days in. :|

skoobz said:
Are you asking us? i dunno, did you try it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
sorry, i fixed it. English is not my native language so i do make alot of mistake in my writings.

Hrshycro said:
Hmm, I'd just like a $200 phone to work in the first place, not start falling apart 7 days in. :|
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't believe i have had a phone that did not have any kind of problems related to software and hardware. The palm pre was a mess every new one i got had dead pixels, after 6 unit i finally got one that had 2 dead pixels. My diamonds phone use to get boiling hot. i could go on. all my friends iphones had drop calls like 20 calls a days (most switch to evo with me).
now the evil have a few problems, like the back cover not been flush and that was solved with a peace of small paper on top of the battery.
You will fine defect, nothing is perfect.

Interesting fix but it doesn't eliminate the fact the leak is happening because the screen is separating. Pushing the screen down will eliminate the leaking. The best fix will be to make sure the screen is sitting all the way down. So far I've only seen one guy do it on androidforums by pushing the screen down with clamps and heating it with a hair dryer. After letting it sit over night he didn't have any more leaking or lifting after two days. We have yet to hear from him on the progress (I think he ended up exchanging it anyway). Another guy said he tried the same fix and ended up making his phone worse.

thanks this is a nice cosmetic band aid If i don't see it, it doesn't bother me as much

coolguy949 said:
Interesting fix but it doesn't eliminate the fact the leak is happening because the screen is separating. Pushing the screen down will eliminate the leaking. The best fix will be to make sure the screen is sitting all the way down. So far I've only seen one guy do it on androidforums by pushing the screen down with clamps and heating it with a hair dryer. After letting it sit over night he didn't have any more leaking or lifting after two days. We have yet to hear from him on the progress (I think he ended up exchanging it anyway). Another guy said he tried the same fix and ended up making his phone worse.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yeah but it seems the screen separation on happens the first few days of using the device and the progress stop. my device did not progress after i notice the leakage and was looking for a fix. This kind of fix the problem since you won't see the light leakage at all. The screen separation is wasn't really a problem since i only notice it when the light leakage is visible.

Again the point is missed. This does not prevent the fact that in time the leakage will evolve into screen separating from the base. The light is leaking because the adhesive used during rush manufacturing wad improperly sealed around the face of the device. This was a huge problem for the iphone (didn't think it would happen to me but here I am with my evo)

This worked like a charm I've already exchanged my EVO twice (on my 3rd evo). The first two had dead pixels, and all three have had the light leak. I'm not in the mood to go through the RMA process with HTC, so this fix was a perfect solution for me. I tried a similar fix using superglue on one of the other EVOs I had, but it left an unsightly white residue in the crack of the screen.
While this may not be a permanent solution to the problem with the screen coming unglued, I'm ecstatic that I no longer have to see light coming from the bottom of my screen.
Thanks a lot.

This thread. ... with that Expo 2 ... funny.

I found my own fix after trying several different things including tightening the torx screws, using a hair driver and clamps, and an expo dry erase marker. I read a post about using plastidip which I had, but unfortunately it was dried out. I then decided to use something else I had around. A fine tip black paint maker (Decocolor - LINK). I dabbed the tip on a piece of paper several times to get a little paint on the tip. I then carefully ran it across the edge where the light was leaking which allowed a very small amount of it to drip down in the crevice. I then ran a q-tip and a paper towel along the edge to make sure any that got outside of the crevice was removed. Now I have no light leakage. The paint is permanent, waterproof (not that I will be testing that) and will be easy to reapply if I ever need to. It also takes very little skill and the markers can be found at a local Michaels or arts/crafts store.
On a side note, the hairdryer/clamp method did help a little, but this paint maker did the job the rest of the way.

Potential Nexus 7 Touch Screen Fix?

I just wanted to report on a possible fix to touchscreen issues. While this may, or may not, work for you, it is what I did, what I have done on three(3) total devices & it is what has eliminated touch screen issues for myself & two other individuals.
This is a work in progress & I will be adding pictures & more detailed instructions, along with progress updates as I use the device going forward. This modification (though it really isn't a mod) requires no tools & while it does entail some light dis-assembly, it did NOT require breaking any seals that would void the warranty outright. Doing this however, may very well void your warranty, I am not an attorney, I am an engineer & taking things apart is what I have been doing since before I could even crawl nearly forty years ago.
To begin, I will go into my Nexus 7 story, which may allow you to identify similar symptoms.
My Nexus 7 device worked well out of the box, with only occasional multi-touch issues. As time progressed, the issues got worse & at one point a couple of weeks ago, even single touch event started to lag or not register. My Nexus 7 is a batch from July of 2013 & I purchased it in August of 2013, so it was still under warranty. Asus issued me an RMA number, however, I hate broken things, knowing darn well that 99% of the time I can fix them myself far faster than the total time it would take an OEM to get my device back to me. At any rate, after the 4.4 update, my touch issues got even worse. Aside from missing even simple gestures & taps, occasionally the screen would look funny & once it even had a sttatic "snowy" screen that was remedied by a factory reset.
After reading a few complaints from people about screen separation & investigating the device via the ifixit tear down, I decided I would take a look before committing to the RMA process. I gently slid my thumbnail under the bezel & slowly worked it around. Immediately I could feel the clips giving way & I eventually had the back cover off. Once the back cover is off, you will notice that the screen & digitizer ribbon cable runs across the battery, pinned in between the battery tray & the inductive Qi coil on the back cover of the device. I found it is easier to ease all the sides up slightly, then remove the back by gently lifing from the sides & upper portion, with the bottom, where the USB port is, being lifted up last. Once I removed the cover, I disconnected the battery terminal clip. After disconnecting the battery, I then followed the screen ribbon cable to where it is clipped into the screens board contacts with a plastic stay. Immediately upon applying pressure to the cable ribbon stay I felt & heard a faintly audible "click" sound. On closer inspection, I discovered that poor contact was being made by the ribbon cable & furthermore, the flex in the battery tray over time, when coupled with the heat generated at that location (due to the battery & the inductive Qi coil) can slowly loosen the ribbon cable stay & affect the quality of the connection. I used a thin piece of composite material to reinforce the cable ribbon stay & used a piece of vinyl along with a non-conductive adhesive to better secure the cable ribbon & stay. I only used a tiny amount so as not to affect the ability to safely disconnect the ribbon cable without destroying it. I also did not want a bunch of adhesive heating up & spreading to other areas. Before I performed the following step, I decided to test out a few thoughts. What I discovered is detailed in the next paragraph. So, after letting the adhesive dry overnight, I reattached the battery terminal clip & started the device. It has worked flawlessly since, without any touch issues.
While I had the back cover off, I carefully reattached the battery terminal clip & while wearing Nitrile gloves & standing on a wood floor to minimize the risk of static discharge, I would turn the device on with the display ribbon cable in various states of connection. They ranged from being angled so that the far contacts would make little or limited connection, to a full connection with varying degrees of pressure applied, to simulate a good or bad connection. Sometimes the device would not boot. Other times it would boot & have a static or "snowy" screen. Sometimes it affected all touch, from single finger events to multi-touch. It also surprisingly affected the system response. Things would freeze up & apps would FC or ANR. Again, once I improved the connection, everything was back to normal & functioning perfectly. In fact, it is functioning better than it did out of the box.
While I am sure Asus would argue that this voids the warranty, I did not break any seals. No tools were needed, just the materials I chose to use & had lying around. As I also mentioned in the opening, I did this on another household members device, that only had multi-touch issues, not all the issues I had, & their device has now been functioning wonderfully for the last several days. The display ribbon clip in their device was not completely detached on one side like mine, but it was fairly loose all the same. The third device was a friends & it was having mostly single touch issues, though he said multi-touch issues would come & go. We ran through the steps on Hangouts & his ribbon cable was in its place, but as he removed the back, the stay clip fell out. His device is also functioning normally now & he has not reported any further touch screen issues.
Since the problems people are having are oftentimes different & not consistent, it very well could be that this is exactly the issue. I would surmise that it could be the very reason why Google & Asus have been VERY, VERY quiet about the issue, since it would require returning the device for a fix, not simply a software fix.
If you try this, I urge you to be patient & use the utmost care when removing the back. While there are no cable attached to the back, you never want to force things. Be gentle & when you find the right spot for lifting, you will know it. It is not difficult & it is relatively harmless. I would caution you to use gloves & minimize the risk of discharging static electricity. I also recommend using gloves because copper sheeting is used in a couple spots & if you have ever worked with copper sheeting in electronics, you know that stuff grabs oils from your skin like crazy & you will end up leaving evidence in the form of an ultra-clear fingerprint that almost no solvent will remove. (Don't use solvents in your device unless you are a daredevil or know what you are doing).
So, that is my story & what worked for me & my small group. Ultimately, these devices are ours & it is up to each of us individually to pursue the fixes or mods that suit us best. That also means that the responsibility & consequences belong to each of us as individuals. What steps you are willing take to remedy any issues you may have with your device are decisions you need to weigh. This is XDA, where people take risks, assume that the are eventually going to brick their devices & make real modifications to devices (which this really is not). If you break something because you needed every single little detail & step spelled out for you, that's not my problem. Again, this is XDA, not some ragtime blog & anything you do here usually requires you to be able to think for yourself at some point.
Lastly, I will try to get to a step by step with pictures as soon as I can. I am not a developer, I am not a student & I don't have a ton of time to devote to answering questions. I will do what I can, when I can, but between the holidays & my job as a mechanical engineer (two large hospital projects are going on right now that take up 95% of my day), I have very little time right now. This post is the result of a large lunch review meeting, not free time, so it will probably take some time to get everything up. I have to recreate most of it, since I really figured on RMA'ing my device. I never expected this to work as it has for me.
Thanks.

Thanks for the post! If I know the issue I don't mind taking it apart to fix it.
I RMA'd it once as I didn't feel I should have to fix it, but it was such a pain jumping through all the hoops only to get it back with docs stating "OS reset" and finding the problem 30secs after resetting up my account.
I have another RMA but have waited shipping it for an update to KitKat in the hopes that it would help. It hasn't. I'll have to see if I feel up to trying your fix.
Thanks!
Sent from my Nexus 7 using xda app-developers app

No one else tried this?
I barely have screen issues, but I am curious to know if this works, after replacing my N7 2013.
Thanks and regards,

Video tuto
Need a video tutorial. I have both touch and multi reboot issue. sometimes there are 2-4 reboots occur during rebooting of system. problems persist even after kitkat update. I think this is the cause that causing me such multireboot issue.
Hope this will solve my problem. i am out of USA country so i cant give for a RMA. But need a solution look like that.

Thanks gsleon3. It always sounded like a hardware bad connection type of issue so I'm not surprised.
The problem with rma is that I'm not sure their repair techs would really fix anything. The cause may not have been made known even to their own techs because it would leak out and might start a class action law suit. My 2012 nexus 7 never had any of the touch issues my 2013 version is showing. Quality control has slipped with the 2013 version.
Any lawyers here?

Video might be tough, but I'll try to get to it. I will try to dedicate some time this weekend. I was thinking Saturday night, but I just learned that the Day of the Doctor is being simulcast in 3D near my house. So it may have to wait till Sunday so I can let my inner geek out.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using XDA Premium HD app

GSLEON3 said:
Video might be tough, but I'll try to get to it. I will try to dedicate some time this weekend. I was thinking Saturday night, but I just learned that the Day of the Doctor is being simulcast in 3D near my house. So it may have to wait till Sunday so I can let my inner geek out.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using XDA Premium HD app
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After what you shared with us, please DO enjoy your 3D simulcast of THE Doctor. We will be patienly waiting for your video.
Regards!!

nearly an inch long strip at the top of my screen stopped responding to touch i sent it back only had it for 6 days..

Tried this out. My clips were seated properly but I can see the reasons why they pop out.
Took about 5 mins from start to finish to test. Good job.

OP, during your disassembly of the device did you notice any random internal parts that could possibly be applying pressure to the screen from behind it? I ask because my otherwise perfect nexus 7 got a random blue dot in the middle of the screen and I know from past experience that that's typically the result of pressure physically warping the lcd panel.. otherwise the only other thing I can think of is that the lcd is being permanently damaged by the on/off case magnet but that's unlikely. or maybe heat that's causing the battery to flex into the screen. It's extra frustrating because I've had the nexus in a loose fitting hard case and the hard front flap should prevent the kind of pressure damage that would cause those blue marks... sigh.

ibebyi said:
OP, during your disassembly of the device did you notice any random internal parts that could possibly be applying pressure to the screen from behind it? I ask because my otherwise perfect nexus 7 got a random blue dot in the middle of the screen and I know from past experience that that's typically the result of pressure physically warping the lcd panel.. otherwise the only other thing I can think of is that the lcd is being permanently damaged by the on/off case magnet but that's unlikely. or maybe heat that's causing the battery to flex into the screen. It's extra frustrating because I've had the nexus in a loose fitting hard case and the hard front flap should prevent the kind of pressure damage that would cause those blue marks... sigh.
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Click to collapse
Well if it is pressure, I've found on past devices, sometimes batteries start expanding over time, like they have a fat belly.

Touchscreen possible fix
Started reading a bit on Google Products Forum and found a guy who said that the touchscreen problem can't be fixed by software.
So he took the back of the tablet off and found that the problem lies on the screen digitizer cable not being clipped to the connection port correctly. He disconnected the cable and connected it back again, and now his touchscreen is working perfectly.
I do not want to try it because I don't want to risk anything, but can anyone brave enough try this?:fingers-crossed:
Here's the guy's profile: http://productforums.google.com/for...ioWy9HdPwsowoDCuOz8SS9uR9nzVnPi6g2kSAInwwCj94 (it's the post form Nov 19)

LittleConfucy said:
Started reading a bit on Google Products Forum and found a guy who said that the touchscreen problem can't be fixed by software.
So he took the back of the tablet off and found that the problem lies on the screen digitizer cable not being clipped to the connection port correctly. He disconnected the cable and connected it back again, and now his touchscreen is working perfectly.
I do not want to try it because I don't want to risk anything, but can anyone brave enough try this?:fingers-crossed:
Here's the guy's profile: http://productforums.google.com/for...ioWy9HdPwsowoDCuOz8SS9uR9nzVnPi6g2kSAInwwCj94 (it's the post form Nov 19)
Click to expand...
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The author of that post is the op of this thread.

sfhub said:
The author of that post is the op of this thread.
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Whoops, sorry, didn't realize:silly:

ibebyi said:
OP, during your disassembly of the device did you notice any random internal parts that could possibly be applying pressure to the screen from behind it? I ask because my otherwise perfect nexus 7 got a random blue dot in the middle of the screen and I know from past experience that that's typically the result of pressure physically warping the lcd panel.. otherwise the only other thing I can think of is that the lcd is being permanently damaged by the on/off case magnet but that's unlikely. or maybe heat that's causing the battery to flex into the screen. It's extra frustrating because I've had the nexus in a loose fitting hard case and the hard front flap should prevent the kind of pressure damage that would cause those blue marks... sigh.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ive disassembled the device too and it has nothing specials with exception that few flex cables located right unddr the cover. Not sure if one of them is belongs to touchscreen though
Also i got this blue dot too,and one pink as well. In middle of screen.

Tim4 said:
Ive disassembled the device too and it has nothing specials with exception that few flex cables located right unddr the cover. Not sure if one of them is belongs to touchscreen though
Also i got this blue dot too,and one pink as well. In middle of screen.
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I got a blue smear too, but near the edge of the panel but since it's not very visible..I'm just gonna ignore it..

GSLEON3 said:
Video might be tough, but I'll try to get to it. I will try to dedicate some time this weekend. I was thinking Saturday night, but I just learned that the Day of the Doctor is being simulcast in 3D near my house. So it may have to wait till Sunday so I can let my inner geek out.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using XDA Premium HD app
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Click to collapse
Absolutely no problem, GSLEON3, with profound gratitude I assure you that we really appreciate your engineering work discovering the problem. Take your time and we will patiently wait until you have the time to prepare a more complete review.

Wow! If it is so easy, I don't understand what the Asus support makes everyday.
Thanks for sharing it.

Sound really greate and promising. If you could, a tutorial video would be perfect for us, please

sfhub said:
Well if it is pressure, I've found on past devices, sometimes batteries start expanding over time, like they have a fat belly.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If higher amperage is used there is an increased risk of expansion due to the higher excitation in the Li atoms. You will increase the wear of it too.
So if possible always use lower amperages to charge batteries(preferably around 500mA), you can limit the charging IC using a lower output charger or your computer's USB port.