[Q] Shattered Nexus 4. What do i need to replace? - Nexus 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

Hey guys. Ive recently shattered my Nexus 4 but im a little confused. The screen hardly works even where it is not shattered. Do i need the Glass only? Or the LCD or Digitizer? Im confused? :/ Will post pics of phone soon.

Hey itswagz!
Shattered mine on Friday too. I was thinking about ordering a display repair for 90€ on eBay. There you send it in and get it rapaired. But I'm getting a new phone from my provider and thus will attempt the repair myself. so I ordered a Digitizer + Glas kit on eBay for 25€. I'm a bit concerned about the glue but I will jsut use double sided tape for the first try. For tools you need a T5 torx screw driver, some thin plastic slip like guitar plectrums, a blow dryer to heat up the diplay with the glue and a razor blade to scramble off the left over glue from the LCD.
This video displays the process pretty well: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Lkcg8g3i1s
Also the store link in the description has all the parts and tools available (not trying to advertise here but it looks pretty solid & legit, i didn't buy anything there)

Related

Broken plastic "lens" replaceable

So today my phone dropped on the ground flat on the ground from about hip height and after picking it up i noticed i now have a cracked screen from the top.
I'm wondering how much the plastic front lens will run about. I see some prices online for about 100-180$ and it seems like every1 is pointing to the g1 digitizer?
The touch screen features work properly with no problems at all. I'm wondering, is that whats really needed? Or is there just the plastic lens somewhere?
Don't really feel like spending around 130 bucks for accidental damage. Might awell wait for a different phone to come out .
I know you can order just the glass but I have never needed to repair the glass or LCD on a G1 or MT3G. From just looking at mine I assume you can seperate the digitizer from the LCD.
http://shop.ebay.com/i.html?_nkw=g1+glass+&_cqr=true&_nkwusc=g1+glasss&_rdc=1
the G1 digitizer is not a "plastic lens" it's the touchscreen, which sits on top of the LCD screen. I bought a replacement digitizer for relatively cheap on Ebay. If you are going to fix it be extremely careful. I managed to break the flex cable of my LCD screen fixing the digitizer....

Moving topaz to a new housing (I dropped the old one)

I dropped my phone about a week after I got it and chipped the edges pretty bad. I purchased a new housing on ebay (http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=270480549174&ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT) and figured out how to move to phone into it. The only thing I couldn't figure out is how to move the digitiser. Does anyone know?
Also the housing I bought didn't have the seal that the LCD sits on. Is in ok for the LCD to sit on the bare metal of the housing ?
::Pixel.Freak:: said:
I dropped my phone about a week after I got it and chipped the edges pretty bad. I purchased a new housing on ebay (http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=270480549174&ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT) and figured out how to move to phone into it. The only thing I couldn't figure out is how to move the digitiser. Does anyone know?
Also the housing I bought didn't have the seal that the LCD sits on. Is in ok for the LCD to sit on the bare metal of the housing ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Umm I have no idea. I'm gonna attempt this for myself in a couple of weeks. I'm gonna do a practice teardown now just to have the know how to do it quick. I'm gonna buy the Housing off ebay with the digitizer. It's like $34-$43. Someone had mentioned that you have to get a new digitezer. But they did move the guts out of a Pure into the Topaz housing.
As far as the digitizer sitting on metal I'm not sure but doesnt sound right.
Yes, I suspect I have to buy a new digitiser or a housing with a digitiser. Please send me the link and let me know how it is.
As for the lack of a seal, it isn't the digitiser sitting on bare metal, it is the LCD. Functionally I think it will be ok, but I have heard of dust getting into the unit between the digitiser and the LCD. Surely if there is no seal, then this would be more likely.

Archos 70 LCD Replacement Guide

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.

[Q] Replacement glass or lcd

Hi, has anyone disassembled omnia 7 screen before? May I know whether the glass and lcd are glued together and whether it is difficult to pry open the screen? (I have pried an ipod touch screen before)
*I just broke my omnia glass and thinking of getting a replacement from ebay but the lcd and glass package is too expensive (>$100) while the glass only is below $20 so I was thicking of getting the glass only.
Thanks
First of all, how the hell did you manage that - it's Gorilla Glass!
There is a tear down of the phone here
Quite complicated and delicate process unless you are familiar with doing this kind of thing.
As for the glass being connected to the digitizer, yes I think they will be stuck together with some sort of glue resin. Probably not the best idea to prise away and try and fit yourself, I suspect you'll be disappointed with a homemade attempt to stick a new pane of glass on.
I actually couldn't find the glass-only on eBay, I could only find the £80+ glass and digitizer items.
Claim it on household insurance, send it back to Samsung or save up the £80?

Replace LG Nexus 4 Glass Front Only

Is it possible to replace the front glass without replacing the digitizer and LCD? I have saw many, many glass only replacements on eBay for it. I want to do it myself. Is it possible? I know it is possible for the galacy necus but as the 4's LCD is on top i was wondering on bidding for a cracked screen one on ebay and fixing the glass only.
As far as I know, the digitizer and glass are glued together pretty tightly, and it's extraordinarily tough to separate the two without damaging either; plus, if separate them you have the constant worry of dust getting in there. It's usually worth it to just buy a glass+digitizer that are glued together.
Johmama said:
As far as I know, the digitizer and glass are glued together pretty tightly, and it's extraordinarily tough to separate the two without damaging either; plus, if separate them you have the constant worry of dust getting in there. It's usually worth it to just buy a glass+digitizer that are glued together.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have seen videos of people seperating them on the galaxy nexus. Also, if the glass is cracked is the digitizer gone too? because the touch doesnt work and its cracked.
I have done a teardown of the Front display before. It is not easy. Yes the Digitizer and LCD are Glued together and I HIGHLY recommend NOT attempting to seperate them without the proper setup to do so. Once they are seperated it takes a SPECIAL glue to glue the Digitizer to the LCD and it has to be aligned correctly or you have to go through the process again. ALSO the LCD+Digitizer display is GLUED to the Bezel with an RTV type substance. I HIGHLY reccommend spending the extra few dollars to get the 3 piece setup. With that the repair is VERY Quick and easy. Takes about 15 min or so. (Half of which is getting the Back cover off without breaking anything).
Ohgami_Ichiro said:
I have done a teardown of the Front display before. It is not easy. Yes the Digitizer and LCD are Glued together and I HIGHLY recommend NOT attempting to seperate them without the proper setup to do so. Once they are seperated it takes a SPECIAL glue to glue the Digitizer to the LCD and it has to be aligned correctly or you have to go through the process again. ALSO the LCD+Digitizer display is GLUED to the Bezel with an RTV type substance. I HIGHLY reccommend spending the extra few dollars to get the 3 piece setup. With that the repair is VERY Quick and easy. Takes about 15 min or so. (Half of which is getting the Back cover off without breaking anything).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
But one question. Is the digitizer broken if the glass is broken and it doenst recognie touches?
EDIT: I will buy a broken nexus 4 off ebay for a few bucks and replace the glass so I want to know if it works if you get it. And there is a 80$ difference between the glass and the 3 piece assembly
jacobreed222 said:
I have seen videos of people seperating them on the galaxy nexus. Also, if the glass is cracked is the digitizer gone too? because the touch doesnt work and its cracked.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The Top Glass is the Digitizer, the LCD is just that. I think the iPhone4s/5 has the Digitizer integrated into the LCD and I think this is a process that may start to become commonplace as LG announced that they have a LCD Display with Integrated Digitizer in production now.
jacobreed222 said:
But one question. Is the digitizer broken if the glass is broken and it doenst recognie touches?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yup You can see the digitited touch grid if you look at in the right angle in bright light.
Ohgami_Ichiro said:
The Top Glass is the Digitizer, the LCD is just that. I think the iPhone4s/5 has the Digitizer integrated into the LCD and I think this is a process that may start to become commonplace as LG announced that they have a LCD Display with Integrated Digitizer in production now.
Yup You can see the digitited touch grid if you look at in the right angle in bright light.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So youre saying I am out of luck with these:
http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_trk...=nexus+4+glass+replacement&_sacat=0&_from=R40
So why do they sell them anyway? zFor non broken glass?
jacobreed222 said:
So youre saying I am out of luck with these:
http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_trk...=nexus+4+glass+replacement&_sacat=0&_from=R40
So why do they sell them anyway? zFor non broken glass?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The Glass IS cheap but they do that so they can trick you into wasting your money. It is not an easy process to do. I have done a replacement on both the fron and back and it was very time intensive. (The front I just ordered the 3 piece and it was quick.) For anyone who has had little to no experience doing display repairs I reccommend the 3 Piece set. If you have SOME experience and have GOOD tools get the 2 Piece. ONLY get the Glass Digitizer IF you have Some professional tools and experience. Also the Special Glue for gluing the Digitizer to the LCD is about $20 by itself so that $15 Digitizer works out to ~$35-40 not to mention if you scratch or break the LCD by accident then you end up having to buy that too. I am not trying to be preachy here but trying to give you the REAL risks and obsticles associated with the repair on the N4. It is a VERY easy phone to repair in general EXCEPT the display. Just get the 3 Piece display and sell the broken one on ebay. It will sell because Professionals (who have the right tools) will grab them and refurbish them and then use them for repairs.
Take a look at this Vid, It's for the iPhone 5 but the process is the same for the N4 and N7.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PbZwypAINYE
Ohgami_Ichiro said:
The Glass IS cheap but they do that so they can trick you into wasting your money. It is not an easy process to do. I have done a replacement on both the fron and back and it was very time intensive. (The front I just ordered the 3 piece and it was quick.) For anyone who has had little to no experience doing display repairs I reccommend the 3 Piece set. If you have SOME experience and have GOOD tools get the 2 Piece. ONLY get the Glass Digitizer IF you have Some professional tools and experience. Also the Special Glue for gluing the Digitizer to the LCD is about $20 by itself so that $15 Digitizer works out to ~$35-40 not to mention if you scratch or break the LCD by accident then you end up having to buy that too. I am not trying to be preachy here but trying to give you the REAL risks and obsticles associated with the repair on the N4. It is a VERY easy phone to repair in general EXCEPT the display. Just get the 3 Piece display and sell the broken one on ebay. It will sell because Professionals (who have the right tools) will grab them and refurbish them and then use them for repairs.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
OK
jacobreed222 said:
OK
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hey,
I have nexus 4. The outer glass is cracked, but lcd works perfectly. However the touch is unresponsive. If i buy just the outer glass from ebay and replaced using UV glue. Would the touch function will work? Its strange that all the other smart phones touch function work, if you break the outer glass; but on nexus 4 it stops working. looking forward to hearing your opinion. thank you.
saj
saj420 said:
Hey,
I have nexus 4. The outer glass is cracked, but lcd works perfectly. However the touch is unresponsive. If i buy just the outer glass from ebay and replaced using UV glue. Would the touch function will work? Its strange that all the other smart phones touch function work, if you break the outer glass; but on nexus 4 it stops working. looking forward to hearing your opinion. thank you.
saj
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's what I was asking in the first place. Let me know if you figure it out.
jacobreed222 said:
That's what I was asking in the first place. Let me know if you figure it out.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think the digitizer is so attached to the glass when the glass breaks it breaks the digitizer as well, hence why every n4 LCD that cracks has no touch response, the digitizer is glued to the glass and not the LCD as it is on the galaxy nexus making it a billion times easeyer to just buy a whole LCD unit
Sent from my Nexus 4 [NEO @1.836 GHz] on [PSX v4.1 4.3]
IRX120 said:
I think the digitizer is so attached to the glass when the glass breaks it breaks the digitizer as well, hence why every n4 LCD that cracks has no touch response, the digitizer is glued to the glass and not the LCD as it is on the galaxy nexus making it a billion times easeyer to just buy a whole LCD unit
Sent from my Nexus 4 [NEO @1.836 GHz] on [PSX v4.1 4.3]
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It probably is easier to replace the whole unit, however it's too expensive for some people; cheapest unit I've found runs for around 120 USD, 10 times more expensive than just the glass. Specially now that Google lowered the prices, and a 120-130 USD screen doesn't make much sense when you can have a new phone for just 199 USD.
In my case, I cracked the lower corner of the screen and the lowermost buttons don't work (ie: home, back and switch app buttons). Otherwise, the screen works perfectly.
From what I've read so far online, it's fairly hard, although not impossible, to replace just the glass on a screen such as our Nexus 4's. The main difficulty is that the LCD, digitizer (the thing that takes your finger's input, in case you're wondering –as I did– what that is) and the glass are fused together. From what I gather (I am, by no means, an expert on this... take whatever I say with a grain of salt) this means that this partes are glued together with very strong adhesive.
I haven't found any videos or guides for our Nexus, but the process should be very similar to this one for a Galaxy S3. For the time being, I resorted to just rotating my phone when I need the back and home buttons. However, when it's time to buy a new phone I'll try to replace the glass on this one.
If anyone of you guys want to try this, I hope you take a video of the process and share it with the rest of us, unlucky/clumsy Nexus 4 owners.
ivancamilov said:
It probably is easier to replace the whole unit, however it's too expensive for some people; cheapest unit I've found runs for around 120 USD, 10 times more expensive than just the glass. Specially now that Google lowered the prices, and a 120-130 USD screen doesn't make much sense when you can have a new phone for just 199 USD.
In my case, I cracked the lower corner of the screen and the lowermost buttons don't work (ie: home, back and switch app buttons). Otherwise, the screen works perfectly.
From what I've read so far online, it's fairly hard, although not impossible, to replace just the glass on a screen such as our Nexus 4's. The main difficulty is that the LCD, digitizer (the thing that takes your finger's input, in case you're wondering –as I did– what that is) and the glass are fused together. From what I gather (I am, by no means, an expert on this... take whatever I say with a grain of salt) this means that this partes are glued together with very strong adhesive.
I haven't found any videos or guides for our Nexus, but the process should be very similar to this one for a Galaxy S3. For the time being, I resorted to just rotating my phone when I need the back and home buttons. However, when it's time to buy a new phone I'll try to replace the glass on this one.
If anyone of you guys want to try this, I hope you take a video of the process and share it with the rest of us, unlucky/clumsy Nexus 4 owners.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I also found a series of videos for galaxy nexus to replace only glass
I've found this tutorial for repairing n4 cracked screen, but I don't know if what he's replacing is only the outer glass or the whole digitizer and glass together.
vickev.com/#!/article/repair-your-cracked-lg-nexus-4-e960-screen
and by the way, did someone find the glass with the digitizer for a good price? Not considering those tricky ebay announcements of outer glass, as Ohgami_Ichiro has already alerted.
found this one, but 85,85 € is kinda expensive.
spareslg.com/lcd-e-touch-lg-nexus-4-lg-e960-acq86270901.html
Erich M said:
I've found this tutorial for repairing n4 cracked screen, but I don't know if what he's replacing is only the outer glass or the whole digitizer and glass together.
vickev.com/#!/article/repair-your-cracked-lg-nexus-4-e960-screen
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It is LCD+digitizer+glass assembly replacement. Not easiest but one of easy ways, costs about $120.
Erich M said:
and by the way, did someone find the glass with the digitizer for a good price? Not considering those tricky ebay announcements of outer glass, as Ohgami_Ichiro has already alerted.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
For example ebay.com/itm/Original-OEM-NEW-Front-Touch-Screen-Digitizer-Glass-Lens-LG-Google-Nexus-4-E960-/181230445260?pt=US_Cell_Phone_Replacement_Parts_Tools&hash=item2a322d22cc
$38
Erich M said:
found this one, but 85,85 € is kinda expensive.
spareslg.com/lcd-e-touch-lg-nexus-4-lg-e960-acq86270901.html
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It is glass+digitizer+lcd+housing assembly.
There are also glass+digitizer+lcd+housing+battery assemblies.
If you replace the digitizer only the screen will not respond the same. My galaxy s3 has touch issues now cause I only replaced the digitizer. Now need to buy a whole assembly
Sent from my neXus⁴ using Tapatalk 2
Nexus 4 LG E960 Screen replacement
Well, I was pretty keen on getting a chinese glass/digitizer. The one I had in mind was on ebay.
I was a bit concerned about waiting up to 2 or 3 weeks, but I thought at £28 it would be worth it, as long as I could fit it successfully when it arrived. The alternative was £100 approx from spareslg.com. I was a little concerned about the integrity of the LCD as I was getting some "flowing" around the cracks on the glass. I thought (as was posted earlier) tha it would be no harm in trying to remove the broken glass now, and prep the what was left of the screen for the new glass. If it went well I would know that the LCD was ok. If it went badly however I would loose the opportunity to sell the second hand screen for £20 or so (also posted earlier). I decided to go ahead and strip down the phone.
Getting to the nitty gritty, I warmed up the screen with a hairdryer, inserted a pry tool between the bezel and the glass and started to loosen. I had replaced a glass on a Samsung Galaxy Ace successfully before and this procedure felt very familiar. The procedure actually felt much easier. The glass lifted away from the lcd within three or four minutes, and I continued to heat and ease the glass for only 6 or 7 more minutes. As I was raising the glass while working towards the top of the phone, I noticed that the LCD was leaving the frame as it didn't appear to be held by much, if anything. I thought I would remove what was left of the screen assembly from the frame and continue separating the two parts outside the frame. It was at this point that I noticed that the the LDC panel appeared to be dividing into two parts; like two wafers. Wishful thinking made me hope that what I was seeing was a digitizer membrane or something; but I soon resigned myself to the possibility that the LCD was history.:crying:
I didn't bother to clean off the glue residue, I reassembled the phone and switched it on. The picture below shows that the LCD was ruined. What looks like glass is in fact the movement of the pry tool on the adhesive on the LCD. No flash was used either.
The second photo shows the split LCD. The final photo shows the digitizer grid in the old glass.
If I had the same problem again, I would probably try again. I'd be particularly careful around the edges, not allow the LCD to rise out of the frame (and possibly tear) and take it much more slowly, and possibly use a wire separation tool if around.
Ohgami_Ichiro posted earlier that the costs of digitizer only repairs can go high. If you add fancy glues and tape then it would have cost me at least £50. New at £100 minus sale of old, £15 ?(so net £85) That could be £35 difference, £45 if you skipped the UV glue.
It might not be the last time this phone breaks though!! so savings may increase!
I have no choce now, £100.
Bye the way can anybody recommend a good open case, mine had barely 1.5 ml above screen edge.
Hope you've enjoyed the how NOT to.
Hi dear friends,
Sorry for late answer but i recommend you to take lcd digitizer and replace with cracked one. Becouse generally such chinese complete assemblies (lcd+digitizer and housing) are problematic as lcd quality bit lower than original one. So what to do is; to take digitizer around 20$ (there also which 10$ cost but really lower sensitive digitizer ) and replace it yourself. What else you need for this replacement?
-First you need something thin and sharp like as your grandfathers shaving blade for pry lcd and digitizer. (cost 1$ maybe)
-Then you also need glue cleaner for clean old glue particles, (costs 5$ with uv glue totally)
-uv adhesive for glue lcd with digitizer and (costs 5$ with adhesive cleaner totally)
-3m sticker for attach new digitizer to housing. (2-3$ for piece)
and totally cost max 30$. Maybe you will work more harder but at least you will get phone which which works with original screen with better view. :good:
---------- Post added at 02:42 AM ---------- Previous post was at 02:36 AM ----------
Just i need to warn you to definitely use heating gun or hair dryer(at max. temp.) while seperate cracked digitizer from lcd. Otherwise you will crack your lcd too. With my best wishes!!!

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