Database Users

Advice: Upgrade or repair

Hey guys
Ive had my nexus 4 for a while now, bought it when it came out a few years ago now. I had managed to keep it perfectly unharmed until i unfortunately dropped it the other day which cracked the screen and seemed to have killed the touchscreen.
The touchscreen now just doesn't work at all.
So my question was, do you reckon i should buy one of those screen repair kits, or something similar and attempt to fix the phone or go for an upgrade and try my luck finding a invite ticket and buying a OnePlus One? Just wondering what your opinions are.
Im stuck now with an iPhone 3gs! Tough times indeed.

lewis03 said:
Hey guys
Ive had my nexus 4 for a while now, bought it when it came out a few years ago now. I had managed to keep it perfectly unharmed until i unfortunately dropped it the other day which cracked the screen and seemed to have killed the touchscreen.
The touchscreen now just doesn't work at all.
So my question was, do you reckon i should buy one of those screen repair kits, or something similar and attempt to fix the phone or go for an upgrade and try my luck finding a invite ticket and buying a OnePlus One? Just wondering what your opinions are.
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Replacing the screen assembly is actually relatively easy on the Nexus 4. Note that I said screen assembly, and not the digitizer. If you don't know, the glass "screen" is called the digitizer, which is glued to the LCD behind it. Now, it could be that all that actually needs replacing is the digitizer, but this is not an easy task, requires some specialist equipment, and you're still likely to screw it up. So I highly recommend going with the screen assembly, which is both the LCD and digitizer already ready to go.
You can get a new screen assembly off eBay. There are 2 different ways. One is just the screen assembly. It's cheaper, $45, but it requires that you remove the old one from the bezel, which can be a PITA. The other way is the full front assembly, which means you're getting the screen assembly already glued in to a brand new bezel. $60, a lot less hassle, and your entire front will be new and shiny and ding/scratch free again. Obviously, this is the choice I'd recommend (I've done it myself).
Might as well get a new battery while you're at it, for $20. At this point in its life, you've likely charged your phone several hundreds of times. Li-ion batteries will lose upwards of 20% of their original capacity after ~500 "cycles".
ifixit.com has some great tear-down photos, and there's a number of guides on youtube. It might sound a bit daunting, but it's a lot easier than you might think, at least with this phone.
I can't tell you whether you should just get a new phone or not - I don't know your situation, finances, urges, etc. But I will say that for a mere $80 you will practically have a new Nexus 4. Stick around, learn how to flash custom ROMs and kernels (if you don't already), and you very much will have a new phone. Or a great back-up to your new one.
Im stuck now with an iPhone 3gs! Tough times indeed.
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Ouch.

Planterz said:
Replacing the screen assembly is actually relatively easy on the Nexus 4. Note that I said screen assembly, and not the digitizer. If you don't know, the glass "screen" is called the digitizer, which is glued to the LCD behind it. Now, it could be that all that actually needs replacing is the digitizer, but this is not an easy task, requires some specialist equipment, and you're still likely to screw it up. So I highly recommend going with the screen assembly, which is both the LCD and digitizer already ready to go.
You can get a new screen assembly off eBay. There are 2 different ways. One is just the screen assembly. It's cheaper, $45, but it requires that you remove the old one from the bezel, which can be a PITA. The other way is the full front assembly, which means you're getting the screen assembly already glued in to a brand new bezel. $60, a lot less hassle, and your entire front will be new and shiny and ding/scratch free again. Obviously, this is the choice I'd recommend (I've done it myself).
Might as well get a new battery while you're at it, for $20. At this point in its life, you've likely charged your phone several hundreds of times. Li-ion batteries will lose upwards of 20% of their original capacity after ~500 "cycles".
ifixit.com has some great tear-down photos, and there's a number of guides on youtube. It might sound a bit daunting, but it's a lot easier than you might think, at least with this phone.
I can't tell you whether you should just get a new phone or not - I don't know your situation, finances, urges, etc. But I will say that for a mere $80 you will practically have a new Nexus 4. Stick around, learn how to flash custom ROMs and kernels (if you don't already), and you very much will have a new phone. Or a great back-up to your new one.
Ouch.
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Thanks for the great response! I think im going to revive my Nexus 4! Or at least try to It should be fun anyway taking it all apart!
Thanks for all your help!!

lewis03 said:
Thanks for the great response! I think im going to revive my Nexus 4! Or at least try to It should be fun anyway taking it all apart!
Thanks for all your help!!
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If you need any assistance with dis/reassembly, I'm more than happy to help. I've had my Nexus 4 apart probably a few dozen times. Most important thing is to go slowly. Don't lose screws, and don't lose the tiny rubber gasket that's part off the proximity/ambient light sensor module. If, after reassembly, your screen goes black when making a call (and it's not against your ear), take it apart again and put the rubber gasket in backwards.

I had same problem. Please not that ebay china sellers are not selling oem displays and there are huge difference in terms of quality. I myself bought original oem LG from Germany, but it costed 100$
p.s. found him http://www.ebay.de/itm/Original-LG-...284?pt=DE_Handy_PDA_Akkus&hash=item35d533c834
Stickers, numbers on chasis all looked legit.

Another screen broken advice needed

Hello all,
I bought a Galaxy S4 for my partner, and stupidly didn't get it insured.
The screen got cracked quite badly, so fr £120 a local lad put a new screen on. Later that week it got dropped onto mud on the way to nursery and smashed entirely.
I now have a predicament, either give up the phone and go back to my sluggish s3, or ask you guys this question:
Where is the best and most value for money place to get a smashed screen fixed (you can't see anything just a rim of light) somewhere reputable that will use genuine parts and guarantee their work? I really don't want to just leave it on the shelf and am worried that without good advice I will end up with another shabby repair.
Your input would be greatly appreciated.
Many thanks and Happy Christmas,
Ric

If you only break the front glass like what happened to mine, you can get new glass for £5 and DIY. (If you're confident working on things like that - it is a bit of a nightmare of a job to separate the glass from the touch sensor)
But if there's no picture on the screen at all then you've killed it completely. A new full screen assembly is about £90 on eBay I think, so £120 is about the right price for someone to do it for you.
BTW, the first time you broke your screen, if you could still see the picture on the screen was fine, then the guy probably charged you £120 to change the £5 front glass. I've heard of people getting ripped off like that.
Most of the time it is just the front glass that is broken. Unfortunately this latest time, it sounds like you've been unlucky.
You could always take out phone insurance, leave it a couple of months, and then the screen breaks.

knuckles1978 said:
If you only break the front glass like what happened to mine, you can get new glass for £5 and DIY. (If you're confident working on things like that - it is a bit of a nightmare of a job to separate the glass from the touch sensor)
But if there's no picture on the screen at all then you've killed it completely. A new full screen assembly is about £90 on eBay I think, so £120 is about the right price for someone to do it for you.
BTW, the first time you broke your screen, if you could still see the picture on the screen was fine, then the guy probably charged you £120 to change the £5 front glass. I've heard of people getting ripped off like that.
Most of the time it is just the front glass that is broken. Unfortunately this latest time, it sounds like you've been unlucky.
You could always take out phone insurance, leave it a couple of months, and then the screen breaks.
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ha, the first time the phone broke, my misses threw it against a metal door obliterating the top and matrix thingy so an extensive repair was required. I'm well aware of the £5 DIY jobby hairdryer thing but this second breaking is again both screens, and I don't want a shabby repair I want the original screen part so that it is as strong as it can possibly be. I paid this guy £120, but the screen was so weak it broke dropping on mud! SO I still need to know, where can I get it fixed with genuine Samsung parts? Samsung only? Are the any reputable companies members would use to have their £500 phones repaired?
Thanks to the guy that replied I can't see your name now I'm replying somehow...

In pretty sure there aren't any fake AMOLED screens, not like phones that use LCD - there are hundreds of fake LCD's for those phones. But there are fake front glass panels.
If I wanted to make sure that genuine parts were used I'd order the screen assembly up from eBay myself. You can order it up as a complete front assembly from eBay, and it's a very easy job to change the whole thing over yourself, if you're reasonably confident about tackling things like that. Just make sure it's described as 'Genuine Samsung', and not 'Samsung panel genuine for i9505' or suchlike. If it's described as 'Genuine Samsung', then you have comeback of its not.
I've fixed a good few phones though, and all the times I've ordered parts as I've described above, it has been the real deal. It's pretty easy to tell the fake front glass panels.
Changing the front glass only with hairdryer etc is a sh!tty job, but changing a whole front panel which has the chrome effect plastic trim piece, AMOLED, touch sensor, and front glass already assembled is a piece of p!ss...

I would totally recommend just getting it fixed... plenty of tutorials online to follow. Watch a few of them and see if it is something you are comfortable doing yourself. I've done it and found it to be quite simple. But, it all depends on your comfort level with repairing things...

I think getting it fixed is the idea, yes lol
I was saying though that since it's the whole thing that is broken and needs changed, and not just the front glass, the job is much easier. It's just a case of taking a few screws out and swapping the whole front assembly. On a difficulty rating out of 10 I give it a 4
If you watch a couple of videos on YouTube first, and you take it nice and carefully, I'd say this is a job that most people could handle.

Anyone gone through front glass replacement?

Recently got a GS5 and my mom doesn't have a phone right now so I'm handing my N4 down to her. The front glass is cracked and I wanted to get that fixed before I do. The digitizer and lcd are not broken, just the glass, everything else looks and functions fine. I guess what my question is, if I take it to a repair shop can they just replace the front glass or am I looking at around 100ish to replace it all? I'll be going in and getting quoted but just wanted to see if I got any input from here first, it will likely be a week or so before I take it anywhere due to this damn weather.

wareju said:
Recently got a GS5 and my mom doesn't have a phone right now so I'm handing my N4 down to her. The front glass is cracked and I wanted to get that fixed before I do. The digitizer and lcd are not broken, just the glass, everything else looks and functions fine. I guess what my question is, if I take it to a repair shop can they just replace the front glass or am I looking at around 100ish to replace it all? I'll be going in and getting quoted but just wanted to see if I got any input from here first, it will likely be a week or so before I take it anywhere due to this damn weather.
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The same thing happened with my friends N4. The glass, digitizer and LCD all had to be replaced as they all come as one unit. Cannot get them separately.

Amazon/ebay has parts where you can just order the LCD/Digitizer etc, but then to separate them you have to have a heat gun etc. if you touch any part by mistake you will get finger prints or smudges permanently. So not a good idea unless you are one of those super careful person. http://www.ebay.com/itm/LG-Nexus-4-...D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557
if you are handy, you can order the whole assembly online (amazon) for about 60 bucks or so) http://www.amazon.com/Touch-Screen-...r=8-1&keywords=nexus+4+lcd+screen+replacement
I personally got it replaced in So Flo for about 95 dollars + tax. I have been quoted about 140 at a chain fix up places.

bluesteve3 said:
The same thing happened with my friends N4. The glass, digitizer and LCD all had to be replaced as they all come as one unit. Cannot get them separately.
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Sure they do. FYI, the "glass" is[ the digitizer. If "everything works", then technically all that needs replacing is the digitizer.
However, digitizer replacement is far from an easy thing to do. Not only does it require some specialist equipment (suction cups, heat gun, glue), you're probably going to screw it up unless you've done it before.
wareju said:
Recently got a GS5 and my mom doesn't have a phone right now so I'm handing my N4 down to her. The front glass is cracked and I wanted to get that fixed before I do. The digitizer and lcd are not broken, just the glass, everything else looks and functions fine. I guess what my question is, if I take it to a repair shop can they just replace the front glass or am I looking at around 100ish to replace it all? I'll be going in and getting quoted but just wanted to see if I got any input from here first, it will likely be a week or so before I take it anywhere due to this damn weather.
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You can buy just the screen assembly off eBay for about $45, which has the digitizer already mated with the LCD. However, this requires removal from the bezel (again, a heat gun is recommended), then gluing the new one back in. For $60 you can get the entire front assembly (hey, brand new phone!), which is the easiest way to go about things. I'd also recommend buying a new battery ($20) and replacing the old, tired one while you've got the phone apart.
It's not all that difficult to do it yourself. You'll need a T5 TORX driver, something thin, sturdy and plastic to pry the phone halves apart (you can buy screen assemblies that come with all these tools), and some patience. Do everything on a fluffy white towel so the little screws don't get lost. The tricky part is the little rubber gasket thingy that goes over the proximity/light sensor module. Most people who have done a screen replacement have found that reassembly screws up the prox sensor, causing it to always read "near" (meaning during a call the screen will stay off and you can't hang up or use the dialer). The common fix is to put the gasket in backwards.
There are a number of threads here, some youtube videos, and a good teardown tutorial on ifixit.com.

I thought the digitizer was what recognized touch input? Either way I don't think I'll be doing any of this work myself, I'll just take it up somewhere for her for the repairs.

wareju said:
I thought the digitizer was what recognized touch input?
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It is. It's built into the front panel of glass (which is made up of a bunch of different layers of stuff). Don't ask me how it works, it's all magic to me. But when you break the front glass, yet everything still works, that's the digitizer. If you look up digitizers on eBay you'll see that it's the front glass panel, with a cable and other electronic stuff attatched.
Either way I don't think I'll be doing any of this work myself, I'll just take it up somewhere for her for the repairs.
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It's honestly not all that difficult to do yourself. Hell, send me the phone and screen assembly, and I'll do it for free. Seriously. I'll even through in a couple TPU cases I'm not using.
If you do take it somewhere for repairs, make sure you ask what they're doing. Replacing the screen assembly, or replacing the digitizer. For a $100 fee, it could be either. They could buy a $20 digitizer and the remaining $80 is in labor, but it'll take them a lot of time and effort, or it could be a $45/$60 screen assembly that takes far less time and effort to do. Personally, it costing the same, I'd rather have the screen assembly replaced, since replacing only the digitizer can lead to complications. Since it has to be reglued onto the LCD, you might get bubbles, dust/lint, dead spots, and that rainbow affect when you hold it in the light at the right angle.

broke my screen!

Let a buddy hold my phone and my luck kicked in, he dropped it. It was a very light fall and only have it 2 cracks on the edge and one hairline Crack across the screen. Phone works fine and I can see and touch everything. I've heard it's pricey to replace the screen on this thing because the screen assembly is one piece? Meaning I can't just buy the glass? Any advice or helpful links to reputable sites would be greatly appreciated. I've always just bought a new phone when I Crack my screen but this phone cost too much to just sell off for cheap. Thanks in advance

I need some help guys. No repair shop will touch the phone without replacing the glass and lcd and charging $399. I've seen multiple people claim to have changed the glass only and looking online that part isn't expensive at all. If anyone can confirm their success I may make the attempt to do it my self. I've already spent $400 on this phone so I'd like to spend as little as possible to fix it

Called every shop I could and all said it would he anywhere from 350-400 for the whole lcd assembly. I asked every store (in my state and neighboring state) if they could just replace the glass and all said no. So my question is if anyone reading this has a link to a reputable site to get the lcd assembly, under $270 if possible. And lastly, if I buy the necessary tools and watch videos, what's the chances of messing up the phone replacing the WHOLE lcd assembly, if I've never used a heat gun to remove glass? I've replaced the lcd assembly on my lg g2 but the back being plastic eliminated the need for any heat. I'm lost and don't want to spend $400 more.

No way to replace only the glass without risking damage to the AMOLED screen or digitizer. The screen is glued together, and a slight force will cause the screen to shatter. If you want to take that risk, you can go ahead and look up a tutorial, but it seems to be very difficult to only replace the glass and not the entire assembly(Thats why repair shops don't do them as the chance of failure is too high)

Eric1084 said:
No way to replace only the glass without risking damage to the AMOLED screen or digitizer. The screen is glued together, and a slight force will cause the screen to shatter. If you want to take that risk, you can go ahead and look up a tutorial, but it seems to be very difficult to only replace the glass and not the entire assembly(Thats why repair shops don't do them as the chance of failure is too high)
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What's the cheapest option? Buy the whole lcd assembly and change it my self? Or pay samsung and wait? I bought this second hand from a guy who come to find out still owed payments so no insurance route is possible. I'd have to send in my phone and wait

brd912 said:
What's the cheapest option? Buy the whole lcd assembly and change it my self? Or pay samsung and wait? I bought this second hand from a guy who come to find out still owed payments so no insurance route is possible. I'd have to send in my phone and wait
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Well, cheapest option is to do as you said, replace the glass. But if you fail during the process, your only bet would be to replace the whole assembly, and even if you had warranty, that would be completely voided. So if you are going to replace the assembly anyway, might be worth a try to separate the glass, and replace only the glass. And if it fails, you can just replace the entire assembly. But if you plans to send it to Samsung anyway, I would suggest you to do that without any diy modification to the device. If you are planning to buy the assembly, make sure you get a genuine OEM screen. I saw a lot of fake China lcd assembly, and S7 have amoled at much better resolution.

I had a S6, and display while glueing? itself off, cracked the whole amoled screen completely. And Edge is even more dangerous. So all You can do is to pretty much either replace it Yourself (not too difficult if You ask me) but You will eventually make it not waterproof anymore. And You might break something while fixing it(like the paint or the back panel, although paint 90%) and then You will have to pay even more. Or just take it to repair service, pay.. I don't know. 50-100$ more and get a professional repair without any risk. And if it's going to be made by Samsung, You still might have waterproof phone after that. So I guess You should take it to a repair service. 50-100$ more, but trust me. You will most likely mess up the pain and ruin Your phone visually. As well as You will need to buy tiny screw drivers, some flat plastic tool, and adhesive tape. And sometimes using a hair dryer to open the back, will destroy some components inside. So be careful with that as well.
Or sell Your friends kidneys and pay for the repair

This sucks dude. I could literally purchase a nexus 6 for less than the price to fix this phone. I've looked at every phone out right now and nothing catches my eye like this one. I'd almost opt to buy the 3t before spending 400 to have a shop repair this one

If ur friend has insurance maybe they would pay for it. If not.
A new screen costs around 200$ from ebay or etrade supply. Those one come even without a samsung logo like the models in asia. Which imo looks super cool. If you a that screen transfering the old stuff isn't that hard. And there are many tutorials online. Maybe you could split? I mean he dropped it even if it's on accident he could give like 100$ then you have to spend 100$.
You could sell ur S7 edge. Trust me if it's just cracked and everything else is working you will find someone that buys it. In Germany you could get something between 250€~ 300€ for that. And then you spend again maybe 200€ and get a new or used one thats in good condition.
There are few options that you have. I wouldn't go to repair shops because they are often overpriced and don't treat ur stuff well.
And one last thing. Forget about replacing only the glas because that is impossible.

So if I buy the whole lcd assembly, all I need to do is heat up the back, cut the adhesive with a guitar pick, remove screws and unhook the connectors and replace?

yes exactly like that. like i said there are a ton of guides like on ifixit or on youtube. bur instead of a guitar pick i would you a playing card or pokemon card or something. the guitar pick or metal tools can scratch the backplate and the "sticker".

Replacing just front glass and digitizer?

hey i was wondering how difficult it is to replace just the front glass and digitizer on my S7E? mine is cracked at the bottom, the lcd and digitizer are both good, but the crack is getting worse and pieces are flaking off so i feel like if i dont fix it it might end up screwing up the lcd. I can get a glass/digitizer assembly for about 35 bucks, but if i buy this am i going to be able to install it without f*kn up my phone? ive been looking at youtube videos n stuff and pretty much every one i see theyre replacing the whole assembly with the lcd, which is like $200, is it possible to seperate the lcd from the glass/digitizer fairly easily at home? or should i just let it be and not mess with it?

Hi to be very honest here I've never ever had to replace or fix the glass to my $7 Edge, my $7 Edge is on excellent condition but I'm thinking of one day either updating to the Note 8 or even Note 9. Have you got any quotes yet from repair places
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BDog21 said:
hey i was wondering how difficult it is to replace just the front glass and digitizer on my S7E? mine is cracked at the bottom, the lcd and digitizer are both good, but the crack is getting worse and pieces are flaking off so i feel like if i dont fix it it might end up screwing up the lcd. I can get a glass/digitizer assembly for about 35 bucks, but if i buy this am i going to be able to install it without f*kn up my phone? ive been looking at youtube videos n stuff and pretty much every one i see theyre replacing the whole assembly with the lcd, which is like $200, is it possible to seperate the lcd from the glass/digitizer fairly easily at home? or should i just let it be and not mess with it?
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On the newer phones is not really possible to separate the different layers on the display. (even back in the days when the layers where a lot easier to separate - it was hard, only on some displays and always the new layers started to separate leading to dust behind them and so on). You must change the whole screen as a one. Sorry... :/

Im a cell phone repair guy. Like stated above you must replace the entire digitizer/lcd assembly. They are pricey. If you have insurance it may be cheaper. Your looking at $200-$250 for a quality unit.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/LCD-Displa...hash=item4b178e5337:m:mtuyciust4Tmlx1CeklwU-g
Then you will want to get a good tool kit like so. Thats another $60
https://www.ifixit.com/Store/Tools/...pEP-Ge4NWU0H9RKOGFUtVKLOoWZ-d4BBoCMwkQAvD_BwE
Then you can follow this for teardown. Just remember you can damage more stuff when working the first time on something like this. It will cost even more money. It might just be better to use insurance or have a pro do it.
https://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Samsung+Galaxy+S7+Edge+Teardown/56845

BDog21 said:
hey i was wondering how difficult it is to replace just the front glass and digitizer on my S7E? mine is cracked at the bottom, the lcd and digitizer are both good, but the crack is getting worse and pieces are flaking off so i feel like if i dont fix it it might end up screwing up the lcd. I can get a glass/digitizer assembly for about 35 bucks, but if i buy this am i going to be able to install it without f*kn up my phone? ive been looking at youtube videos n stuff and pretty much every one i see theyre replacing the whole assembly with the lcd, which is like $200, is it possible to seperate the lcd from the glass/digitizer fairly easily at home? or should i just let it be and not mess with it?
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Well yeah its really hard to do it yourself, but changing only the glass is possible. I have tried it on my old samsung galaxy s6 edge. Although i have brought it to a repair shop which supports such change. They use a special separation machine. Try asking around your place. Btw, where you from?

awerqw22 said:
Well yeah its really hard to do it yourself, but changing only the glass is possible. I have tried it on my old samsung galaxy s6 edge. Although i have brought it to a repair shop which supports such change. They use a special separation machine. Try asking around your place. Btw, where you from?
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nebraska

BDog21 said:
nebraska
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So were continents away. Lol. Buy yeah its possible, with the right tools. You can do it yourself but its very risky. Some do it manually some use tools. Some separation machines use dry ice.

Also, remember that if you're replacing the entire OLED, glass and digitiser as a single unit, if you're buying a generic replacement rather than Samsung parts, the OLED panel in particular could easily be of inferior quality. Or perhaps not even OLED at all, rather a standard LCD replacement. I'd rather not think of this phone without the quality of screen it has, it's half the appeal and what makes it a premium device in the first place.

its possible, repair is done within 3h.
you can try it at home, you need slim cards and wire, but it's not worth the risk.
I paid 120$ in Poland for glass replacement. they have separating machine - it freeze the glue so it's easy to take the glass off the screen. later it's just loca or oca