I've searched these threads and haven't really found what I'm looking for.
A friend has an HTC MT4G and it has a cracked screen. I see there are some YouTube videos showing how to replace the glass/digitizer. Are they not separable?
It looks like this is a very similar process to the replacement of the Samsung Galaxy S3 screen - you heat it up until the glass slides off, clean off the residue, replace the adhesive, hook up the new digitizer and bond the new assembly back on.
Sounds simple enough. But can someone post step by step directions on what needs to be removed from the inside to unhook the ribbon cable? The videos are fine, but I'd prefer to print instructions with photos rather than rewinding and playing the video. My first attempt at replacing just the glass on the Galaxy resulted in utter destruction. I can't afford to do that to a friend's phone.
Is there an LCD/Glass/Bezel combo that is way easier to replace, albiet pricier?
Thanks for any info.
Glass and digitizer are never separable AFAIK.
There is no replacement for glass on Samsung Galaxy series, none of them. The glass+digitizer is inseparable from the AMOLED screen (well, not using home tools), and is sold as a single pack. Nothing to be afraid of - meant to be destroyed upon replacement.
Not so with HTC - digitizer and LCD are separate. But removing the digitizer without damaging the LCD is quite a pain - cracking the LCD is oh-so-simple when bending the thing all ways to separate the digitizer.
I'm not able to post urls yet as I'm a noob here...
Check out YouTube video ID UbvkgV7NdVk, HTC MyTouch 4G Glass Touch Screen Digitizer Repair Guide by RepairsUniverse
You can use a hair dryer to remove the digitizer/glass from the LCD. I had trouble because my glass was shattered.
My screen on my 7.7 has a few cracks on the corners and sides more towards the bezel, not really on the screen. It doesnt really bother me, the cracks have been there for about 6 months.
I have already opened the 7.7 because it took a bath and I had to change the board with the connectors to the headphone jack and power button whoch was acting up.
I have also helped a friend scratch the glas from his S3 which was completely shattered.
Now I was wondering if it might be worthwhile to change the glas on the screen, or might I damage it even more?
I googled and searched youtube but couldnt really find a guide or any info.
What approach should I take? Heating the glas up and try to lift it of? Dissolving the glue with isopropyl alcohol?
The main problem to me seems, you aren't able to get an affordable spare part. I also have a 7.7 with cracked edges, the only screens i found included digitizers and stuff which raised the costs far beyond 200USD, thus making the whole idea of fixing senseless.
Tell me if you found cheaper suppliers for only the glass part, I'd give it a try.
Sack
If you are interested, motherboard on my tablet is broken, but display is completly fine, almost no scratches at all. You can PM me if you want ( I would like around 120€)
[With pics] How to replace only the glass (not the whole "LCD") on a Galaxy S3!
You don't.
Although it is entirely possible, the chance of failure if done by people with absolutely no experience with mobile phone repairs is very high.
If you've broken the screen on your Samsung Galaxy S3 and have considered replacing the screen by yourself because your local mobile phone repair shops charge a hefty price for the repair, you should reconsider. You may have seen videos like the following that make it seem it is very easy to replace the glass only:
(skip to 3:00 in this one)
Maybe it seemed too easy. That's because it was too easy. Chances are those screens have already been replaced before by a third party who has access to professional equipment and skills. Possibly the screen has been broken more than once?
Even if you do successfully replace the glass only, it is guaranteed that you will get scratches, dust, fingerprints and adhesive marks on the Super AMOLED panel, no matter how much you clean it. That's because you won't be doing the repair with gloves on in a clean room free of dust. And that's not all - after a few weeks or months of use, dust will somehow find a way to get in between the glass and SAMOLED+ panel because you didn't use machine-cut adhesive that adheres your glass perfectly, leaving no gap for dust to get in. Your screen's touch sensitivity will drop as well, since it's not making adequate contact with the digitizer. And on top of that, the visibility will also drop.
Those problems don't show up on camera, and can easily be masked/hidden from the camera, too.
If this is only your first time breaking the screen on your S3, those tutorials won't work for you because your screen was manufactured as one whole piece by Samsung. The glass on your phone won't fall out by itself because the whole glass is optically laminated to the SAMOLED+ panel using a Liquid Optically Clear Adhesive, or LOCA for short. This kind of adhesive is a little bit sensitive to heat, but can't be completely removed because it is cured using UV light, not heat.
Optical lamination is a manufacturing process employed in more high end mobile devices that eliminate the air gap usually present between the display panel (usually either LCD or AMOLED) and the glass digitizer panel on top. Phones such as the Samsung Galaxy S3, S4, Note 2 and Note 3, iPhone 4/4S/5/5S/5C, HTC One X, One, Butterfly, Droid DNA, LG Nexus 4, Nexus 5, Sony Xperia Z, Z1, Z Ultra etc. have displays that are optically laminated. Optical lamination has a number of advantages:
Visibility is increased (especially under sunlight), since there aren't multiple layers reflecting ambient light creating optical interference
Screen clarity is increased, since optical lamination makes the display look like it is on top of the glass as opposed to being under it
It is impossible for debris like dirt and dust to get trapped in the air gap between the display and glass, because that gap is filled with LOCA
Higher contrast ratio, because there's less light reflecting off the parts of the screen that aren't emitting light
But the biggest disadvantage is the increased cost of repair. That's what you have to pay for all those aforementioned advantages. It also certainly doesn't help that the screens are getting thinner and thinner every year. The likelihood of breaking the screen increases every year too.
Here's a little photo album that I'd like to share with everyone documenting my experiences trying to remove the glass from full original Samsung screens that haven't been replaced or tampered with before. Click to enlarge.
This is a picture of the Black Samsung Galaxy S3 GT-i9300. Only the glass was broken, so I attempted to separate it from the AMOLED panel using a heat gun and some plastic pry tools. So far so good, until the AMOLED panel broke because it is optically bonded to the glass and also stuck to the frame underneath it. You can still see some LOCA on the AMOLED panel and glass.
Second is the Galaxy S4 GT-i9505. It was broken on the top half, so I started removing the glass from the bottom. Again, the LOCA wasn't very cooperative, staying quite solid throughout the removal. Eventually, the S4's AMOLED panel broke too.
It didn't look like the broken original Samsung screens wanted to be separated, so I moved on to fully intact screens.
It was a pain trying to separate this one. The adhesive was very difficult to remove, and the screen's touch digitizer circuit and polarizer started to separate from the AMOLED panel. As you can see, the glass came off intact, but the AMOLED underneath was completely destroyed.
It doesn't look like the digitizer circuit/polarizer is bonded to the AMOLED. It just gets sandwiched on top, so it is very easy to unintentionally separate it from the AMOLED instead of leaving it on and only removing the glass, especially if the glass is smashed into a thousand fragments. The glass was in one piece though, and you can see how that turned out.
This is a good representation of what the AMOLED sandwich consists of. From top to bottom:
Gorilla Glass
Touch digitizer circuit/polarizer (you can see the rest of the glass is a lot darker than the top left corner where polarizer was removed)
AMOLED panel (it looks very reflective without the polarizer on top of it)
Midframe
Some of the AMOLED panel itself came off and was still stuck to the glass!
You can see how thin and fragile the AMOLED panel is on the Samsung Galaxy S series phones. Sure, it's thin, but is it worth it? The panel has to be supported by the frame and the glass to stay intact. The panel on the S4 has a slimmed down bezel and was made thinner again, so it's a lot easier to break the AMOLED on the S4 than it is on the S3.
Ugh, don't even get me started with the iPhone 5 screen. LCDs are more robust than AMOLEDS but still...so much LOCA...so much glass...
Sure, these glass panels can be had for about $10, but is it worth all the effort to end up with a screen full of dust and fingerprints, has a warped frame and will eventually come loose and fall off, or simply just to destroy the AMOLED panel then spending extra money on a whole display assembly? Reapplying the glass leaving no gaps for dust to get in requires adhesive that is machine-cut perfectly for your frame.
Edit: Even then, you still don't have any LOCA or the necessary facilities to fill that air gap. (Thanks to @KrzychuG !)
Do you have what it takes?
Sorry for such a long post. I'm spending my time, efforts and money so you don't have to. I will occasionally add to this thread when I get more screens to experiment with.
This is a good video on how these screens can be separated and replaced with a perfect bubble-free and dust-free finish:
Most of the time its a better idea to just buy an entire replacement. I've replaced glass on nexus 7's and Galaxy Note2's a few times. it's not fun to replace glass or lamination, and it's just a whole lot easier to purchase a "parts" phone with a working display from ebay and swap out boards. Glass is one of my least favorite things to play with.
vantt1 said:
This is a good video on how these screens can be separated and replaced with a perfect bubble-free and dust-free finish:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Awesome dude! thanks alot for the tutorial, but i dont think people have industrial size vacuums in their house, lol,
Thank you so much, this is very helpful!
Can I ask how you got the information? That would be very useful to do further research about other devices
Thanks again!
I will never, ever separate the glass and the screen. I know that it will break for sure. When I replace phone glass, I replace the entire front screen assembly which includes the glass, screen, and any frame to attach it into the phone. Even if it's just the glass that's broken and the LCD still works, still replace the entire front assembly.
Pizza_Dox said:
Awesome dude! thanks alot for the tutorial, but i dont think people have industrial size vacuums in their house, lol,
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think the point is that unless you have all this stuff you shouldn't be even attempting to replace the glass.
i have tried this multiple times and all i can say is for anyone at home wihtout the professional equipment your not gonna get anywhere.. this isnt like and iPhone 3G/S where you take the screen off and seperate the LCD from the digitizer with a heatgun or hairdryer, ive tried all possible ways an failed every single time, either broken AMOLED or in some cases half the AMOLED comes off with the adheasive...
just save your money and buy the digitizer with the AMOLED attached..
HankChill said:
I will never, ever separate the glass and the screen. I know that it will break for sure. When I replace phone glass, I replace the entire front screen assembly which includes the glass, screen, and any frame to attach it into the phone. Even if it's just the glass that's broken and the LCD still works, still replace the entire front assembly.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
but what will you do with the old screen with the broken front glass ?
andr3wchong said:
but what will you do with the old screen with the broken front glass ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Chuck it
I have replaced many screens, and in my experience, you're always best buying everything as readily assembled as possible. Out of 5 attempts at separating the S3 Glass from the AMOLED panel, I have managed it twice without breaking the AMOLED, and that involves also keeping the digitser intact as well, which is between the outer glass and the AMOLED.
Back when I was doing this, you were looking at £175+ for the complete assembly, so to some people, £20 at a risk was worth it if I could manage it. Now though they're cheap enough to replace the whole lot without the worry.
There is an app on Play Store called ifixit which gives pretty detailed step-by-step instructions for most DIY teardowns and fixes for phones, tablets, consoles and even some household applicances, and they have a website too. Unfortunately, it's only experience (and expense) that make you realise that just because they make it look doable, it doesn't mean everyone can do it easily. There are many, many pitfalls that you will only discover yourself when you take on these DIY repairs, to the point where I don't do them all that often anymore, just because it's too stressful and costly if it goes wrong. My first iPhone 4 (am I allowed to say that here? ) screen replacement took me 3 hours just because of how careful I was. Now I can do it in 20 minutes, just because of experience. But even then you can be plagued with problems for no apparent reason. If you don't handle stress well, my best advice is to leave it to the experts
matmaneyre said:
I have replaced many screens, and in my experience, you're always best buying everything as readily assembled as possible. Out of 5 attempts at separating the S3 Glass from the AMOLED panel, I have managed it twice without breaking the AMOLED, and that involves also keeping the digitser intact as well, which is between the outer glass and the AMOLED.
Back when I was doing this, you were looking at £175+ for the complete assembly, so to some people, £20 at a risk was worth it if I could manage it. Now though they're cheap enough to replace the whole lot without the worry.
There is an app on Play Store called ifixit which gives pretty detailed step-by-step instructions for most DIY teardowns and fixes for phones, tablets, consoles and even some household applicances, and they have a website too. Unfortunately, it's only experience (and expense) that make you realise that just because they make it look doable, it doesn't mean everyone can do it easily. There are many, many pitfalls that you will only discover yourself when you take on these DIY repairs, to the point where I don't do them all that often anymore, just because it's too stressful and costly if it goes wrong. My first iPhone 4 (am I allowed to say that here? ) screen replacement took me 3 hours just because of how careful I was. Now I can do it in 20 minutes, just because of experience. But even then you can be plagued with problems for no apparent reason. If you don't handle stress well, my best advice is to leave it to the experts
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Click to collapse
you musty be really good out of i think 7 possible 8, i have managed to seperate once, but still i scratched the AMOLED...
ricky310711 said:
you musty be really good out of i think 7 possible 8, i have managed to seperate once, but still i scratched the AMOLED...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It never feels like I'm very good when I see the screen go though. Just that sick feeling :/
Saying that as well, I gave the phones back to whoever they belonged to when they were done. There's nothing to say that a couple of weeks/months down the line they faced the problems of dust under the glass, touchscreen sensitivity reduced etc. They were just happy to get them back 'looking' perfect.
Never again
matmaneyre said:
It never feels like I'm very good when I see the screen go though. Just that sick feeling :/
Saying that as well, I gave the phones back to whoever they belonged to when they were done. There's nothing to say that a couple of weeks/months down the line they faced the problems of dust under the glass, touchscreen sensitivity reduced etc. They were just happy to get them back 'looking' perfect.
Never again
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
your right, quallity also plays a BIG part aswell, like you said never know what could happen, but better brands generally have better touch respones and just generally more smoothe, i knew someone who had just got the digitizer replaced by a phone repair shop, they couldnt use their phone in the wind thats how bad the replacement was..
EDIT: response**
thank you, says my sii p
you saved a sii today, i'm using my phone without screen protection so it gets scratches after long times and i said to myself that's ok, i will replace the gorilla glass. that would be open the phone replace it then close it and i will have a new sii p again but sounds it's not that easy.
Very interesting thread.
I must be lucky,as on several occasions with most phones I have owned (HTC Desire hd, HTC One X, HTC One,Nexus 5, Samsung Note 3) I have accidentally dropped my phone. I've never had a case on and have on some occasions been unlucky to have the phone land on the screen, it has happened indoors and outdoors, on concrete and tarmac, despite this I haven't ever broken the glass.
andr3wchong said:
but what will you do with the old screen with the broken front glass ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
HankChill said:
Chuck it
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Click to collapse
I wouldn't follow the advice to "Chuck it". We purchase these cracked glass assemblies as long as the touch screen and LCD still work fine. We can pay up to $100 PER screen, depending on the model. PM us for prices for bulk orders.
I very recently bought myself an used Galaxy S3 and to my great disappointment the glass has no scratches because it has been replaced. Now I got ****ty touchscreen response and already dust is gathering between the digitizer and the glass. I might try to sell it off and buy myself another one, this time checking very carefully that everything is in perfect working condition!
So much for thinking I had found a bargain for this fantastic phone (which, despite the problems, is a nice upgrade from my Galaxy Ace!)
MobileEMT said:
I wouldn't follow the advice to "Chuck it". We purchase these cracked glass assemblies as long as the touch screen and LCD still work fine. We can pay up to $100 PER screen, depending on the model. PM us for prices for bulk orders.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Really? I have a crapload
ricky310711 said:
Really? I have a crapload
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Good to hear! We'll PM you. Feel free to contact us if you would like to sell or refurbish them.
Damaged my front glass display. No bleeds or dead pixels and digitiser fully responsive.
Can the glass be replaced alone?
Been to several local repairers and they saying glass display and digitiser comes as one unit and needs to replace all which comes to about 50% cost of phone. (Would written off if it was a car).
Seen some online vids using dry ice to remove the glass then reglue a new one followed by UV light to fix glue. (Sounds like dental work).
Any experiance on this?
AbuYahya said:
Damaged my front glass display. No bleeds or dead pixels and digitiser fully responsive.
Can the glass be replaced alone?
Been to several local repairers and they saying glass display and digitiser comes as one unit and needs to replace all which comes to about 50% cost of phone. (Would written off if it was a car).
Seen some online vids using dry ice to remove the glass then reglue a new one followed by UV light to fix glue. (Sounds like dental work).
Any experiance on this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This was possible on earlier phones even if they have digitizer and glass together, but you would need special equipment to do this, and it was a dangerous process where the chance of damaging the whole display was huge... On the Edge phone I do not see how it would be possible, because on flat screens you needed to take a wire and put it between the glass/digitizer and be careful by removing. After that you have to glue it again with UV glue.
The special point here is that with the edge screen the chance of breaking it totally is for sure more than 90%. Also as I have heard it is not even possible to remove the display on the s7 Edge without braking it. So if you need to replace just the home button, it leads also to screen replacement.
arnes_king said:
This was possible on earlier phones even if they have digitizer and glass together, but you would need special equipment to do this, and it was a dangerous process where the chance of damaging the whole display was huge... On the Edge phone I do not see how it would be possible, because on flat screens you needed to take a wire and put it between the glass/digitizer and be careful by removing. After that you have to glue it again with UV glue.
The special point here is that with the edge screen the chance of breaking it totally is for sure more than 90%. Also as I have heard it is not even possible to remove the display on the s7 Edge without braking it. So if you need to replace just the home button, it leads also to screen replacement.
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Click to collapse
http://forum.xda-developers.com/s7-edge/help/damaged-glass-screen-t3483109/post69201097#post69201097
above link is proof of concept... it can be done... also several professionals in the US offer this service. I was just a bit bamboozled why its not being offered by anyone locally.