Samsung Galaxy S4 LCD and Digitizer replacement

I was asked if I could fix a broken LCD on a Samsung Galaxy S4….

Broken LCD

Front and rear view of new screen

This phone was dropped on tiles and it landed on the top right hand corner which resulted in a dead LCD but no broken glass which i thought was a bit unusual.

I started this project as I do with all other mobile devices, which is remove the rear cover, battery, sim card and SD card. Once all these are removed i then proceed with the dismantling of the device.

Due to the fact that the LCD was broken I had to order a complete replacement which included the front glass, LCD, digitizer and the plastic bezel.

Screw placements and speaker enclosure

Midframe removed

I began removing the nine 4.0 mm Philips screws which secure the midframe and speaker enclosure to the display assembly. Then starting on the volume side of the phone, I inserted the plastic opening tool between the chrome bezel around the display glass and the larger chrome border piece. (Look for the seam between the two). I continued sliding the opening tool along the seam, separating the plastic clips as I went. Once i had completed a full circle I was able to remove the midframe from the display assembly.

USB Logic board

I then began to remove the USB board which is located at the bottom of the phone. There is a metal bracket that covers the USB port which needs to be lifted on one side to remove it from its post. With the bracket removed, the soft button cable and the antenna needed to be removed before the USB board could be removed from the assembly. I had to be very careful because the board is very thin and it is stuck to the assembly, so a small amount of heat was needed to soften the glue so that it could be removed. I then quickly transfer the Logic board over to the new assembly before the glue got a chance to harden.

Location of motherboard connectors and screw.

Then using the flat end of a spudger i began removing all the motherboard connectors for various components. These included the front facing camera, earpiece speaker, headphone jack and display/digitizer, all of which are shown on the diagram to the right of this paragraph. There was also one 2.4 mm Phillips screw that needed to be removed before the motherboard was completely free.

Headphone jack

With the motherboard safely removed there was four more components to be removed and transferred to the new assembly. Starting with the headphone jack assembly, I removed the single 2.4 mm Philips screw that was holding it in place and it came out no problem. Next it was onto the front facing camera and earpiece speaker assembly both of which were held in place with a single metal bracket and a 2.4 mm screw. With the screw removed the bracket was easily lifted and both of the components were removed and transferred. The final part was the vibrator module which was held in position with adhesive and was removed without any heat with a spludger tool.

Component locations

Fully working phone

With all the components removed and transferred to the new assembly, I could then fully reassemble the device and after a full system test, everything worked….

Presario CQ60 Wi-Fi Logic board replacement

After many weeks of my brother using a pencil to turn on the Wi-Fi, he decided it was time for a replacement button…..

Damaged button

First off, I had to do a bit of digging on the internet to see what parts were needed. I wasn`t to sure if it was two separate logic boards or just the one.

New Logic Board

I found that it was only a single piece of Logic board which housed the two buttons, so I went ahead and ordered it.The new Logic board arrived two days after the ordered was placed.

Screw placement

My first task was to remove the Li-Ion battery from underneath the laptop. With the battery out of the way i was able to access 5 Philips head screws which were holding the keyboard and plastic shroud in place. The Philips screws which were holding the keyboard in place were marked with a keyboard.

Keyboard ribbon cable

The keyboard was also connected to the Laptop via a ribbon cable which I removed with a Plastic spudger. Once the ribbon cable was disconnected the keyboard simply lifted out without any hassle.

Plastic shroud

I then turned my attention to the plastic shroud which housed the logic board. This was also connected to the laptop via a ribbon cable along with a number of plastic clips which were all removed with a spudger tool.

Underneath plastic shroud

The Power and Wi-Fi logic board was attached to the underside of the plastic shroud with four Philips head screws. I removed these screws and fitted the new Logic board.

Plastic shroud with button

With the new Logic board and button in place, I reassembled the laptop and switched it on. Once it had fully booted I was greeted with a bright blue light on the button which signal it was working correctly.

Working button

Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 Screen replacement

A friend of mine dropped his tablet and asked if I could fix it for him, here`s how it went….

Broken Screen

This was a first for me once again and I was looking forward to the challenge. My first step was to make sure it was powered off and that the Micro SD slot was empty. Once that was done I turned my attention to the rear cover.

On closer inspection I realised that there was no screws so I had to use my plastic spudger tool. I managed to find a gap in between the white backing and the SD slot. I inserted the spudger into the gap and the white backing began to lift up. I continued doing this all the way around the device until the backing was completely off. Once removed I could see all the inner components of the tablet.

Battery removed

Location of various parts

I then decided to remove the battery. To begin the actual removal of the battery itself I had to remove the four designated screws with a Philips screwdriver. Once the screws were removed I used a pair of tweezers to pull up the battery connector (Pull directly up and the connector should pop out).

Broken screen removed

With the battery now removed I felt it was safe to start applying heat to the front screen. I disconnected the LCD connector from the logic board and started applying heat. Following on from this I used a heat gun as the heat source and began heating the top right hand corner of the device. Once the loca glue was hot enough I managed to slide a guitar plex into the gap. I slowly continued my way around the screen adding more plexs until the screen was fully removed.

New screen

Before applying the new screen I had to remove all the remaining loca glue with some isopropyl alcohol wipes. The new screen came with pre-cut 3m tape which I applied to the tablet once all of the loca glue was removed.

With the 3m tape in place I applied the new screen with even pressure until the tape had bonded. After about 15 minutes the screen was fully adhered, I then reassembled the device and switched it on. It worked perfectly…..

Fixed screen

IPhone 4 Screen Replacement

I had never fixed a broken screen on a phone before so I thought, there`s no better place to start then with the ever so popular IPhone….

Front view of the broken IPhone 4 screen.

Before disassembling I made sure it was powered off and that there was no SIM inside. I then removed the two “Pentalobe” screws which were located at the bottom of the phone, on either side of the dock connector.

Once these screws were removed I was able to slide the back cover upwards about 2 mm and lift the panel away from the phone.

Back of phone with no rear cover and battery connector removed

Now with the rear cover off i was able to remove the 1.5 mm Philips screw that was securing the battery connector to the logic board. Then with a plastic pry tool i was able to pry the connector up from its socket.

The next step of removing the battery was just a case of pulling up on the exposed clear plastic tab to peel the battery from the adhesive which was securing it to the phone.

With the battery out of the way I removed a number of different components. These included the dock connector which was held in place with 1.8 mm Philips screws along with the speaker enclosure which had 2.4 mm screws and the aerial which was removed using the plastic spudger.

Battery removed along with dock connector screws. With aerial and speaker enclosure highlighted

Dock connector, speaker enclosure and aerial all removed

Before I started the next step of removing the Wifi- antenna i had to do alot of research

The Wi-Fi antenna which is located at the top of the phone is secured to the logic board with a variety of different screws.

I had to ensure that there was no mix-up of the screws because the 4.8 mm Philips (Green) would render the LCD and digitizer useless if put in the wrong position due to its sheer length. The 4.8 mm screw also acts as the ground for the Wi-Fi antenna and is often the culprit of bad reception if not reassembled correctly.

Location of Wi-Fi antenna screws

• One 2.3 mm Philips (Red)
• Two 1.6 mm Philips (Orange)
• One 1.4 mm Philips (Yellow)
• One 4.8 mm Philips (Green)

Once all the screws were removed and labeled i used my plastic spudger to slightly lift the top edge of the Wi-Fi antenna away from the logic board. I then continued my way around the antenna removing all the retaining clips away from the inner frame. After all the clips were undone the antenna lifted up and underneath was the main logic board of the phone.

Sidewards view of the logic board.

There was a number of flex cables that had to be removed from the logic board along with a few more screws before the board could be removed. These connectors ranged from the rear camera to LCD all of which are labeled and shown in the above diagram.

Location of remaining screws and a view of the phone without the logic board.

Now with all screws and flex cable connectors disconnected, the logic board could be removed .The final step was to remove four 1.5 mm screws from each of the four corners along with six 1.5 mm screws with washers along each side of the phone. Once these were removed the screen could be lifted away from the steel frame with a suction cup.

Location of the remaining screws and washers.

The new screen was then inserted and all screws, connectors and components were re-inserted. The picture below shows the phone fully assembled and working.

Broken screen alongside fixed phone