Ebony and Ivory

Mijn probleem

A few weeks ago, I decided to repair the faulty home button in my 3-year old 4S. It wasn't clicking anymore and was registering double clicks or long clicks when I tried to single-click. Annoying.

So, randomly, I decided to buy a white home button kit for my black phone. I knew the problem was the membrane below, so the button color didn't matter. I figured I would just use the old button. That repair went smoothly BUT... rookie mistake... I pulled the digitizer cable and it tore. Just a little bit, but it was enough. :( So, I had to order a new digitizer/display from ifixit. I thought about it and since I already had the white button I figured ...why not get the white display too? So I did!

Mijn oplossing

The repair went great. I took my time and was reeeeeeaaallly careful pulling the digitizer cable through this time. I was a little worried because the gold tape over the base of the video cable came bunched up (tried to attach a photo but it doesn't work for some reason) instead of smooth and I hoped that wouldn't cause a problem but by the time I discovered it I was already neck-deep in the repair so I just closed it up and prayed for the best.

After tightening the second pentalobe I powered up and... Success! I now had a phone that felt brand new with a recently replaced battery, home button, and now digitizer/display. And it had the unique quality of being all white on the front and all original black on the back. So, just for fun I started singing "Ebony and Ivory" to celebrate. (Unfortunately--three days later--I still can't get the %#*@ song out of my head every time I look at the phone!)

Mijn advies

I knew I needed to be extra careful with all those screws but I didn't have any way to keep them safe without making a giant pile of them. And since I didn't want to have to measure each screw under a microscope before reassembly, I improvised with what I could find around the house... I used an empty ice cube tray to keep the screws grouped by step as I disassembled the phone so I could just go backwards when I put it back together. Very handy!