iPhone 5 shattered screen - Awesome DIY experience

Mijn probleem

My iPhone 5 fell face first from about 3 feet onto my driveway. It made a peculiar "clop" sound (not good) and when I picked it up, the screen was entirely shattered.

Not what I expected as it had a cover (Incipio) and I had seen many iPhone 5 vs. Galaxy S4 youtube droptests. I thought I had a tough smartphone.

Since the shattered screen still worked, I put a layer of good packing tape on it to avoid glass splinters and looked into my options. By new? Nah. I elected to repair the phone instead of getting another.

Seeing iFixit.com self repair videos, I thought: "Illud ab homine factum ab altero fieri potest" - Latin . . . which loosely translates to "if one man (or woman) can do it, another can". :)

Mijn oplossing

The repair went very, very well . . . twice.

I looked at many sources before buying a replacement screen and digitizer. After watching some iFixit.com videos and seeing they have a 6 month warrantee, I elected to purchase the "full screen/digitizer/home button with tools" kit.

Dis-assembly went very well (with the help of a third hand) and in about 20 minutes, I was putting it all back together.

Upon starting my phone, everything worked fine except the audio. When making a call and with the battery was fully charged, the earpiece would make a clicking sound like a Geiger counter. The clicking noise would go away when I put the call on "speaker" or when the battery charge dropped below 80%. All other audio sounded fine.

So I took a video of a call exhibiting the behavior and one where the battery charge was below 80%, called iFixit.com (spoke with Matt who was kind and helpful), and before I knew it another replacement screen was on the way.

Wow! I am soooo glad I went with iFixit.com and not some company dropshipping a screen from China. Four days later, I had a second replacement screen installed (hence the "twice" comment) and was back to having a beautifully working iPhone 5.

iFixit.com is a spectacular company to work with. Coincidentally, I have run into three other iPhone users with broken screens in the past two weeks. Each time, I recommended iFixit.com. :)

Mijn advies

Three hands are better than two. By holding the phone in my left hand and pulling on the suction cup with my right, it was very easy to take the phone apart . . . with the help of my third hand (my wife) manipulating the pry tool.

Also, good packing tape on the face of my cracked screen helped maintain suction when removing the broken screen. Little bit of moisture on the suction cup and the dis-assembly went very well.

iFixit.com's magnet pad idea for holding screws is brilliant because the screws are incredibly small.