It all started when I couldn't disable an alarm...

Mijn probleem

A few years ago while cradling my iPhone 5 between my neck and shoulder, I got a bit cocky with my technique and while opening a door, the phone fell and the screen shattered. At that time I thought of iPhones as largely disposable items but this time it hurt as I was only about 6 months into a contract on this phone. I ended up holding on to it for a while thinking I could either fix of sell it.

A few months went by and I purchased a new car that had an iPod interface. I thought great- I don't need a screen for this so I will load my music library on it and use it stashed away in my glove box. This worked great except for 3 things. Alarms set for 7:30, 11:30 and 3pm. I Don't know why I had 3 alarms active on the day I dropped my phone but I sure did regret doing that! I figured out a work around through my cars audio interface that would shut it off- so long as I was in the car when it happened. I worried that a passerby would hear my glove box rattling and get "curious" about it's contents. About 30% of the screen/digitizer worked so I spent some time desperately trying to get in the clock app and disabling the alarm. I was successful on one but the other 2 remained. About this time I noticed the fall had kinda popped the whole screen assembly from the back of the phone. I spent a few minutes with a pry tool and voila! It popped off. At that point I plugged it into my Mac and saw it was still alive, iFixit was the first thing that popped in my mind at that point and I immediately ordered a replacement screen and battery.

Mijn oplossing

The repair was pretty straightforward I had the right phillips bits to remove the tiny screws shown in your handy guide. Swapping the battery and inserting the new screen on their respective contacts was quick and for the most part pretty easy. I had trouble getting one to line up but it finally went. At this point I crossed my fingers and turned the phone on. When I saw the apple I did a happy dance and waited to make sure the digitizer worked. I could swipe and tap woo hoo!! At this point the screen was still off the body so I could reseat connections as necessary. I pressed the home button, nothing... Uh oh. Then I not the two contacts for the home button at the bottom of the case. So I reached for my pentalobe screwdriver that I thought was included in my "Apple screwdriver kit" (purchased at a local chain) and realized it's not there. I immediately pulled up I fix it and placed the order. Some remnants of the old screen assembly are still attached to the 2 screws by the lightning connection so once I get those removed I think I will be in business. Either way it was surprisingly easy to do especially since dropping the phone did the hard part of removing the screen assembly for me. :)

Mijn advies

I think I would have read the repair manuals prior to ordering the supplies from iFixit, would have saved me a second order had I read through and compared with my screwdriver set. I will say that fixing broken idevices is a completely viable option for me now and I have an iPad mini with a cracked screen on deck!