The Cracked Screen: How I killed, and brought my iPhone back to life.

Mijn probleem

I bought my iPhone 5s about a year ago, and was on my way to the Mall to buy an Otterbox for it when it fell out of my lap in the parking lot. Barely touched the ground and managed to crack the top left corner, and send a huge crack down the length of the screen. I was still able to use my phone in all this time, but I was growing tired of having to move pictures around to see all the details, not to mention I wasn't interested in upgrading to the 6 just yet. So I ordered the replacement parts here on iFixit.

Mijn oplossing

After getting home from my night job around 1am, my package was waiting for me in the mailbox. I took it to my desk, made sure I had plenty of lighting, and read through the entire guide before beginning. The repair was going smoothly, I watched the Video when I came to the ribbon cables, (I couldn't look at the pictures and see an angle to pop them up.) Got all the way through in an hour, booted up the phone and.... Success! I thought. When the phone was about to switch to the lock screen, a bunch of white lines appeared and no manner of pressure would make them go away. So I decided to test the phone and maybe they would go away. I then discovered that I didn't have any touch control over the phone, so after getting a little frustrated, I held the home and lock button to cut the power, reopened the phone, and couldn't see where I went wrong. So I opened the display connectors, popped them off again, and then reconnected them (I actually heard the click from all three this time.) After closing the phone and trying to boot up again.... Nothing. No power, no sound when I plugged it in, no activity from my Macbook when I connected the phone to it. After cursing the phone gods for forsaking me, I resorted to just taking it to the local phone repair place in the morning (It was 4am at this point.) I then left the room, got me a good cold beer, and sat down and watched some stupid videos on Youtube to calm down. After about an hour (And 3 beers) I decided it would be a great idea to go back through the whole re-assembly process (After all, I AM smarter than those idiots at the repair shop.) After reconnecting the display cables, I read in the forums that sometimes you need to disconnect the battery in order to restart the phone. So, not thinking it would work whatsoever, I gave it a try. Disconnected the battery, waited about 30 seconds, reconnected it and reassembled the phone. I then held my breath and prayed to the phone gods when I pressed the power button. I've never been so happy to see that little Apple in the startup screen. Then, just when I'm anticipating the little white lines to do their fade in trick, the phone goes to the lock screen, NO PROBLEMS!! I then swipe to enter my passcode, HOLY S#!T IT WORKED!! After running a few apps to make sure it worked, I decided to lock the phone to test out my Touch ID. AND IT WORKED!! I'm extremely happy with my repair, and I will definitely be ordering more parts to help fix friends and family's iDevices.

Mijn advies

First off, the iOpener, and iSclack (Not sure how to spell that, I didn't bother buying either) are a luxury. If you can afford them, go for it, if you're on a repair budget like me, you don't need them. A hairdryer on low speed will do just as well as the iOpener, and the suction cup and opening tool they ship in the fix kit will do the job, as long as you get your angle of attack just right.

Secondly, DOUBLE CHECK ALL RIBBON CABLE CONNECTIONS BEFORE PLACEING THE BRACKET!!! This is the one thing that kept me from finishing the repair in the first try. Remember, it's not a race. Do everything right, and you'll prevent headaches and possibly rage induced property damage.