If someone uses a drill on an iPad - tell them to not drill too deep!

Mijn probleem

A 'friend' tried to remove a broken headphone piece from the iPad headphone jack by drilling into their iPad to remove the broken piece. When they finally removed the broken piece they only had sound out of one side of the headphones (a new set). So I purchased a new headphone jack and within 1 hour had the new part installed and all was well - at least I thought all was well. As I started to clean up the inside of the iPad before enclosing it I noticed they had drilled too far and severed some circuit board connections on the front panel causing the touch surface to act erratically. Hence a front panel replacement was necessary.

Mijn oplossing

Thanks to iFixit and their guides I was able to replace the front panel without any issues.

Mijn advies

1. Follow the replacement guide steps and be patient!

2. When using the iOpener I found it helpful to reheat it and let it soften the glue 2 to 3 times.

3. The initial opening of the iPad on the upper right side is challenging. As said in other repair stories use a razor blade - I found it more useful to use the tip of an angled fixed razor blade such as those in a heavy duty box cutter (not the cheap flimsy ones).

4. The more 'guitar picks' you can use the better - just leave them in place until the panel is removed.

5. When reinstalling the front camera bracket you may have to use some double sided tape as the included iFixit adhesive strips do not include any for this part when installing on a new front panel. Nor does the guide include any pictures for installing the camera bracket on a new panel.

6. When removing the brown backing off the adhesive strips make sure the adhesive is securely pressed down and then use a box cutter razor blade tip to start the process.

7. When reinstalling the front panel you will have to work with the digitizer ribbon cable by molding it into iPad cavity. There is no part of the guide which refers to this process. This would be a great place for iFixit to append the guide !!!