Mobile phone screen repair

[cuberider]

I have a Nokia with a cracked screen that I would like to get fixed, but every quote I've had has been £100-150. The bits to repair it are inexpensive, so how difficult is it?

Has anyone ever had experience of replacing a cracked screen?

 

[Milkfloat]

Depends on the model. Some are easy some are next to impossible. Which model do you have?

 

[cuberider]

its a Lumia 820

 

[fossyant]

Some have a bonded digitiser to the display. These are generally i-phone and later Samsungs. I've changed a digitiser on a couple of phones and it's fiddly, but these are older models. My S6 cracked and it was a shop job, but just £50. They have to remove the old digitiser, then all the glue and then use a pre-bonded new digitiser and set it with UV light - so you may need a 'gel nails' UV box like nail technicians use.

 

[fossyant]

I'd advise googling Lumia 820 screen replacement, then decide.

 

[cuberider]

just found this on you tube.

 

[Over The Hill]

Phones tend to die by being dropped or drowned. Can you get hold of drowned one cheap and use the case?

 

[swee'pea99]

I've tried replacing screens twice, and both failed. Very fiddly, tiny little connectors, took ages and as I say, ultimately without success. Don't think I'd bother again. They seem to come up regularly on ebay for around the £40 mark - I think that's the way I'd go.

 

[Milkfloat]

its a Lumia 820

I failed to fix one of those once. PM your address and I will send you a 920. I am fairly sure I have a couple hanging around.

 

[PeteXXX]

I managed to change the screen on my HTC. It was extremely fiddly and used screwdrivers smaller than a small thing to get the job done.
Everything worked apart from the 'touch-screen'. No idea why.
Still, I hated the phone so was happy to get rid!

 

[Globalti]

Not a phone but I once thought I'd save money and replace the tiny battery inside my iPod Nano. I got a kit and prised the case open, damaging it in the process. The soldering was a nightmare; it worked but I vowed never to attempt that kind of repair again. Better to pay somebody who knows what they're doing.

 

[ColinJ]

Not a phone but I once thought I'd save money and replace the tiny battery inside my iPod Nano. I got a kit and prised the case open, damaging it in the process. The soldering was a nightmare; it worked but I vowed never to attempt that kind of repair again. Better to pay somebody who knows what they're doing.

I got into electronics when I repaired a valve reel to reel tape recorder that I bought from a flea market as a teenager. I repaired lots of valve and/or transistorised TVs, stereo amps etc. after that.

Then integrated circuits started appearing in consumer products and things became less simple but I carried on. It was usually possible to get hold of spares and you could still solder/desolder the devices by hand.

Then circuits got super-complicated and super-compact. Trying to remove tiny surface-mounted devices is not a job for the faint-hearted or anybody with less than perfect eyesight, and that is assuming that you can get hold of replacement parts and can work out what is wrong in the first place. I had to get a technician at work to do some mods for me because I couldn't even see the pins on the chips, let alone solder to them!

I did my degree in electronics but haven't designed, built, or repaired a single significant circuit in the 30 years since then! I think electronics as a hobby died decades ago. I built a big analogue music synthesiser for a mate about 40 years ago. It cost hundreds of pounds and took me months. I recently bought a complete suite of digital music studio software for less than £500 and it does more than what £100,000 worth of gear would have done when I was 20.

Programming is the thing to do now, which is why I switched to that. At the grand old age of 60 I am now having a go at developing apps for phones/tablets - that does my head in too, but in a good way!

 

[theclaud]

I had a crack at this using the following method:



I failed! Seemed to be going to plan for most of it, but either the LCD was already damaged underneath the cracked screen or I damaged it in the course of removing the screen. I was a little wary about overheating the phone, which possible meant that I didn't melt the glue enough and damaged it by pulling it away from the glass. Anyway as @swee'pea99 says it is extremely fiddly and time-consuming - had it worked that wouldn't have mattered, but throw in a high risk of cocking it up as well and it doesn't seem worth the trouble. I will solve this problem in future by not breaking my phone...

 

[marknotgeorge]

When my daughter broke the screen in her Lumia 520, I found a repair place on eBay in Swansea (I think it was), that repaired the screen using genuine parts (as it was still under warranty for much less than that. I can't find them now, but there are a few on there ranging from £33 - £80.

 

[ColinJ]

I had a crack at this using the following method:



I failed! Seemed to be going to plan for most of it, but either the LCD was already damaged underneath the cracked screen or I damaged it in the course of removing the screen. I was a little wary about overheating the phone, which possible meant that I didn't melt the glue enough and damaged it by pulling it away from the glass. Anyway as @swee'pea99 says it is extremely fiddly and time-consuming - had it worked that wouldn't have mattered, but throw in a high risk of cocking it up as well and it doesn't seem worth the trouble. I will solve this problem in future by not breaking my phone...

That is very wise advice; I only wish that I had read it last week. If I had, then perhaps I would have avoided knocking my S4 onto a tiled floor and smashing its screen!

I have bought a very nice replacement phone on eBay but I had been toying with having a go at repairing the old phone and keeping it as a spare. After reading your post I have reconsidered ... Life is too short - I don't think that I will bother!