Good idea, I'll check it out. Paid with Paypal. Wish I had used CC but not given the choice. I brought the iPad to Apple and asked for a free replacement - what the hell, nothing to lose. For 250.00 they'd fix mine or give me a refurbished unit.:huh I figured that if I can rebuild carbs and build houses I should be able to replace the screen for under 50.00.
fwiw, some thoughts from a guy who used to do these daily. The HF kit to use, IMO, is this one. The tool you'll use most is the bottom-half of the second from the left. Be careful, metal tools will tear up the plastic bezel around your glass panel, and can cut antennas and ribbon connectors instantly. The 'cheesy plastic tools' are very, very useful if you're trying to save the glass (which we sometimes were doing). Otherwise, a handful of old credit cards, or guitar picks, are adequate for keeping the old glass from re-sticking itself to the frame as you pry it off. Speaking of the adhesive, USE THE HEAT GUN! But don't melt the plastic bezel unless your new glass panel comes with one. The adhesive softens quite a bit with heat, and hardens up very quickly as it cools. Remove all adhesive residue before you try to replace the glass. DON'T CUT THE WI-FI ANTENNA, nor the 3G antenna, if it's got one. These antennas are foil sheets, glued to a bit of foam, glued to the glass. A decent online repair/picture guide should show you where they are. No, you can't glue/solder/weld it back together. IIRC, on that model the LCD ribbon connector was on the LH side, somewhat below the half-way mark. The WI-FI antenna is on the bottom edge, just to the RH of center, and the 3G antennas are on the top edge. Double-check this before trusting my memory.
I have a heat gun. The iPad doesn't have 3G. According to the Youtube videos I watched, the antenna is on the lower RH side. I don't need to preserve any of the existing screen and I have a replacement bezel. If there's a way to pry up the glass without using the HF tool I could save myself a 50 mile round trip.
With a heat gun, basically anything reasonably stiff and flat will work. Narrower is better. You need something smooth, reasonably stiff, reasonably flexible, fairly thin, and not too wide. Getting creative is fine, as these are not precision tools, nor precision operations. So, you could use a 1" putty knife. If you don't mind cutting one up, cut it down to 1/2" or perhaps even 1/4" (and save the other 3/4" portion for a second spatula). If you have a metal kitchen spatula with slots in it, the metal area between the slots is probably just about perfect in width. Again, this would require destroying the spatula, and some spatulae are too thick for this to work.
This is the kit I've been using, from ifixit. Pro Tool Kit It duplicated some of the stuff I already had but having everything in one small tool roll for my tech bag was worth it, to me.
Well, the deed is done. It wasn't a very enjoyable task but everything is working as it should and its nice to use an intact screen as well as save a bunch of money. I used the HF dental tools previously recommended and my heat gun, as well as my teensy phillips screwdriver. Reviewing several Youtube videos on the screen replacement made a huge difference. Only one of them mentioned positioning the screen bus cable so it tucks out of the way, but this shouldn't be overlooked. The replacement screen that I bought on eBay for less than 50.00 bucks came with the adhesive, home button, and camera bracket pre-installed. It came from LCDcycle in Huntsville, AL - highly recommended. http://www.ebay.com/itm/271238474509?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649 Thanks to everyone who replied.
I was just in 2 different malls. Both had places (Kiosk and store fronts) that would fix it while you shopped.
Once a guy got efficient with heating the glue the process could really speed up. Do they use heat guns at the kiosks?
Well, I got 'er done. Seems to work okay. Should have bought the plastic strip and the foam strip too, but managed to re-use the old ones. Got some weight smushing the adhesive down, will upload pics of the process in a bit.
Didn't hang around long enough. I was on a mission, go in, get stuff, leave. Only noticed it as part of the paying attention to your surroundings.
So here's the kit and the broken Ipad. It came with the glass (digitizer), adhesive, and a pack of tools. Tools actually are pretty solid and came in handy, although I did almost all of the removal work with a putty knife. Got the whole kit and caboodle from Amazon for $32.00 shipped. Here's the seller: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00BUSELRE/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 This kit did NOT come with the plastic rim piece or the foam gasket, and I would have used them if it did. I managed to re-use the plastic rim piece even though it broke while taking it out. I think with some practice you could leave the plastic in place and just pop the glass out, but I'm hoping I don't have to find that out. New digitizer. Read through the destructions, and watched this vid a time or two... <iframe src="//www.youtube.com/embed/odxClc3vOoo" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" width="560"></iframe> Bit by bit, working the glass up with the blow dryer. The heat definitely makes a huge difference. The directions said several times to WEAR SAFETY GLASSES, and I'm glad I did- several times bits of glass shattered and shot me in the face. :eek1 Woot! Removed the 4 screws and tipped up the screen. If you look close at the bottom left hand corner, you can see the cables that need to be unplugged. Watch the video closely, it explains very well how to get them unhooked. All out! Time for cleanup. Spent most of my time getting bits of old adhesive and glass slivers out of the body. Took forever. Blew it out with air, picked some more, blew it out again, wiped the screen down, repeat about 50 times. Re-assembly wasn't to bad. Hook up the digitizer, then hook up the screen. Flip the screen over and screw it down. Apply adhesive to the back of the glass. Did a test fit, and like Mr. Bob said, the goofy cable is pretty hard to get to lay down in it's little slot. Finally got it to fit right, so I peeled off the adhesive backs and stuck it down. Sweet! It works! Have it sitting under some weights overnight to make sure the sticky stuff sticks. We'll see how well it worked in the morning. $32 bucks and a couple hours of labor is a heck of a lot better than $250!!!
Welcome to the brotherhood of successful iPad screen replacement specialists. In my case, I put duct tape over the cracks in the screen to reduce the glass flying around. Just keep it far enough from edges so the heat gun doesn't make the tape a gooey mess. I've been wanting to get more comfortable with making my own computer repairs and this was a good project for that. Last year my laptop died and I completely disassembled it to see how things went together. I was able to remove the hard drive and recover all my data. It really wasn't that hard.
Damn, you've discovered the secret. Modular assembly means easy repair replacing just the broke part.
I did mine a while ago with a $32 kit off of eBay. I used about a dozen cheap HF spring clips to squeeze it together. It took 3-4 hrs, sucked, but the feeling of accomplishment and the fact that it worked correctly made me feel great. My teen wasn't impressed.
Alright, question for y'all who have replaced a digitizer... Few months on and we are having some issues. The cord for the digitizer apparently didn't get in the right spot and lifted the corner of the glass up after a few days. It stayed like that for a while but eventually it started not to "read" touches and got to the point where it would sometimes freak out- like 5 2-year-olds were pushing every button on the screen when in reality NOTHING was touching the screen. Bought a new gasket and stickers, took it apart again, and tried to get the cable tucked down better. Seemed to be fine for a while, but its already starting to self register touches again. Seems to be mostly in one specific section, and rotating the screen sort of cures it for a while. Any suggestions? Hardware issue? Digitizer gone bad from being sort of twisted?
When you took it apart did you check the connection for the digitizer under the lcd? I would start there, could be loose. Did you make sure to push the clips back down? I would pull the cable out and reseat it.
So, after living with my replacement screen for a few months I noticed that the screen adhesive is beginning to fail and dust has gotten behind it, in spite of the protective case. The iPad has been exposed to wide temperature changes as it accompanies me on my travels, but still. I'll try heating the edges of the screen with a hair dryer but I'm not pleased.
