Posted by
Steve Smith on
May 11, 2012; 4:56am
URL: http://friam.383.s1.nabble.com/Adventure-iPhone-Repair-via-iCracked-tp7548324p7549203.html
Owen -
Yeah, its clear to me that my 4s won't survive this done
more than once more, its pretty tough on the insides of the
critter. I made at least 4 mistakes I feared would be fatal,
but weren't. Damn these screws and protectors are TINY!
yes and amen to all that!
iCracked is changing almost daily. I went back to look at
the parts they sell, and they have one real life-saver: a
complete screw set:
As you may have found out, they can easily be lost. I was
surprised I didn't loose one, but it was close. One stunt I
used was to use scotch tape loops on the workflow chart to
place the screws on. Worked quite well.
Question: I have not yet mastered the reassembly stunt that
requires you to take these micro crews and place them
accurately on your magnetic screw driver. They seldom "seat"
properly and thus are always slipping and getting off-center.
I ended up using a travel magnifying glass (only 2x or so)
held in one hand, steadying the driver w/ screw. But getting
the screw in place is an artform that I hope the pros can tell
me about.
Do you have any tricks? I tried tweezers but heaven help
you if they "pinch" sending the screw across the room!
They're all the size of a period at the end of this sentence.
I hit the vision wall myself a few years ago... I've not had an eye
test, but what was an acute 20/20 is now pretty lame when it comes
to small things up close. I use a hands-free magnifying glass, the
kind that come from China for like $3.99 at Harbor Freight? I also
used the highest power reading glasses I had laying around (I can
hardly stand to use reading glasses, they make me crazy, but
sometimes they are the only option).
Overall, I feel like
the 4's screens are *more* robust... Just Friday I was
driving to Denver, discovered I didn't have my phone 1 mile
down the road, went back and looked high and low for an hour
only to finally find it when I gave up and discovered it had
in fact fell off the top of my car in my driveway... dusty
and overheated (in the sun) but no broken (or even scuffed)
screen!
Whoa, now that is encouraging! The "82% higher" is pretty
old, and definitely pre-iPhone4s.
My personal concern is wondering what happened causing my
screen to crack. I had dropped my earlier iPhone 2g
(original) several times with no problem. I've dropped the 4s
2 or 3 times, generally bending over and having it drop out of
a shirt pocket. Never saw a crack. That's why I think my
putting the phone in pants pocket may be the culprit.
Yes, that is disconcerting. I must have dropped my 2G 30 times
onto various hard surfaces without a crack... then one day as I
dropped it, I commented to my nephew that "it never cracks" and
viola! it was cracked! Given our track record with screens, we are
pretty good about working around the cracks, though the style of
cracking on my 3gs meant that I picked up tiny slivers of glass in
my fingertip for the first week... and eventually the touch screen
started to flake in areas that were important (answer the phone? no
way!).
I'm not a case user, why should I make a beautiful thing
ugly! But iCracked included a bumper and a screen protector
with the order .. I guess I'll try them.
I'm not big on cases either... but given my screen breakage style
I've thought I would design my own based around a set of brass
knuckles, called the iKnuckles. The case would come as an add-on to
an app that upon a sharp blow would put up the image of a
cracked/crazed screen over the surface. This grew out of my flip
irritation with the many people who think they can tell others
when/where/how to use their phones. I don't get much of this myself
because I'm actually thoughtful, polite and careful when and where I
use my phone, but I've heard one too many self-righteous boobs tell
off someone else or make rude comments in front of them about their
texting or talking on the phone. So when people commented on my
cracked screen I just told them it happened the last time somebody
made a rude comment about my using my phone in their presence and I
"just popped them one!".
I like the DIY motto:
If you can't open the case, you don't own it. What kind
of technoweenies are we if we can't follow a youtube video
and do some simple component replacement?
Well, honestly, its a bit harder than that, but courage and
taking your time and listening to EVERY word on the video does
bring it into the capacity of a 70 year old tech-y.
I can't tell you how many times I rewound several different videos
and *hated* the makers of the videos because NONE of them actually
showed re-assembly... they simply stopped at the end and said
"reverse the process to reassemble)... watching the tiny
components popping loose when you unscrew or tug them apart is not
always that helpful for understanding the tricks to putting them
back in place! The point still holds, we *should* be able to do
this kind of repair if we call ourself techies, but it is not for
the faint of heart!
An inordinate amount of my misspent youth was misspent rebuilding
carburators on various vehicles I owned. Anyone with experience
with such can see the relevance... when you release a part and
check-ball just about twice the size of the proverbial period at the
end of the sentence, propelled by an equally tiny spring, flies
across the room, it is quite frustrating... and of course, the thing
about finishing the rebuild and discovering you still have parts
left is also quite disconcerting (until you realize that they
furnish extra screws, check valves, springs, etc. just in case you
lose one, and they make a single kit for a dozen variations on the
same carbuerator).
As always, good workflow management (and yes loops of scotch tape
sound promising) and very careful step-by-step processing is key. I
*also* photographed each configuration before I disconnected
anything... it was *almost* enough... but still I think I had to
back up several times, thus adding to the ultimate trauma that left
me with only 3 rebuilds before failure.
I was raised to believe in investing in good tools and learning to
keep them sharp, well lubricated and how to do repairs as needed,
this is the one thing I like YouTube videos for... most of the rest
of the time, I find them a terrible sinkhole of my time!
- Steve
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