Accessories Replacing the LCD and Digitizer

[cabraswell]

Hey folks. Just bought a cheap Incredible on Craigslist and I need to replace the LCD and digitizer. I'm seeing prices around $20 for the digitizer and $60ish for the LCD. Are these about right? Am I looking in the wrong places?

If anyone has a good source to get these any cheaper than what I've seen please let me know. I'll be very grateful.

BTW...it's am AMOLED screen.

 

[cabraswell]

In case anyone was wondering...I ordered the new parts on Monday and they will hopefully all be in by tomorrow. I ended up ordering a new front housing as well as the original was pretty beat up.

 

[drewzer]

Please let us know how the repair goes. I just dropped mine and shattered the glass. It still works though, so I assume the digitizer still works. Basically, I'd like to know how difficult the repair is and how much it costs. Thanks, and good luck!

 

[cabraswell]

The digitizer wouldn't be hard to repair imo. I work with electronics every day though. I actually ordered a front housing with the digitizer pre-installed on this one though.

I'm still waiting for the new display to arrive. Hoping it's there when I get home today.

 

[parri1l]

It was an alright experience. 20 for digitizer 60 for amoled screen. Followed a youtube video for step by step guide. Was ok. I recommend looking for the two sided tape. super glue trick is fickle.

Also the digitizer is the hard part. Depending on how busted the screen is. You will require a hair dryer and a sharp tough knife for prying the digitizer from frame. All I know is you need to be very patient when doing it.

Any questions feel free to ask. I am not sure what the digitizer already in the frame costs, but if the cost is worth a half hour of scraping glue off then Id go with that.

Also I bought everything on ebay. Digitizer from USA LCD from China.

 

[cabraswell]

I paid $40 for the front housing with the digitizer already installed. It works great. I got the display yesterday and upon installing it I found it to be defective. It would come on but had a washed out look with a greenish color to it at almost all times. Going to exchange it and I'll update once the exchange arrives.

 

[cabraswell]

Ok. Replacement arrived and after installation it's doing nothing. I'm not confident it's the screen. I'm worried about the connection for the screen. The plastic across the top of it is cracked but it still seems to be in fine condition. When installed the screen is the only thing not working. And the old screen "would" turn blue when turned on at least. Now it'll do nothing as well.

Anyone tried a component level repair on one of these? I doubt I'd even be able to find the connector and it'd be a beast of a job to solder it back on there IF I could get the old one off. At this point I might contact HTC or a local repair place and see what they'd charge to fix it. I doubt it'd be worth my money as this was originally a project to make a little cash.

 

[Wpz2000]

Component level? LOL.

Have you borrowed a good working dinc to test out the screens? Until you isolate the good parts from the bad, you really won't know for sure.

The cable connector housings on these things are stupid brittle. I'm pretty sure its intentional as I've never seen anything like it. Anyway, it you look at the connector with a loupe or something, you will see that there is a two sided metal pin making contact to each pad on the cable, so that top piece that is cracked should be fine. The two sided pin will clamp down on the cable. Just make sure the pins are not bent out and not making contact. You'll have to look very closely with a 10x or 20x.

Ok. Replacement arrived and after installation it's doing nothing. I'm not confident it's the screen. I'm worried about the connection for the screen. The plastic across the top of it is cracked but it still seems to be in fine condition. When installed the screen is the only thing not working. And the old screen "would" turn blue when turned on at least. Now it'll do nothing as well.

Anyone tried a component level repair on one of these? I doubt I'd even be able to find the connector and it'd be a beast of a job to solder it back on there IF I could get the old one off. At this point I might contact HTC or a local repair place and see what they'd charge to fix it. I doubt it'd be worth my money as this was originally a project to make a little cash.

 

[cabraswell]

I haven't tried swapping parts as I'm carrying an SLCD Incredible and the one I'm working on is AMOLED. I'll have to look at the pins when I can get a lupe to check it out. My eyesight is pretty good but not that good. I'm about to just put it up for sale as is and get out from under it. It has a good ESN but that's no help right now.

 

[Wpz2000]

One thing you can try is to get a piece of tape and put it across the back of the lcd cable right at the edge of the connector. Trim it so there is no overlap. This will thicken the cable and get you better contact if that is the problem. There is not much tolerance though, so don't try thick tapes like duck tape, just normal clear scotch tape.

I haven't tried swapping parts as I'm carrying an SLCD Incredible and the one I'm working on is AMOLED. I'll have to look at the pins when I can get a lupe to check it out. My eyesight is pretty good but not that good. I'm about to just put it up for sale as is and get out from under it. It has a good ESN but that's no help right now.

 

[cabraswell]

One thing you can try is to get a piece of tape and put it across the back of the lcd cable right at the edge of the connector. Trim it so there is no overlap. This will thicken the cable and get you better contact if that is the problem. There is not much tolerance though, so don't try thick tapes like duck tape, just normal clear scotch tape.

I'll give this a try once I verify I haven't got any broken pins. Thanks for the tip.

 

[cabraswell]

Ok. I've apparently been sent two faulty screens. I'm giving up on this project and going to sell the phone to someone else who wants to put time into it. Just thought I'd update in case anyone was wondering.

 

[slanch]

I just finished replacing my digitizer and screen (bought on ebay for $31.75 OEM). After putting the entire thing back together it wasn't working.

Took it all apart again.

Did this multiple times, every single instance the phone would vibrate that it was turning on but the screen was not turning on.

Finally, I rechecked the connection of the ribbon connectors and it turns out there was a tiny tiny tiny millimeter more it could go in. Put it back together, turned it on, screen came on crisp and even more beautiful than ever.

I am all thumbs when it comes to fix-it projects, but i did it pretty easily (minus the above problems) thanks to this video (‪How to Replace HTC Incredible Droid LCD Screen Repair Guide‬‏ - YouTube).

Awesome!