HTC Droid Incredible Take Apart Repair Guide

[repairsuniverse]

Hi,

We have just finished our take apart video guide for the HTC Droid Incredible. We go through the process step by step and provide details of which tools are required. We had a lot of people requesting this who needed to replace parts to repair their phone, and it may also be of interest for those who are simply interested in seeing "what's under the cover".

In this video we are we are taking the phone apart to replace a badly cracked touch screen digitizer.

You can view our guide here - HTC Droid Incredible Take Apart Repair Guide

Please let us know if you have any questions or recommendations for improving the guide.

Hope it helps.

Paul Weatherley

 

[uber_mike]

Awesome! Now if you guys could get the external speaker for the inc, I and many others would be super happy.

 

[canrunin]

Awesome! Now if you guys could get the external speaker for the inc, I and many others would be super happy.

does that mean you have a blown speaker too? if so is this common ? i had a eris that did it and my incredible did it.

 

[JeeperDon]

Awesome! Now if you guys could get the external speaker for the inc, I and many others would be super happy.

I think you mean internal speaker? I'd like that too. I swapped out my dinc with VZW last week due to blown speaker and would prefer to just buy/swap it myself if possible.

 

[repairsuniverse]

We don't currently have the speaker in stock for the incredible but are getting new parts in all the time so I will let you know when it comes in.

 

[repairsuniverse]

We now have the HTC Incredible Droid LCD screens in stock, we have more parts on the way and we think the internal speaker will be included. We should have these next week.

 

[breznou]

I have a blown loud speaker and would love to buy and replace it. Theres a local phone repair shop that wants $50 to replace it but i rather buy it and replace it myself. Thanks for the great how to video.

 

[jws3]

We now have the HTC Incredible Droid LCD screens in stock, we have more parts on the way and we think the internal speaker will be included. We should have these next week.

Good video.

Are your parts OEM or 3rd party?

 

[jrw4203]

It looks straightforward taking it apart, but you don't show how hard it might be to put it back together again. How difficult is it?

 

[sfzendog]

If you can do that, can you help me figure out how to transfer my photos and music to my HTC Incredible? I have three computers on a server and don't want to use their synch because my Contacts, Calendar and Tasks are already coming in ok. Everytime I try to hook up to my computer, nothing happens. I set the phone to hard-disk, but that didn't do it either. Could you direct me to a source that can tell me how to do this? LOVE the phone. Sold my iPhone last month because it wasn't a phone. This does everything as well, but being on Verizon, IT MAKES CALLS.
sfzendog

 

[repairsuniverse]

JWS3 - Glad you liked the video. Parts are OEM.

jrw4203 - Putting it back is pretty straight forward. Its just a case of reversing the take apart steps.

 

[jrw4203]

Yes, I realize that I need to reverse the steps. However, it's often easier taking things apart than putting them back together. Has anyone actually done this?

 

[breznou]

Any chance you have the loud speaker in stock and xif so can you pm me a shipped price please. Thank you

 

[sabrewings]

Yes, I realize that I need to reverse the steps. However, it's often easier taking things apart than putting them back together. Has anyone actually done this?

It's been done on here a few times. They reported no issues. There doesn't look to be any tricky steps to the Inc, so you shouldn't have to worry. It's just screws and snap clips.

 

[lafester]

I'll probably buy a few of those damn speakers lol.
Mine is still good but if sounds like they are pretty flaky.
Maybe you could find us a nice upgrade?

 

[jrw4203]

It's been done on here a few times. They reported no issues. There doesn't look to be any tricky steps to the Inc, so you shouldn't have to worry. It's just screws and snap clips.

This indicates its a little more work than screws and snap clips: replaced cracked HTC incredible digitizer - Droid Forum - Verizon Droid & the Motorola Droid Forum

 

[freddyttt]

Im looking for the outside camera lens. mine has a small crack;(

 

[repairsuniverse]

Yes, I realize that I need to reverse the steps. However, it's often easier taking things apart than putting them back together. Has anyone actually done this?

We've done it many times now and there's nothing too complicated or unusual. Its just clips, screws and some ribbon connectors.

If there is any part specifically you are unsure about let us know and we will try to clear things up for you.

Paul Weatherley
RepairsUniverse.com - Technical Specialist
iPod Replacement Screens, iPhone LCD Repair, BlackBerry, Zune, PSP & HTC Replacement Screens and Batteries

 

[crackers8199]

how are people blowing out the speaker? i'm curious...this is the first i've heard of that happening.

 

[URNotEntitled]

I've taken apart and re-assembled two different Incredible phones multiple times, so I feel that I'm at least a little bit qualified to comment on the process (although I'm not a hardware techie by any means!).

First, thanks to the OP for posting the video. This would have been incredibly useful had I found it before I started repairing my phone.

There are a few things I feel are worth mentioning:

1. Don't forget to remove any microSD card before trying to pull off the back housing!
2. In the video, there's a hand blocking the view when the large ribbon cables are detached (it also block the view of removing the trackpad...). Now most people will probably figure it out once they get to that point, but there are tabs on the sides of each cable that you're using as pull points. Having a second of those blue tools to pull on both tabs makes detaching the larger ribbon cables a little easier.
3. The video doesn't really show or explain how to detach the AMOLED display ribbon cable. This is the cable on the right side of the phone in the video. It's very short and therefore has little slack to pull back and remove from the connector. In fact, I'm not sure it *can* be removed while the mainboard is still mounted. I found that it's easiest to release all four clamps and detach the first three ribbon cables (trackpad, microphone, digitzer), leaving the display's cable still in the connector (but unclamped). As you're removing the mainboard, release the bottom, left, and top and gently tilt the board so that the display's ribbon cable slides out freely.
4. There may be glue or tape between the display and digitizer and front housing. On one of the two phones I disassembled the display was attached to the digitizer with a sticky black tape. I believe there's also more of this between the digitizer and the front housing/bezel. The layer between the display and digitizer came off easily for me, but others have reported great difficulty in removing the digitizer from the front housing. Many people that watch this are probably doing so for exactly that reason - they want to replace a damaged digitizer. From what I've seen the OEM housing and digitizer are sold separately, so I think the video should continue on to show how to remove the digitizer from the housing as well.
5. Re-attaching ribbon cables can be harder than detaching them, in some cases. Tilting the mainboard into the display's cable seemed to help get that one re-attached without major effort. But while long enough to move around, I always seemed to be at least one hand short or a slight angle off when trying to get the digitizer's cable back into the connector. Eventually I prevailed, but it did take longer to put this back in than it did to take it out.

Again, thanks for sharing the video - I'm sure it will help countless others that need help getting started in repairing their Incredible.

 

[XXXdc5]

i also need a speaker

this completely blows my mind that my speaker has blown out. I have my phone on vibrate for like 75-80% of my day and then after that i have my ringer volume on medium high with the stock ringtones

WTF HTC!!

 

[sabrewings]

i also need a speaker

this completely blows my mind that my speaker has blown out. I have my phone on vibrate for like 75-80% of my day and then after that i have my ringer volume on medium high with the stock ringtones

WTF HTC!!

Look for metal flakes in the speaker. Apparently the speaker being open to the world allows the magnet to pic up some magnetic nasties.

 

[XXXdc5]

Look for metal flakes in the speaker. Apparently the speaker being open to the world allows the magnet to pic up some magnetic nasties.

hmmmm and im a mechanic too so thats not at ALL too crazy of an idea. im going to check thanks.

 

[freddyttt]

Im looking for the outside camera lens. mine has a small crack;(

anyone?

 

[crackers8199]

which speaker are we talking about here? front or back?