I hope you're ready for a long and educational post. Here's what happened.
I set up a genius appointment at my local Apple Store. Well, when I got there, the guy said that he cannot replace my iPhone for dust under the screen because he said that dust gets there from dropping the iPhone or getting it hit. I wasn't too upset... I just said... okay, thanks and went on my way.
Here's the fun part!
I finally decided that I wanted to just take my iPhone apart and get the dust out myself. After watching a couple youtube videos on how to disassemble the iPhone 3G... it looked really easy to take apart the stuff that *I* needed to get at in my particular situation. Here's what I did:
1. Take out the 2 small screws at the bottom of the screen near the dock connector
2. Take a small suction cup and attach it to the glass and pull up with a little bit of force. (Not too hard as to rip it from the electronic connectors)
3. Undo the 3 tabs that connect the screen to the rest of the iPhone. Undo them in numerical order. On the 3rd connector, you have to use a small tool and pull up on a little white piece that is securing the tab in place.
4. Unscrew 6 screws that are holding the digitizer on. Note: Some of the screws are under black tape... so look for those too.
5. Gently put a little pressure on the frame that is holding the digitizer on to pull it off. I recommend
slightly bending the metal outward on both sides and GENTLY wiggle the digitizer out. Warning: Some people have cracked their digitizer by trying to force it out... it should come out gently and easy.
6. Once the digitizer is disconnected from the glass, remove the dust. I used one of those little hand squeeze blower things that you can get at a camera store for blowing the dust off of lenses and such. Don't use compressed air.
7. Re-assemble the iPhone.
8. Here's where I had some trouble. I had trouble re-connecting the LCD connectors #1 and #2. You have to get them just right and then press down on them with some force and you'll here a click sound. The first time I did this, I didn't press them in hard enough and parts of my touch screen would work and some parts wouldn't... it really freaked me out.
9. Put the bottom screws back in and reboot your iPhone.
I got all the dust out of mine and I'm happy again! Good luck to anyone who wants to try this. By the way... you can't tell at all that I opened my iPhone up... it looks just like it did before I started this (minus the dust of course).
Thanks for reading my post! Not all of my posts are pointless you know
