Original iPhone Broken Screen?

[braviojk]

A couple of weeks ago I decided to sell my original iPhone but when I turned it on I had a little surprise waiting for me, the screen was somehow "broken"... Here are some photos of the iPhone does anyone know what happened?? Are those dead pixel or something?? And is there anything I can do about it??

Thanks in advance, Alan

 

[ryans79]

I had something like this happen to be before on a n73... i had cracked the LCD, if the same has happened to you... sorry mate, but you're gonna have to buy a replacement (i guess its harder for an iphone(am kinda new to apple products), but i got one easy for the n73 on ebay) and i'm guessing it wont be cheap.

Good luck!

 

[mkrishnan]

Yes, it's possible to break an inner layer of the screen without shattering the outermost glass layer....

You could certainly sell it as broken (there actually is a market for these) or you can fix it.

The cost of the repair depends on what's broken (and your skill / comfort level). I think (I haven't done this myself) the assembly breaks down into three pieces. From outermost in:

- Front glass -- costs about $5-10 on eBay, but if you can't feel breakage on the outer surface, it's probably not broken.

- Digitizer -- this is the expensive part -- $60-80 on eBay. It doesn't display the image -- it senses touch. It may or may not be broken, but AFAIK it's the most delicate layer

- LCD -- I would guess this is almost certainly damaged... it costs $25 or so on eBay.

So you'd probably have to take it apart to begin with to determine what you need to repair, and you'd probably be looking at something on the order of $25-90 in parts to do the repair.

 

[braviojk]

I'm not sure I cracked the LCD, in fact the "crack" was much worse the day it appeared... Now it's about 3/4 of the original size but I think that's about as good as it'll get. But I suppose you're right, I'd better try and buy a new screen... Anyone know how much that would cost me??

Alan

Hadn't seen mkrishnans reply... Yeah, I'll probably try and fix the iPhone, I'll look up some DIYs and if it is too complicated for me (I have opened several iPods and iTouches, but an iPhone seems more complicated for some reason) I'll sell it on Ebay

Thanks!! Alan

 

[mkrishnan]

It wasn't sitting in direct sunlight for a long time or with something directly applying pressure on it, was it? I guess it's possible if it's shrinking, it's just temporary damage (if you've ever had an LCD device with a plastic cover instead of glass, you've experienced how you can make the LCD distort by pressing on it or by getting it really hot...).

But more likely, LCD damage is sort of amorphous, and if you touch it or move it around, the affected area changes slightly... so probably the LCD is broken. As above, if you can salvage the digitizer, it's a cheap repair; if the digitizer broke too, then it's not so good.

 

[braviojk]

Now that I think about it, The Iphone had been both exposed to direct sunlight and received a some (not a lot of) pressure... On the other hand, I can't move the affected area... I guess I'll wait another month before trying anything...

 

[mkrishnan]

Hmm, maybe, but it should resolve in hours or at most a day or two, or it's not likely to resolve. I don't think it'd heal more over a timescale like a month....

 

[Protium]

Common Misconception

Hi, first time poster, long time iphone user.

"- Front glass -- costs about $5-10 on eBay, but if you can't feel breakage on the outer surface, it's probably not broken.

- Digitizer -- this is the expensive part -- $60-80 on eBay. It doesn't display the image -- it senses touch. It may or may not be broken, but AFAIK it's the most delicate layer"

This is a very common misconception about Touch Screens. The outer glass IS the digitizer.
Also I would highly urge people to not purchase disassembled 1st Gen iphone screens (i.e. just the digitizer or just the LCD). Only buy the complete screen assembly as they are pretty much impossible to put back together. A decent source for these would be directfix.com. I was able to repair a friend of mines iphone as well as my own thanks to them. Its not cheap, but if you have to have your 1st Gen iphone up and running that is your best option.

Once again... the outer glass (i.e. the part you touch) IS the DIGITIZER.