My Problem

My home button was in a very bad way. It took a huge amount of finger pressure (and patience) just to get it to work. I took the phone to my local Apple store and after a quick examination was told that it was water damaged. Not good.

My Fix

I have never attempted anything like this. My hopes for fixing the button were low. I had nothing to lose, and delved into the job with enthusiasm.

Following the instructions slowly and to the letter, I used the back side of some gaffer tape to lay out the multitude of tiny screws, labelling each one as I went.

Both water indicator stickers were pink...definitely not good!

My hopes were now lower, but I went through with the job - happy for the experience and taking photos as I went.

The process took me approx 4 hours (with dinner and a sanity break thrown in). I couldn't wait to see if the thing would ever work again, and replaced the last screw just before midnight.

To my shock the phone rebooted as the battery was plugged back in...and shock horror...EVERYTHING WORKED!!! I would even say that coverage and wifi work better than before. I have no idea what I did right!! And the home button now works a treat :)

My Advice

Use the sticky tape thing - label EVERY screw and make it easy for yourself to put the phone back together. I would've been screwed (sorry) if I hadn't followed that advice.

I didn't bother with the windex thing (on metal contact surfaces), because I didn't have any. And my patience for handling tiny phone things was growing thin. I just wanted to put it back together. Not sure if this is good advice, but like I said everything still works great (one week later)!

4 hours sounds like a long time. And it is. I think I could do it in 1-2 hours if I tried it again.

Apologies for the poor image quality, I was using my "other" phone to take pics!

My Problem

My iPhone's home button started to malfunction after the phone got soaked from a sailing excursion with my friends. Miraculously, the phone kept working despite getting hit with huge waves of water for a half an hour. The salt water, eventually ,took its tole and my home button would erratically malfunction. Sometimes for hours, the button would not work and I would be stuck in whatever application I happened to be using at the time.

Before ditching the phone I decided to give iFixit a try.

My Fix

The repair went great with the help of iFixit's instructions and tools. It took about 2 hours. I was very happy with the kit that I bought and how easy it was to purchase it. However, the kit did not include the critical philips head screw drivers for all of the iPhone's internal screws. I was expecting *all* of the tools to come with the kit. Fortunately I had my own philips screw drivers, so I was able to perform the repair without any delay.

My Advice

Separating the front screen from the metal frame was the hardest step. The instructions made it look more simple than it really was. The plastic opening tool could not simply be inserted between the two parts to separate them. I had to push the screen from the backside to get the tool in-between the parts. Doing so was scary as I wasn't sure if I was going to damage something. Fortunately the phone works fine.

My Problem

My home screen button was working maybe once out of every five times i pushed it

My Fix

the truth is i had my friend do it for me since he recently took his own iphone 4 apart. he would double check with the instructions from ifixit when he wasn't sure of something and the whole thing went pretty smoothly. after replacing the button and ribbon it was working like new

My Advice

if you've never taken your iphone apart be EXTRA careful. if you have a friend who has more experience with it then ask him/her to do it

My Problem

I have small children and an expensive phone. As you can imagine, those two things do not mix. Over time, the home button stopped responding and the phone became impossible to deal with. Faced with three choices (upgrade the phone, replace the phone or repair) I chose the least expensive route to try first.

My Fix

I have zero experience repairing phones. I've repaired computer components in the past (10 years ago) but nothing as sophisticated or small as the internals of an iPhone. Faced with 11 pages of detailed instruction, I decided to go for it. Two hours later, my phone powered up and the home button worked flawlessly. The hardest part was removing the screen from the bezel, and one of the screws (Step 13, 1.4mm screw) gave me trouble, but everything else went smoothly.

My Advice

Stay organized and don't try to repair your phone with a 3 year old jumping on your back (like I did)

My Problem

I inherited a roughed-up iBook G4 which had served as both my sister's first college laptop and, later, my mom's primary internet terminal; mom kicked it my way when she got tired of fidgeting with the DC input to maintain a charge. It didn't take long for me to reach the same frustration, but where do you go when you're not an experienced computer-tinkerer and every Genius at a Bar just tells you "well, have you considered an iPad?"

My Fix

A coworker knew about ifixit.com and, after a two-minute search and a two-day turnaround, I had my new DC input, all the tools for installation, and the tutorial ready to go (seriously, including the "required tools" list on the product pages in the webstore? With the add-all-to-cart button? It's the little things that make you fall in love). The repair itself was as effortless as the shopping and shipping experience: from the clarity of the repair guide's instructions to the convenience of having all the right tools included with the replacement part, ifixit made this one of the easiest jobs I've ever undertaken. From start to finish, barely 35 minutes had peeled off the clock before I found myself the owner of an iBook G4 with a rock-solid DC input.

My Advice

My only suggestion has been echoed in a few other places: I found that the center-most screw on the outside of the iBook case's bottom responded better to an Allen-style wrench than it did the Torx driver. Otherwise, the manual was letter-perfect. Just be mindful to sort/label your screws and you'll be fine!

My Problem

old one died

My Fix

success! I am ever so thankful for your online guides and even used your tools.

At first there was one hang up but by some kind of luck I found a speck of big dust on a connecting cable as I was madly trying to open the computer again without careful guides like when I started. Luckily it was only at the keyboard connection. Whew!

My Advice

not really. It was helpful to have someone help me set up hard drive configure to a mac and all. It worked and I did it!

My Problem

Button only worked half the time.

My Fix

Repair was straight forward thanks to the online guide at ifitit.com.

My Advice

Magnetize your screwdrivers, it will make the job much easier.

My Problem

My Home Button was 8 on the 10 times unresponsive,

i found out some software tricks to re-calibrate it but it didn't worked out, so i assumed it was a hardware issue. As a iPhone in Belgium costs about 600 euro's (contracting phones is illegal in Belgium, so it must be unlocked) and sending it to a repair is 400 euro's.

My Fix

I need to it twice.

everything was well explained how to dismantle everything and the old home button. but there was no explanation how to reattach the new home button properly. so had to reopen it after and fix it again. after the second attempt it was like a brand new iPhone.

My Advice

Be VERY careful disconnecting this antenna, i advice to try not to disconnect that part, very difficult to reconnect !!! Breaks easily !!.

also home button install is not really well explained at the end of the user guide. so be sure the connectors are touching the clip very good !!!

and last point. when reinstalling the logic bord be sure the logic bord is put in his right perfect place or you'll be having problems closing the back panel

My Problem

The Home button had just stopped working - after pressing it around 10 times, it would just respond once.

My Fix

The repairs was done successfully - Thanks for the awesome tools.

My Advice

A few more detailed pictures of the equipment on the manual/guide would a a very good idea. Mostly because it took some time for me to understand.

My Problem

The screen was cracked when it fell from a pouch during a bike ride.

My Fix

Not done yet. I had to order an antenna as I believe I broke the button connector on it.

My Advice

Go slow. Take breaks. Stay organized and use a project tray or screw organizer.

Be very patient when you are putting the screws and washers back. They are tiny and it can be quit daunting.