My Problem

My phone was out of warranty and the speaker didn't work anymore when I talked on the phone. It was probably water damage.

My Fix

The repair was easier than I expected and successful. It took about 30 minutes.

My Advice

Follow the steps, be organized, look out for catching loose wires and connectors when you replace components.

My Problem

Apparently not too uncommon, my home button was failing. Very annoying.

My Fix

Disassembly was a breeze! Putting it back together is like when you get a big package full of stuff and you need to return it. You can't get it to fit right, but it has to be perfect. It took almost 3 hours to complete. No room for error, it is tight in there.

My Advice

The screws are so tiny! I'm 40 and have been building computers since before I could drive, and this was a challenge for me. While I feel a great deal of satisfaction for getting this done, it was not fun. Only do this for yourself or a loved one! I would assist a friend, but only with advice.

I now feel more comfortable with the inside of the device, so I'm no longer going to worry about getting a scratch here or there since I know I can repair it myself with the right parts.

My Problem

My niece has been wanting a iPhone 4 for forever!! Well, I handed down an iPhone that i bought May of last year to my nephew after the iPhone 4S came out last October. My nephew dropped the iPhone 3 weeks ago, so he stopped using the phone and bought a used one off of Ebay. My niece asked her mom if she could use the iPhone 4 even though the screen was smashed. Her mom said yes. I couldn't stand to see a broken iPhone so I bought the tools for www.ifixit.com and the rest is history!! Perfectly working iPhone!!!

My Fix

The repair took 1.5 hours and there were absolutely no problems. I took breaks and deep breaths frequently.

My Advice

The only thing I wish I had known before starting the repair would be how difficult it was to remove the battery or anything else that was glued down.

My Problem

I dropped my iphone and the earpiece stopped working. After 2 weeks of using the phone via speaker phone mode I got tired of the situation. Visited the apple website and balked at the $150 charge to mail my phone in to them. Googled fixing iPhone and ifixit.com came up. I easily found instructions and after reviewing them with the pictures decided to fix it myself. I ordered all the recommended parts and they came in 2 days.

My Fix

It took me an hour to slowly take apart my phone, tape down the small parts to a board and label each part by step. It took 45 minutes to put everything back together. Could not believe how small the pieces were. So glad I taped things down.

My Advice

Take the phone apart on something light colored so you can see any pieces you drop.

Tape all the pieces down and label.

I took a break every time I could not get a screw in the hole to avoid frustration.

My Problem

My original home button would require significant amounts of force in order for it to be functional.

My Fix

It well very well. At first, the provided Phillips screwdriver did not work for the battery enclosure screw, so I bought the 26 bit kit. Then, I finally was able to pry open everything. The display assembly took sometime, but with some patience and extra force, I was able to take it apart. The vibrator motor didnt work after the repair, but that was quickly fixed as well.

My Advice

patience!

My Problem

My home butt operation was sporadic at best.

My Fix

The original home button that was shipped had the contacts on the wrong side. Ifixit sent out a new one within a week, and that one works perfectly.

My Advice

One tip is to work in a clean environment. Preferably with a hard floor. If you drop one of those microscopic screws (which I did several times), you'll want nothing obscuring your view as you crawl on the floor to search for it. It also helped to be able to hear what direction it bounced. Lol.

My Problem

Loose pockets and concrete surface for a broken iphone make.

My iphone has been a great tool over the years, but it sure takes a beating, this last slip from my pocket while playing football in the parking lot smashed the screen. Being an mechanical engineer, I figured it would be fun to see the inside of this incredibly well engineered device and get back in action bypassing any sort of apple service call/replacement phone p.i.t.a. I decided to replace my battery (life had started to go downhill) as well as the speaker at the same time. After reviewing the ifixit tutorials, I found that the front touchscreen replacement is the most invasive, requiring almost complete disassembly, so replacing the battery and speaker would be no extra work.

My Fix

The repair went smoothly and was successful. I spend a couple of hours doing this, but it was my first time running through the process. On top of that I took my time to not make any mistakes or damage any components, ribbon cables, etc. I prefer to take my time and do it right the first time. The ifixit guide is good.

My Advice

Definitely find a nice tray to keep track the tiny screws and parts. I organized them by dis-assembly step and re-assembly was a cinch. Magnetize your screw driver so that you don't actually have to hold onto a 1.2mm long screw! (just drag it one-way across any old magnet to give it some temporary magnetism). I used 99% isopropol alcohol and some cotton swabs to clean all the contact surfaces before re-assembly. The plastic opening tools got chewed up removing the screen, but I consider them disposable anyway. Unlike my automotive repair projects, I did not have any parts left over when it was back together.

My Problem

Just like so many other people, my iPhone 4 slipped out of my hands as I was taking it out of my pocket. I can't even count the number of times I've dropped my phone but this time didn't have such a happy ending. As it slipped out of my hands and fell to the ground, I heard the tell-tale "crack" of the iPhone face breaking on the parking lot cement. Hoping for the best, I picked up the phone and flipped it over only to discover the face shattered. My heart broke. When I brought it hope, little chards of glass kept coming out. My boyfriend ended up using masking tape to hold the little glass pieces together so I wouldn't cut my face until I could get a replacement. Knowing I wouldn't be able to afford a new iPhone, iFixit was my best alternative and I ordered the replacement screen assembly. I was relatively confident I would be able to handle the repair myself as I used to work on electronics when I was in the military.

My Fix

The repair went really well. iFixit's instructions were really easy to follow.

My Advice

I have two pieces of advice. First, I wore rubber gloves. I feel like cleaning tiny little metal components can be difficult and I didn't want to worry about messing up anything else on my phone. Sometimes the gloves can make it a little more difficult to handle the tiny little screws and washers, but it was worth it. My second piece of advice is to tape the screen before making the replacement. My screen broke into so many tiny little parts I don't think I would've had such an easy time removing all of the glass if it hadn't already been taped.

My Problem

Microphone on phone calls was not working. I could hear other party, but they cold not hear me!

My Fix

The guidelines on ifixit and illustrations made it very easy! I changed the charging dock with flex cable in under 2 hours. This $30.00 saved me lots of money as it wold have been $150.00 to swapp out my out of warranty I Phoenix 4.

My Advice

Be patient and take your time this job is not for people who can't sit down and be still. The worst part is removing the rubber peace from the old microphone . Rember don't rus it. Take your time and it will work.

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!