My Problem

My 3GS is over three years old, battery was completely shot, it would die between 100% and 80 - 85% life. Also the power button seemed sunken in and weary, decided to spend the extra five bucks on new power button as well.

My Fix

Printed the repair guide for battery replacement and power button replacement, followed everything step by step and the battery installation and power button replacement went perfectly. i even feel like my iphone is more well put together than before i reassembled it.

My Advice

if you think you are one of those people that can diy, go for it its pretty exciting and fun if youre a nerd like me haha. make sure you dont lose any tiny little screws. sucks trying to find them from off the floor.

My Problem

The volume button had fallen off and the power button was non-functional

My Fix

As this was my first iPhone (3GS) repair, the process took a long time (approx. 3 hrs?). Battery replacement on 2 others took 45 mins, then 20 mins.

My Advice

iFixit guides were good but they could be great:

Step 4 could suggest running the spudger UNDER the black ribbon labeled 1. This make is a lot easier.

Step 6 was the most difficult to understand since the picture doesn't show enough detail and the tab that lifts up is so tiny. I could not get the tab to lift up. I ended breaking a small piece of the plastic past the tab. Luckily it had no apparent effect. I would suggest a simple drawn diagram showing the location and position of the tab before and after it is lifted.

Also, one washer came off of one screw, but I had to idea which one.

My Problem

To be honest, there wasn't any problem regarding my iPhone 3GS, it was working well. However, the power button seemed a bit "tired", and my battery didn't last as long as before.

My Fix

Overall, it went very well. I had trouble opening up the phone, and I had to remove the screen protector I had placed, and then use the Section Cup to open up the phone. I also had trouble with the "Do not remove" adhesive, it tore apart into small pieces. Everything else regarding disassembly and re-assembly went well. However, I am disappointed about the replacement power button. It simply don't work. It didn't clicked when I pushed it. I kept the old one, and when comparing the two, it seems that the one IFixit sell is some cheap chinese copy. The Apple one has totally flat back plastic which allows to press the electronic part as it should, when the other one has a back plastic filled with holes and industrial marks. On a good note, the battery is as good as the original one.

My Advice

The screws looks like they are all the same (except the two from the case). I recommend writing on a paper "Yellow, Orange and Red", and put the screws on it according to the repair guide. It really helps when re-assembling.

My Problem

My sister broke here iPhone 3GS dropping it.

My Fix

It took quite some time to do all the necessary steps, but thanks to the detailed guides the repair was a success. Even though I never did this before.

My Advice

There is nothing to add to the guide "Installing iPhone 3GS Rear Panel" - thanks a lot guys!

My Problem

The headphonejack, the mutebutton and the on/off switch were out of order.

My Fix

The process was quite clear (except the mute-switch) but to get those tiny screws back into place was terrible, used one hour for one screw near the muteswitch.. I found out that I needed a little magnet to let the screw hang under the philips screwdriver. I took the bike, full speed, to a hobby/model shop in my neighbourhood in Oslo and they gave me a tiny magnet, 4mm x 2mm x 1mm, I got it just before closingtime on saturday and I could finish the repair within half an hour. The magnet is small enough not to disturb and strong enough to make the screwdriver magnetic.

I could not repair the nutebutton, This part is complicated and the instruction and pictures could be better and more clear

My Advice

Together with the screwdriver you could sell such a little magnet. The screws are very easily to remove when taking apart and as easily to get back into place when the magnet sticks to the screwdriver just 1 or 2 cm above the screw. I would never have managed without.. ..or loosing my temper completely.

My Problem

My teenage daughter, like most teenage daughters, cannot service without her mobile communication device. In her case, it is a hand-me-down iPhone 3GS. Through repeated overuse, the top part of the power button had fallen off. She had to resort to using her fingernails and teeth when turning it on or off. She bugged me for weeks to get her phone fixed.

My Fix

I may not be the handiest guy around but that has never stopped my from trying. I came across the needed part on iFixit's website and the step-by-step instructions. I decided to give it a shot and ordered the part. I figured if I broke anything, the 3GS is so cheap these days that I could easily replace it if I broke it.

My daughter assisted me during the "surgery". As I removed the front glass my daughter's apprehension showed, and it increased as I pulled the phone apart piece by piece.

Everything went smoothly until I tried to replace the actual part that was the problem. The part consists of a rectangular metal swivel, a black plastic piece, and a silver top. When it tried to install it, I couldn't get it to engage the power "switch" that it pushes against correctly. I tried for about an hour but just couldn't get it to fit correctly. It looks identical to the original piece but perhaps it differs slightly to some degree. The rectangular metal swivel is supposed to swivel all the way to a right angle one direction, and about 130 degrees the other way. The replacement part seemed to swivel 180 in both directions but I couldn't see how that affected anything.

After fiddling with it for about an hour I decided to take the silver top off of the replacement part and glue it on the original black base since I still had that. I used a dab of Gorilla glue and clamped it together with a paper clip for about an hour. The original piece went back into place with no problem.

With iFixit's instructions, I was able to put it all back together and got it working like brand new. When my daughter got up the next morning (she went to bed while we were waiting for the glue to dry) she was so excited that her phone was like new again. She exclaimed "It's the best day ever"! That was until the next day when her Grandfather got a new iPhone 4S, passed his iPhone 4 down to her, and she passed the 3GS to her Grandmother. Then that was the best day ever!

My Advice

I'm not sure what the difference was between the bases on the original part and the replacement part but once I took the silver top off of the replacement part and put it on the original base, the power button went back in with no problems and engaged the on/off switch on the inside with no problem whatsoever.

Anyway, thanks to iFixit, for less than $10 and a few hour's time, I was my daughter's hero again, at least for a day, until her grandfather passed his iPhone 4 down to her. Then he became her hero!

My Problem

The power button on the top of my iPhone 3GS broke off. I suppose that's not too bad after more than 2 years of use. When I saw that the part was inexpensive, I figured that I could probably make this phone limp along until the next generation of iPhone or better Droids come to market. When I saw the procedure, I figured that I would replace the battery at the same time. It's really no additional work, and my old battery was just not up to par any longer.

My Fix

Works great after the repair... 100% back in service and fully functional. Battery was 85% charged already, when I received it.

The repair itself was not so simple as it appears. Lucky for me, I bought the "spudger" that iFixit recommends, or I don't think I could've done this repair easily. Very helpful tool. The ribbon cables that you have to disconnect for disassembly and then reconnect when you're closing up the iPhone are very tiny ... and the screws that hold down the CPU board are even worse!

My Advice

Get a magnetized phillips jeweler's screwdriver (or magnetize it temporarily yourself) before you start this job. Have a small container with seperators in it to keep the screws and clips in. It's hard to tell the screws apart after you take them out of the iPhone. Have small hands and fingers! It might be impossible to do this job if your fingers are much larger than mine.