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Apple's 2012 first-generation 7.9-inch iPad mini, with 16, 32, or 64 GB of storage and an A5 processor.

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Unsuccessful iPad mini digitizer repair

I tried replacing the digitizer on my iPad mini and now the screen won't turn on. I haven't glued it back together yet, but when I plug it in I can hear the noise it typically makes when you plug it into a power source. Do I need to replace the LCD screen? There were no problems with the LCD screen before I took it apart.

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I had the same issue today, I read all these threads. I unplugged the battery, ate a sandwich and plugged the battery in. Tested the iPad mini and it was 100%

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I have been working on trying to get my Mini working. I have sent it away for the back light thing and they sent it back and said it was ok. I have tried another screen but both work well on my other Ipad Mini. I am at a loss. Any one with any ideas?

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So is the lcd broken?

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you could try holding the home, and power button down for 15 seconds. see if that works. its called a soft reset

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is it a mini 4 ? because the LCD and digitizer is fused together if I understood it right. Is it possible you damaged the LCD during your repair ?

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You don't need to replace the LCD screen, you've accidentally blown the iPad mini backlight fuse by inadvertently removing the LCD connector before removing the battery connector. You will need to have the iPad mini backlight fuse replaced on the motherboard---other solutions like jumping the backlight fuse are possible, but are likely to eventually overload the backlight ic and cause it and/or the backlight coil to fail.

For more than you ever wanted to know about iPad mini backlight problems check out this thread.

Lots of advice here on this thread: Th screen stays black after a digitizer replacement.

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@Jessabethany, I'm not sure if I removed the battery connector...that doesn't sound familiar. I know after removing the digitizer, I unscrewed the LCD screen and the metal plate underneath it. After that there was a smaller metal plate which I removed to disconnect the LCD screen and digitizer. I've checked the connections for both the digitzer and LCD screen twice now, they are firmly "snapped" into place. Do you still think the backlight fuse could be the problem?

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That is totally it. After removing the second smaller metal plate there are three connectors--battery, touch, and LCD. You *must* disconnect battery first, then LCD. If not, it is really common on the iPad mini that when the LCD cable pops off with the battery providing power (assume we inadvertently hit the power button while we were intently focused on removing the glass) that the sudden drop in voltage causes a quick uptick in amperage that blows the fuse. I fix a few of these a week and I learned this the hard way myself so don't beat yourself up about it.

Feel free to contact me via my profile if you need helping finding someone to replace the fuse for you.

jessa

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will all the data go away

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no. data is fine

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I have backlight failure but I made sure that unplugged battery first

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Have you solved your issue?

I've fixed about a dozen of these, the past few years (they've turned into an unprofitable hobby). There are a number of problems you can encounter after replacing your touchscreen/digitizer on an iPad mini or mini 2 (I haven't tried models 3 and 4 yet, and this does not apply to the full sized iPads).

Note: Always dry-fit the pieces before screwing and taping/gluing everything down. Always turn the power on and make sure everything works before closing up: power button, LCD, touchscreen, home button, volume buttons, sound, cameras, and, if you care, smart cover.

Also, keep all the broken parts until you've really completed the repair. There are bits and pieces on the touchscreen that you might not even notice until you find the replacement doesn't have everything.

Oh, and clean the old LCD well before closing up. You may be proud of your fix, but at some point you'll be really annoyed at that thumbprint or bit of lint under the touchscreen that you could have cleaned up but didn't because you were in a hurry to call it "done". Actually I find this the most tedious part of process, as you almost always see another smudge underneath the touchscreen after it's closed up.

If you paid relatively more ($30-50) for a touchscreen, it should have everything on it, ready to install.

If you got the really cheap ($9) touchscreen, you need to transfer several bits from the old to the new screen

  • The camera alignment frame (use hair dryer heat to loosen)
  • The home button assembly (frame, button, use hair dryer heat to loosen)
  • The home button ribbon cable (unsolder it, don't peel or rip it off)
  • The "IC cable", which solders to the new raw touchscreen cable (unsolder it)
  • The cover magnets that grip a smart (or other) cover down (not to be confused with the smart cover sensors, which are on the button ribbon cable)

Always clean thoroughly and use new double stick adhesive on the button frame. There's nothing more frustrating than a home button that becomes loose or floats around after you've closed things up. I sometimes resort to superglue in addition to the double stick adhesives if they're stubborn.

Here are some other problems you may encounter:

iPad screen remains blank after repair

  • Battery connector not snapped into place
  • LCD connector not snapped into place
  • LCD connector misaligned
  • -- It is easy to misalign the LCD connector when it refuses to "snap" nicely into place. Retry it, and try to be more careful. If you end up damaging the connector on the LCD ribbon cable, it becomes nearly impossible to align it properly and you'll never feel that satisfying "snap" into place. I mainly saw this when I tried to reuse one LCD in several different iPads in order to test them. I wore out that connector.
  • iPad Mini needs to be reset (power and home button pressed for 15 seconds)
  • Backlight fuse has blown
  • -- A symptom of the a backlight failure is that you can actually see the contents of the screen in a strong light (direct sun or a bright lamp).
  • -- This can be caused by not unplugging the battery before unplugging the LCD.
  • -- Sometimes it just happens. I've had the fuse blow when it's been closed up and in use for months.
  • -- The "backlight fuse" is really a small inductor. It's difficult to reach and I usually just bridge across it with a fine wire rather than replace it. The "backlight IC" is just a large diode. It's even more difficult to reach and there isn't a quick and dirty fix, you have to replace it. I've only had to replace the backlight inductor once.

The screen shows the Apple Logo then goes blank -- Touchscreen not detected

  • Ensure the touchscreen connector is attached
  • If you removed a lot of tape to perform the repair, make sure it's put back, you especially don't want to short the IC cable pins to the case.
  • If you performed soldering to the IC cable, double check your soldering job.

iPad touchscreen has dead regions

  • Poorly soldered connections to the IC cable.
  • --There are videos on youtube which show people soldering that IC cable with large, oversized soldering irons. They use lots of flux and clean irons. If your iron tip is rough, or you didn't use enough flux, or you had to solder over and over to get it right, you may have damaged the extremely fine traces on the ribbon cable. You need decent magnification (inspection microscope) to even see the damage. You'll have to get another touchscreen and start over.
  • Damaged ribbon cable
  • -- There are almost 70 signal traces in that ribbon cable. You can't tear it, then tape it or press it back down and expect it to work. There is no place on that cable where a tear is "safe". You can't replace it either. Get a new touchscreen.
  • This one really sucks. If the touchscreen worked before you closed up the iPad mini, then stopped when you glued it down, you probably pinched the ribbon cable with a tight fold. If you remove the touchscreen without breaking it, you might be able to unpinch the cable and it'll come back to life, but most likely you've damaged the cable and you'll have to go get another touchscreen and start over. The last thing I do before closing up the touchscreen (I mean the very last thing, after the double -stick adhesive is in place and the camera-end is stuck down), is reach in with a pair of long tweezers, grab that touchscreen ribbon and "curl" or twist it so it doesn't get folded flat between the chassis and the screen.

Home button spurious activation

  • This is another symptom of a pinched touchscreen cable. See above.

Home button doesn't work

Smart cover no longer detected

  • Button ribbon cable not soldered well
  • Touchscreen ribbon not soldered to IC cable well (there are 8 pins dedicated to the button and smart cover sensors on there)
  • If you purchased pieces on-line and bought a button ribbon cable, you might have noticed that there were $2 cables and $10 cables. Guess what, the cheap cables are missing the SMT parts which make the smart cover work. Most people apparently don't check that, or don't have a smart cover, or were happy that the rest of the touchscreen now works, and didn't want to look into why the smart cover no longer works.

Oh, there are so many other things that can go wrong. An open iPad is a fragile thing. Once closed up, they're pretty robust.

I am currently wondering why an iPad mini on my workbench that booted last week, has run down its battery and chimes every 30 seconds when I try to charge it. The screen remains blank and it doesn't appear to boot. There's no Apple icon, and it's not the backlight. I haven't tried to reset it yet.

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Hi did you manage to fix the ipad you mentioned that beeped but was not the backlight? I've got the same problem.

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Hi Jim, you are brilliant mate! Thanks for this epic post!

Anyway I can get in contact with you?

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Thorpee4, the problem turned out to be the battery. It had decided it wasn't going to hold a charge any more. That's the chance you take with used tablets--it may be working fine but there are components which are about to wear out (kinda like a car, now that I think of it).

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Aaron, not sure how, without publishing an email address. iFixit doesn't have member-to-member mail, I don't think.

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Hi Jim, sorry bout the late reply. My email is aaronmoffatt@gmail.com. If you'd like to send an email. I've just run into an iPad problem. If you have the time, I'd love to pick your brains.

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I have replaced many screens before and I'm only 13, the same thing happens every time to me, you have to make sure you plug in every cable until it snaps or just very tightly (make sure the pins are connecting and touching). Let me know if you need any more help:)

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If Flex Cable of Home Button is not soldering good, a Power button (Wake up button) will not work and you can't turn on the screen.

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Hey me to! 13! Been doing it for all my neighbors for 3 years now!

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Nice work lads!

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Could be that the connecter isn't plug in correctly..

Y didn't you check that the iPad was working before you glued the screen down?

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Hi,

I replaced the lcd and digitizer, now the apple sign comes on but then it goes off without booting up, do you know what would cause this.

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Hi Deborah--the iPad mini requires a functional digitizer to be in place in order to boot past the Apple logo. If you had a digitizer installed, then check carefully to see if you are missing any pins from the digitizer connector socket--if you are, then that could explain this behavior.

jessa

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I got the same problem while replacing the digitizer

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Probably not if there were no problems and it did not get damaged when you were taking the screen/digitizer off if you did not damage it doing that or opening it like a book opening to the left make sure those two tabs are making a connection with the pins and you did not pull the black part that covers the pins off as I did I believe if that happened we need to get my large tape to hold it down making the proper connection with the pens I am checking on that now and don't take that as gospel but that's the only two things I can think of that's causing your problem one of the guys from iFixit will be able to tell you more in depth but for now you could check those connections also make sure you did not rip your Wi-Fi cable and definitely do not reach adhesive the digitizer until it is working properly. I have a question did you damage you could check those connections also make sure you did not rip your Wi-Fi cable and definitely do not reach adhesive the digitizer until it is working properly. I have a question did you The bezel (the ring goes all the way around) when you removed the digitizer? I know I did ; I did not read IFixit first and that's the first mistake I made this will be my first repair as well.

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