iPod Touch 4th Generation Home Button Ribbon Cable Replacement

I replaced my flex cable.. But still it wont work.. Can somebody plls help me

do I have to use a heat gun

Hi, thanks to this tutorial achieves replace my iPod battery to 100%, it was difficult, so thanks iFixit!

The only problem I had was with the iFixit screwdriver disappointed me greatly, as it can not remove the screws with the screwdriver.

A tip for those who first make repairs before starting the disarmament carefully read through the tutorial to not make a mistake that could damage your iPod and do not forget to place pieces in a safe place so they are not lost.

Greetings from Guatemala

Alfonso.

Be careful with the heat gun!! Don`t use it too much. You can melt something inside, specially when you`re closing the iPod.

No man you can use a blow dryer!

Would a heat bead bag be safer option to weaken the adhesive?

I had success with as low as 80°C using a hair dryer to melt the adhesive, I kept track of it with a meat thermometer. The battery says it's rated only up to 60°C...

There should be (in general) better notes about the reassembly process. Getting the thing glued back in is WAY harder than just "reverse this step." Getting it to sit flush with any kind of adhesion is pretty difficult. No real advice other than make sure the edges of the metal thing at the top of the back of the digitizer are in the right slots and use judiciously placed pieces of 3M 300LSE adhesive.

I actually just figured it out. I had the ribbon cable for the digitizer running under the LCD and that wasn't allowing the LCD to sit down far enough. By re-folding the digitizer cable so it was triple-folded (when you do it you'll see what I mean) and only under the glass where there is no LCD, you'll get the glass to sit right.

I'm havin' problems with mine... hum, the front panel broke and i don't know where can i buy a new one. Can you help me?! Detail, the Touch screen still working... the external screen is broken, but the internal is ok...

Glue is under the black part of the glass, not under the clear part of the glass.

The Glue is mostly around the top and bottom about 1/2 inch in or so, around both left and right edges the strip of glue is very thin about 1/8 inch or so.

I had success with heat and sliding the tool or pick up and down the side where there is less glue until it started separating being careful that I was between front glass panel and the black plastic bezel.

Take a look at the post http://www.ifixit.com/Answers/View/55811...

That will give you some advice as to what to move over from the broken screen, metal bracket, home button and small sponge spacer on the tip of the digitizer connector. Also how important it is to use new adhesive. If after assembling the screen bulges on one side (top or bottom) take the time to dissasemble and check that everything is in place (flat) and like jonathan writes, the digitizer cable is folded.

The LCD cable which attaches to the logic board, is, indeed, very short. When reassembling the iPod, you may only be able to leave a small crack between the glass and the body to allow for enough space to reattach this cable. A plastic opening tool works well, but be warned: it takes quite a bit of patience.

Indeed the LCD cable which attaches to the logic board is short and I spent a good 30 minutes trying to get it to seat. When I finally did I realized I broke the right side and that is why my display is not working now. When they say difficult, they mean difficult - I have experience with electronics and I recommend you first practice on an older unit if you can.

Most guides recommend simply cutting the digitizer cable once you have disconnected the data cable. This makes things much simpler for subsequent steps rather than having the front panel dangling there.

Before i do this repair, does my screen have to be all together. Because my iPod got cracked a while ago, so do i have to buy a new screen so i can put the jack in? Also what goes first in the process when doing both of those things ?

Reconnecting the data cable is actually pretty easy. Just hold your screen at a 90 degree angle and put it on your underlying surface (and not on the back part of your ipod). Then just use the opening tool to reconnect the cable. The cable is long enough. If you connected it properly try pushing the home button on the back part (not the actual button). If done properly, your screen should light up. (if not try again to connect the cable) Then just fold the screen onto the back part without lifting it. The cable disconnects very easily.

The antenna cable will almost always stick to the digitzer and often the glass is broken there. You can use a knife to pick out broken glass around the edges elsewhere but use ONLY PLASTIC tool to separate the antenna cable from the old digitzer. This cable is very thin and a metal tool can easily cut the cable which you cannot then repair but must buy a replacement.

If you are removing broken glass be sure to recover the steel plate glued to the top of glass as well as the home button at the bottom of the assembly.

Be sure to get the tool down deep when removing the rear camera. If not, you can accidentally snag the mid-section of the camera and it will come apart -- and you'll end up buying a replacement.

This metal plate fits under plastic near RHS edge, and other side drops between the camera and a circuit board - to refit, you may need to loosen a nearby screw to allow you to move the circuit board a little to let this metal plate clip onto the side of the camera.

I had to press down hard with a plastic tool to get this metal plate to clip on.

Don't forget to re-tighten it later (I forgot).

A strip metallic cover, glued to display isn't mentioned in this guide.

Note that most new front panels are going without this part and you would need to remount it.

what exactly is the copper tape for that sits over the backplate that covers the rear camera? it gives me trouble every time.

I just replaced the screen and rear cam on my 4th gen. The camera does not work??? Any ideas????????

I couldn't get a spudger in-between this space, so I went to the side where the three screws were on the left hand side and worked my way towards the bottom to separate the glue...

The power and volume wire on the logic board were covered with adhesive. Be careful! While trying to remove the steel mid plane I found that the adhesive will rip the ribbon!

Here is where you take it easy. Two things can be broken here.

-Use time to carefully separate the bottom left part of the midplane. It sticks to the speaker which you tear the speaker leads if you are to hasty to lift it up. And remember the mid plane must not be bended up here since it needs to be 100% aligned so the new digitizer does not bulge here when in place.

- The second picture. The black visible adhesive sticks to the volume cable. Use time to carefully separate the mid plane here so the cable is not ripped when you lift up the midplane. Pry a plastic tool like the picture or/and a spudger slowly in until you see/feel the midplane loosening. A broken volume cable is no fun.

as stated before, be very careful with the part at the speaker.

the speaker actually sticks to the mid plane and i accidentally lifted it with the plane and separated one cable from the board!

That small ribbon cable ripped, be sure to really watch this - look at the second picture in this step and try to make sure you understand where it is on the board under it.

This was difficult during both disassembly and reassembly. I used a thin guitar pick to separate the ribbon cable by the volume buttons from the steel midplane. Reassembly was tough because I didn't have the ipod dock connector seated correctly, AND more importantly, the speaker has a part that needs to be inserted into a black part on TOP of the dock connector-- it looks almost like a tiny air duct that has a foam gasket around it.

I was able to replace the home button ribbon cable without having to fully remove the steel mid plane. It lifted up enough from the iPod's body that I was able to slip the ribbon in around the support it sticks to and hold it in place until the adhesive set.

Much simpler, and didn't cause any problems -- the mid plane didn't deform, and snapped right back into place.

Thanks for the guide.

I was able to stop at step 8 for the battery replacement.

Once you remove the metal shield, desolder the 3 leads. Then use your heat gun to warm the battery. Use plastic pry tool between copper backing and battery and separate them (two adhesive strips on the sides of the battery). Once done with this, you can snake the battery ribbon cable from between the logic board and aluminum casing. Not as easily, but still very doable, snake the new battery ribbon back through the same slot; solder 3 points and reassemble. Much easier than removing the entire board. Good luck!

Oh also, not mentioned in this guide - there is a plastic/silicon substance covering the 3 leads. Prior to desoldering remove this as much as possible with metal or plastic spudger (if metal, be sure not to bridge the connections).

what do you do if you break the copper connector to the camera?

justinallison1, From what I understand, it is ok if that copper tape rips. In fact, I have seen people remove it completely. If it rips, just try and have the 2 pieces touching. (This is what I have researched and done myself with no negative results.

after removed the steel mid plate, does anybody measure the battery voltage? I measured the battery voltage is only 0.3V. is it normal? I de-soldered the battery three points and measured the battery voltage 3.8V. So It looks like battery is OK. The logic board has problem. So I connected external power source 3.7V and maximum current 50mA to the battery B+ and B-. I found the power source dropped to only 1.65V and 50mA. Could I say logic board has problem?

Would you need adhesive to attach the new home button controller to the mid plate or would the new home button controller already have adhesive on it?

The new home button ribbon cable already had new adhesive on it.