Category Archives: Repair

Repair

DIY Fix, Repair Parts, TearDown, iDiagnose

Tearing down the new iPhone 4 – an exclusive look on the inside

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All the hype going on right now is about the new iPhone 4, all the great new features, and Apple raising the bar a notch to its competition.

We received our FULL, circuit board included, iPhone 4 quite early this morning and rather than playing with all the new features, we tore it down to its bare components. How it comes apart and gets put back together is determines the iPhone repair process and that’s what really excites us.

First thing we noticed is how solid it felt. It feels heavier, and definitely more durable (feels is the key word here).

Taking the back cover off reveals a battery, like most other phones on the market today. This battery actually comes out with ease. The iPhone 4 is manufactured in a way that is opposite of the 3G, and 3Gs, but similar to the original 2G iPhone. Let me explain what I mean here….

iPhone 2G/iPhone 4 – In the manufacturing process, the Glass is the first part that is assembled to the chassis/frame, followed by the internals, and last the battery then the back cover.

iPhone 3G/iPhone 3Gs – The back cover is the first part assembled, then battery followed by the internals. The glass is the last part that goes in.

With iPhone 4 Repair for screen damage, this makes the process a bit more difficult, time consuming, and costly as the iPhone needs to be completely torn down to change out the glass.

After removing the battery we moved on to other iPhone 4 parts, we removed the lower speaker, charging port, and gently removed the logic board. With the logic board removed, you have access to the cameras, power button, ear piece speaker, volume controls and all the screws that hold the screen in place. Once all the screws are removed, the glass has a bit of adhessive that holds the screen to the frame snuggly.

The frame is a piece to marvel at. The intricate design and how everything pieces together is quite amazing.

In addition to the manufacturing of the phone gearing back towards the ways of the original iPhone, Apple decided to go ahead and use a mass amount of new screws that we have not seen before. As if the tiny screws that were used before weren’t pain enough, now they threw in some washers that help in holding the glass in place.

The steel body, combined with the sleek glass on front and back, we’d say that Apple hit yet another home run with this one.

Repairs on this new phone should not be left to amateurs. The mass of new screws, connectors, odd shaped circuit board(to maximize real estate), make this a tricky repair. Any and all measures to prevent electrostatic discharge(ESD) should be taken when cracking this open. Our technicians are always grounded when working on phones, and are only permitted to work in ESD safe areas.

DIY Fix, iDiagnose

iPhone water damage repair – Can a phone be fixed after getting wet?

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Here’s a real-life iPhone water damage scenario: Beautiful day, the sun is shining, the weather is great. Friends and family are over for a nice BBQ by the pool. Your buddy decides to shove you into the pool as a prank. You laugh until you realize…Ahhhh, your iPhone is in your pocket! You immediately jump out and begin to panic.

WHAT DO YOU DO?!

Here’s a little breakdown of the game-plan; EXACTLY what you should do. Remember, time is of the essence.

  1. If the phone is ON, TURN IT OFF! Just do it. Water and electricity combined are not what you want. Give them some time apart.
  2. DO NOT TURN IT BACK ON!
  3. Remove any case that you may have on it and remove the SIM card.
  4. Dry it with a towel, and shake out excess water.
  5. Place phone in a bag of silica gel beads, available at most hardware stores. If you don’t have any silica gel on hand, you can put it in dry rice while you go to the store.
  6. Visit our website and select the appropriate iPhone Water Damage Repair service for your generation of iPhone.

You may be saying, well, if I put the iPhone in a bag of silica, and it sucked up all the water, what is the point of sending it in for water damage repair?

When water gets inside a smartphone, even the tiniest amount, corrosion builds up…and quick. We have seen phones with the insides covered in corrosion in less than 24 hours after water exposure.

Our process cleans any kind of corrosion or oils that may have accumulated on the circuit board after it was introduced to water. Without a proper check and cleaning, your phone may work after drying out, but you may lose features one by one in the following days or weeks. Corrosion grows a bit like rust, where it spreads sometimes quickly and sometimes slowly.

If you bring a water damaged phone into Apple, they will gladly exchange it for you…for a steep price. With the exchange, you’ll lose all of your data, and the replacement they give you is a refurbished model, not a new one.

Don’t go through that hassle. Follow the steps and then send it off to iFixYouri as soon as possible. Remember…

  • Turn it OFF
  • Place it in a bag of silica gel or rice
  • Select your generation of iPhone on this page: iPhone Water Damage Repair
  • We’ll fix it, test it, and ship it right back!

We are able to revive iPhones from water damage with a high success rate. Included in the water damage repair process is the replacement of any parts that may have been damaged in the spill.

DIY Fix, Repair Parts

Not all pieces of iPhone glass are created equal

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Interested in learning the truth about iPhone Screen Repair and iPhone Glass Repair?

First off, let’s start with a brief lesson on how the iPhone glass and digitizer works.

Glass

The glass, well it’s just that, glass. Not much too it? Wrong. You get cheap glass, yes, it will crack way easier than high-strength glass. Cheap glass will break in shards, while tempered glass will more spider around the area it broke. Apple uses toughened glass on all their iPhones, new, and old. This glass generally has been treated thermally, and/or chemically, while the cheap glass has not.

Digitizer

The digitizer is what responds to your touch, when you touch the glass. Think of it as a second piece of glass, glued directly to the bottom side of the piece of glass you touch.  Now you’re curious as to how the digitizer works? The digitizer is setup like a grid. Picture the digitizer being a piece of graphing paper. Many squares, each square being a point that you can touch. When you touch it, a signal is created and sent to the motherboard, which creates an action on the screen(panning, zooming, selecting an application, etc).

Cheap iPhone Replacement Parts

Cheap glass uses cheap parts, cheap digitizer. How does your phone act when you have a cheap digitizer? The grid we just talked about, well the squares in the grid become much bigger, which makes the touch response a lot more inaccurate, choppy, slow. Your finger swipe won’t swipe smoothly, your texting may be off, and the most annoying part of it all, your iPhone will not run smoothly. Additionally, with cheap glass, the factories will use cheap glue to adhere the glass and the digitizer. A minor jolt can dislodge the digitizer and render it inaccurate, or worst case inoperable. Cheap replacement parts will also not always sit flush to the iPhone. The home button may sit recessed and the glass may sit above the chrome bezel.

Adhessive

There are two different types of adhessives.

  1. 2 Piece – Covers just the top and the bottom of the iPhone. Does not give you full side coverage seal, which can easily introduce dust under the screen
  2. 1 Piece – Covers the entire frame. Provides full side coverage. Prevents dust from entering between the screen and LCD.

iFixYouri uses only the highest grade glass in combination with full frame adhesive, providing you with that near factory fit and feel that your high dollar item requires.  Whether your looking to do-it-yourself or you want to use an iPhone repair service, be sure that you go with one result in mind, quality.

Repair Parts

Apple apologizes as AT&T puts pre-order on hold

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On June 24th, 2010, a giant will fall to its’ knees, temporarily of course…

With the pre-order date for the June 24th, 2010 release of the up-and-coming iPhone 4 now passed, Apple’s servers were overwhelmed with traffic on June 15th. Over 600,000 pre-orders were placed, bringing the mobile computing giant to its knees.

AT&T’s website is no longer taking pre-orders, and Apple’s website has pushed all orders out by weeks. Estimates show that the sales figures so far for the iPhone 4 are 10 times that of it’s immediate predecessor, the iPhone 3Gs. We have our iPhone parts and iPhone Repair services team ready to roll for the first of these pre-orders to break.

An AT&T spokesperson said…

“Given this unprecedented demand and our current expectations for our iPhone 4 inventory levels when the device is available June 24, we’re suspending pre-ordering today in order to fulfill the orders we’ve already received,”

The sheer chaos at both AT&T and Apple Stores alike, brought systems to a near stand-still. AT&T employees had to manually write down customers information, while Apple employees, still using computers, were bogged down and nearly slowed to a complete halt.

Apple was not prepared for this. As stated by an Apple representative:

“[The number of pre-orders] was far higher than we anticipated, resulting in many order and approval system malfunctions. Many customers were turned away or abandoned the process in frustration. We apologize to everyone who encountered difficulties, and hope that they will try again or visit an Apple or carrier store once the iPhone 4 is in stock.”

When June 24th comes around, be sure to see more system failures, many dissatisfied customers, and slower 3G speeds if this is any pre-indication of what is to come.

Many of us loyal Apple iPhone users remember when Apple “changed everything” with the release of the Original iPhone, and the problems AT&T had with that. We anticipate a sleeker design and different iPhone 4repair process than before, involving the how the screen and LCD are put together.

AT&T’s system malfunction sets a new high for traffic to their online store, a staggering 13 million visitors. Many users, when logging into their accounts to check their upgrade eligibility, noticed something weird about what they saw. They were actually able to view other customer’s accounts, including their information.

This crash, glitch, whatever you want to call it sets another milestone for AT&T. First, the original iPhone crashed their systems. Then the 3G followed in its’ footsteps. And now the latest and greatest, the one who will ‘change everything. Again.’ is gearing up and ready to cripple the wireless giant one again in what is going to be quite an unprecedented release.

DIY Fix, E-Waste, Repair Parts

Sell and Recycle – What to do with your old iPhone

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The problem – Electronic Waste (e-waste)

This day in age we need to be more and more aware that all these nice little gadgets that we collect don’t exactly filter back into the earth. Many times the end up in junk yards and add to the ever increasing problem of electronic waste(e-waste). When people look to get their devices fixed, often times they realize selling it is easiest and a gateway to getting an upgrade without the hassle. This is especially true in the iPhone repair industry where the turnover rate is quick.

According to Greenpeace.org:

Many old electronic goods gather dust in storage waiting to be reused, recycled or thrown away. The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates that as much as three quarters of the computers sold in the US are stockpiled in garages and closets. When thrown away, they end up in landfills or incinerators or, more recently, are exported to Asia.

As a preventative step in preserving the environment, we urge you to take the appropriate measures in order to limit e-waste.

The Solution – Sell and recycle

We fully promote self-repair as our iPhone Parts section will show you. The reality is though, that most people don’t want to deal with their broken stuff. That’s when you Sell your iPhone to us! We pay top dollar to help you and at the same time, you’re doing your part in helping momma nature. Even your old, used, broken, water damaged iPhone can put a couple bucks back into your pocket.

You may be sitting there asking, “what do you guys do with my old junk?”

  • Salvage for parts
  • Recycle toxic parts properly
  • Refurbish and donate

Here at iFixYouri, we help consumers properly dispose of not only iPhones, but computers as well. You know that old computer that you have sitting collecting dust in your garage? We’ll fix it and donate it to local charities and schools. Perhaps it’s not the latest technology, but we can assure you that we’ll find a ‘match’ for your computer, and a user who would love to browse the internet, learn, and most importantly, use it!

Repair Parts

iOS 4 Software Warning: Multi-tasking

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We are going to break down the features of the iOS 4 operating system and update this page over time as soon as we have more time play with the device ourselves.

The iOS 4 operating system is the talk of the town, riding shotgun next to Apple promotional mouthpiece that is Steve Jobs.

Multi-tasking
It is a bit of a sleight-of-hand situation for Apple right now, as they are touting multi-tasking, yet those paying attention realize it is limited multi-tasking. The only Apps that work for iOS 4 multi-tasking are Apple’s own Apps, like clock, safari and mail. If you are buy an iPhone expecting multi-tasking for all Apps from the start, you will be disappointed. So until the developer updates your favorite App you may be out of luck. Given the fact that most do it for free or little money, it could take awhile. While our focus is iPhone repair and iPhone parts we are iPhone app addicts like everyone else so we will monitor this closely.

How it Works

When you press the home screen a dock will appear from the bottom of the phone when switching to another app. This interface is similar to the dashboard in the Mac OS X.

Multi-tasking will be limited beyond the developers catching up with technology, as only seven ‘types’ are aloud.

  • Background audio – Allows you to play audio without interruption
  • Voice over IP – Users can receive VoIP calls while using other apps. You can receive calls while phones are locked in pocket.
  • Background Location – Navigates while using other apps in a way that is friendlier with batteries and moving between cell towers.
  • Push notifications – Receive app updates if it’s running or not.
  • Task Finishing – If you leave your app it can still finish task.
  • Fast app Switching – No more reloading app.
  • Local notifications – Alerts users of events and alarms without a server needed.
Repair Parts

iPhone 4 test images

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The iPhone 4 tests we’ve performed here at iFix have come under scrutiny from some dark and remote places on the interwebs, and we are here to say, check yo’self.

The tests performed we’re done with Apple iPhone 4 parts direct from the manufacturer. These images were taken after a series of well controlled tests performed by our stylish and intelligent staff. The drops were made from a distance of three and a half feet, or about the height of a six foot person dropping the phone from their pocket, or a drunk chick sliding one off the bar.

Here’s what’s up….

The main thing that is adding confusion is ‘how many drop tests were performed?’

There were two total tests complete.

First round broke on the 3rd drop, on concrete, flat. As stated.

Second test, as requested by readers, was another test to see if it would break on different surfaces(carpet/concrete) if it hit the corner, fumbled, etc. It broke on the 7th, hitting the top left corner, on concrete. The second drop test is not pictured yet.

For the second test…The glass survived all drops onto carpet, and survived six angled drops onto concrete, but when dropped flat down the glass shattered. The seventh angled drop onto concrete broke the glass as well, but your local retired NFL lineman can tell you all about cumulative damage.

The following pictures(of the glass from the first drop test) ought to silence some of the doubters. You will see that these are high quality parts, note the laser etching on the digitizer cable, and front camera hole in the test glass. We’re too legit, you must acquit.  More images to come.

Repair Parts

iPhone 4 Glass – Will it break?

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We here at iFixYouri did a little science experiment the other day with some of our newest iPhone parts. Many people have been talking that the new iPhone has strong glass, less prone to scratching, 30 times stronger than plastic, etc. Will the new glass prove to be ultra strong and never break?

I’m going to go with a no on this one. Why may you ask? They do say that it is 30 times stronger than plastic, and there is a video of it bending. Bending, yes. They did also state that the iPhone 3Gs Glass was stronger when that came out as well. It may bend more, but can it handle shock and sudden impact, that is the real question. That is what causes 95% of glass shattering. Not because you bent the glass in your pocket, not because you dropped it and it bent, but really because of sudden impact.

Land it flat on the ground, and it will smash. We have evidence. Before i show you the evidence, I am going to point out a design flaw that will bite them in the future. On the new iPhone, the glass basically sits on top of the aluminum frame. On the old iphone, it was recessed and protected by a chrome bezel.

We have a full iPhone 4(minus the circuit board), here at our shop and decided to do a little drop test. This drop was performed from 3.5 ft up. The iPhone 4 did survive 2 drops, as expected, but on the 3rd drop there was a loud POP, and yet again, shattered glass.

We will continue to be the leader in iPhone Repair, and now iPhone 4 Repair.

More updates/pictures here!

Since this posting has got waves from many people, we’re going to clear a few things up here.

1) People are saying, “there’s no way you have iPhone 4 parts yet, the phone isn’t even out!”

  • The fact is, is that we’re a repair shop. Along with other major repair shops, we’re able to receive parts earlier than most. A simple google search will show that not only us, but other top players in the ‘iphone repair’ world, do in fact have these parts. We did put out a press release on June 3rd stating that we had the parts. This is no secret. A rather large competitor had them as earlier as May 19th. This is also widely spread on the internet

2) You hit it with a hammer

  • Uhmmm…no…we didn’t. That’s the most ridiculous thing we’ve heard.

3) Fake

  • We’re going to go with a no on this one as well. iPhone 4 Parts are available to all major repair shops…just seek and you shall see. Google ‘iphone repair’ and check some of the top competitor sites…they’re all ramped up and ready to service iPhone 4’s.

Here’s EXACTLY how it went down…if you want to read more into it, go for it. But honestly, and truthfully, this is the EXACT re-enactment of what happened:

It was a hot day on June 7th, 2010 and us here at the shop had just finished listening to the keynote by the great Steve Jobs. He had made a statement that the glass was stronger, more bendable, etc. After hearing that, one of our techs said “We should test a piece of the glass that we have in stock(iphone 4 glass that is).”

We proceeded down the hallway with our assembled iPhone 4(minus the internal circuit board), stepped out the front door and out to the side walk. Our tech held the phone(front facing the ground), and dropped it. Nothing(drop 1-we were very impressed). Drop 2, nothing. Drop 3, smash. He dropped it flat on the face and it popped. The all too familiar pop sound that some of us beloved iPhone users fear for.

As we sat talking about it, we decided to show our results on our blog, so that our readers could see what we had found. Not expecting it to take wind the way it did.

That is all…no ulterior motive…just to show our readers what had happened. That is it.

Please do yourselves a favor and check some competitor sites and you will see that the iPhone 4 parts aren’t as rare and elusive as you may think. There are numerous places out there with iPhone 4 parts already.