Replacing the LCD?


geckojsc

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Oct 1, 2009
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Hi guys, to cut a long story short last Saturday consisted of several disasters, one of which involved my Pandora falling out of my pocket and landing on the kitchen floor. Fortunately everything seems to be working fine, but there's a large crack across the screen now, so I'm going to order one of the non-touch replacement LCDs from the DragonBox shop (maybe I'll wait until after Christmas when the post is more reliable, as long as they're still in-stock)

So I'm just wondering, what is the procedure for replacing the screen? Do I need any equipment beyond a screwdriver? What precautions should I take to make sure I don't screw anything up?

I believe I asked already on IRC, but it's not easy to just replace the glass, if the display and touch are working fine, is it?

Thanks
 
Touch and Screen is one unit, unless you know how desolder it, not terribly hard but not recommended for beginners. 

As for screen replacing the hardest part is to overcome the fear to break the lid appart. You need to apply some force to bend it so it comes out of the snaps.

Also pressing the hinge out needs a lot of force too, hell even removing the wifi antenna needed a lot of force.  

There is basically not very much that can go wrong unless you trip with the screwdriver and pierce the pcb (too much force).

Oh and do not play around with the lcd ribbon cable. 

Eh lets go exact:

1.Open lower case, remove the wifi antenna (pull) and the lcd ribon (snap-lock) from pcb, put pcb aside. 

2. Remove the light pipe and mic holder on the right side. 

3. unscrew LCD frame, Bend  to unsnap the frame or use you fingernails etc..

4. the lower right part on the hinch should lift, NOT the other side. Look inside, there is a metal piece. Use you screwdriver to press against it. It takes a lot of force and the lid must be FULLY open. 

5.You can now lift the Srceen part out and pull it to the right (not too much), the frame can be fully removed now. The screen has again a snap-lock behind it. 
 
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That seems mostly okay, thanks a bunch guys. I must say I got spooked when ED started unsoldering the speakers (about 6:30 in the video) - he mentioned something about the new LCDs coming with speakers included so you don't need to do that, or did I hear that wrong? Are the speakers attached to the case in some way?
 
Just by glue stripes, but the Speakers are part of the LCD ribbon cable, you might have to lift them to replace the LCD but no the are not attached to the parts you want to tinker with. 
 
The speakers are attached to the LCD cable not the LCD screen. One warning is be extremely careful about the LCD cable. I broke it twice when trying to get the lid off ...
 
A broken Ribbon cabble would be very bad here seeing that these are out of production. 

But honestly, its not THAT fragile, did you made something wrong? 

Eg I broke the pins in the frame because i did it without the video and did not know that you lift the right side before the left comes out. 
 
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The speakers are attached to the LCD cable not the LCD screen. One warning is be extremely careful about the LCD cable. I broke it twice when trying to get the lid off ...
Just to be clear, the part commonly referred to as the LCD cable in these parts and the cable that comes out of the LCD are two different things - the latter plugs into the former, and the former is coiled up and passes through the hinge.


FWIW, I've ripped both of my LCD cables trying to remove them from the case, although perhaps I wasn't being excessively careful as I was going to throw them away anyway. But until I'd reassembled my Pandora a few times, it wasn't completely clear that you have to feed the motherboard end of the cable back through the slot you push it through when fitting a new one and at a peculiar angle for that matter. And I broke another one by crushing it in the screen when I clipped the frame panel in a hurry - actually I still need to test that to see if it's actually ruined or not.
 
the latter plugs into the former, and the former is coiled up and passes through the hinge.
Aah I see, that makes a lot more sense now, I missed the part in the video where he unplugs them (at a glance it all looked like a single cable)

I guess I'm confident enough now to give it a try once I order the LCD. I shall post back in a few weeks, cheers :)
 
Aah I see, that makes a lot more sense now, I missed the part in the video where he unplugs them (at a glance it all looked like a single cable)
It is around the 2 minute mark, and he does wifi then lcd.
 
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