Watch out for the screen when opening your pixel.
Watch out for the screen when opening your pixel.
So recently I posted about cracking my back glass and wanting to do the repair myself. So after ordering new glass, and all the adhesives that are required, as well as the iOpener kit, I got set to work.
I heated the screen and was almost done taking it off until I got to the top. I slid the opening pick and saw it go under the screen, like as in I saw it through the glass... I knew instantly that I had made a grave mistake.
Sure enough I booted it back up and the screen was instantly splotched with flashing white until it eventually just straight died. Since I had the rest of the stuff I figured I'd get the shell swapped and put everything mostly back together. I was able to use scrcpy to view whats going on my phone without the screen and I verified everything else works with the diagnostic tool, but now I'm out another $220 to replace the screen.
So lesson learned, be very very careful when getting those opening picks under your screens!
Yeah, broke the screen on my old pixel a few years ago when I was replacing the degraded battery. I'm by no means an amateur at electronics repair; it's just that delicate.
Yeah. This was my first time opening the phone but I watched the ifixit teardown video almost religiously trying to catch every detail. Unfortunately despite it warning you about pick depth, it doesnt warn you about going inbetween the screen and glue. Hopefully since Google has gone this far in the repairability department, they make future pixels a bit easier to teardown without accidentally breaking it
Also sorry that happened, I've also had repairs (not phones though) go wrong and ended up spending almost the full purchase price. Hopefully Google can follow the Fairphone model and make the phones easier to disassemble, especially as Google's revenue doesn't really depend on hardware sales.
Imagine if we didn't need a heat gun and spudger and the luck of a thousand leprechauns to be able to repair a screen correctly.
Haha yup, if only. Also the battery was glued to the frame with probably the strongest glue I've ever seen. Even after heating the back case to too hot to touch temps it was still incredibly difficult to remove the battery. I don't think there's a good reason to glue the battery like that where I'm sure some thermal padding would probably suffice to keep it in place, or shit even clips.
Thanks for posting the follow-up! It's really interesting. Sorry that happened
I had that happen with a Samsung Note many years ago. First and only time I shattered a screen, and it was a work phone, so I didn't want anyone to know.
They ended up finding out.
Yikes, hopefully you didn't get into too much trouble. It's pretty wild how delicate these screens are. I hope future pixels are easier to take apart that reduce the potential damage from mistakes.