Hi there,
I searched before posting this, but couldn't find anything for the Atrix...
Just wondering if anyone has seen/made a guide to replace the Glass/digitizer for the Motorola Atrix?
As to why I'm asking:
(If the image links don't work, you can find them as attachments to this post)
I've damaged the plastic around the glass (basically the housing, near the usb port) but I need to remove it from the digitizer...
I bought this: http://forum.xda-developers.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=572442&stc=1&d=1303199913
But as the ifixit teardown guide shows...
(http://forum.xda-developers.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=572441&stc=1&d=1303199913),
...When you take the phone apart, the glass is one with the housing.. Has anyone done this replacement of the digitizer or housing, if so, can you offer any suggestions, and what you used as adhesive to reattach the digitizer?
I've repaired the iPhone 3Gs and iPhone 4 before, both ranking higher in difficulty on ifixit's site, so I'm guessing the ATRIX should be a lot easier...
Anyways, any helpful tips or any guides would be greatly appreciated. I've already checked Google but no luck...
keithgrobertson said:
Hi there,
I searched before posting this, but couldn't find anything for the Atrix...
Just wondering if anyone has seen/made a guide to replace the Glass/digitizer for the Motorola Atrix?
As to why I'm asking:
(If the image links don't work, you can find them as attachments to this post)
I've damaged the plastic around the glass (basically the housing, near the usb port) but I need to remove it from the digitizer...
I bought this: http://forum.xda-developers.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=572442&stc=1&d=1303199913
But as the ifixit teardown guide shows...
(http://forum.xda-developers.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=572441&stc=1&d=1303199913),
...When you take the phone apart, the glass is one with the housing.. Has anyone done this replacement of the digitizer or housing, if so, can you offer any suggestions, and what you used as adhesive to reattach the digitizer?
I've repaired the iPhone 3Gs and iPhone 4 before, both ranking higher in difficulty on ifixit's site, so I'm guessing the ATRIX should be a lot easier...
Anyways, any helpful tips or any guides would be greatly appreciated. I've already checked Google but no luck...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try this http://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Motorola-Atrix-4G-Teardown/4964/1
Or, this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TbR56jSplRs
Broke my digitizer and did the job myself using the youtube guide above. Just used straight up superglue to glue digitizer to frame. I put a bunch on the top and bottom and very little on the sides.
Amazingly the phone worked when i put it back together... for a while until I screwed up one of the ribbons by opening it a bunch more times. Be extra careful with these, especially the volume/camera ribbon. You can bend it pretty easily trying to slide it back into its slot.
Good luck.
NB: Theres places that will do it for as little as $90 in case you don't want to take the risk.
http://www.ubreakifix.com/
Thanks for posting the youtube link. I can't even quote the post because it involves an external link. The video was vague on details and the quality is crap but it did the trick.
My Arix got under the tires of a car (please dont ask how ) and only the digitizer broke, then i replace it with an OEM digitizer from amazon and now the proximity sensor is malfunctioning (Turns off the screen when im not near it or doesnt turns off when im near it), and there is a line of the screen that doesn't respond to tact. could it be the digitizer that came defective, or maybe it was the installation? oh, the other digitizer was broken and all but the light sensor was working fine and also the other thing. Sorry for my bad grammar.
Metacat said:
My Arix got under the tires of a car (please dont ask how ) and only the digitizer broke, then i replace it with an OEM digitizer from ebay and now the proximity sensor is malfunctioning (Turns off the screen when im not near it or doesnt turns off when im near it), and there is a line of the screen that doesn't respond to tact. could it be the digitizer that came defective, or maybe it was the installation? oh, the other digitizer was broken and all but the light sensor was working fine and also the other thing. Sorry for my bad grammar.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I replaced my digitizer, and had the EXACT same thing happen (not the light sensor but the line in the screen that doesnt respond to touch).
Get a new digitizer, but get it from someone else.
That's what i feared, did you changed it back again afther that, and did it worked? and thanks.
Metacat said:
That's what i feared, did you changed it back again afther that, and did it worked? and thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No. I sold it and let someone else deal with it. Didn't have the time to replace the digitizer again. Too much of a hassle.
I just replaced a digitizer on an atrix... i didnt put any adhesive on it because there was what i thought was adhesive strips on the digitizer... but there's strips on the screen that doesnt respond, i heated it n tried reattaching the digitizer a few times n sometimes the home and back button will work, sometimes they wont... any suggestions? could the lack of adhesive cause this?
Menu buttons problem
if menu buttons is freeze till I block and then unblock my phone is it digitizer problem ?
what do you mean by " block/unblock" ?
Sent from my HTC Desire CDMA using XDA
He means lock/unlock.
Go the ifixit route!
Just went through 3 digitizers in my repair, and wanted to share my experience/caveats
I bought one digitizer from All4Cellular for $25, and the others with a 20% discount a few days later, for $20.
I installed
the first using the RepairUniverse Youtube 'how-to' method, and had a heck of a time threading the flex cables through the slot. Bent/twisted it too much, and nothing responded on the touchscreen, so I read some forum posts on how fragile they were, and regarded that as user error.
Got the idea to move the LCD screen from another RepairUniverse YouTube video and a previous post here, and tried installing the digitizer from the front face of the phone. It was still a delicate matter to bend the flex cable so that it fit through the slot, and then re-position the LCD and align the sticky strips of the digitizer on the LCD and casing. Part of the digitizer worked this time - a 1cm vertical strip on the left fowled any attempt to touch icons or use a keyboard, so I thought I had damaged things again (doh!).
Hoping third time was the charm, I completely disassembled the phone using the guide in the 'ifixit' link, since a digitizer/case assembly was suggested in another thread. The rear camera just needs to be raised above the casing so the thin plate can move upward, and the LCD pops out easily if the sides of the casing are delicately pulled. The digitizer can be positioned easily and with minimal bending/twisting of the flex cables.
When reconnecting everything the third time, I noticed that pressing down on the front camera / digitizer connection *with the rubber boot in place* didn't pass when pulling the connected assembly upward. So I pulled the rubber boot out of the way and snapped the camera / digitizer connection firmly, then re-inserted the boot. A loose connection might have been the culprit for the nonfunctioning part of the digitizer in the second test.
@MrSaba - I had the same issue with capacitive buttons - perhaps because the screen senses touch and disables those buttons. Replacing the digitizer solved the issue
trouble
Hello friends,
Here's my story - broke a screen, as usual slipped from my pocket. though broken, digitizer worked fine. after replacement with new one (digitizer only) - no luck it didn't work. bought a new one, this time with a plastic part around it to avoid damage to it's cable. after careful repair no luck once again - does not work at all. downloaded a testing app (i was able to remote control the phone with a piece of soft called androidscreencast), everything is ok, except digitizer. checked and rechecked all ribbons and connectors 10 times, nothing seems to be broken or twisted.
what's your opinion, is it worth buying third one ? what part of my repair went wrong ?
thanks
drZeT said:
Hello friends,
Here's my story - broke a screen, as usual slipped from my pocket. though broken, digitizer worked fine. after replacement with new one (digitizer only) - no luck it didn't work. bought a new one, this time with a plastic part around it to avoid damage to it's cable. after careful repair no luck once again - does not work at all. downloaded a testing app (i was able to remote control the phone with a piece of soft called androidscreencast), everything is ok, except digitizer. checked and rechecked all ribbons and connectors 10 times, nothing seems to be broken or twisted.
what's your opinion, is it worth buying third one ? what part of my repair went wrong ?
thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not all digitizers are created equal. The ones that ship with the red stripe on the backing are junk. Spend more money and yes buying with a frame is key. Did you try reinstalling the original screen or did that ship sail already?
Sent from my MB860 using Tapatalk 2
jjwatmyself said:
Not all digitizers are created equal. The ones that ship with the red stripe on the backing are junk. Spend more money and yes buying with a frame is key. Did you try reinstalling the original screen or did that ship sail already?
Sent from my MB860 using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The first one was with the red stripe indeed, from china. The one with a frame came from UK, "used but tested OK". original screen is gone - tore off flex cable while removing.
Well, update...
2 screens bought on eBay were BAD. Had to wait full month for authorised motorola service to change the digitizer. Must say though that both merchants on ebay refunded, no questions asked. Lessons learned - pay more, wait longer, never give up
DrJCFitz said:
the first using the RepairUniverse Youtube 'how-to' method, and had a heck of a time threading the flex cables through the slot. Bent/twisted it too much, and nothing responded on the touchscreen, so I read some forum posts on how fragile they were, and regarded that as user error.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What I noticed on their video was that their folded digitizer connector magically unseats itself during the disassembly transition. I had to pry mine off based purely on guesswork and think I might have broken the flip-chip that is stuck onto the frame with double-sided tape. Like yours, my touchscreen doesn't respond at all, despite there being no cable tears. I'm going to try and re-heat that flip chip and maybe get the connections to work again (doubtful).
To anyone else out there attempting this... when you go to remove the touchscreen, HEAT THE CONNECTOR so that you can gently pry it out!
Bad screen I got 3 before it worked its fine now if old one partially works new one doesn't screen is junk took mine apart several times to figure out screens were junk...guess they felt sorry for me give me my money back plus free working screen.from amazon
Also that lock clamp u mentioned first video I watched didn't show unlocking that I just pulled it out and pushed back in it was the 2 screen that I figured out it needed to be pryed loose by the white clamp but guess I didn't damage it..
Sent from my HTC One X+ using xda premium
I have just put in my second digitiser. The first was one had a red stripe, which was junk, the second on I bought had the plastic round the edge and the digitiser.
I put it in and it worked fine no dead spots at all. Then 12 hours in it started to stop working intermittently. Then 24 hours after that while on charge its dead again. I reflashed notattrix and still nothing. I've confirmed all the ribbon connectors are firmly in place and everything looks right.
Any ideas whats wrong?
thanks
Jonnym
Hi I am thinking about buying galaxy s 2 for 260 USD. The reason why its so cheap is that the homebutton is not working. And the ribbon needs to be replaced. How hard is it to replace the homwbutton flex cable?
Do u just need to seperate motherboard then put the new cable or do I need to use hair dryer and stuffs to seperate the display and all that? I do not know what the galaxy s 2 internal looks like.
I have experience opening up desire z and replacing the spring with a stronger one. So if its just removing screws and replacing cable it won't be a problem but if it requires using hair dry and seperating screen from the phone to get to the cable I probably can't...probably going to break the screen while doing it.
So any ideas?
Sent from my HTC Sensation Z710e using Tapatalk
Hey there,
In order to replace the home button (which only costs about $8) from cnn.cn you need to remove the LCD from the shell since the button is attached to the back of the LCD. To remove the screen you need to use a heat gun and relax the adehsives holding the screen to the shell with the chrome ring and remove the screen. This is of course after disassembling the back of hte phone. It is not an easy job especially that that putting back the screen in place is going to be a problem with messed up adhesives now.
Check ifixit guide for a better look. It is for the Galaxy S US variant but you get the idea of removing the screen
I hope that helps.
Factor in an additional $150 to replace the screen in case something goes wrong. So the cost of the phone is more like $410.
I just preformed a digitizer replacement for the Thunderbolt. One of the ribbon cable Zero Insert Force partially chipped off. Can you tell me (from your personal experience and intuition) if the symptoms look like a broken LCD screen, or the bad connection from the ribbon cable to the main board?
I've heard bad things about trying to do the digitizer only without the LCD, but the partially mangled connector throws me off on what it might be. To be more specific, it looks like the ZIF release bar was weak and 1/2 of the bar broke off. The other half of the bar still 'clamps' down.
Thanks a ton!
That's really odd. I've only worked with cell phone repair for a company for 4 months but from that I might be able to help. First... A few questions... What did you use to melt the adhesive? If you did that improperly this "could" potentially happen so that would make it an LCD issue. It doesn't look like an LCD issue other then that unless the pins on the ribbon cable connector are screwed. Now for what I personally think it looks like... Did you forget to remove the screen protector from BOTH sides of the digitizer? Or did you not clean the LCD and digitizer in alcohol after handling them?
My advice is to take apart the phone again, and turn it on while holding the cable connector in place to rule that out.
Now I haven't repaired the thunderbolt yet so when you say you broke the connector, is it a hinge connection and you broke part of the hinge? Or a snap in connection and cracked it? If option "B" its your LCD without a doubt.
Edit, sorry I didn't read the end. So it is a hinge connection. As long as the entire clip is ALL the way in your fine. If part of it is up and won't stay down... A small amount of electrical tape never hurt.
Edit number 2, absolutely not a cracked screen. If you would have cracked it you would have known, and it would look a lot crazier.
Sent from my ADR6400L using XDA
Yeah the guy above knows a lot more than me but to me it looks like a bad connection.
I recently had 2 dead lines going down my screen. From searching around I found that I needed to replace the front screen digitizer.
So I got a new digitizer, tore down the phone and followed the steps from a few youtube videos pretty meticulously. I reassembled the phone, and it powers up just fine. But it now response to no touch. I'm going to do a complete tear down again, but is there any tips that can be given? I've checked if the digitizer's ribbon cable is snapped in, all the motherboard cables are also snapped in.
Is there something I should check to see if it's just the new digitizer is a dud? Since the whole phone powers up and functions fine.. to me that sends up red flags.
Oh and I followed this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TbR56jSplRs
If nothing else works you probably tore the ribbon cable, which is very easy to do. Also make sure you got an OEM screen. There are cheaper reproductions that aren't nearly as good. (Feel, glass, and details) the one I bought on amazon (from seller1on1 I think) is oem. Contact your company if you can't get it fixed, the company I got it from sent me like 3 replacements before I realized I forgot to remove the plastic bar.
Sent from my MB860 using xda premium
yea i bought an OEM refurb also with front Case.
Works great
squee666 said:
yea i bought an OEM refurb also with front Case.
Works great
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
+1
avoid the "oem" digitizers and go for the refurb with bezel as these are also much easier to fit.
Have put 2 on now. One to replace dead zones and one when I dropped and cracked the screen.
Thanks, I did get an OEM one. I'll contact them to have them ship me a new one!
And by tore ribbon cable you mean the one attached to the digitizer? That had to be snapped onto the top next to the power button?
GiffE said:
And by tore ribbon cable you mean the one attached to the digitizer? That had to be snapped onto the top next to the power button?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, that one. The problem is the end attached to the digitizer itself. Never had to dig into this myself (knock on wood), but they say the part where the cable is attached to the digitizer is very very fragile and tears of easily (sometimes even micro-tears, something you can't even see, but it still disrupts the connection). They also say that cable is ridiculously short and that is a part of the problem why it tears so easily.
Tried to replace my broken ultra screen but damaged the main ribbon that connects to the motherboard. Have bought a new ribbon but not sure how i should attach it. Anyone know?
The original ribbon looked like it was just glued on.
Ukbondraider said:
Tried to replace my broken ultra screen but damaged the main ribbon that connects to the motherboard. Have bought a new ribbon but not sure how i should attach it. Anyone know?
The original ribbon looked like it was just glued on.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Made by robot...to small for human eye and precision. It requires you to have a facility to have it mounted again or a solder oven if you are able to handle the parts with this kind of precision needed.
Toss it in the bin or sell it...you can buy a new device for less than the cost of attaching it/send for repair and get a new motherboard.
If you know some old school gaming console modder you might have some luck. Not many have these precise skills these days.
Ok thanks for the info. Do you know if there is a way to boot the phone without using the power button. It appears that the new screen works as when I plug in a charger the Sony logo on the screens turns on as too does the pic of the battery. I just cant get the power button to work. It looks like this maybe the area affected from the small damaged part of the ribbon.
If only I could boot it. Pity its not like an iphone that boots upon charging.
Ukbondraider said:
Ok thanks for the info. Do you know if there is a way to boot the phone without using the power button. It appears that the new screen works as when I plug in a charger the Sony logo on the screens turns on as too does the pic of the battery. I just cant get the power button to work. It looks like this maybe the area affected from the small damaged part of the ribbon.
If only I could boot it. Pity its not like an iphone that boots upon charging.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you can get the volume button to work you can boot the phone with fastboot reboot
anisotropic adhisive film/tape
the adhisive that attaches the flex cable to pcb is anistropic adhisive film. its fairly easy to attach the cable but the materials is very expensive and hard to handle. I have replace my ZU flex cable using a strip of this film and a spatula soldering iron or t-type soldering iron(because its T shaped). clamp the board firmly, applied the ADF, pre-heat it to 50°c, align the flex and apply heat 150°c with 3 kilos of force for 25 seconds and your done. I got my ADF form work.
Ive spent more than I wanted to, to fix my Ultra. £50 for screen and £20 for other bits and bobs including new ribbon and back glass.
Just annoyed that the rubbish youtube videos showing how to replace the screen did not make clear how to remove the motherboard from the phone without damaging the ribbon.
Anyway I will see if anyone can glue the the new ribbon to the motherboard for me but will only pay around £10. Some of the folks I emailed want £20 to just to diagnose the issue which was already clearly stated to them. Therefore it looks like this may not happen.
Otyerwise I will wait for a broken Ultra to sell on ebay for around £10.
Love this phone for its size but have the Z3 and Z3 tablet as my two daily phones to keep me going till the Z5 premium.
Ukbondraider said:
Ive spent more than I wanted to, to fix my Ultra. £50 for screen and £20 for other bits and bobs including new ribbon and back glass.
Just annoyed that the rubbish youtube videos showing how to replace the screen did not make clear how to remove the motherboard from the phone without damaging the ribbon.
Anyway I will see if anyone can glue the the new ribbon to the motherboard for me but will only pay around £10. Some of the folks I emailed want £20 to just to diagnose the issue which was already clearly stated to them. Therefore it looks like this may not happen.
Otyerwise I will wait for a broken Ultra to sell on ebay for around £10.
Love this phone for its size but have the Z3 and Z3 tablet as my two daily phones to keep me going till the Z5 premium.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
it is possible to reuse the adhesive if the adhesive on the connectors are not lifted or removed.