iNever gave up!

Undaunted by my setbacks to date - I ordered another replacement iPhone screen and digitizer, and to cut a seemingly endless story short, I fiited it no problem - got the screws in the right place and voila;

I had a few further snags in that I found that the WI-FI wouldn't work.  I investigated what could be wrong and discovered that I had rather carelessly detached a clip from the motherboard that is important to the WI-FI functionality.  It's not an uncommon problem and I restored the WI-FI by inserting a small piece of copper wire underneath a screw where the clip should have been.  Unbelievably, the WI-FI works perfectly once more.

I also ended up having to replace the antenna/speaker component that you can see in the above picture, as the connector that you can see which connects to the motherboard got damaged on the original.

So, I nearly have a fully functional iPhone 4.  The final issue I have is that the mobile signal drops whenever I pick the iPhone up - which is obviously a bit of a nuisance.  But, my research informs me that this could be a loose connection, or the fact that some of the connections need cleaning with a de-greaser such as Windex.  As yet, I have not had the time to try this but it is on my to do list.

So what have I learned?  The most important thing is that I should have taken my time more, and been a bit more careful.  I was in truth a bit gung-ho, heavy handed, and in too much of a hurry.  I made several mistakes as a result but I now know that I can fix an iPhone that ends up in such an unfortunate condition.

I have in fact successfully replaced the screen on a white iPhone 4S for a colleague - and I'm pleased to say that this repair was a complete success.

And so ends this story.  I will post an update as to whether I get the SIM working properly, but in the meantime - I hope you have enjoyed reading about the ups and downs of this epic journey!

And that's that!

Peter