Anyone replace the glass on an iPad before? I get the chance.

[noelani72]

I had an administrator at work drop his ipad2...he had it less than a week.
They weren't entirely upfront with me about how "far" it fell, or exactly how...
Being a member of the I.T. department - they quietly asked me to see if our AppleCare would fix it - which I knew it wouldn't.

AppleCare deemed the device "beyond economical repair".

Honestly folks, the damage isn't too bad.

The iPad still works just fine - I cannot find any problems using apps, syncing, gps...anything.
Once corner took the impact - dented the case just a tad...should easily re-shape once the glass is out.
The glass exploded in the corner as a result, causing less than ten, clean hairline cracks shooting out like a spiderweb.
The cracks are so thin, my kid didn't even notice them until the light in the room caught the crevices.

So.
Since we had to eat the iPad cost, retire the device - my boss gave it to me to do whatever i want.

I brought it home..poked around Google/Ebay/Amazon to see about replacing the screen myself.

Surprised as I was - parts are widely available and it looks relatively easy for technical folks to preform the replacement.

one of the best vids I found was here;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_jnE5ULjpEQ

I ordered a screen with toolkit from Amazon to the tune of $94 bucks shipped.

If it works, cool, if not guess I can chalk it up to a learning experience.

Also, if little o'le me can spend $94 and replace the screen without any prior know-how of ipads....makes me wonder why Apple washed their hands of it so easily. They could have made at least $250 off my boss to fix it.

Any of you have any iPad digitizer repair stories?

[Mawni]

I know a bunch of people that have destroyed their iPod touch screens. You can buy replacement glass all over the internet and there are a bunch of videos on how to do it. Mostly they just buy a new iPod. :(

Nice score on the iPad though!

[Brazoo]

Nice! I hope it works!

[Adam West]

I remember seeing a segment on tv about two young entrepreneurs who set up a company that fixes Ipads, Ipods, etc. for this very reason. Apple doesn't want to deal with it, so they found a niche market. I don't remember the name of the company but it seems like it is growing like gangbusters and these two kids may be millionaires already.

[rche]

I've seen quite a few Ipod/Iphone repair ads in my local Craigslist. I would suspect there is a pretty good demand for doing those sort of repairs.

[noelani72]

well, not seeing anyone I know in either of the forums I frequent having done this.....if all goes well and I find I can replace this screen successfully - I can be that go-to-guy I guess. lol

[Adam West]

well, not seeing anyone I know in either of the forums I frequent having done this.....if all goes well and I find I can replace this screen successfully - I can be that go-to-guy I guess. lol

Seriously, you have hit on something that others have figured out. Apple doesn't really involve itself in repairs. You could turn this into a business.

[noelani72]

Got my box yesterday with the new digitizer.

Took my deep breaths and thought about the process overnight and today.

Sat down after dinner and started at it.

Getting that glass/digitizer off is a real pain in the arse. It crumbles really easy..ohh, and sticky..yea, really sticky underneath.

Bet I had a good hour and forty minutes into the disassembly and re-assembly.

And best I can tell - everything still works!

It was a Black iPad2 to begin with...but I opted to get the new screen in white. Umm yea, forgot about the Home button being black..so I have a custom iPad2 now.

Not real sure if it's something I'd want to do very often.
I guess if someone is willing to pay $$$ plus parts...I'd consider...

[ScottA]

Nicely done. I like the black dot.

[noelani72]

Nicely done. I like the black dot.

thank ya sir.
reminds me of a domino or a dice

[rche]

it's got a bellybutton.
an inny


not bad for a hundred bucks and an hour and a half