Tonight I replaced the screen on my iPhone 4 that I have not used since September 2014 when I shattered it.

iphone-shattered-screen iphone-shattered-screen2

I ordered the screen and tool kit for $16.99 on Amazon and it took about 2 hours.

I followed a YouTube video and was digging the London accent. When it was all said and done I only had one extra screw.

Before I started I got a piece of styrofoam and traced the phone 4 times to keep track of the screws as I went. The thought with the styrofoam was that I would push the screws into it. These screws are super tiny and there was no way I would push them through the paper into the styrofoam. The paper layout however was really handy. Taking the thing apart was fairly straight forward.

iphone-disassembled

I did drop a screw off the table on the floor and could not find it. So I used the old trick of using a speaker as magnet. I had an old pioneer speaker laying around that I had never used, so it had to be sacrificed.

iphone-screw-speaker

Given the way it shattered, I had many shards of glass that fell off.

iphone-shards

Putting things back together was slow going at first. The six screws with washers along the side and the four tiny screws in the corner were the hardest. I would recommend a magnetic screw like the dude in the video had. I did not have this. My fingers cramped up from the way I had to contort them and my back ached from the way I was sitting hunched over. After these side screws things came together nicely and the phone worked when I turned it on.

Overall it was fascinating to see how one of the 3 iPhones I have had over the last 8 years is put together.