[One (M7) General] Dredd73:
OK - the burning question many people have had has been answered - Can I replace my screen?

The answer is yes, but it is not for the fainthearted.

My poor HTC One came to grief recently hitting a marble floor and while useable came off second best.

Investigation with local phone repairers yielded little. I could only find one company in Melbourne that wanted $295 to fix the screen on a $700 phone.

Looking around online I could only find teardown clips and the ifixit rating of 1 which isn't terribly confidence inspiring.

So this left me with a three options

1. Cut my losses and by a new phone

2. Cough up for a repairer

3. Have a crack at it myself

I started off searching for replacement screens on e-bay and after a bit more searching came across etradesupply.

Not only did they have all the parts they also gave me an idea, if I am changing screen, why not colour? I always liked the black one a bit more but was too impatient and bought the silver one.

So I went for it and ordered the screen and digitizer as an assembly

etradesupply.com/oem-htc-one-lcd-screen-and-digitizer-assembly-with-front-housing.html[/url]

and new rear housing

etradesupply.com/oem-htc-one-rear-housing-black-with-htc-and-beatsaudio-logo.html[/url]

I also ordered a few tools and about 5 days later my parts arrived.

Over this period I watched the youtube tear down clips and also reviewed the iFixit guide and wondered what had I got myself in for.

So I decided tonight was the night to go for it.

I started by trying to pry off the bottom speaker with the intent of working around the old housing. My delusions of grandeur of an elegant fix disappeared quickly as the zero gap was an impenetrable fortress that could not be penetrated until I hacked the base off breaking the bottom off where the polycarbonate seam is.

After a good half an hour of hacking and prying my case was off showing off the sheer complexity of the interior.

THIS WAS NOT LOOKING PROMISING

So as I looked over this and thought ok, lets start unscrewing and this is where I hit my first obstacle. My precision screwdrivers were not precise enough so a quick trip to the local hardware store and I was in business.

I decided to try and take the path of least tear down. Looking at the clips I felt I could achieve the outcome without a complete tear down. My advice to anyone else thinking the same is DO NOT DO THIS.

While I got there in the end, the antennas are fragile and any tension will snap them as I discovered. Not a big deal as a few seconds with the soldering iron fixed it, but it is easier to simply detach and re-attach them.

So after taking off various bits of tape, screws, ribbons and prying the battery out of the case which is well glued with adhesive I was almost there. If you watch the tear down clip, be prepared to rip every last item out and disassemble as per the clip. All the way down to the vibration motor.

It was about here I was ready to abandon all hope, I had disassembled and had thought I had reassembled and when I did a test boot, nothing....

I pushed, prodded, poked and tested all the connections and still nothing.

I disassembled and ensured every tricky little ribbon was connected and like a patient in a medical drama when it has had two shocks with the defibrillator, when I tried again it kicked in to life.

Screen works - Yes

Wi-Fi works - Yes

Bluetooth works - Yes

Audio works - Yes

3G/HSDPA works - Yes

Test call works - Yes

All of a sudden when I thought I was off to buy a new handset my HTC One had kicked back in to life. My transplant had patient was alive but still critical.

So I started the process of taping up the ribbons, screwing in all the screws and getting it in shape for the final part - attaching the rear housing.

I lowered the rear housing on to the exposed wires like Darth Vader's mask lowering on to Anakin at the end of Revenge of The Sith and just as I thought victory was mine there was a moment of dread.... it didn't fit

I delicately pried off the housing and took a look, the convoluted assembly around the charger socket was the culprit. After some re-evaluation and re-organisation of the plate, the rear housing was secured and the death star, oops no the HTC One M7 in black was fully operational

So about 3 hours after I started my task is complete, black is a much nicer look, however, the zero gap isn't as zero as it was before but will do.

I think if I were to do it again I would do it in under two hours, but the repairer estimates of 3 hours isn't outlandish.

If you cracked your screen and want to replace it, then I would say go for it and buy the assembly and housing as I did.

If you simply want to change colours for no other reason that you want to, I would caution against this. The work is serious and has risks. It is a repair of last resort.

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