[Desire General] Epsis:
Hi :)

A few days ago in college i was carrying my mate's Desire (in fact, he, myself and another friend there at the time all have them) and dropped it acidentally from about three or four feet. The digitiser/screen broke, shattered quite badly and i felt awful, so i offered to see how i could help in getting it replaced.

Carphone Warehouse wanted £170, we fixed it for <£30.

We decided it couldn't be too difficult to fix ourselves, and being young and inquisitive and very geeky we set about fixing the screen. The AMOLED hadn't bust, it was just the digitiser and from what we had heard it wasn't too difficult to fix. My friend Jed, not the guy who the original smashed Desire belonged to (that was James) had a bit of experience in the area so we weren't totally gung-ho about it. We knew we had to order parts so we did so from Ebay, and paid something like £1.60 for extra-speedy delivery - and then it was time to crack (s'cuse the pun) on.

We took some photos for our own interest, and i thought here would be a good place to see them so other people as enthusiastic about phones as i am could peruse them at their leisure :) All of the photos were captured with an HTC Desire.

UNFORTUNATELY, we didn't have the common sense to take a photo of the phone before we fixed it, so no before and after shots i'm afraid :(

Stuff we needed:

Screwdrivers (A small phillips and a torx 6 i think, it was really small anyway - there may have been more)

Cotton buds/pads

Isopropanol (lots)

Tweezers

All in all, it wasn't a difficult job, just one which required patience and forethought. It took Jed and myself three hours, and for unqualified teenagers i think that's about okay. Any questions, be sure to ask. :)

Just a picture for size reference, we outlined the phone on my Moleskine (hipster, i know i know) so we could remember where screws went.

A close-up of the rear input (USB & Microphone) panel, with microSD and SIM slot.

Jed, removing the rear input panel type thing.

Rear input panel removed, exposing the lower PCB (which is removable).

Entire rear protection panel removed, exposing the Desire's sexy internals.

Close-up of CMOS sensor and antenna.

Unscrewing the main PCB for removal.

CMOS and antenna as above, different angle though.

CMOS sensor and antenna again from a different angle, while we're trying to remove the volume keys (which was SERIOUSLY f*cking difficult.)

Removing the rear input PCB, this was fiddly but fairly straightforward.

Another shot of the lower PCB coming out.

The furry stuff is the remnants of the glue that stuck the digitiser on, it took forever to get off.

AMOLED and touchscreen input port disconnection, which was super fiddly but easy enough.

The phone's main PCB resting on the box in which the digitiser came, for safe-keeping.

Slowly lifting the AMOLED, which was scary.

Old, cracked digitiser. You can faintly make out the damage, all of the top left side had completely shattered.

External front panel, with digitiser removed. You can make out some black furry stuff, which is the glue that held the original digitiser in place. This was the hardest part of the job as we had to make sure ALL of it came off. Isopropanol and cotton buds were needed, as well as sharp flat metal things to scrape off the glue. A LOT of Isopropanol was used. :p

New digitiser is laid in place and everything's re-assembled, all that's left to do is stick it in.

Final comparison shot, comparing the phone with a replaced digitiser or touch screen with one that never got hurt. Not too bad, if i do say so myself.