Today I'm going to show you how to save a few hundred bucks by doing a Galaxy S4 screen
replacement yourself.
Remember, if you do this right it'll be a ten dollar repair.
If you do this wrong it'll end up being a lot more.
So proceed at your own risk.
Check the links in the video description below for the current prices on replacement parts.
I've already taken apart this phone, as to not cause any heat damage to the main board
and charging port.
You can go ahead and click the link in the upper corner to see how I did that.
I also taped down the cables so that they won't be kinked or twisted in any way.
Because if those cables are kinked or twisted it'll end up having a black screen that is
unrepairable.
That'll be a more expensive repair.
Anyway, you want to gently heat up the phone, this will take about four or five minutes.
If you heat up in one place too long there will be a burn mark in the middle of the screen.
I use this handy laser heat sensor thing to tell me how hot the phone is.
I will put a link in the video description below for this as well, it's relatively cheap.
Now I'm taking a razor blade and gently putting it between the glass screen and the frame
of the phone itself.
The adhesive up at the top is a little different than the adhesive that is covering the LCD.
So I'm using my knife to separate the top so I can slip my wire down inside.
I'm being really careful because right here on this corner there are two ribbon cables
that are in charge of the LCD and digitizer.
If you rip those cables, you're toast and you have to buy the more expensive replacement
part.
Here is the wire that I'm going to be using.
It's a special wire that's used for high temperature applications like this.
I'm just going to take it, wrap it around my fingers, and then slide it in that top
part where I've already separated the glass from the phone itself.
Now the goal here is to work it over the earpiece on the phone and then slide it down the rest
of the way.
You can see that it's getting harder for me to cut.
That's because in the 60 seconds that I have not been heating up the phone it's cooled
down to the point that the glue is not liquid anymore.
So I'm going to go ahead and heat it up gently.
The perfect temperature range is anywhere from 185 degrees Fahrenheit to about 210.
It's about the same temperature as boiling water.
So when you touch the screen it's going to be too hot for your fingers.
I'm going to use my knife to separate and clear off this corner one more time.
And that should give me enough room to get this wire wedged down on the screen itself.
And then I can tug downwards on both ends of the wire to separate the adhesive from
the phone itself and the shattered glass that we're taking off.
If your wire does catch on one of the glass shards, you can just lift it up with your
razor and then continue going downwards again.
What's nice about the Galaxy S4 screens is that they are laminated so they don't come
off in shards.
They're all going to come off in one big piece.
You can see at the top of the screen my wire has grabbed this little blue piece of plastic.
This is a shield that is over the LCD ribbon cable.
I"m just going to reach in with my tweezers and pull that out.
Sometimes the wire grabs it, sometimes it doesn't.
Another method that you can use is playing cards.
If you get poker cards you can use those to slide down in the screen instead of wire.
I actually prefer the poker card method better than the wire method so I'm going to make
a video on that here in the next few weeks.
So don't forget to subscribe if you want to see that.
Now I'm going to heat up the phone again as it's cooled down too much for me to pull the
wire through.
Remember once the phone gets too hot to touch you're good to go.
If it gets hotter than about 212 degrees though you're going to start having burn marks on
the screen.
You can see how easily the wire slides between the shattered glass and the digitizer underneath.
My wire does catch on a glass shard right here and rips the wire.
So I'm going to go ahead and pull it out the rest of the way.
Grab a new piece of wire, use my tweezers to just lift up the edge of the glass a little
bit, and then start over with a new piece of wire.
Pretty simple, the wire's pretty cheap as well so it's not too big of a deal if it breaks.
And then just continue separating the rest of the way down.
It's getting colder.
Down to 137.
I'm going to go ahead and heat it back up to about 190-200 degrees and then continue
separating it the rest of the way down.
You have to be careful as you reach the bottom here because there is a little ribbon cable
that is in charge of the menu buttons and the home button, so you just want to get the
edge of the screen.
And then once the screen is off as you can see right here, you can lift up the glass
and pull it away from the device itself.
This is the little ribbon cable that I was talking about.
And then I usually take my razor blade and just pry off the buttons from the glass itself,
making sure not to tear the cable at all even though the cable's only about four or five
bucks it's nice if you can just reuse the old one.
And then I'm just going to separate the last segment of adhesive from the bottom of the
screen and then pull it off.
Pretty straightforward.
And honestly if you've gotten this far, the chances are you're going to succeed.
Getting the glass off is the hardest part.
Here you can see the shattered glass and how it's laminated.
Pretty good move.
The Galaxy S3s weren't laminated, they would come off in shards.
Anyway, so there is leftover adhesive on the screen of the phone so I'm going go ahead
and just kind of roll that off with my finger.
It comes off in chunks and it's also strangely satisfying so you can just sit here and roll
off the rest of the glue.
There is the chance that you won't have any adhesive left over on the screen, it just
kind of depends on how the phone was made and how old it is and the temperature you
used to separate the glass from the phone.
And now before I do anything else I'm going to go ahead and test the screen just to make
sure I'm not wasting my time by putting a new one on.
Remember that the digitizer, which is the layer right underneath the glass, is about
as fragile as an egg, and so if you break that then you're toast.
Here's the little wire.
Right here in the corner is what normally rips.
So make sure that there's no tears or anything in that cable.
If there is a tear buy a new one before you put the new screen on.
Everything looks good with the phone.
The touch works even though the glass is not on the screen.
I'm going to go ahead and grab some denatured alcohol, which is an alcohol specifically
made for electronics, to clean off the rest of the adhesive from the phone itself.
So go ahead and remember that what we're dealing with here is about as fragile as an eggshell.
So don't press any harder than you would on the side of an egg.
Now as far as replacing the glass goes you have two options, the first of which is the
easiest, cheapest, and most forgiving, but will also leave your phone slightly more vulnerable
to breaking again.
It's the double-sided tape.
It's super cheap, and all you have to do is lay down the tape around the edges of the
phone and then rest the top glass in place over it and that's it.
You're done, you have a fully functioning phone, and it's ready to go.
There are a few places locally to me that only do this kind of repair.
It is easier.
Much easier.
The second option is using a Loca glue.
It is an ultraviolet light activated optical adhesive.
It's a little bit complicated, so I'll be making a part two video to follow up with
this one and explain how that more complicated repair is done.
It's also not super expensive but you kind of have a bigger chance of ruining your phone,
but it is more durable as well.
Anyways, so if you're going to do the double-sided tape, make sure to cover up every part, you
know except for the earpiece and the home button, make sure to get the sides of the
phone as well so that the screen will be completely adhered and dust won't be able to get inside.
The double-sided tape is easier to peel off as you can see there.
Grab the glass, make sure to peel off both sides of the plastic, lay it down into place
so it's fully adhered to the sticky tape and you're done.
I would definitely recommend getting a case this time around.
Go ahead and click in the top corner to see how the Loca glue is done.
Thanks for watching!
If you have any questions make sure to leave them in the comments below, like if this video
helped you, and don't forget to subscribe.
Means a lot.
Thanks for watching.