Broken Capacitive Buttons

ambrown

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I just recently purchased a used Droid 2 from ebay to replace my Droid Incredible that died a couple of months ago. I've been using a Droid Eris but went for the Droid 2 to fill the remainder of my contract.

Anyway, my question is that the Droid 2 I got has capacitive buttons that don't work (I knew this before I bid on it). They appear responsive but when I press one of the buttons it selects the nearest point directly above it on the screen. So for example, if I press the "home" button when it's below the dialer app then the dialer app gets pressed instead and launched.

Now googling a solution to this issue always ends with people saying "just take it to verizon and make them give you a new phone", which obviously wing work for me.

So does anyone have experience fixing that area of the digitizer and what it might take to get it working? And what parts may be needed?

Now I know nothing else about this phone and what it has been through, but when I first saw the screen I noticed some dust between the digitizer and the LCD which leads me to believe that the digitizer was replaced at one point and that could have been part of the cause of the phone's capacitive buttons not working. I figured that I might have to replace the digitizer but any tips or help with what to do or try would be helpful!

Edit: I actually opened up the back and found the water damage stickers are red so there has been some water damage. Also I discovered that the earpiece doesn't work. It can connect to make a call, but it has to be on speakerphone for me to hear anything. If I can get the capacitive buttons working and earpiece working then otherwise it seems everything is in working order and will make a decent replacement.

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MissionImprobable

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The capacitive buttons registering touch is part of the digitizer's function. Replacing it should fix the issue.
 
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ambrown

ambrown

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Thanks! Good to know! Now if I could just find a digitizer and a new earpiece on the cheap. I'm hoping to get those things working and then be all set. It seems that the Wifi works but that there are occasional hiccups in the connection. But fixing those two things will at least allow me to use it as a phone.

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MissionImprobable

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Your best bet is ebay. I've found lower prices on digitizers elsewhere but most of the companies are overseas and don't give a guaranteed date for delivery. Repairsuniverse.com also sells a digitizer kit if you want to check that out. It might be worthwhile to hold out for an ebay listing or to go with the Asian market wholesalers in the end though. They and the ebay sellers I've seen actually offer kits that have the digitizer already inside of the front plate housing which makes for a much easier installation and removes the worry about dust getting under the plate and making its way between there and the actual LCD.
 
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ambrown

ambrown

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As of right now I'm just waiting for my new digitizer to arrive. Plus I ordered a replacement earpiece with flex cable to fix the dead earpiece. I did notice that on my current semi-working digitizer that the bottom seems unresponsive to some touch. I downloaded Wave Launcher to try it out on the Droid 2 and noticed that it was unresponsive. So it seems the non-working portion if the digitizer extends higher than I originally thought. Happily though everything should arrive by the end of the week if I'm lucky. And then I can get cracking on fixing this thing!

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ambrown

ambrown

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Ah I'm incredibly disappointed now that I replaced digitizer and the phone won't power on :( at least before it seemed to work well enough, other than the earpiece and the menu keys not working. I'm pretty sure I got all the cables connected, but now the led indicating power doesn't light up. I replaced the digitizer (to fix the menu keys) and I put a new flex cable with the attached earpiece (to fix the non-working earpiece).

It was a frustrating fix too since there was lots of glue and connecting the digitizer was especially difficult. So to get done and have the phone not even power on is incredibly disheartening. I would be happier if it just powered on but the screen didn't work.

I guess I'm back to the drawing board. :S

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