HTC DNA Disassembly - Teardown Done|

mizr3en

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Hmm so the digitizer has adhesive near the bezel and around the perimeter of the LCD or is it on the LCD? I would imagine that if it's on the LCD and you were able to successfully remove the digitizer there would be blotches and smears visible when you go to put a new digitizer on... From this video for a different phone(youtu.be/b9S7k1OJalM?t=12m20s) (sorry, link issues it was trying to imbed...) however, it appears the LCD can be removed then the bezel and digitizer can be heated to more easily remove the digitizer. Was the DNA anything like this? I couldn't even get the battery out when I had mine apart, but someone just uploaded a video which shows how to remove battery - they put a bunch of adhesive on the backside of it for some reason... maybe heat dissipation? Anyway, whatever information you have would be helpful because LCD+digitizer is more than twice the cost of a digitizer.
 

droidway

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Can you please make a disassembly video. I really want to take mine apart too. :p
Hope this video can help you [video=youtube;z8BJVchUlTs]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z8BJVchUlTs[/video]
 

djmk4

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hello guys...so my digitizer has shuttered but screen is in mint condition....i bought digitizer from etradesupply.com....that made the dissaembly video...firstly does anyone knows if they sell 100%oem parts and secondly....if i can manage with help of someone with knowledge...and seperate the lcd from digitizer with hair dryer or something like that...if i manage to put the new digitizer..will be the same as before...?will be the colours as before and all the things with the screen?
 

comk4ver

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Is a blow drier really the best tool for the job? Try radio shack for a small controlled heat gun.
 

droidway

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hello guys...so my digitizer has shuttered but screen is in mint condition....i bought digitizer from etradesupply.com....that made the dissaembly video...firstly does anyone knows if they sell 100%oem parts and secondly....if i can manage with help of someone with knowledge...and seperate the lcd from digitizer with hair dryer or something like that...if i manage to put the new digitizer..will be the same as before...?will be the colours as before and all the things with the screen?
It seems you can distinguish the OEM parts from the name of their products. If the product name includes the OEM, it's 100% OEM. If not, it might be aftermarket. As the second question, I want to know whether you know any technical skills about disassembling or reassembling cellphone. If not, you'd better think before you leap. Hope this can help you.
 

vemplord

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So, does someone was able to only replace the glass+digitizer on this phone?

i have looked for a video/procedure but couldn't find one for the DNA. (Video anyone?)

I'm about to order the part but I am not sure if I should go for the digitizer only (50$) or for the LCD + digitizer (160$).

I have all the hand tools and the "hands" I'm just not sure if it is possible.
 

mizr3en

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It doesn't appear so, I just received the digitizer alone and am going to try to heat the adhesive with a hot plate most likely. I talked to someone who replaced his digitizer on an iphone and used a soldering iron with a ceramic or fiberglass woven cloth (high melting temp, not sure of the material) and slowly heated the old screen to soften the adhesive. He didn't recommend using a heat gun because it's too difficult to control the temperature. Anyway, if you can wait a few more weeks I should be able to test it out and let you know - I can't promise it will be within that time frame because I'm pretty busy until the end of April.
 

mizr3en

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Digitizer doesn't seem to be removeable without destroying LCD

I attempted to remove the digitizer and glass (broken in many pieces, see post on earlier page of this forum) separate from the LCD and ruined the LCD. I used a heat gun to keep the glass at a temperature around 180F as suggested on xda developers however instead of heating then working the adhesive with picks, I kept the heat gun on the whole time pointing down so the screen lying on the table would be 180F measured with a thermocouple (all I had available). Here are the results, sorry about the point of view and phone going out of frame, I was trying to see what was going on. I would not recommend using tape as suggested on XDA! You can't see what you're doing. Even though I had the temperature above 180F, the LCD did not cleanly come off of the digitizer because there was nothing holding the perimeter of the LCD top layer as was seen in MarcustazXDA's video [video=youtube;rE0L7VZUzlE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=rE0L7VZUzlE"]here[/video].
Note that in his video the glass is removed from digitizer! The digitizer available on Ebay (from ezelektronix) is glass and digitizer.

UNEDITED start of digitizer removal, see comments for useful time stamps

Removing digitizer (and unknowingly top layer of LCD) from bezel, removing LCD part 1

removing LCD top layer from digitizer part 2

fully removing LCD from frame/bezel (heat gun was off)

Note that the battery has a black cover around it which I ripped using guitar picks in attempts to pry the battery out. The battery didn't short or seem to malfunction but note that if you pry too hard on one point the cell may short or fail - if it begins to expand there's a problem. My cell looks a little warped after removal, so they're pretty durable. I used 0.88mm thick guitar picks but would recommend thinner ones.
Took video of disassembly but it's >15min so YouTube needs me to verify it... but it wants to send text to phone so can't show you :/

If you want to try to remove the digitizer alone, you'll need more heat resistive gloves than the ones I was using because they got uncomfortably hot and you probably need to go to 250F? I would definitely purchase the LCD + Digitizer together! You will be able to remove everything fairly simply as long as you're careful, I did rip the yellow grommet in one place on this second disassembly, but that may not matter to you.
 

mizr3en

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I ended up ordering an LCD screen from Ebay seller EZ Elektronix who I purchased my digitizer from and was able to successfully install them together. I did not use a heat gun to re-assemble. As you can see below, the digitizer is mounted with double-sided sticky tape (0.3mm thick) which ripped in a few places for me. I tried to flatten out the tape as well as I could but there were sections of tape missing when I reinstalled the screen (LCD + Digitizer).
http://i.imgur.com/Ugllusu.jpg
Therefore, if your LCD and touch are working but screen is cracked (this was my issue), you probably won't be able to just replace the glass (part of the digitizer) because it's so difficult to re-use the LCD screen so don't need a heat gun for disassembly. You just need to pry the digitizer up around the border where the black tape is and your LCD will come up with it. You'll need to remove all internals including the battery to get at the screen's connectors.

When you go to reinstall, hopefully LCD+digi purchased together come aligned and sealed but in my case they were separate pieces. As you can see there's quite a bit of play between LCD and frame:
http://i.imgur.com/WFYO6LD.jpg

It's not clear how to align the LCD on digi:
http://i.imgur.com/0mD0BNp.jpg
So use my alignment for reference, difficult to see but you just need to use the stacked silver lines (conductive wires imbedded in digi) seen above and make sure LCD is not rotated. I lined up the top of the LCD with bottom conductive strip:
http://i.imgur.com/Vq4LNyP.jpg?1
Instead of the placement above, you will want to position the LCD 0.1-0.3mm BELOW the conductive strip on dig so you don't run into the issue of a few covered pixels like me:
a few pixels hidden by digi
Note that if this happens to you, the touch still lines up with what I see on LCD because it's so close to the correct placement. I wasn't asked to re-calibrate the touchscreen but there may be a way to do it, for me I just re-assembled and everything worked as it did before.

Also, I used electrical tape on top and bottom only and it holds fine, but I did not install the "light bar" whcih must be what's pictured below. It's simply a clear piece of plastic w/ two light sinks (tabs) however I don't know where the light source comes from... So my "recent, home and back" buttons don't light up, but they are still visible in the light. The button touch works fine w/o light bar. To remove it from your old digi, a heat gun is not necessary. I just used a razor blade and it came off w/o any trouble.
http://i.imgur.com/F8Ky2A8.jpg
I don't know if there is cured adhesive on the digi waiting to be heated, but I did run into a minor issue and I'm not sure if there's some oil (I did use neoprene gloves when installing so doubt this is the case) between digi + LCD or if it's just because it's in the center but the touch in center is a little finicky:
http://i.imgur.com/dmMn25t.jpg
I purchased an otterbox defender (heard the commuter didn't fit the phone very well). Note that the defender has a built in "screen protector" which is a reasonably thick piece of plastic. That piece of plastic makes the touch much less sensitive and you'll be frustrated just trying to unlock the phone, remove it immediately! I used to have an ArmourSuit MilitaryShield screen protector which was on phone when it broke and it didn't effect touch negatively. Get this w/ a phone case if you're worried about the screen. I already dropped my phone on its corner onto concrete and it didn't break, phew!
http://i.imgur.com/HsbTIDh.jpg
It's huge and the phone feels bulky in your hand when you remove it (feels so sleek w/o it!) but it's $30 + 5 min vs. $160 + hrs.
http://i.imgur.com/JHsyfxO.jpg
Good luck, let me know if you want high res or other photos.
 
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