Phone Disaster #4a - Fixing a Galaxy S4 Screen [it's easy]

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Okay, so fixing an Android phone is terribly easy.  And the easiest by far are Samsung devices.  Just to show you how easy it is, here's me fixing up a Galaxy S4.

I meant to show how 'easy' it is... and it really is, however the steps do look like there's a lot to do... but there isn't ... trust me.  In all it might take me 15-20 minutes.  Check out the photos below as well as it will help.  Still, I would recommend you visit iFixit.com for their walkthrough.

As this is part of my 'what to do when you break something' series don't forget to check out the others in the series.  With this one there's no need to worry about backing or restoring anything as your storage stays in tact.
Here's the written steps... looks long, but follow the pictures below and you'll be golden.
  1. Take the back off and the battery.  Take out any SIM / microSD cards out
  2. Remove back casing
    1. Unscrew the several phillips screws out of the back casing
    2. Play apart the back casing from the display housing, just use a spudger to separate (see photos).
  3. with the board now exposed take out the one black phillips screw out and undo the connectors (there's 2 flat connectors on the board, one antenna cable, and then one other flat connector attached from the bottom charging port to the long strip on the left)
  4. Remove the board
  5. Remove the daughter board
    1. the bottom of the display assembly has the daughter board.  Flick off the housing on the charging port by just a little pressure with a flat head under the sides
    2. with a flat head / spudger, peel up the daughter board from the assembly
    3. unthread the antenna cable along the sides
  6. Transfer the odds and sods from the old display to the new display
    1. Looking at the old display there's some items that the new one doesn't have:  vibrator, front facing camera, speaker and headphone jack
    2. pry up the vibrator by sticking a flat head under neat and get the circle with the little connectors
    3. unscrew the screw holding the headphone jack in place
    4. flick up the housing bracket on the front facing bit (just use a tiny flat head as the metal piece will just come off with some prying)
    5. remove the front face camera then the speaker assembly (which the light sensors are attached)
  7. Reattach daughter board to new display
    1. the adhesive should still be pretty good
    2. rethread the antenna cable in the line on the side
    3. attach connector from daughter board to that long connector 
    4. don't forget to reattach the clip over the charging oprt
  8. Reattach the main board to the new display
    1. Place down
    2. put in the screw you removed earlier
    3. reattach the connectors
  9. Snap back casing into place
  10. put screws back in

 Remove all those little screws (all the same size) // Separate backing from display

 take these little connectors off 

only 1 screw holding the board down

 flick up the housing on the charge port and then peel off the board from the back

Just a couple of things to take off here and move to the empty new display

For more in-depth, check out http://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Samsung+Galaxy+S4+Display+Assembly+Replacement/16540

Most Samsung devices are this easy... if not easier.  So, go ahead and give it a try!

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