[How-To] Tearing apart your Optimus

[philibuster]

Normally I'm a HUGE fan of caulk but not in your phone, please.

Dust under your screen means you need to change your carrying solution. Something in your immediate vicinity needs to be changed. Do you carry it in your pocket? Are you using a gel cover?

I've only had it for a week, without a cover. I just carry it in my pocket. It seems that the dust is leaking in near the SD card. I have ordered a cover, which should be here soon, but man, one week is a really short time to notice dust in the screen.

Oh, in the meantime I have recently started de-linting my pockets. They were pretty dusty.

 

[Matt.ny.tech]

I do suggest the gel type covers for pocket riders. They don't really provide any real drop protection but they do tend to seal up the cracks and crevices. I always reccomend the standard belt clip as your go to carry solution as it keeps your device out of the lint mines

Sent from my Lego'ed 670 :tup:

 

[philibuster]

Ugh. Lots more dust, and BIG particles now too. I'm beginning to think that there's a defect in the gasketing material on my phone since it's just one place. I'm really tempted to do a non-corrosive RTV silicone sealant where it's leaking.

 

[gendo_12]

I Matt i contact you because i have just recieved a optimus v (the same as the s you showed on your post) , and to my surprise it doesn t have a sim slot and i live outside the USA. So i decided to either hack the android.telephony directory to show the info on my sim or to find out if there is really some sort of sim inside the device. I saw that you had the chance to see the cellphone inside with no risk so i was wondering if you could tell me if there is anything like a sim inside also if you had any other pictures of the cellphone guts apart from the ones you posted. And by the way you should now that your pictures are the first ones of a lg optimus to be upload.

 

[joshb2118]

omg would a htc legend screen be able to work? i want amoled!

 

[jefboyardee]

2. Gently pry apart the front and back halves of the housing. Basically theres a line to follow where the two colors of your device meet. I have a fancy tool, you can use a guitar pick.

Could you please elaborate on the guitar pick method? I got the Step One screws out, I see the line, but the two halves are madly in love and can’t be separated.

 

[KSmithInNY]

Could you please elaborate on the guitar pick method? I got the Step One screws out, I see the line, but the two halves are madly in love and can’t be separated.

You need something thin enough to fit between the 2 lines, yet soft enough to not do physical damage or leave marks, hence why he suggested a guitar pick. Theres no guitar pick method, he's suggesting that can be used as a tool.

You'd place the tool of choice, in his example a guitar pick, in the joint and twist until you get a little separation. You'll have to do this multiple times around the outside of the phone until you have separation all the way around.

 

[shortyjacobs]

I just did this today (on zefies old phone) a credit card you don't care about...or a library card, etc. works great for a gentle pry tool.

Sent from my phone...excuse the spelling mistakrs.

 

[FourAces]

this is a good post, I think my speaker cable came unplugged...

 

[Dassin]

As a Sprint ASC, could you help me identify the GPS antenna?

I had to take mine apart to remove the camera a while ago, and once in a while the GPS antenna seems to crap out and I have accuracy to something like 30,000 ft After squeezing it this way and that-a-way, the signal comes back to within about 30 feet, so it seems to me that it's something a bit loose.

Any help will be appreciated. Thanks

 

[jefboyardee]

Thanks all, but never mind. The halves started to separate but things got beyond “gently,” so I gave up. Once I figured how loose stuff like the camera/voice buttons fit, I buttoned up and restarted. To my amazement, everything works... gulp.

All that led to another question -- how long can the battery be missing before everything is forgotten?

 

[NyhtShade]

Matt.NY.Tech .. thank you for the incredibly detailed and informative guide.. I havn't done anything to mine because I just got it and am still in the 30 days, but I had one that had dust, and brought it over to the store, and they swapped it out.. thought, coolness.. so I get the new optimus S, and that night of having it, I realize that at the top of the screen, mainly visible when watching movies or anything with a black background, there is a thin purplish line that runs across the top.. almost looks like a blacklight.. I've taken it to 2 sprint stores, and I get the "we won't do anything because that's cosmetic" but neither my old phone, my GF's phone (purple version) and the 2 live model phones at the stores, have this issue.. cosmetic or not, it's there and none of the other phones have it.. I've examined it carefully, and concluded that I believe it's the internal screen. If you hold it at the right angle, you can see a bright spot of the backlight at the top left corner that shines through as if the lcd screen is out of center. I've tried showing them this, even showed them pictures (which they said could be anything) and I keep getting told they won't do anything. I honestly feel that if they were to just open it up like to clean for dust, they would see that the LCD screen on the INSIDE is loose or not flush. But my claims fall on deaf ears.. Basically, I ask you, can the LCD screen on the inside (not the outside where the battery lays and it's custom molded to fit in snugly) become loose or move around in any way.. I do have pictures, but i'm at my work computer right now so I'll toss them up at a later time.. I've been told by 4 people that they can see what I'm talking about.. and 3 that they couldn't.. guess what 3 people those are..

 

[blackops1125]

I had dust under my screen too, but it was probably from when they replaced touchscreen 2 months ago. I just went to the same sprint store and watched them tear this rooted Optimis apart in like 5 min. Total of about 15 min from start to finish and I saw first hand how this is done. The tech walked me through step by step.

Sent from my LS670 using Tapatalk

 

[skife]

This is my first DIY, please be gentle.

I started this just because I thought some of you might be interested in seeing the inner workings, then I read the thread about ?crap? under my screen. If you?re feeling adventurous, here?s how to remove said ?crap?.

<disclaimer=Matt is not responsible>

I am a Sprint Authorized Service Center Technician. Most likely, you are not. That means I have the means to replace a device at no cost if I destroy it, most likely you do not. If you use this to tear down your phone and , god forbid, something goes wrong it is your problem. I can not and will not be held responsible for any damage or failure you encounter.

</disclaimer>

Always remember, your local Sprint ASC will be more than happy to perform this service for you. You do not have to attempt this yourself.

1. Remove SD card, battery cover and battery from phone and locate 6, 00 Phillips screws. I use a small plastic tray under the phone to catch all the loose screws, parts, whatnot.

2. Gently pry apart the front and back halves of the housing. Basically theres a line to follow where the two colors of your device meet. I have a fancy tool, you can use a guitar pick.

3. Locate and remove the 7th, 00 Phillips and the cover over the flex connector.

3a. Use a soft flat ?blade? to pop off the flex connector. (Guitar pick?)

4. Locate and remove the two, 00 Phillips screws holding the Micro USB charge port cover in place.

(Possibly the best idea EVER in the history of charge ports. Any one that?s ever had one come loose can testify.)

5. At this point the board is MOSTLY disconnected from the front half/ LCD assembly. There is still one more flex under the loud speaker assembly. There are three clips holding the speaker assembly to the board. GENTLY pry on the clips making sure not to move the assembly to far from the board as it is connected by a couple of very thin wires and the LCD flex connector.

5a. Unplug the loudspeaker (I use a pair of tweezers.)

5b. Pop off the LCD flex connector.

The board can now be removed from the front half of the phone exposing the back of the LCD panel.

6. VERY GENTLY pry the LCD panel from the front half of the phone. ( I use a standard dental pick.) If you are not EXTREMELY careful at this point you WILL break your LCD. A broken LCD is covered under 4$ a month ESRP or 7$ TEP at no cost so don?t shoot yourself if you do break it. Just don?t tell them what happened

7. LCD is out, ?crap? can be wiped/blown out.

8. Reverse procedure to reassemble.

9. Profit.

matt would just like to let you know that the cover for the flex cable should come off and be attached to the rear housing, if you look at the cover it go on 2 plastic prongs inside the rear housing then the prongs are melted to hold it in place. Not saying it can't be done this way (i've personally done it) but i did notice that when it gets put back together sometimes the flex cover doesn't want to go back into the rear housing like its supposed to.

also i agree on the charging port cover, best idea ever.

 

[bluesigner]

nice

hey thanks i was looking for something like this

 

[Eklypsezero]

hey i was wondering if any of the buttons came out. My power button seems to go in n out whenever it feels like working...maybe its caught on something?

 

[blackops1125]

All buttons get removed.

sent from my Reborn Optimus

 

[chedder66]

Sorry to bring up such an old thread but I took my phone to a sprint store to have the dust removed and when I got it back, it had a purple line at the very top of the screen like someone else mentioned and comparing it to my mom's phone, it is dimmer than it used to be and has a different color temperature... maybe a little greenish.

Is there something in particular I should look for if I take it apart to try to fix it? Do you guys know what might have caused this?

ps thank you so much for the guide!

 

[ab304945]

sweet. thank you

I while back ago i got some water under my screen. Since then my phone would spazz out, screen would act like some1 is doing crazy things to it.

Just took it apart and cleaned the back of the screen and lcd screen. and it fixed it.

Unfortunately i kind of broke one of the wires for the external speaker, so that no longer works, not huge.

Also thought it would be fun to drop 1 of the screws to the micro usb port guard, onto a carpet floor nvr to be seen again.