All About the iPhone 4 Screen Repair

So you just broke your iPhone 4 Screen... and had a heart attack. I know the feeling... hearing that slap of the iPhone on that hard surface, and just dreading to look at it, until you pick it up and *BAM*... there it is. Cracks galore (unless your super lucky and barely crack your screen). And the worst part is? It's probably not the worst drop you've done to you iPhone... it just landed just right and smashed the screen.

So what do you do now? Well, you could send it to apple, and for just shy of $300 you can mail your iPhone off to them, they'll fix it and send it back. But who can live without their phones these days? Esp us with iPhones... I mean, c'mon... I know you use it like I do... 24/7/365, huh? So if you do your research, you will find that the iPhone 4 is expensive to fix. Yes, it's new, and that' plays a factor, but to be completely honest, it's more than that. The iPhone 4 has the 'retina' screen, which is an LCD that puts out over 3x the resolution you had before in your iPhone 3G or 3GS. Not only that, but the LCD is permanantly fused to the Digitizer/Glass. How do we know? In the first two months, we have fixed over 40 iPhone 4 Screens. And tried to separate them... never once being successful. And now the kicker: With the iPhone 3G and 3GS I can have any part replaced in a screen typically fixed in under 10 minutes. With an iPhone 4, it takes anywhere from 30-1:30 to replace the screen properly and have all parts functioning in sync.

So, what's the damage? Check out our current price for a Complete iPhone 4 Screen Replacement.

Something Loose in my iPhone

Here's a recent question I recieved:

Is my Iphone broken? How can I fix it?
recently it was in my pocket and I was about to catch a heavy falling cardboard and landed on my pocket, where my Iphone was.

It still works perfectly, but when I shake it, something from inside moves and makes sounds?
I bought it from a Rogers store, can I ask for to check it out or can I switch it for another one?

There is likely a piece broken off from your 'bottom dock' where the supports for your charging port can be easily broken off and slide inside your iPhone.

Alternatively, it could be part of your iPhone Speakerphone, which is also part of your 'bottom dock'. Think of it as a plastic box with a speaker inside... the box helps amplify the sound before it comes out the port in the bottom of your iPhone.

It will not likely cause further damage unless your iPhone gets crushed again and it creates a point of pressure against something inside the iPhone. Honestly, I wouldn't worry about it.

Read more about the bottom dock for the iPhone 3G here:
http://www.griffinconcepts.com/?cat=repair&device=iPhone_3G&part=Complete_Dock

Read more about the bottom dock for the iPhone 3GS here:
http://www.griffinconcepts.com/?cat=repair&device=iPhone_3GS&part=Complete_Dock

Can you fix a bent pin in an iPhone dock?

Typically, No. Once a pin has been bent, it will never hold down to the dock. In an emergency, you can attempt to flatten it back out to the slot it belongs inside the plastic, but it will likely break. To do so, use a needle or pin, anything larger will likely cause more damage.

For a 2G iPhone, it's a much more complicated repair, and usually incurs more of a cost to fix than the iPhone is worth. However, you can ask for a custom repair.

For a more complete fix for a 3G or 3GS, you should get your bottom dock replaced.
iPhone 3G Bottom Dock
iPhone 3GS Bottom Dock

For an iPhone 4, you will need a dock replacement, ask for a custom repair.

iPhone 4 Signal Issues after activating Airplane Mode or SIM Chip Removal

A new bug found this week my Griffin Concepts/ Springfield iPhone repair, was when activating 'Airplane Mode'. It appears that when this is activated, or when the SIM Chip has been removed, the iPhone can not only not pick up valid signal, but even crash and reboot!

Symptoms:
iPhone 4 - activated Airplane Mode. iPhone appeared to have frozen for a few minutes, and then rebooted on it's own. After later tests I found that music that was playing while activating the switch would continue playing, until the iPhone 4 reset itself. Even after reboot, the iPhone would not seem to pick up signal. On the occasion that it would (after disabling Airplane Mode of course) no phone calls could be made, texts be sent, or received. Troubleshooting steps: Reset Network Settings (Did not work). Reset All Settings (DID WORK).

iPhone 4 - Removal of SIM Chip, and putting it back in: No service, or iPhone shows service without the ability to place or receive calls or texts. Again, the only successful method was to reset all settings (resetting network settings did not work)

SETTINGS > GENERAL > RESET > RESET ALL SETTINGS

How to clean your Headphone Jack

2G, 3G, 3GS and iPhone 4 headphone jacks can get dirty, grimy, corroded and/or filled with lint, which can hamper you getting the full use of your iPhone. Symptoms that may be resolved by cleaning your iPhone headphone jack is...

• the headphone jack won't fit down all the way*
  
• Sound only coming out one side or speaker
  
• Moving the headphone jack makes audio go in/out
• Earpiece doesn't work during Phone Calls (test by hitting the volume keys while the iPhone is unlocked: if the iPhone indicates that you are changing the heaphone volume and not the ringer volume, it thinks something is plugged in when there is not! )
• You can see dust/lint inside the headphone jack.
  

How can you resolved that?

Our recommendation is two-part:

• Take a needle and pic out what dust, dirt and lint you can out of the headphone jack
  
• Take a Q-tip and pull off some of the cotton (about half from a name-brand Q-tip) and twist the remaining cotton around the stick. Make sure it's small enough that you do not have to jam it in the jack, but large enough that when you spin it, it can clean the contacts inside the headphone jack.

DO NOT GET THE Q-TIP WET WITH WATER OR ANY CLEANER AS THIS CAN SHORT OUT DIODES NEAR THE JACK AND PERMANENTLY HAMPER OPERATION, TURN THE LIQUID INDICATOR INSIDE THE HEADPHONE JACK RED AND INVALIDATE THE WARRANTY!!!

* except for 2G iPhones that have a recessed headphone jack, you might need an adapter for non-standard iPhone headphones.

If cleaning your iPhone headphone jack did not help, check out these replacement services:
iPhone 3GS Headphone Flex
iPhone 3G Headphone Flex

iPhone 4 signal issues after 3 days...

If your iPhone 4 begins to have signal issues and begin to act funny approximately three (3) days after you restore your data to it, you need to RESET ALL SETTINGS.

Why? It appears that the settings restored from a backup from your last iPhone, esp if it was a jailbroken iPhone, can really mess up acquisition of signal and bog down the device. Reset Network Settings doesn't necessarily work, however, you can try that first if you'd like. Rumors blame AT&T, which seems to have found a way to create reception issues for iPhones (of all kinds) that are Jailbroken.

SETTINGS > GENERAL > RESET > RESET ALL SETTINGS

Note: You will loose any of the jailbroken tricks such as a custom carrier and battery percentage, as well as any other settings such as contact sorting, email passwords (incoming and SMTP), lock settings, and more.

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For those with iPhone 2G, iPhone 3G, and iPhone 3GSs, you might find the issues where every 30 seconds or so your service drops out and comes right back. To fix that, you can try this trick too to see if your service is restored.