So I broke my iPhone 4 ... now what?

[Bluefusion]

So I've had a stuck Home button for months now, and have tried everything-- the toothbrush trick, the heat trick, the Dock cable trick, you name it. It's intermittent enough that it's been bearable until recently. But now it's been so bad I figured I HAD to at least open it up and see if i can "push it" from the other side... or something...

I'm actually an ex-Genius, but have never taken apart the 4. I thought, hey, how hard could it be? But once I started doing it, I balked at the steps involved and decided to stop.

Unfortunately, that wasn't before causing a tiny, tiny tear in the Dock connector cable-- which I didn't even see right away!

I didn't even start looking at/playing with the button. But the button is now completely unresponsive. Worse, now the damn thing won't even charge, since the cable's busted.

Here's my question: what are my options here?

The phone is not and was not under warranty.
A repair of the two parts will be around $80-$100. And the iPhone 5 will undoubtedly come out in "weeks"-- my bet's on October 6th. For the camera alone, I will certainly be buying it.

I could almost, MAYBE, painfully go without a cell phone until the 5 is released. It would be hard, but right now is probably the best time and place in my life to be without one (this hasn't usually been the case).

Any other option-- whether third-party repair or "acquiring" a third-party warranty-- would probably cost at least $100. I'd still end up buying the iPhone 5 as soon as possible.

What do you think? Can someone repair a Dock connector and Home button for less than $60? Is it worth it? Can I buy a 3GS somewhere?

 

[rusty2192]

So I've had a stuck Home button for months now, and have tried everything-- the toothbrush trick, the heat trick, the Dock cable trick, you name it. It's intermittent enough that it's been bearable until recently. But now it's been so bad I figured I HAD to at least open it up and see if i can "push it" from the other side... or something...

I'm actually an ex-Genius, but have never taken apart the 4. I thought, hey, how hard could it be? But once I started doing it, I balked at the steps involved and decided to stop.

Unfortunately, that wasn't before causing a tiny, tiny tear in the Dock connector cable-- which I didn't even see right away!

I didn't even start looking at/playing with the button. But the button is now completely unresponsive. Worse, now the damn thing won't even charge, since the cable's busted.

Here's my question: what are my options here?

The phone is not and was not under warranty.
A repair of the two parts will be around $80-$100. And the iPhone 5 will undoubtedly come out in "weeks"-- my bet's on October 6th. For the camera alone, I will certainly be buying it.

I could almost, MAYBE, painfully go without a cell phone until the 5 is released. It would be hard, but right now is probably the best time and place in my life to be without one (this hasn't usually been the case).

Any other option-- whether third-party repair or "acquiring" a third-party warranty-- would probably cost at least $100. I'd still end up buying the iPhone 5 as soon as possible.

What do you think? Can someone repair a Dock connector and Home button for less than $60? Is it worth it? Can I buy a 3GS somewhere?

Do you have AT&T or Verizon? If it's the former, I personally would get a cheap GoPhone to throw my SIM card into and bite the bullet with no data for a few weeks. But you could always find a used 3GS somewhere and do the same thing.

 

[Shockwave78]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A5313e Safari/7534.48.3)

So I've had a stuck Home button for months now, and have tried everything-- the toothbrush trick, the heat trick, the Dock cable trick, you name it. It's intermittent enough that it's been bearable until recently. But now it's been so bad I figured I HAD to at least open it up and see if i can "push it" from the other side... or something...

I'm actually an ex-Genius, but have never taken apart the 4. I thought, hey, how hard could it be? But once I started doing it, I balked at the steps involved and decided to stop.

Unfortunately, that wasn't before causing a tiny, tiny tear in the Dock connector cable-- which I didn't even see right away!

I didn't even start looking at/playing with the button. But the button is now completely unresponsive. Worse, now the damn thing won't even charge, since the cable's busted.

Here's my question: what are my options here?

The phone is not and was not under warranty.
A repair of the two parts will be around $80-$100. And the iPhone 5 will undoubtedly come out in "weeks"-- my bet's on October 6th. For the camera alone, I will certainly be buying it.

I could almost, MAYBE, painfully go without a cell phone until the 5 is released. It would be hard, but right now is probably the best time and place in my life to be without one (this hasn't usually been the case).

Any other option-- whether third-party repair or "acquiring" a third-party warranty-- would probably cost at least $100. I'd still end up buying the iPhone 5 as soon as possible.

What do you think? Can someone repair a Dock connector and Home button for less than $60? Is it worth it? Can I buy a 3GS somewhere?

Explain what's wrong with and excactly you did on an eBay ad. You should still be able to get about $175-$225 for it

 

[iEnvy]

Being an ex-Genius, why didn't you just get the hook up with former employees and get your iPhone replaced?

Your best bet is just to get a GoPhone until the 5 is released. The wait will be hard but hopefully its worth it.

 

[PharmDoc]

just try taking it into the store and see what they say.... I just took my brother's 3GS (it had a cracked screen from a fall) in and they replaced it as a one time courtesy. Just be nice and polite and see what they can do.

 

[disarticulate]

Explain what's wrong with and excactly you did on an eBay ad. You should still be able to get about $175-$225 for it

If it's in good condition (exterior) then it will fetch at least $300 on eBay.

 

[kbfr08]

All of you people are crazy. You can't go onto eBay and ask $300 for a broken iphone... it's just not going to happen. What works the best is list it on auction for $0.99, ending evening on a sunday, and you'll get whatever it sells for. Usually for such an easy fix, you're going to get newbie buyers (who bid high), who don't know that they're not going to be able to turn a profit on it at $300.

By the way, you just need the ribbon cable part. The black plastic antenna that sits on top of the dock cable is removable. You can probably pick up a new dock ribbon for less than $10 on eBay.

In fact, for $6 and change you can get the replacement part you need: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Charger-Cha...ltDomain_0&hash=item20bcd1d9e2#ht_5544wt_1348

The home button ribbon connects to the dock cable, so you'd be fixing the dock and home button with one part. You'll still need to clean it out though.

 

[disarticulate]

All of you people are crazy. You can't go onto eBay and ask $300 for a broken iphone... it's just not going to happen.

...eh? Chill brah. Nobody said anything about him demanding $300 for the phone, just that he should be able to recoup 3 bills for an "as is" iphone 4.

-powerseller.

 

[kbfr08]

...eh? Chill brah. Nobody said anything about him demanding $300 for the phone, just that he should be able to recoup 3 bills for an "as is" iphone 4.

-powerseller.

I actually said that to be slightly humorous, but now that I read it again, it came off a bit mean . Anyway, i've seen buy it now auctions end without any buyers at just $250-$275, so I was just giving a bit of advice on how to list it to get the most cash.

 

[WeFixIphones]

Fix a Broken Iphone

Bluefusion

Yes, this can be fixed. I am actually a technician for iMobile Elections ( www.imobileelectronics.com ) and we fix these everyday. You
Can go to the website and there is contact info so you could email for specs on prices, and they have a quick turnaround getting your phone back to in
Factory condition.

Hope this helps!

Thank you,

Andi

 

[Bluefusion]

Being an ex-Genius, why didn't you just get the hook up with former employees and get your iPhone replaced?

Your best bet is just to get a GoPhone until the 5 is released. The wait will be hard but hopefully its worth it.

My old store's in a different state, and almost none of the original team still works there!

But I did stumble on the best solution--also the most obvious: just have  replace it for the $199, then immediately sell it back on eBay once the 5's release date is within sight. No real reason not to do that, and it will obviously fetch AT LEAST $400 (since it's now a 32GB, mint condition, essentially new iPhone 4 with no contract attached). Then I'm only out, at most, $100 bucks to upgrade to the iPhone 5 that has (hopefully) 64 GB. Time to call ...

 

[acfusion29]

is this what you tore?

http://www.ebay.ca/itm/NEW-DOCK-CON...ltDomain_0&hash=item2a0e236657#ht_1624wt_1011

i see plenty on eBay for ~$10 ...

 

[Certinfy]

You might want to make a smaller version of this and dig a whole in your garden:

 

[Bluefusion]

You might want to make a smaller version of this and dig a whole in your garden:
Image

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is this what you tore?

http://www.ebay.ca/itm/NEW-DOCK-CON...ltDomain_0&hash=item2a0e236657#ht_1624wt_1011

i see plenty on eBay for ~$10 ...

That's it... I just think this repair is beyond me. Though, maybe someone else could...
The 3GS is NOWHERE near as fussy as the 4!! (and Genii aren't trained to do anything with iPhones but replace the screen on the 3G)

 

[acfusion29]

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That's it... I just think this repair is beyond me. Though, maybe someone else could...
The 3GS is NOWHERE near as fussy as the 4!! (and Genii aren't trained to do anything with iPhones but replace the screen on the 3G)

i would suggest iFixit's guide.