Thursday, July 11, 2019

Repair your iPhone yourself: the 5 most important questions answered

If your iPhone breaks down you can do two things: have it repaired or get to work yourself. Repairing an iPhone yourself is an option that more and more people are choosing, but where do you start? iPhoned put it to the test and visited repair company FixjeiPhone to see what the risks are. Because how difficult is it to get an iPhone working again with your own hands?

Repair an iPhone yourself: iPhoned tries it out
Fixing your iPhone yourself is not only reserved for experienced repairers. “From students to businessmen, we see a very broad audience that is increasingly repairing itself. It is a lot cheaper than having it repaired and you have it under control ”, explains Sander Slaghekke, co-founder of FixjeiPhone. "You know what happens to your phone and there is nobody who can poke through your photo gallery, for example."

FixjeiPhone is the largest iPhone repair website in the Benelux. For problems with iPhones, the website has different repair manuals and videos for each model. In addition, you buy the parts that are needed to bring your iPhone back to life in the webshop.

Which repairs are the most popular?
Test: how easy is it to repair a screen?
How do you discover what's broken?
What can go wrong?
What about warranty?
Repair iPhone yourself


1. These repairs are carried out most often
The screen, the battery and the Dock Connector (the Lightning port including microphone) are by far the most frequently performed repairs. After all, a crack in your screen can just happen to you and a battery loses its capacity over time. However, according to Slaghekke, a broken Dock Connector can be prevented in many cases.

“The cheap charging cables and adapters that people use en masse are the culprits here. By not using the original Apple adapter and cable, the connector will break faster. ”Moreover, fake chargers are a fire hazard. "It happens more than once that a cable or adapter causes an explosion or suddenly catches fire while the iPhone is connected to it."

By far the most difficult repair that people can do themselves is to replace the back of the iPhone, with all models from the iPhone 5. If you want to do this properly, then everything must be removed and placed again on the back. So a lot of work. Also, not all repairs are suitable for carrying out yourself, such as motherboard repairs. If you do something wrong with these projects, the costs can rise enormously.


2. iPhoned repairs a screen itself
To put it to the test I replace a screen of an iPhone 6 myself. In front of my nose I have the broken iPhone, a new pre-assembled screen, a repair kit and a magnetic screw mat. I make it a little easier with the pre-assembled screen, so I don't have to transfer parts like the ear speaker and front camera separately. These are already in the new screen. Armed with an instructional video I get started.


The inside of the iPhone 6 can be seen on the screw mat, so that I can keep all screws in the same place where they come from. With some logical thinking you put every screw in the right place to prevent you from having a screw after the repair.

A mistake is in a small corner and preparing and focusing yourself is essential. Getting the small screws out in no time. Replacing is another story: the smaller the screw, the worse my hands shake when I want to get it on the screwdriver. Priegelwerk therefore.

With rewinding and pausing the video a few times I get the job done within 20 minutes. Time to test. The iPhone turns on, the touchscreen works and the cameras and microphone also work as they should. Succeeded!

Replacing your iPhone screen repair yourself in this way is not difficult. Although there is a big 'but' attached to it: be sharp and pay attention. Without a manual you quickly go wrong and without a structure you will probably get stuck halfway. Is it fun? Yes, it gives a feeling of pride when you single-handedly bring an iPhone back to life. If you like tinkering or tinkering a bit, then it is already very interesting.

Now replacing a screen is one of the easiest repairs to be done. But once you have been working on the inside of the telephone, you will discover that it is actually very logical. Parts are clearly visible and with the help of a (tear-down) video you quickly learn to recognize the individual parts.

Repair iPhone yourself


3. This is how you discover what's broken
You repair an iPhone fairly easily, but how do you recognize what exactly is broken? And how do you know which parts and accessories you need to order to make it? A broken screen or a phone that no longer vibrates are examples of defects that you will automatically notice. If the iPhone does not work properly, but you do not know exactly why it is, it is a different story. Without real repair knowledge, it is unfortunately still difficult in such cases to discover for yourself what needs to be replaced.

It can help to read manuals from repair sites or watch instructional videos and tear-downs. Often it also explains what the cause of a certain defect can be. To be sure, it is useful to double check it. “With FixjeiPhone, a chat is open all day. Now people are still dependent on it. We are building a question model that automatically leads people to the correct answer. Then they immediately know what to order, "says Slaghekke. Another option is the many Apple forums in which people help each other solve problems with their Apple equipment.

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4. What can go wrong
Taking the screwdriver into your own hands is no guarantee of success. "Of course it can always go wrong, a repair is never without risk," says repair specialist Davey Groothedde. He repairs around 4000 devices a year. “Two or three of them will break. It is always possible, but it hardly ever happens, even when people repair it themselves. "

To prevent problems during a repair, it is important to work in a calm and structured manner. A mistake does not necessarily mean that the entire repair has to be repeated or failed. Even if something turns out not to work afterwards, according to Groothedde it is in many cases a matter of re-clicking a certain connector or relocating a wire.

Is it completely wrong or do you not dare to restore it? Then it is better to send the iPhone for repair. This also applies if something after replacement still does not work. A broken WiFi antenna can also be caused by a broken chip on the motherboard. Due to the level of difficulty and the high risk of fatal errors, repairs to the motherboard should not be carried out yourself.

Repair iPhone yourself


5. Repairs and warranty
Apple gives a one-year warranty on every iPhone. If your phone breaks down within that year and you or an external party repair the iPhone, your warranty will be voided. FixjeiPhone therefore notices that devices for which parts are ordered are often already out of warranty.

If you have a new iPhone, think carefully about what to do if something goes wrong. We recommend that you first contact Apple Support to see what the options are. Sometimes Apple has special repair programs that also apply to devices out of warranty. If this is not the case, then you can choose to get started yourself, although this does break the Apple warranty. This can come in handy if you do not live near an Apple store or certified Apple technician. If you send your iPhone to Apple, it can sometimes take a while until it is sent back.

Order your parts to repair your iPhone yourself, then look carefully where you do that. Web shops such as iFixit and FixjeiPhone provide a guarantee, but always check this in advance. These two repair services both sell sets of screwdrivers and other tools to get started yourself. If you prefer to look for parts directly from China, you do not have to rely on a guarantee. Moreover, in that case it is questionable whether the quality is as good as is claimed, so that cheap quickly becomes expensive..

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