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Editor's note: This is the second in a weekly series of articles addressing technological nightmares and how you can prevent and/or respond to them. If you'd like to share your own tech nightmare, message us on the ksl.com Tech & Gadgets Facebook page.SALT LAKE CITY — Before I could afford an iPhone, I was a poor college student with a flip phone and an iPod touch from my tech-loving dad. That iPod was my lifeline — I could get on WiFi, browse the web and use whatever app was popular at the time to text or chat friends who didn't have iPhones either.
It never left my pocket, until one day it fell out and dropped a total of 10 inches from my flannel shirt to a cold tile floor. The fall was so short I thought the screen would be safe, but a crack stretched from top to bottom, with a web of branches reaching across the screen.
I couldn't afford to get it fixed by Apple, or even someone who remotely knew what they were doing. So I ordered a fix-it kit from eBay and waited anxiously for it to come in the mail. When the tool kit finally arrived, I ripped the package open. Overwhelmed by the different tools, which included something that looked like a guitar pick, a miniature screw driver and a tiny plastic crowbar, I stared at what could make or break my favorite gadget.
My dad had shattered his iPod touch screen and replaced it all on his own. I'm far from being the most tech savvy person, but I thought if my dad could do it, I definitely could. I skimmed the directions, mostly focusing on the pictures. I didn't even glimpse at the warnings. Instead, I watched a YouTube video and decided to dig in.
- Deal with it: If it's a small crack and the gadget still works, it may not be worth putting down the extra money to fix it.
- Take it to Apple: This fix is guaranteed to work seamlessly, but may be more expensive. Prices vary on product, generation and storage space.
- Send it in to get fixed: Several third party companies will fix shattered screens for a cheaper than Apple. For example, iPod Fix It will repair the screen for under $100, depending on the generation.
- Fix it yourself: Be prepared to spend hours over the cracked screen and beware that the directions might call for a hair dryer. It's not easy, but if you trust yourself and your abilities, it could be the least expensive route.
Starting with the prying tool, I began to wedge the screen off my iPod. Since it was one of the first generations of iPod touches, the glass screen was separate from the LCD screen, making the replacement extra tricky. It took a few minutes to get underneath the screen, but I carefully lodged the tool in further and started to feel it coming off. This wasn't the kind of fix that would only take five minutes — just to get the glass screen on one corner separated from the LCD screen had taken me a grueling 30 minutes.
I understood that if I moved too abruptly or accidentally shifted the pry tool too much, I could puncture the LCD screen and ruin the screen altogether. And that's exactly what I did. I got too confident, moved the tool too aggressively and I felt a slight crunch against the LCD screen underneath. Cringing, I turned the screen on and there was a black void in the left corner of my screen.
I had destroyed part of the screen, thus turning the device mostly unusable, so I gave up. Lesson learned — trust the pros. Maybe my dad had done it by sheer luck, but the YouTube video was much more difficult than it had let on.
Instead of taking it to get all screen components fixed professionally, I threw the iPod in a box and never looked at it again. I was too angry at myself for breaking it.
Now that iPod screens are all-in-one, including the glass protector, LCD screen and digitizer panel, replacing a cracked screen is a little different. However, according to this CNET article, replacing screens is a lose-lose situation. It could cost more than $100 for Apple to repair it or get a new one, and could ultimately not be cost effective. But even the author of the article admits the do-it-yourself repair was difficult, and he had previous Apple repair experience.
