I thoroughly enjoy taking apart iPhones. Yes, as of now I have done it only three times, and maybe if I’d done it a hundred times then I would sing a different song, but currently, I really do enjoy it. Having said that, this iPhone 5S repair job has been a real challenge. I was under the impression that I have a delicate touch but after handling this iPhone I am not so sure anymore.
As you may recall I almost did a perfect iPhone 5S screen replacement. I managed to remove the old, broken screen, I transferred the home button, I reattached the screen, the phone turned on and it almost felt like a victory. Only it didn’t. When I pushed the screen into its place I must have handled it a bit too harshly and it broke. Also, I must have done something wrong when transferring the home button, because it did not work. It did not click.
Thus we have a broken screen, a non-functioning home button, and an old battery. Even though the latter seemed to be working relatively okay, I decided to change all three for my second repair attempt. Of course, I bought everything I needed from iFixit. They did not have an iPhone 5S battery, but they did have iPhone 5 and 5C batteries. Will they work and can we even put them in a 5S? You’ll see it later on.
Even before I received my order I decided to start this repair. What can I say? I like doing things.
The screen was already cracked. I removed the two pentalobe screws at the bottom and proceeded with removing the screen. My previous attempt seemed easy since it did not have a strong adhesive; furthermore, when I put the new screen on I did not apply any additional adhesive, so it should have come off relatively easily. Only it didn’t. Again. I pushed it a bit too much and it broke. It got shattered. The home button connection was unsnapped and the connector’s bracket went flying. Luckily I noticed where it landed. At first glance, it seems that nothing else broke. All is in its place. We will find out if I’m wrong only at the end.
I removed the screen connector bracket and proceeded with disconnecting the connectors. So far so good, if I can say so. Since the screen was in shambles and I wanted to continue my tinkering around I removed both the earpiece speaker and the front camera and sensor cable. If I’d need to transfer these two things then it would be a challenge. At least it seems like a challenge. I did not follow any instructions on how to remove them. I just did it as delicately as I could and I tried not to snap or break anything.
In the picture below I have reattached the screen connector and the home button brackets. The two pentalobe screws are put in the phone for safekeeping. Since I am yet to receive all replacement parts I reconnected everything I could so I do not lose anything. After taking this picture I noticed that one pentalobe screw dropped. So much for not losing anything, right? Luckily, my wonderful woman has a sharp eye and she found it.
It feels good to do something like this. It makes you wonder how it feels to be a watchmaker.
Anyway. Now comes the battery. Of course, it has two adhesive strips that secure the battery to the phone. Compared to my previous battery removal process with the iPhone 7 this removal was not so straightforward. At least for me. In the iFixit manual, they tell you it has a battery adhesive tab that facilitates the removal process. Either I broke it or did not see it, but I am quite positive that for this iPhone this adhesive tab was not present. At one point I even thought that I might have broken something that is not part of the battery. Luckily, I did not.
Thus I moved to the same approach I used with my iPhone 7. Namely, I picked up the spudger and started to gently lift the battery at the other end (top of the phone) to see the white adhesive strip. Once I saw them I took my tweezers and started to pull the white strips. And it worked. Both strips did not snap and I was able to gently remove this old battery. For guidance, you can use this iFixit manual.
The screen is off. The battery is removed. Now we can move on to the assembly.
First, we put in the new battery. In the beginning, I mentioned that I will not be using an iPhone 5S battery. Reason being that iFixit did not have one. But they did have both iPhone 5 and iPhone 5C batteries. While I was looking for information on whether you can swap batteries between iPhone models I mistakenly assumed that an iPhone 5 battery would work as well. It does not. As you can see in this picture both 5C and 5S batteries have four connectors while the 5 has five of them. Thus it can’t be installed. Also, the iPhone 5 battery came without adhesive strips.
Both iPhone 5S and iPhone 5C batteries have the same connector, they are the same size and they have the same voltage. The iPhone 5S battery has a slightly larger capacity, namely, 1558 mAh whereas the 5C has 1508 mAh, which is roughly a 3.3% charge difference. Since I have no plans on using this iPhone then this will do. At first, it seemed that the battery connection cable is longer than expected but I managed to squeeze it in and secure the connection. You can see in the picture below that the connecting cable is bent a little. The battery is in place.
I am not completely sure that the previous home button was broken and it needed to be changed. Maybe it did not. But I did it anyway. This time the transfer process went much smoother, and I also used an iFixit repair guide just to see whether I did not miss anything. And guise what? During my previous repair job, I missed something. A small little detail. There is this small captive screw that is fastened to the home button cable by a spring contact backing. And during reassembly, you must ensure the contact is in the correct orientation—on the side of the screw nearest the LCD. I know for a fact that previously I did not pay close enough attention to this spring contact backing. This time I ensured that the home button is replaced perfectly.
Now it works. Only I don’t have touch ID anymore. But like I said. I have no plans in using this phone.
The battery is in place. The new home button has been put in. The time is to connect the screen and see whether this phone will boot up. Just like previously we have three connector cables. Everything is straightforward, we connect all three, reconnect the battery, and see whether the phone turns on.
It does not.
Okay, I disconnect everything and I try to reconnect all cables again, making sure that the connection is indeed in place. I even find the charger and plug the phone in. Nothing happens. By this point, I was sure that I must have broken something during the screen removal process. While I shattered the screen I must have also snapped something. I gave it one last try to disconnect and reconnect everything but with no success. I failed. My second phone repair seemed like a failure.
Even though the phone did not boot up, I still wanted to finish the repair job. So I secured both the battery and the screen connector brackets, I connected the home button cable and put its bracket on and I gently put the screen in place. I think of all steps taken, this was the most stressful one. Since I did not want to break it again. Luckily, this time it did not break. I managed to put it in, I screwed in both pentalope screws and that is it. The reassembly has finished.
At this point, I gave one last try to turn on the phone. It is connected to the charger which in turn is connected to a wall socket. Nothing happens. I don’t know why but I thought of trying to connect the phone to my computer. So I unplugged it from the wall socket, I took the charging cable and I plugged it into my computer.
IT IS ALIVE. I saw the little white Apple logo. The battery was empty. There was no charge in the replacement battery. After charging the phone for a couple of minutes it turned on.
It works. It goddamn works. Can you imagine my joy of seeing that little Apple logo and everything being responsive? It really does work. This second repair attempt turned out to be a success.
After plugging the phone into my computer it started to charge. The 5C battery is working, the screen is not broken, and nothing got damaged during this second repair job. The only thing missing is the touch ID. Which is not that great of an issue.
This repair is done. It turned out to be a success. And I hope you enjoyed it.
Let’s see what my next repair is going to be. I hear that Samsung phones are notorious.
Kind regards,
Olaaf
P.S. Just to be extra sure that this repair job goes through without any surprises (which you already know it did not), I remembered to use the anti-static wrist strap while handling the phone and its inner parts.
I highly recommend you do the same when you take up a repair job on any electronic device. It helps protect your electronics from accidental electrostatic discharge (ESD) damage during repairs.
