We've touched on the dangers of attempting self repairs at home before, but one of our recent cases brings the point home. We received a 32 GB iPad 2 with 3G from a customer in Cedar Falls, Iowa, who admitted to dropping the device, initially denting the corner and shattering the glass screen. However, the device was kept functioning properly until the owner attempted to perform a repair himself.
He explained that he replaced both the glass and the home button assembly during his self-repair attempt. This means the Apple logo flashes across the screen, and then the tablet reboots … over and over again. The owner guessed that he may have hooked something up incorrectly during the repair, which led to this new problem. However, he also noted that it is possible it was a pre-existing problem that only started acting up after the repair attempt.
In addition, the iPad's owner ran into a few challenges during the repair attempt, explaining to us that the dent on the corner of the back case seemed to be preventing the new glass component from fitting correctly.
The iResQ diagnosis
During our initial exam of the iPad's damage, we were able to determine that the attempt at self-repair caused additional damage to the device's logic board. This was the main source of the problem causing the device to be in a state of constant reboot. However, this was far from the only additional damage we observed. We also discovered that the power button had been damaged, the plastic bezel surrounding the screen was bent and mangled and there were even a few screws missing from inside the device. Basically, we found that it was going to require a lot of tender, loving care to nurse this iPad back to life.
An iPad repair for this device would require the reformation of the backplate in order to properly fit a new glass digitizer, the repair of the logic board component and the replacement of a number of other defective parts. When you add up all the costs of new parts, this type of repair would be particularly expensive. Given that the device is several generations old, we believe that the high costs do not make repair an attractive solution, and the best option may actually be to buy a new device in this situation.
While this is not the best case repair scenario, this story does highlight how some things should not be tried at home. It is always a good decision to consult iResQ and put your valued devices in the hands of our skilled technicians.