Chosen Solution
Hi, if you’ve cracked you apple watch and wanted to replace the glass screen and done some research you would notice those cheap digitizers they sell on amazon and eBay. Most of us know those work but the touch does not respond. I’ve read from multiple people recently that if you upgrade or reset the firmware or something it could fix this problem? I bought an Apple Watch that had a faulty battery but when i replaced that i realized the touch isn’t working and upon further inspection suspect that the screen has been altered since it wasn’t flushed with it. Just wondering if there is any hope.
If you replace the digitiser and LCD together (as one unit), you will not have any issues with touch. The touch will not work if you replace the digitiser/glass alone. There is an IC paired to the LCD which is programmed in factory. The digitisers sold on eBay, etc, have unprogrammed chips, and are sold before being paired to an LCD, so they will not work. These parts are not supposed to be sold separately, they are either stolen and resold by employees, or excess stock sold by the factory (which they shouldn’t be selling). As far as I know, there is no known way to program this chip with an LCD outside of the factories in which they are paired, you just have to buy a full LCD and glass screen assembly. Very similar to the situation with touch IC reprogramming with iPhones and reading the programming from SMC ICs on MacBooks, Apple don’t want 3rd parties to be able to reprogram their parts, they want to make things difficult :(
Hi, Here is a link to the Ifixit guide for an Apple Watch screen replacement. It is handy as it shows how to gain access to the LCD screen and the digitizer flex cable connectors, so that you can check to see if the digitizer is connected properly. Hopefully this is of some help Update. See the answer below for more information regarding the digitizer and possible problems.
