Chosen Solution
Hi everyone, Hope I can get some help. Family member has iPhone 7 with cracked screen. Got all the parts I need. I bought an OEM blank screen and would move all components over including the home button. Start to remove the iPhone 7 screen. As we know these are sealed up well. Used a hairdryer to heat up the glue to help speed up the process and used a pry too to get under the screen and got it open after a while. I was very very careful and am 99% I did not touch and flex cables or components with the pry tool. The screen powered on while the iPhone was half apart as I clicked the power button accidently. Strangely it would not load up to the passcode screen and stayed on the apple screen for a very long time. Then it came on and said touch it not available. Also the home button does not work not either. It’s completely dead. Touch id and home button functionality totally gone. I did a forced shutdown and restart but still the same issue but again it took like 5 minutes to turn back on. Never done this before. Please note at this point I have not changed the screen or removed anything from the phone. Merely opened it up. I have not removed or unplugged any cables. So the screen is original as is every part on the phone. I’ve put it back together for now and have not changed anything but cannot understand why the button has stopped working.
- Could I have used too much heat on the lower edge of the phone where the home button is and damaged it somehow? Again I was careful and was very vary of over heating.
- I’m very certain I did not touch any flex cables with the pry tool. I inspected for damage (I haven’t taken it all apart yet but will inspect even closer once apart) with a torch and good lighting and cannot see anywhere I’ve touched or damaged anything.
- Is this just a bad coincidence? Should i go ahead and change to new screen and see what happens? Appreciate the help and apologies for long post. Mo
The issue was a small tear in the home button cable that comes from the screen assembly into the motherboard. The tear was right next to the connector which goes on the motherboard and has a metal plate over it. Very very small tear and I think it could only have happened when the screen was being removed the first time as there is a lot of adhesive and requires a bit more firm handling. Still not sure how it could of torn there. As the new screen that was to go on, had all the cables on it already, I moved over any components from existing screen- front facing camera, earphone speaker etc, the metal plate for LCD and everything works fine now. Home button was moved over and retains all touch id functionality as it should. Many thanks for your help and time Ben.
Did you try plugging the home button back on the old screen and see if it works on there? You can also try the replacement screen with home button plugged in but front camera unplugged. If it boots up normally with home button working you know front camera assembly is faulty and needs to be replaced. Sometimes visible damage on a home button cable is visible on microscope because I made a microscopic tear on one once when I damaged an iPhone 7 home button cable, and that was only once because I rushed it.
