Over the years I've repaired lots of items around the house that have failed, as well as repaired other people's broken stuff they have thrown away on the curbside.
I generally get quite a feeling of elation after a successful repair, makes me feel good that I've saved some cash and restored something that was broken back to working order.
BUT… the flipside for me is unsuccessful repair jobs tend to bring my mood down, especially when I spend several hours stripping something down and reassembling only to find it still doesn't work.
The downer is intensified when I discover that during the process I have actually made the situation even worse.
For instance, my wife's Galaxy S5 phone was playing up with random lock ups and screen static. Google tells me it may be an LCD connector issue so I decide to have a quick look to see if I can fix it… the screen is glued in which makes the repair very tedious and although I managed to prise it up just enough to get to the LCD connector and give it a press, once I turned it back on again the touchscreen was not working. So I discover I had partially severed the touch ribbon cable. Now I have a phone that is completely borked of course and I'm left with the feeling that perhaps I should have just done a factory reset FIRST in case it was a software issue. Replacing the screen itself is prohibitively expensive compared to the value of the phone and virtually no value in the parts of what remains really. So… pissed off with myself even though I was quite careful with the repair.
Do many of you DIY repairers also suffer the same highs and lows?
Yep I’m feeling this. I love fixing things, saving them from the tip and hopefully saving money but man to you feel like a fool when it goes wrong. My worst:
Agonised for days about whether to buy a new screen for Galaxy S5 to try and replace cracked one. Bit the bullet ordered an authentic screen and digitiser for $150 (-15% for eBay promo). Watched all the how to videos, like you said the screen removal takes a bit of care and you need to know ahead of time where that main connector is. Took about an hour, all went really well and it all worked once I’d finished replacement – felt really good about it but one corner of the screen was lifting a little so I gave it a bit of firm pressure to make the adhesive grab and CRACK that screens gone too.
Ordered Redmi Note 4x (for a not much more than the S5 screen)
S5 sat there broken for a few weeks and I thought well I’ve done it once, I’m not going to just throw it out, my son needs a new phone, and I cant be stuffed trying to sell on eBay so why not try again since you already have the experience…? Wait for next eBay % off promo, order another screen, repeat all the steps, add extra adhesive tape to the corner that gave me issues last time. All worked beautifully again – good as new.
Son took S5 on camp 2 days later and lost it.
I note that Kogan are currently selling new S5s for $349…