Time for a post about my previous daily driver.
So from 2019 until 2021, my daily driver was an LG V40. Pretty good phone; with flagship specs (Snapdragon 845, 6GB memory), a headphone jack, and a microSD slot.
In mid-2021, the fingerprint scanner stopped working. Taking it out of its case, I saw that the back cover was popping off. The battery had expanded.
Not a problem, I'll just pick up a new battery on iFixit and replace it. That was until I tried to remove the old battery. While prying it out (it was held down with way too much adhesive), I just barely nicked the back of the display, and...
...the sadness began. A magenta line appeared on the screen and a patch of dead pixels appeared where I nicked it. I ended up getting my hands on another V40 thanks to TPU being such an incredible community, and that held me over until I could get my current daily driver, a Google Pixel 5a.
Unfortunately, recently the replacement V40's battery also expanded and met a similar fate when I tried to replace it, though that time I tried using 91% isopropanol to remove the battery. That worked really well, but I guess I got it in places it shouldn't have gone, and the screen died shortly after I reassembled it (something on the lower portion gets extremely hot, probably the driver board).
Fast forward to a few days ago, and I decided to try and get my original V40 working again. Tore it apart, put the iFixit battery in, and...
...the screen has gotten much worse. So sad.
So I popped on eBay and found a replacement screen for only $50. It arrived today.
It's in absolutely fantastic condition, with basically no scratches.
My repair journey begins; I'll need to transfer the motherboard, charging port, vibrator, front camera, headphone jack, and earpiece to this new frame. It thankfully included all of the buttons and the heat pipe, so I don't need to transfer those.
Installed the vibrator, charging port, and headphone jack from the replacement phone and the motherboard from the original phone. I later realized I forgot to screw in the headphone jack, but it doesn't seem to affect anything.
Next was the iFixit battery and the front camera. I didn't bother adhering the battery in place because I'd like to be able to replace it if necessary. The wireless charging coil will hold it in place anyway.
At this point, I hadn't removed the earpiece from either phone, so this one no longer has one. Later, I was able to remove the earpiece from my original phone, so I'll probably install that at some point in the future. I tried to also remove it from the replacement phone, but tore the cable.
Finally, the wireless charging coil and speaker assembly go in and then a bunch of small Philips screws go in. Thankfully, they're all exactly the same size.
Moment of truth, I plug it in and hold the power button...
...and I didn't break anything! I stuck the back cover on and put it into one of the cases I got with the replacement phone.
It's basically good as new now (though the fingerprint scanner completely stopped working at some point; maybe a software issue). As for the replacement phone, I'll likely try to repair it at some point. Its motherboard still works, and I have enough parts from the two phones (minus an earpiece) to fully rebuild it. I just need another new screen.
I have no plans to part with either phone. I also skipped some repair practices because I repaired this phone for myself, and I'd like to be able to easily take it apart again if I need to. Sure, it isn't water resistant anymore, but I don't intend for this phone to ever leave my house.
). Can't run emulators on it. Can't even run my own software on it because I haven't sold half my organs for a Mac that is even more useless (to me).
