The relevant parts that make up the iPod Touch Display Assembly
People send me their Touch model iPods from all over the world to be repaired. I understand these are a foundational part of peoples lives. I doubt that I could go 6 hours without music. I listen to dance music continually.
iPod Touch models like iPhones are as slippery as a wet bar of hotel soap and people damage them all the time from dropping them.
When you break them, you have three choices.
1) live with the broken front assuming the LCD isn't broken, in many cases the digitizer and LCD still work, it's just the upper glass that is smashed and looks like hell. Your self esteem may be diminished a bit but you can use it.
The iPod Touch 4th Generation is more tricky... the display assembly on it tends to crumble into bits making replacement more immediate. If it's a Touch 4th gen iPod, it's a fairly expensive repair. There is wide spread thinking that Apple presented the Touch 4th Gen as having "engineered front glass" and people working for them tried to infer or hint by name it Corning Gorilla Glass *or* something like that. The inference was the Touch 4th Gen was close to indestructible. In fact the 4th Gen is a frail as a saltine cracker and has flame tempered glass (what's used on passenger car door windows).
2) Bring it to an Apple store and pay $169 for a similar "refurbished" replacement iPod Touch. That one will be handed to you B-L-A-N-K, empty, no contacts. You will have to go home and re-sync it to your computer (hoping everything that was on the old iPod was sync'd recently) and then it will have "your personality" again... so repeating... $189 (minimum) and a trip home plus a silent prayer that you had backed up (sync'd) your Touch recently. Remember you can bring things into the Touch using the WiFi connection. You don't necessarily have to bring them through iTunes
3) Bring it to me (or someone like me) and have your Touch repaired. You will not have to hope that you sync'd back your information recently, it will all stay safely on your iPod. It will take leaving your iPod off with me for about 15 minutes, unless it's a Touch 4th Gen which takes 90 minutes and is a much more pricey repair.
I need to teach you about the relevant parts of the Touch that may be broken on it. All the parts that make up the screen and finger touch experience are known as the "Display Assembly".
The "Display Assembly" is made up of three parts. the upper glass, the digitizer (both of those are laminated together to make one piece), and the LCD screen. The Display Assembly parts form a complete unit that presents information and receives input from your finger.
In the Touch 2nd and 3rd Gen models the Upper Glass and Digitizer are fused together using a clear liquid adhesive. The upper glass is what your finger actually touches and shields the iPod from most of the 'outside world'. The digitizer is glued/fused to the bottom of the upper glass. The digitizer is what interprets finger movements relative to the color information presented below it by the LCD. The upper glass/digitizer are a single piece that is typically what breaks when the Touch is dropped and the there is visible 'breakage' on the surface. When the upper glass is broken, you can usually still use the iPod, and its Touch sensitive interface. The device just looks bad.
This is a bad case of broken upper glass. The green one was dropped by a bike rider who then rolled over it. That iPod Touch I completely rebuilt and make look brand new again.
The Liquid Crystal Display or LCD is beneath the digitizer. It is adhered into an exact position with with two strips of tape and surrounded by a plastic bezel so it *and* the digitizer work perfectly together. The LCD shows the icons and your file information, (songs, photos video... games) and with the digitizer positioned properly will allow your finger to find and work the screen. When an LCD is broken, you will notice hairline fractures in the color display, sometimes horizontal dark lines, or a "bleed" which is a big splotch in the screen. A bleed can look like a circle or a dark river. In some very rare cases an LCD will fail to an "all white" screen.
This is what a cracked LCD might look like in your case,
There is also another LCD failure type known as a "white out", which occurs when the iPod Touch is dropped and one or more of the resistors that drive the LCD's "screen paint" breaks away from the resistor pack that delivers the final color signal to the LCD. The LCD in this case is completely "white", the backlight works perfectly, but the color information isn't presented.
Call 707-544-4400
or
email me at repair0121@isickbay.com
with questions or to set up a repair.
HOURS:
Monday through Friday from 10am to 7pm, and Saturday & Sunday noon to 6pm.
I'm in Sonoma County... Northern California wine country,
Frank Walburg
Service Court
Santa Rosa, Ca 95403-3139
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