A couple of years ago which had a broken screen. With a little investment I could repair the screen and make some money on trading the device for another.
In previous years the pcb’s of electronics started my interest in (micro) electronics and manufacturing. I could bring interest into practice by doing some DIY repairs as a couple of years ago I received a Samsung S8000 Jét. The first thing was to investigate what was broken and what wasn’t. After that I could find out what replacement parts I needed. I tried opening the device with metal tools, which is unadvisable as it can make scratches I found out. So I ordered some phone opening tools from Ebay.
I started reading more and soon found out that the cables connecting the parts were very flimsy and prone to break. As you can see the middle frame is made of metal and has a round opening for the vibrating motor. There are deepened tracks for running the flat cables.
Opening up the device wasn’t the easiest as there are multiple things you have to look out for. Samsung makes these devices to work and not to repair easily. Some components are tightly fit into the housing. This was my first attempt at repairing a device (other than my failed attempts in my childhood) so I had to be careful. After opening up the device I saw that the screen was glued to the front, which had to be disconnected. A difficult job since the screen breaks even further then. Once the cables are loose you can see on the top image that the connection points in the connector are very small. The click onto the male socket has to be perfect otherwise there is no connection. The connector is held down by a pair of tweezers. Normally Samsung fits an AMOLED screen, which is quite expensive to buy as a spare part. So I chose an OEM screen which is quite the same in image quality (except from the blacks). Since this phone was going to be traded in anyway it only mattered if it worked for 10 minutes so the store could trade it in. The OEM replacement is an LCD instead of an AMOLED.
Service Manual
The lever connection which connects the screen to the motherboard should be flipped up. As the cable is not very long the front and back of the phone cannot be layed easily next to eachother. Only a service manual is found on the internet, not a electrical diagram unfortunately. The service manual and various video’s on Youtube should be your guide to replace the screen. Take your time and have steady hands. If the cable attached to the screen breaks, you have to buy a new screen. The PCB is as you can see also glued to the screen.
In order to attach the side buttons make sure you remember what the top and bottom is as fitting them upside down does not fit into the casing.
