Anyone replace a digitizer on a sensation yet?

[poopymt3g]

Cracked my digitizer and the new one is supposed to be here this afternoon. Anyone done this yet? Anyone found a good breakdown guide?

 

[tangcla]

How did you go? I'm about to tackle it tonight!

 

[Xcor3]

Here's a video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5bWl73O9ss&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Sent from my HTC Sensation 4G using XDA App

 

[what9000]

I have replaced it but with a terrible unresponsiveness that still exists for a short period of time after screen activation. The process is a bit in depth, though.

You need to rip up the phone from the back to the front. torx screws in the back come out, the plastic battery tray comes off, two circuit cards come off, unplugging the ribbon cables. The rest of it is a very gentle prying to get the double sided sticky tape separated from the digitizer and remaining case. you will need fresh tape to lay down so it gets a good seal, and I recommend latex gloves to keep fingerprints out. Dust free environment/do it in a plastic bag as well. Kind of a pain to keep the digitizer and LCD free of debris. I am still trying to figure out what the hell is causing the screen unresponsiveness... maybe a grounding issue.

 

[tangcla]

So I received my new digitizer, and it is broken already - I slid the ribbon between the chassis and LCD the wrong way, and in trying to pull the ribbon back out, it snapped so my Sensation remains in pieces while I get a new digitizer. Also bought a roll of 2mm 3M tape to seal the digitizer back too!

The disassembly isn't complicated, but it is fairly involved with lots of delicate ribbons.

What sort of unresponsiveness are you referring - is it always, or just when it's on charge?

 

[what9000]

The phone is almost completely unresponsive immediately after reactivating the screen. This could be after it disables the screen via proximity sensor for a phone call, or securing it and trying to use the lockscreen. After swiping my finger across it for several seconds it works perfectly, however. Either seems like a software recognition or a grounding issue, as I'd imagine the finger swiping is slowly building a charge. At least that's my theory so far.

Sent from my HTC Sensation Z710e using XDA Premium App

 

[tangcla]

The phone is almost completely unresponsive immediately after reactivating the screen. This could be after it disables the screen via proximity sensor for a phone call, or securing it and trying to use the lockscreen. After swiping my finger across it for several seconds it works perfectly, however. Either seems like a software recognition or a grounding issue, as I'd imagine the finger swiping is slowly building a charge. At least that's my theory so far.

Sent from my HTC Sensation Z710e using XDA Premium App

How did you go with your theory? I just replaced the screen in mine and I am having issues with my sensitivity when the screen first turns on, too

 

[what9000]

I replaced the digitizer twice so far. Both are unbranded "HTC" labels, my original said HTC and T-Mobile in the right. Also different serial. Same unresponsiveness as well. It has to be something else.

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[tangcla]

I replaced the digitizer twice so far. Both are unbranded "HTC" labels, my original said HTC and T-Mobile in the right. Also different serial. Same unresponsiveness as well. It has to be something else.

Sent from my HTC Sensation 4G using xda premium

So do you think it's the digitizer itself?

 

[what9000]

Its either the wrong digitizer for the model of phone (Europe/USA/fake garbage) or something else is at fault. Le sigh.

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[tangcla]

Its either the wrong digitizer for the model of phone (Europe/USA/fake garbage) or something else is at fault. Le sigh.

Yeah, I have been reading and some other people have had similar problems. I asked the seller of the digitizer and they said they have not had any problems like this before.
I think I'm going to sell the phone soon, will buy an HTC Desire or Desire HD for a few months until the Sensation XE comes out.

 

[what9000]

I also want to sell this phone. In its current state I can't see it fetching more than $100 though... Half the purpose of a phone is quick reference, not a 10 second frustrating unlock frenzy.

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[Blodoffer]

Fairly unrelated, but do you thing my phone is in need of a new digitizer or an LCD? Everything works fine, except for those 3-4 cracks that don't look so great.

tinypic.com/r/2uihlj9/7

 

[tangcla]

I also want to sell this phone. In its current state I can't see it fetching more than $100 though... Half the purpose of a phone is quick reference, not a 10 second frustrating unlock frenzy.

Sent from my HTC Sensation 4G using xda premium

Yeah, you can't exactly answer incoming phone calls

I'm wondering if it might fetch more, if I put the cracked digitizer back on there.

---------- Post added at 02:15 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:13 PM ----------

Fairly unrelated, but do you thing my phone is in need of a new digitizer or an LCD? Everything works fine, except for those 3-4 cracks that don't look so great.

tinypic.com/r/2uihlj9/7

Yeah, that's a digitizer crack. I wouldn't bother replacing it...

 

[Equinox102]

I just replaced my digitizer and I'm getting the exact same behaviour. A phone shop also tried two of their panels and they also exhibits the response issue! However reinstalling the broken original digitizer works!

How can all three panels I've tried be faulty? It must be something else.

 

[what9000]

I can answer calls but I have to swipe rapidly across the answer key. It sucks and if replacing the original makes it work then its a model number issue. Probably the wrong digitizer for that phone revision.

Sent from my HTC Sensation 4G using xda premium

 

[nickL0V3]

I repair cell phones for a living and have done the sensation digitizer twice. I now turn them all away.

from what I have been able to deduce, something about the space between the digi and lcd causes the unresponsiveness. try using a little more adesive, maybe a layer on a layer, it may work a little bit better

 

[tangcla]

I repair cell phones for a living and have done the sensation digitizer twice. I now turn them all away.

from what I have been able to deduce, something about the space between the digi and lcd causes the unresponsiveness. try using a little more adesive, maybe a layer on a layer, it may work a little bit better

Thanks, I'll give it a go, I suppose!

Have you determined that it is more space that makes it better?

 

[midtskogen]

A bit of Googling suggests that many struggle with the unresponsiveness, but I suspect that there might be two separate causes here. Some report pretty random unresposiveness, and it helps to restart the phone, and apparently fixing a bad ground connection between the phone and the back cover fixes the problem. Then there are many who report that it has happened after replacing the digitiser.

I've just replaced mine, and every time after the LCD is activated, the screen is very unresponsive for 15-20 seconds, and then everything is just fine as long as the LCD remains on. Is this exactly the same behaviour everybody else here has seen after replacing the digitiser? The most irritating bit is that it makes it hard to answer a phone call in time.

I disassembled my phone once more and put it together again making absolutely sure that it was done properly. No change. I haven't glued the digitiser properly yet, though, since I'd like to get confirmed that it's working before I do something which is hard to undo. But I've tried different spacings between the LCD and the digitiser (though this is a bit difficult when the whole thing is partly loose), and I haven't really noticed much difference. I've kept much of the original glue, which isn't very sticky anymore, which means that I probably have a bit of spacing already. Any chance that the responsiveness gets better with as little spacing as possible, has anyone tried that?

Please keep posting reports on both what doesn't help and on what seems to improve the situation.

 

[what9000]

I wonder if it's like the iPhone 4. Many people complained about the proximity sensor not working anymore once the digitizer was replaced. Either way, I think I'm going to suffer through a couple months of this and buy a new ice cream sandwich phone when they come out. :/

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