topic Re: iPhone 5S Repair Question in Apple

iPhone 5S Repair Question

Anonymous — Mon, 13 Jun 2016 16:47:07 GMT

Ok, So I upgraded to a iPhone 6 (from my original 5S) and I handed my older iPhone off to a relative.

However, they seemingly misunderstood how to insert a simcard, (as I'd left the sim tray out of the phone, when I'd boxed it for them) and they managed to get the wrong sized sim jammed into the card slot.

I thought it would be a simple fix and took it down to a local 3rd party store and explained, they said they would be able to get the sim out without opening up the device (sounded fair enough as the sim was poking just out of the slot). So I left it with them for a couple of hours and came back, the sim card was out of the device and I thougt nothing more.

Then I got home and proceeded to turn it on, after correctly inserting the sim card for the relative.

Thats when I got the fact that the home button was no longer working, as in no touchID and no click functionality.

I fear the flex cable that runs between the logic board and the button was broken or is faulty, but it did work prior to the sim removal.

My question is, does any know if O2 will service this kind of repair and the approximate cost. (it is just out of warrenty, isn't that always the way) so I expected some form of cost to come up).

As always, any help is welcome.

Thank you.

Re: iPhone 5S Repair Question

Cleoriff — Mon, 13 Jun 2016 16:55:14 GMT

Hi @Anonymous If honest I think you would be better to get the phone back to Apple. Ring them and get a price for repair. Honestly your best bet. It seems quite specialised so they would be the ones to do a better job https://support.apple.com/en-gb/iphone

Re: iPhone 5S Repair Question

Anonymous — Mon, 13 Jun 2016 16:55:08 GMT

Go to Apple & they may offer you an out of warranty replacement. Book an appointment at your nearest Apple Store

http://www.apple.com/uk/retail/geniusbar/

Re: iPhone 5S Repair Question

Anonymous — Mon, 13 Jun 2016 17:21:28 GMT

@Cleoriff thanks for the heads up, just checked the prices on apples website and an OOW Repair is £206.44 (I wouldn't pay that) hopefully they can negotiate a better price. £50-£80 is reasonable given the task in hand but the triple digits are unreasonable.

@Anonymous noted, my nearest Apple Store used to be a mile away before they closed, now it's about 44miles I think, and in my current job, I have little time for travelling more than a 5miles away from where I'm based. I'll see what I can do though.

Re: iPhone 5S Repair Question

MI5 — Mon, 13 Jun 2016 17:24:26 GMT

As it's out of warranty anyway you may want to get quotes from local repair places too.

Re: iPhone 5S Repair Question

Anonymous — Mon, 13 Jun 2016 17:38:43 GMT

@MI5, I'll look into that, however if the parts are reasonable enough and there are adequate tutorials, I guess I could do the work myself? But I'll look into your suggestion first.

Re: iPhone 5S Repair Question

Cleoriff — Mon, 13 Jun 2016 17:55:42 GMT

It may be the cheapest way to do it @Anonymous. I certainly didn't realise Apple would be charging that much for an oow repair ....or as said any local phone repair shop would certainly be much cheaper

Re: iPhone 5S Repair Question

MI5 — Mon, 13 Jun 2016 17:58:29 GMT

I've had iPhones apart before and they aren't too bad - there are tut's on you tube.

Re: iPhone 5S Repair Question

Sammy_boy — Mon, 13 Jun 2016 22:44:52 GMT

Hopefully it's just that the touch ID cable hasn't been reconnected properly, if they broke it there's no way to restore touch ID even with a genuine cable.
I broke the touch ID cable on my old 5s when replacing the screen, replaced it and although the home button works touch ID doesn't. Each cable and button is individually paired to each iPhone, sorry to be the bringer of bad news!
Take it back to the repairer and explain the problem, hopefully it just didn't get clicked into place or popped out when the phone was reassembled.

Re: iPhone 5S Repair Question

Anonymous — Tue, 14 Jun 2016 04:43:15 GMT

@Sammy_boy I'm none too worried if I can't get the Touch ID restored (I know Apple will reprogram them to make them work again, as its all to do with the component is "married" to the cpu etc.

Just as long as I can restore click functionality I'm happy.

I'll post a report back about what happened once I know what's going on and hopefully it's not too bad a fix.

Re: iPhone 5S Repair Question

Cleoriff — Tue, 14 Jun 2016 05:35:49 GMT

Yes please pop back and let us know when it's repaired @Anonymous As it's out of warranty it would be interesting to know how much it actually costs to get it functioning again

Re: iPhone 5S Repair Question

Anonymous — Thu, 16 Jun 2016 06:39:52 GMT

@Cleoriff
So I bought a toolkit and replacement button (complete with flex) and set about taking the phone apart.

Bearing in mind it was my first time disassembling an iPhone, I took the phone apart and peeked inside and sure enough could see the original flex cable was worn down as it crossed over a sharp edge of, I believe the microphone casing, inside.

Whole process took about an hour (following a YouTube tutorial, not sure if I'm allowed to link it here) and I'd have to say the hardest part was actually plugging the button into the main board, as I have relatively big hands (hence why I now use an iPhone 6 and not a 5s anymore)

For those interested, total costs (excluding postage, were;

£5.70 for the button
£6.99 for the toolkit (21 piece kit)
1hr of my time.

So when you take apples OOW price of £206.44, take away my costs and I made a saving of £193.75 (not counting shipping costs, allowing for that it's still £180+ in saving)

For those who ever find themselves in this position, it is doable outside of warranty and without going to Apple, but do take your time and be aware that without reprogramming from Apple, you WILL lose the TouchID functionality.
Other than that, happy trails.

Thanks to all those who helped.

Re: iPhone 5S Repair Question

Cleoriff — Thu, 16 Jun 2016 06:50:35 GMT

Wow @Anonymous that's staggering. So.... for just under £13 you now have a working iPhone!

As you say it is worth remembering the phone was out of warranty so you lost nothing (other than touch ID) by doing this job yourself. Pretty amazing and well done you.

Now if you ever think of setting up a business in mobile phone repairs....you are good to go.

Seriously, thanks for reporting back. Good to hear from you

Re: iPhone 5S Repair Question

MI5 — Thu, 16 Jun 2016 07:08:12 GMT

Well done and just shows what a rip off it is if you're not prepared to have a go yourself.

Re: iPhone 5S Repair Question

Anonymous — Thu, 16 Jun 2016 07:18:28 GMT

@Cleoriff
I'll definitely consider the idea of phone repairs, but I think I'd learn more on the different fixes/models/types etc before I did anything definitive.

@MI5 I know, hence why I wanted to check here first to see if o2 were cheaper than Apple and if they weren't then I was prepared to dig in and have a go myself.

I enjoy challenges and this while a very fiddly one, was a great one and at least I know what to do in the future if this ever happens again.

Re: iPhone 5S Repair Question

MI5 — Thu, 16 Jun 2016 07:33:25 GMT

Credit to you mate

Re: iPhone 5S Repair Question

Toby — Thu, 16 Jun 2016 08:14:34 GMT

Good to see that your research paid off @Anonymous! Thanks for the description too :).

Re: iPhone 5S Repair Question

jonsie — Thu, 16 Jun 2016 09:27:24 GMT

Well done, a great sense of personal satisfaction and a big saving thrown in for good measure. Nice one.

Re: iPhone 5S Repair Question

Toby — Thu, 16 Jun 2016 16:08:14 GMT

Hi @Anonymous,

I've made you a thread here just for you

Re: iPhone 5S Repair Question

Sammy_boy — Thu, 16 Jun 2016 22:39:46 GMT

Well done on the repair! It's very satisfying repairing something, saves the phone from the bin too so environmentally friendly! I still use my Touch ID- less 5s sometimes, still a good phone.