HTC Legend disassembly

I have looked high and low for Legend disassembly instructions in order to replace my screen (Digitizer) I finally found instructions on how to disassemble the HTC Legend and replace the screen thanks to allerien's post in the XDA forums  11th March 2011, 07:17 PM. There are no YouTube videos yet that I know of that actually show u how to remove and replace the screen so this is a step by step guide tat will help alot of user's including me.
Thanks Allerien
 
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I fixed my Legend


I cracked the display of my legend and purchased a new one on eBay (roughly 40 pounds) - obviously delivered from Hong Kong but a genuine Samsung (in case you didn't know the Legen's screen as well as most of the AMOLED screens are Samsung's).

Then I used the above information plus some YouTube videos to give myself an idea as to what should I do. The result follows:

I used a hair dryer to heat up the back of the phone (camera and loudspeaker cover). Perhaps I should have been more patient as in the end I decided to use a knife with a very thin blade to lift it and I scratched the plastic and the aluminium body a bit. Anyways - the back clicks in but is glued in addition to that so you have to use both the heat and gently applied force.

Once you remove the back cover (which took me the longest out of everything) you should start removing screws. There's two behind the back cover and six behind the bottom cover (where the battery is). At this stage you don't have to remove all the screws - the bottom two, the one behind the IMEI and the one under the VOID sticker hold the main board but the two screws sitting deeper inside the phone's body hold the front buttons so you may leave them for now.

Now comes the trickiest part so read carefully: the main board is held inside the unibody by the screws (which we already removed), but is also glued right below the camera lens and along the sides. You should probably heat it up as much as you can and for a long time. I decided to do it the hard way. My dislplay was already cracked and it's the most delicate part of the phone so I said "whatever" and used the same knife as before - moved it alongside the screen (pushed it in gently from the front) until there was no resistance (the glue let go). Then I pushed and I heated the thing up and pushed and tried from every angle until finally the board slid out of the unibody. I hope you'll find it easier then I did as it seems that everyone describing it found it quite doable.

Now everything becomes easy-peasy. Remove the remaining screws to put the buttons aside (you'll have both the actul buttons and the tiny board with sensors - the latter sticks to the screen but once you remove the connectors, yu can take it off too). All the connectors are quite easy to remove if you hav a needle or something (just pull them out gently). I didn't worry about noting which is which as ther is practically no way you can mix them up - they're very different.

The rubbery plastic black surrounding of the board clicks in, so once you find the right spots you can lift them gently and take the thing off. You'll be left with the display covered by the shielding from the top and a thin metal board from the bottom. You have to remove two more screws to disconnect the main display plug.

And the final bit (that's where the thread's author had a problem I believe). My display was cracked but the shielding - fine. These two are glued together so I had to find some space for my finger nail and lift the shield. By slowly and gently pulling it apart I detached one from the other - and had to do the same thing with the metal board. Don't forget there's some extra stuff to remove from the back of the display - they're all glued but the glue will remain fresh enough for you to glue them again - this time to the new screen. The same applies to the front shield. I hope you won't let any dust sit on it in the meantime. You should have a screen protector on your new display if you bought it like I did. Remove it now and the display will be happy to stick to the old front shield just as if it was always there. The metal back will also fit in.

Now you can go through the above process backwards - just remember to connect all the connectors.

What I didn't do: I didn't use ANY glue putting the phone back together. As an effect the front shield is sticking out a bit (doesn't sit in the unibody tightly). It doesn't affect the phone itself but it gives you the funny feeling that something isn't 100% right. But I prefer that than screwing something up with a misuse of glue (glue can be disobedient).

The most important piece of information: the phone is working 100% correctly as if it was never disassembled by an amateur. Apart from two scatches on the back, the VOID sticker missing, the front sticking out slightly (less than a mm) and the missing battery slider (which I forgot to put back in and didn't bother to repeat the whole process for the sake of it) - there is nothing wrong with the phone. So if you ever crack you ever crack your Legend's screen - you can try fixing it yourself if you have the courage.