iPad Air Glass / Digitizer Repair

Yesterday I posted about replacing the screen on my Surface Pro 3. Now that it is fully functional, I can finally get rid of my stop-gap, an iPad Air 2. It has served me well enough, but I really don't like Apple products. Therefore I wiped it before installing a backup of my son's iPad Air 1. Once that was done, it was time to repair his cracked screen and malfunctioning digitizer: the top of the screen didn't register any touches.

I heated it up around the edges of the screen to melt the adhesive slightly, then used various tools to remove the glass. I took care not to damage any cables or the camera while sliding the thin tools around the perimeter.

With the glass off, there are 4 screws to remove before taking the LCD out. You have to do this as the ribbon cables for the digitizer lie under the display.

Once these were removed, I gently lifted the display, tilting it toward the home button. That bottom area is where the display plugs in to the system.

In order to disconnect the display, there are 3 little screws. Once removed this metal plate unclips, freeing the unit and giving access to the ribbon cables for the digitizer and home button.

I disconnected these cables and replaced the unit, fixing the new ribbons in place before reconnecting and screwing down the LCD.

Before I stuck the new glass down I tested the iPad. At first the screen didn't display anything so I rebooted it by holding the power and home buttons for a while, until the Apple logo showed up.

Satisfied the screen was working, as well as touch detection, I turned it back off, removed the backing from the double sided tape and positioned the glass in place. I pressed it down firmly around the edges, lay it face down on my desk and set a weight on top to be sure it was stuck fast.

All looked fine so I downloaded a kids art app and tested the touch, making sure all portions of the screen followed my finger.

Fully operational once more, I then reset the iPad, deleting everything from it. Now that it is fixed, this one will go to my daughter, who's own iPad is just about ready for the scrap heap. It's old enough that Apple no longer update it and it runs very slowly with modern apps.