Frequently Asked Questions

Many users are confused on what is digitizer, screen or LCD, LED.  If your screen is cracked or damaged but still able to use it or see it, your LCD/LED (picture displaying unit) is fine, then you will need a digitizer / screen replaced only. LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) is the one displays the picture and images.

Here are the examples.

As shown in the picture above, the screen is still functioning.  However due to different manufacture process, some phone might not work even though the display is functioning 100%. (i.e, LG NEXUS models.) Then you will have to replace the digitizer.  Some keeps using the phone as it is still working, but the cracked glass keeps pressing down, the LCD will eventually will get damaged which then looks like the picture below (called bleeding).  When this happens, you will have to replace the glass and the LCD together which will cost more.

we have added new video describing the components. Check it out here.

Answer is yes and No. The digitizer which detects your touch is fused to the glass thus makes it as one piece on certain model, and it cannot be replaced separately in this case.  This means you will have to replace the glass/digitizer altogether when the phone has a problem detecting your touch even though it is not broken/cracked and vice versa. However some phones such as Galaxy S8, S9 or iPhone 7 and later model has digitizer fused the LCD thus glass replacement is possible but it is very difficult process.

Even though, glass replacement only repair is possible, we ask customer to swap whole screen with out refurbished screen and give credit of the working screen to you in order to expedite the process.  Just replacing the glass of the screen takes a lot of labor and time thus we find this is the fastest way for you to save time.

 

Ever since iPhone 4 was released using technology called fusing, almost all of the smartphone manufactures started follow it. Manufactures use special treatment called fusion to put  LCD or LED / Digitizer / Glass together as a one piece keep dust coming under the glass. It makes the screen brighter but this also makes the repair cost high as well because you have to replace whole front screen panel when it’s broken regardless glass was broken only or not.

 

Please see our example below:

as you can see in the picture, this Samsung Galaxy S3 had broken glass only.  The digitizer and display is working fully even though we removed the glass so why spend more when you can save?

However not all phones’ glass can be removed due to manufacturer’s different process of making phones.

Please see our list of what phones are possible to remove and replace glass only so that you can save money.

It helps a little. Many friend would tell you with wet phones is to use uncooked rice. I even heard that on Radio telling people to put their phone in dry rice after vacuming out the moisture! Theoretically this would make sense, as it appears to do the same thing as Molecular Sieve while being readily available to anyone with a well-stocked kitchen.

Unfortunately, rice is not an effective solution a couple of reasons. Rice has a low capacity for atmospheric absorption. It may absorb the liquid water on the case, but our real problem are the tiny drops inside. Also, as rice sits on your shelf, and the shelf at the store before you bought it, in unsealed boxes and bags it slowly sucks in water out of the atmosphere around it, reaching it’s absorption capacity. Let the professionals handle your problem. Here is some pictures of what happens when tried to dry themselves.

Below are the phones that was brought in after the phone stopped working after the customers thought they saved the phone by putting it in the rice or using hair dryer after water spillage and used it for a while. Please note the users who experienced phone working after putting in the bag of rice had the phone that had liquid damage was going to function regardless of rice because they were lucky not to have main board damaged. Please see this video.

 

Some were saved but some were not repairable as it came in too late due what we call “Rice damaged”.

Best thing is to contact local professional repair shop right away when water damage happens, as it can save your money from buying another phone.

We want to try!  Basically, any problem can be fixed.  The question becomes “is it worth repairing?”  Without actually seeing the iPhone and having one of our expert technicians perform a complete diagnosis, we can’t really tell over the phone how much the repair will cost.  Bring in or send your phone in, we can run diagnostic for free!

The water damage repair service includes full diagnostics and ultrasonic cleaning. We strive to fully restore your phone with only the ultrasonic cleaning process and majority of the time, no other parts are needed to be replaced in the phone. In the event that additional parts are needed, they will need to be purchased along with the water damage repair service. We guarantee that the phone will be in good working condition or functioning properly once damaged parts are replaced. In the rare case that we can not get your phone working, we will provide you with a couple different options. 1) Send your phone back to you. 2) Offer to purchase the phone from you, since we can still use some of the parts from it, and we like to recycle. Helping the environment is a definite plus! 3) If the phone functions fine, but has one or two minor features that may not be fully repairable, we will offer you a discounted rate for the repair and send the phone back. We have state of the art equipment that removes any kind of corrosion, minerals, or debris that has built up on your circuit board and components. Corrosion and minerals that build up on the circuit is the most common cause for your phone not functioning properly.

Please note that water-damaged phones are not covered by the cell phone repair guarantee. Water is tricky stuff, so any phone repair complicated by water damage can result in a loss of functionality. Any new damage is not covered by the guarantee, and neither is the damage beyond the original fee charged for the iPhone repair.

First, DO NOT TURN ON your device.  If you cannot bring the device to your local repair shop.  Then dry it off with a towel, then place it in a bag of plain uncooked rice. Then leave the bag of rice complete with iPhone in sunlight, or another warm/dry place.  The rice will wick the moisture out of your iPhone which immediately increases your odds for an “easier” repair!  DO NOT put your iPhone in the oven, even at low temperatures.  DO NOT use a heat gun to dry it out.  Then bring or send it in to ifixsmartphone.

Yes! This is the easy part!  Send your phone in using repair service we are currently offering in our services menu  or click here if you are not local and the rest is easy.  Our price includes the shipping back to you. Once we receive the iPhone we’ll contact you within 1 business day to report our findings.

For our Buena Park location, come by between 10 AM to 7 PM on weekdays or 10:30 AM to 5 PM on Saturdays. We will diagnose the issue with your machine and give you all of your options.

NOTHING! We feel diagnostic fees are predatory in the repair industry, and do not charge them unless we have to use our parts and over 1 hour of time.

Absolutely not!  Bring in your Samsung, LG, Motorola, HTC, ZTE – we’ll look at anything. We are able to diagnose and repair many smartphone hardware issues. We specialize in the repair of Apple devices, but are capable & willing to work on a large variety of machines, including other brands.

Proud to not be Apple certified!

No. Are you curious as to what “Apple Authorized” means? One might assume this makes it a better part, but they’re the same parts we purchase. As one can see from forums such as macrumors, Apple has no real high tech process to weed out displays with issues such as dead pixels, as a lot of people receive displays with them. Look up the issues with the LG display on 15″ Retinas.

The difference is that we test parts the old fashioned way, by plugging them in before using them. The personal touch can’t be beat.

No. We’ve heard “I used to work at Apple” many times. It typically means they’re still removing the hinge cover over the inverter board and the keyboard to plug your new LCD in. Read around!

Apple certified technicians are not allowed to even solder on a motherboard when performing a repair for a customer. AASP’s methods & options to repair are incredibly limited, and you’ll experience the consequences of these limitations firsthand when you get your bill.

Here is an example.

When iPhone X is brought in to Apple Store, the phone is taken back to so called repair area and technician will do following:

1. take two bottom screws out
2. Lift the screen out of frame
3. Remove 5 screws holding connector
4. Detach the cable from logic board
5. Remove screen
6. Replace screen
7. Replace connector cover and screw that was provided with the screen.
8. Put the screen in the housing
9. screw 2 bottom screw

That is all they do and they is all they can do. They are not allowed to remove camera, speaker, etc. Nor they are allowed to remove charging port.

That is why when you bring your iPhone X with lout speaker problem (for example) to Apple Store, Apple will charge your $500+ to swap you with refurbished phone.

One would think so! I once serviced a machine for a business who had the keyboard replaced by Apple. They paid hundreds of dollars, it had two screws missing, and the top case was permanently misaligned. They were told it would not be perfect cosmetically after being refurbished. This is typical!

A common example is with A1150, A1211, A1226, and A1260 model Macbook Pros. If you’ve had Apple work on your machine, remove the battery. Look at the two screws on the side facing the front, the trackpad button. These screws likely are not put in all the way. They’re inserted at an angle, because the person putting them back in is using a screwdriver too long and thick to allow him(or her) to insert them straight. This is a small detail, but it showcases a good point: that you barely need to know how to use a screwdriver to call yourself “Apple Certified”, and shows a lack of broader experience on the part of most “certified” technicians working on these machines.  Being Apple certified means someone’s passed a test and can read a manual. It doesn’t mean they have years of experience servicing gear in mission critical environments, where workmanship counts. We do.

Another common example with iPhone. iPhone has different size screws and if put it in wrong place, it could damage the logic board and it could prevent your phone from working.  Apple Store genius makes such mistake and they end up replacing the phone so that data is gone forever at times.   In addition, this happens alot at amateur repair shop but the problem is that they do not take responsibility for it.

I learned how to service electronics the old fashioned way, with an apprenticeship alongside senior techs. I worked on broadcast consoles and tape machines in the tech shops of professional studios. Real clients lost real thousands per day when gear malfunctioned, and the gear we repaired was expected to work 30 years late, far beyond the lifespan of today’s disposable electronics.

Yes.

There’s tons of bad parts out there. Big shops that try to do it all do not have the time or money to weed through all the different parts suppliers in order to save you money. It’s easier for them to charge a high price and buy the part at high markup from established resellers or have a low price and buy generic junk from eBay. Both approaches give you the short end of the stick.

It requires time consuming cherry picking and research to consistently find good parts at good prices. Leave that work to us. Often good parts can be had at lower prices than knockoffs, but you have to know where to look.

If someone tells you they are Apple certified and give an amazing price, it doesn’t mean they are Apple Authorized to do the repair they are actually doing. They could be Apple Authorized to operate a cash register behind the bar at an Apple store. They could be someone who got fired from an Apple store for smoking weed in the break room – you really have no idea.

If someone’s priced 10%-20% over me and they claim the repair is Apple authorized, it’s just not true. In order for that specific repair job they performed to be Apple authorized, it has to be done with their parts, and this costs a serious premium.

Anyone who isn’t a fully Apple authorized warranty repair facility is technically voiding your warranty.

However, in reality, Apple can’t tell the device’s been opened or repaired, by just looking at it. Our meticulous workmanship ensure they’ll never know we were there. (If Apple decides to disassemble the device and look inside, they might be able to tell as our part are marked with our logo inside).  Will the next housecall repair person use a magnetized tray to ensure each screw is saved?

We have a streamlined business structure. As soon as you become a customer, your machine is a priority until it is done. We limit outsourcing and do most repairs here, often getting started the moment you walk in.

All parts necessary are stocked. We don’t have to order a part in order to perform your repair in many cases! The second you decide to utilize a service, we’re ready.

These services aren’t cheap. A better term would be “affordable by contrast.” Other repair centers base pricing on high overhead. One large form of overhead is ordering parts 1 at a time. They must deal with faulty parts, pay expedited shipping rates to get them there in a reasonable timeframe, and pay extreme markups. Our supply company sells to us at cost, and gets parts direct from the manufacturer.

Certain competitors are paying 20%-40% more for the same parts at the same quality level because they lack a structured, aggressive parts sourcing system.

Lastly, we do not employ unnecessary staff. You may be used to walking into a store with 4-10 people. In these cases, most of the people are looking for guidance from 1 or 2 senior techs. We do not employ technicians that cannot perform every service offered by themselves. You will find here that even our receptionist knows how to fix an iPad without ripping the wi-fi antenna. Smarter employees leads to a more efficient work environment

Best of luck to you. Most of these places aren’t real businesses, or are real businesses staffed by people who are inexperienced and learn from by practicing on your equipment, or learn off youtube. It’s a great source of information, but watching youtube doesn’t make one a tech. It makes them someone who knows how to follow the instructions given to them off a video. The subtleties of proper workmanship and repair cannot be learned through a video, but only through extensive hands-on experience. When your machine has another problem(these are physically damaged devices we work on) and other problems present themselves, what is inexperienced technician going to do?

 

In addition, consider part quality being used.  Even though they are made to same size, the finish and the quality can affect the cost of the parts. Please look at the picture below for the comparison.

They are same iPhone 5 Glass, but look at the quality.  Should I say more?

 

What makes us better? A lot of the gear I worked on was over 30 years old, and used in mission critical environments. One second of downtime is unacceptable as it will render a recording useless. If one thinks opening a slightly abused 2 year old laptop is difficult, imagine working on a 55 year old Pultec equalizer, where the parts are practically turning to dust as you touch them! The level of workmanship necessary to keep these from failing again and to successfully get it back in service is considerably higher than the level of workmanship necessary to get a laptop back together. Rest assured your machine won’t be leaving with missing screws, broken pieces, or misaligned parts; we know better.

There is only one circumstance where this ever occurs: when dealing with a lowballer. If you’ve called, received a price quote, and asked if someone would do it for less, you’re not getting anything done here. Don’t try to lowball saying “I will give you a good review if you give discount.”  Don’t bother calling back or trying to fix this after the fact, your name and number has been recorded for future blacklisting.

Think “Murphy Group” on Entourage. He does have the elderly receptionist out front, but for the most part, it’s just him. Same here.

At every location, we want to have just one person working so that the job is done right from start to finish.

We want to! Whenever there is OEM parts available, we want to use it as it provides best repair result. However, there are some looking for a deal when they are under a budget, so we do also carry non-OEM, so called “after-market” parts.  Does that mean it’s bad? Not necessarily. It is designed to work the same but the part is made with low cost. To learn more about non-OEM parts, please visit our blog page as we are continuously updating about it.

As stated above, I learned how to service electronics the old fashioned way, an apprenticeship at a top class facility. You can rest assured the part being put in your machine comes from a reputable supplier; not eBay. We offer a very narrow scope of repair services in order to be able to offer the best turnaround time, best prices, best customer service. We never act with less than admiral integrity. It’s casual professionalism at its best, with basic admirable values trumping aggressive sales and shoddy workmanship.