FYI/DIY

How to fix cracked screen on an iphone 3G then jailbreak and unlock it

22 March, 2011 (22:46) | FYI/DIY

Here’s a picture of what Deirdre’s white iphone 3G used to look like: cracked iphone 3g

I won’t get into the discussions, but long story short, she gave me her phone, knowing full well that I was just going to fix it and sell it.

So, her screen was cracked, but the LCD was still completely operational.  I knew I could just buy the glass panel for ~20 bucks, but I found a nice kit at ifixit.com that came with everything I would need.  I highly recommend them!  They operate out of San Luis Obispo, Ca, which I visited in December, so I couldn’t help but envision some beach bum college kids running this operation out of their dorm room or something.

Anyway, the guides make this easy!  I had the phone all disassembled and put back together in under 30 minutes.  After a little charge, she was up and operational.  The home button was a bit wonky, you had to press firmly or just right to get it to work, but Deirdre said that is the way it was before she gave it to me.  I wish I knew, or I would have tried to fix that too, but since I already used the doublesided tape to get it all back together, I figured I may as well leave it alone, since there was no guarantee i could fix it.

So, with the phone looking back to normal, it’s time to jailbreak and unlock!  since it’s rocking 3.1.3 OS, a quick visit to Jailbreakme.com on the phone uses an exploit to jailbreak it in a snap.  no tethering or restoring ipsw files or anything!  Once cydia is on the phone, open it to record the SHSH for future jailbreaks, download ultrasn0w for the unlock, and BAM, you’ve got yourself a phone ready for any sim card you want.

It was really that easy.  take a few pictures for ebay, and away she’ll go!  This counts for #18 on my 30×30 list too!

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