Although the iPad’s structure is surprisingly rugged, the entire face of it is made of glass,
and like anything made of glass, it’s breakable.
Hi, I’m mj with iFixit, and today I’m going to show you how to replace the front
panel assembly on the original iPad.
While I do that, I’ll give you some pointers on the trickier parts, but your very best
resource is the step-by-step repair guide on our site; you don’t have to pause it
or rewind it, and you can print it out if you need to, so make sure you pull that up
and look it over before you get started.
Along with the instructions, you’re going to need some tools, and it’s best to get
all your supplies together first.
You’ll need:
2 Metal Spudgers A Set of plastic opening tools
a T5 Torx Screwdriver and of course your replacement front panel.
Rather than buying a single Torx driver, I’d opt for something like our 26 piece bit driver
kit-- it has most of the bits you’ll ever need, and it’s small enough to fit in your
pocket.
You can find the bit driver kit and the rest of the tools at iFixit.com
Now that I have all my parts and tools laid out I can get started.
Starting at the top of the iPad gently guide a metal spudger between the front panel and
the rear case and rotate it away from you to release the locking clips.
Once you’ve released the clips along the top of the iPad insert your second metal spudger
in between the front panel and the rear case to prevent the clips from locking back in,
and then work your way down the right side of the iPad releasing the tabs as you go.
Once you’ve got the all the clips released your are going to want to lift the iPad from
the bottom, but be careful, because it’s still attached to the logic board by a few
cables.
I’ll use my plastic opening tools to disconnect those so we can move on.
Now that we have the front panel removed we still need to separate the LCD, and the first
thing that needs to come off is the ambient light sensor which is held down by adhesive.
There are T5 Torx screws securing the clips and the LCD, so they will all need to be removed.
Once those are removed we can get to work on
the LCD.
The LCD is held on with adhesive so starting along the top use the tip of your opening
tool to gently pry up the LCD.
Try not to bend the LCD as it is made of glass.
Once you get the top free start working your
way the three sides of the LCD opposite of the inverter cable.
Once you get all of those sides free you can lift the LCD up and off.
The last thing we are going to need to remove is the home button switch board which is held
on by two more of those T5 torx screws.
The last thing we need to do is transfer the foam tape and EMI tape to the new front panel
assembly, but before you reassemble your iPad, make sure there are no fingerprints or dust
on the inside of the front panel.
You don’t want to reassemble the whole thing only to find that you’ve trapped a bunch
of fingerprints inside.
You can find all of the parts and tools for this and many other repairs at iFixit.com,
and if you run into problems during your repair, there are lots of solutions in the iPad repair
guide on our site.
To keep up to date with the latest repair and tear down videos don't forget to subscribe
to our YouTube channel, and follow us on twitter at iFixit.
Thanks for watching, and happy repairing!