I dropped my iPAQ phone and cracked the LCD - what now?

[c0ldb33r]

I've been using an HP iPAQ 910c as my cell phone/PDA and am really impressed with it. Tonight I was walking up the stairs and dropped it. It fell like 5 feet and then bounced a few times. It wasn't in its case :(

So, of course, the screen is cracked. The touchscreen kind of works, but not really. The image displays just fine though.

Here's what she looks like now. Click for larger image:
http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s182/c0ldb33r/th_IMG_1169.jpg (http://s152.photobucket.com/albums/s182/c0ldb33r/?action=view&current=IMG_1169.jpg)

What do I do now? A cracked screen isn't covered under warranty (it's my own dumb fault anyway) and HP wants $300 to replace it. I was thinking of getting a new LCD from eBay like this one:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=220341024223

Does anyone have any other suggestions?

In the above auction, the seller describes the difference between a digitzer and LCD. Is this right? Do I need a new digitizer or LCD? I think it's just the digitizer since the screen itself looks just fine.


LCD and touch screen/digitizer differences

The LCD is the inner part that show picture, it normally includes the touch sceen/digitizer, which is glass or plastic upper part of the LCD, and touched by your PDA pen.

So if your PDA can't show picture, you need to buy the LCD(which includes the touch screen/digitizer). If your PDA can't be touched by your PDA pen, but can show picture well, then you only need to buy one touch screen/digitizer which price is much cheaper than the LCD.

[izarate]

Judging from your picture, the liquid crystal display is fine. The only broken thing is the screen (the clear plastic/acrylic/glass panel that sits on top of the LCD). The eBay auction includes both. Seems like a good price and never hurts to have an extra backup LCD.

Apparently, the seller also offers the screen alone, which should be cheaper.

[c0ldb33r]

Cool - that's what I was thinking.

Is it hard to replace the digitizer portion? I've read a few different how-to's online, one made it appear incredibly simple (just remove the old glass screen and apply the new one to the LCD) and the other seemed REALLY complicated and insolved wire stripping and soldering (which doesn't really make sense does it?)

[izarate]

I suppose it would need a wire since the touch screen should send data to the machine somehow. I don't have any touchscreen device so I don't really know.

Maybe the seller would be willing to give you some information? He seems to sell only replacement parts so I guess he could help you with that.

[c0ldb33r]

I ordered a replacement LCD and digitizer. I found a guy on a cell phone forum that said that replacing the LCD and the digitizer at once (at least for my phone) is a cinch. *crosses fingers*

[c0ldb33r]

I fixed it!

My screen came in the mail today. It was actually pretty simple to fix. Here is a pic of it in its new case that I bought too :D

http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s182/c0ldb33r/th_122.jpg (http://s152.photobucket.com/albums/s182/c0ldb33r/?action=view&current=122.jpg)

Here's a pic of my old screen:

http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s182/c0ldb33r/th_129-1.jpg (http://s152.photobucket.com/albums/s182/c0ldb33r/?action=view&current=129-1.jpg)