Galaxy S4 water damage - replace digitiser or just screen?

ascotr

Honorable
Sep 11, 2012
1
0
10,510
So I stupidly allowed my Samsung Galaxy S4 to get water damaged, and don't have it insured, so I figure the cheapest way to repair my phone is to do it myself, although I don't know much about these things. I took it apart and sat it in rice for 24 hours, and it still doesn't work.

The problem:
It turns on, the led indicator flashes blue, the startup music plays, but the screen is blank. Once it goes through the boot sequence, the screen lights up green, with tearing of different colours across the screen. the back and home buttons light up too, and it seems I can lock the phone and the green screen goes blank.

My question:
It appears the electronics are fine, but I will clean them with alcohol anyway just in case. What I would like to know is, is there any way of telling if it is just the screen that is broken, or if the digitizer is broken as well? or just the digitizer and not the screen? I don't really know what these terms mean, but if I knew what replacement parts to buy I think I would be fine attempting to fix it myself.

Any and all advice would be appreciated here, I just don't want to spend money buying the wrong thing and find out that it still doesn't work.

Thanks,
Jamie
 
Solution
A repair shop can pull it down and see if it is just water in the back and dry and put it back together for about $100. If the LCD panel is dead and the board is fine it is about $140 to fix. The S4 is a good fone and worth repairing - as is the S5. The S3 is complete rubbish due to the bad SD controller chip and the S2 and S really getting too old. I would take it to a shop and get a quote.
A repair shop can pull it down and see if it is just water in the back and dry and put it back together for about $100. If the LCD panel is dead and the board is fine it is about $140 to fix. The S4 is a good fone and worth repairing - as is the S5. The S3 is complete rubbish due to the bad SD controller chip and the S2 and S really getting too old. I would take it to a shop and get a quote.
 
Solution