Knowledge base
Everything we know about broken devices.
Not a blog. The layer underneath the price: what the part actually is, why it failed, and what changes if you pick one repair over another. Written at the bench in Drumcondra.
Mon to Sat 10 to 6
Screens and displays
The layer you look at.
Panels, glass, touch and everything that goes wrong with the part of a phone people notice first.
OLED and LCD screens explainedAn LCD makes light behind the screen and blocks it to make an image, so black is dark grey and the backlight glows at…What a digitiser isThe digitiser is the touch layer, a grid of transparent electrodes between the glass and the display that senses your…Ghost touch, and what causes itGhost touch is a phone registering taps nobody made. There are four causes: a failing digitiser, electrical noise…Screen burn-in on OLED phonesBurn-in is uneven ageing of an OLED panel. Pixels that have shown the same bright image for thousands of hours dim…Do screen protectors actually workA tempered glass protector reliably prevents scratches and takes the sting out of small knocks, and it is the…Is it safe to use a cracked phoneA flat crack with a perfect picture and working touch is not urgent, and the repair does not get cheaper by waiting.…Refresh rate, ProMotion and LTPORefresh rate is how many times a second the screen redraws. 60Hz is standard, 120Hz is smoother to scroll and costs…True Tone and screen calibrationTrue Tone reads the colour of the light in the room and shifts the screen's white point to match, so paper stays…What happens during a screen replacementHeat softens the adhesive, the display is lifted with its cable still attached, the battery is disconnected first,…
Batteries and charging
Power, and where it goes.
Lithium cells, charging standards, ports and the reasons a phone that was fine last year is flat by lunchtime.
Battery health and cycle countBattery health is an estimate of how much charge the cell still holds against the day it was made. A charge cycle is…Swollen phone batteriesA swelling battery is a lithium cell producing gas as it fails. It lifts the screen, bows the back and stops the…Fast charging, explainedFast charging negotiates a higher voltage with the phone, then tapers off as the battery fills. It does not damage a…Charging ports and why they failMost phones that arrive not charging have nothing broken. Pocket lint compacts at the bottom of the port a little…USB-C, Lightning and the EU charger ruleEU Directive 2022/2380 requires most portable devices sold in the EU to charge over USB-C. It applied to phones,…Wireless charging and MagSafeA coil in the pad induces current in a coil in the phone. A meaningful share of the energy becomes heat, in the…Laptop batteries and when to replace oneOn most laptops the battery sits directly under the trackpad, so a swelling cell stops the trackpad clicking properly…
Water and physical damage
Drops, splashes and what follows.
What an IP rating was actually measured on, what corrosion does on a timescale nobody expects, and what to do in the first hour.
IP68 and what it really meansAn IP rating has two digits: dust, then water. IP68 means fully dust tight and tested in fresh water beyond one…What to do when a phone gets wetTurn it off and leave it off. Do not charge it, do not press the buttons to see if it works, and do not put it in…Why wet phones fail weeks laterWater leaves salts and minerals behind when it evaporates. Those deposits conduct, and combined with the small…Salt water, beer and coffee: which is worseClean tap water is the best case. Sea water is the worst, because salt is both highly conductive and aggressively…
Boards and data
Underneath the parts you can name.
Logic boards, microsoldering, storage and the difference between a phone that is broken and a phone that is finished.
Logic boards and microsolderingA logic board fault is one where no replaceable part is broken; a component or a connection on the board itself has…Getting data off a broken phoneIf the device powers on at all, the odds are good. If it does not, recovery means getting it to boot for long enough…What a free diagnostic actually checksA diagnostic establishes what has actually failed before a part is ordered or a screw is turned. It measures charge…Why laptops overheat and shut downDust packs into the heatsink fins until air cannot pass, and the thermal paste between the chip and the heatsink…Boot loops and stuck logosA boot loop is the device failing partway through starting and trying again. The cause is usually software, sometimes…Games console repairs explainedThree faults account for almost every console that comes in: a damaged HDMI port from a cable pulled at an angle,…
Locks and security
Who the phone belongs to.
Face ID, Touch ID, IMEIs, activation locks and parts pairing: the features that decide what a repair can and cannot do.
Parts pairing and repair warningsParts pairing means a component is registered to a specific device in software. Fit a replacement, even a genuine…Face ID, Touch ID and fingerprint readersFace unlock uses a sensor array in the top of the screen assembly, which is transferred to a new panel rather than…Activation Lock and account locksActivation Lock ties a device to the account of the person who set it up, so a stolen phone is worth nothing. It is…What an IMEI is and why it mattersAn IMEI is a fifteen-digit number unique to a phone, used by networks to identify the handset rather than the SIM. It…eSIM, physical SIM and moving networksA physical SIM is a chip you move between phones. An eSIM is a profile downloaded onto hardware soldered into the…Passcodes and what a repair shop needsA repair does not need your passcode. Testing one does, because proving a screen, a camera or a fingerprint reader…If your phone is lost or stolenMark it as lost from another device first, which locks it and shows a message. Then call your network to block the…
Buying, selling and value
What a device is worth.
Grades, trade-in, what actually moves a valuation, and the checks worth ten seconds before you hand over cash.
Phone condition grades explainedGrades describe cosmetic condition, not whether a phone works. A is mint with no marks worth mentioning. B is good,…Checking a used phone before you buyThree checks matter more than everything else: set the phone up from scratch so an account lock cannot hide, put your…What moves a trade-in valuationModel and storage set the ballpark. Battery health and a cracked screen move it most after that, and both are repairs…Refurbished, used and open boxNone of these words is legally defined in Ireland, so they mean whatever the seller wants. Refurbished should mean…Selling a phone safelyBack up, sign out of every account, then factory reset. In that order. Resetting before signing out leaves the phone…
Rights and warranties
What you are entitled to.
Irish consumer law, the EU repair directive, what a repair warranty covers and what no honest one does.
What a repair warranty coversA repair warranty covers the part that was fitted and the workmanship that fitted it. It does not cover new…Your rights when a repair goes wrongUnder the Consumer Rights Act 2022 a service must be provided with reasonable care and skill. That is statutory and…Phone insurance and repair claimsMost policies carry an excess of fifty to a hundred and fifty euro per claim, and claiming usually raises what you…
Care and prevention
Making it last longer.
The handful of habits that decide whether a phone reaches four years or two, from the bench that sees the ones that did not.
Making a phone last longerHeat is what ages a battery, a grippy case prevents more breakages than a thick one, a charging port needs emptying…Backing up a phone properlyTurn on the automatic backup your phone already has, then check the last backup date is recent. The check is the part…Repair or replaceCompare the repair against what the phone is worth repaired, not against a new one. If the repair costs less than…
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