DIY Honor 4C earpiece and Screen replacement

Finally, fixed my phone’s screen and broken earpiece. This is a continuation of my previous post (Disassembling my Honor 4C ) where I dismantled my old bae – Honor 4c and this is my first DIY phone repair.

Here is the repair log:

So, I bought the display and the touch screen digitizer from ebay and it got shipped in a week.

Honor 4c screen replacement from ebay

While trying to replace the screen, I accidentally damaged the earpiece (located on the top of the phone) as I pulled it out the wrong way.

Honor 4c earpiece (broken) picture

 

The red rectangle shown below is the location of the earpiece(next to the secondary camera):

Honor 4c earpiece location

Well, that didn’t go as planned 🙁

Then, I did weeks of research trying to source the earpiece for the Honor 4c online but the earpiece was not available anywhere. Finally, I found it on aliexpress for $4.53 (Link) which was a good deal (including shipping from China).

I got the earpiece delivered in 1 month. It was actually pretty fast shipping considering it was shipped from another country and cleared customs in my country which usually takes a long time. Infact, this is my first item that I purchased from China and from aliexpress.

Parcel from China

Dismantled the phone (again), fixed the earpiece, and mounted the display. And here comes the moment of truth!!!

Honor 4c is Booottttiinnnnnngg!! :D

Booot was successful. 

Tested primary and secondary camera, wifi and earpiece and it was all back to normal. 🙂

 Yaayyyy!!! 

Well, this project had its ups and downs, took long to complete but am am happy that I completed it.

Regards,

ΞXΤЯ3МΞ

Disassembling my Honor 4C

I dropped my phone while running to work and the screen broke due to the impact. I have been using this phone for a very long time (since 13th June 2015) and I dint want to let go (probably due to sentimental value). Most people would just throw the old one away and get a new one but honestly I didn’t really feel the need to get a new one. As of now, I will wait and see. Maybe eventually I might get a new one (Honor 8 Pro maybe?) but I don’t know. So I thought I would keep it with me, give it time, learn and fix it myself even thought I have no clue what I am doing. LOL! May be this whole repair thing is a bad idea and might fail, but its definitely worth a shot.

Here is the picture of the broken screen 🙁

My Honor 4C - broken LCD screen

This is the first time ever that I am taking apart a phone completely so pardon me for any mistakes. I had completed dissembling this phone a while back but just didnt get the time to post about it due to work.

So, I googled for weeks on tutorials on stuff like how to open up this phone, the tools you need and stuff like that.

So, I bought a mobile repair kit which basically has a few screwdrivers, 2 x guitar strum looking things, 2 plastic crowbars and a suction cup. Here is a picture of the kit:

mobile repair kit

So, first thing I did was to remove the back shell.

Honor 4c back shell

So, this is how the back portion looks after removing the back shell.

So, I started off by removing the screws near the battery and then the outer ones. Attaching a picture for their location for reference:

It took me a while to figure out that there under the “Torn invalid” sticker, there is a star screw hidden underneath it. Attaching a picture for reference below:

Now, we can gently take out the blue casing. This is what looks like once we remove the blue casing on the Honor 4c.

My baby is so pretttyyy on the inside!! 🙂 😛

To remove the battery, I had to remove the two screws on the right side of the battery as shown in the red box below:

remove the two battery screws

Now to pop the battery out, I had to lift and disconnect the battery connector as show below.

After disconnecting the battery cable, I was able to remove the battery by simply lifting the battery up.

So, this is how the battery looks like:

back side of the battery

After the removing the battery, disconnect/pull  the below cable.

Honor 4c left side cable

Then disconnect the below two cables.

honor 4c two cables

 

Now, we can separate the motherboard from the phone.

removing honor 4c motherboard removing honor 4c motherboard 2

This is what my Honor 4c motherboard looks like.

 

Honor 4c motherboard

This is what the backside of the display looks like:(which has the Frame which holds the Display and the Touch Screen Digitizer).

Honor 4C LCD Display and Frame

So, I was able to disassemble my phone successfully! Wohoo!! 🙂 I know this is not a big deal for most people but its a big deal to me. I honestly didn’t think I could make it this far as I was alone in this learning journey. I am glad that I gained some knowledge on dissembling phones which is something I had never done before. I did make a video with audio instructions on the whole disassembly process but I am not sure I should upload it to my youtube channel or not. Lemme know what you think below in the comments section.

Do you think its worth repairing this and having it fixed? If you were in my shoes, would you hold on to your old phone?

Leave your comments in the comment section down below. I would love to hear what you have to say.

As always stay happy!  🙂

Happy blogging!

Regards,
ΞXΤЯ3МΞ

Unlock Bootloader Honor 4c + Screenshots

This is a guide on how to unlock the bootloader on Honor 4c running Android 6.0 from a Windows 10 PC.

Requirements:

  1. HiSuite software
  2. Minimal ADB and Fastboot
  3. Unlock code
  4. Your Honor 4c phone- For obvious reasons 😛

Disclaimer: Please follow this guide at your own risk. Following this guide will void your warranty and may result in a bootloop and I assume you would know how to fix bootloop. If your phone gets bricked, don’t blame me.

Step 1. Get required phone details

Model Number:

In your phone, click on Settings>About Phone and you would find “Model Number”. For example, mine is CHM-U01.

IMEI number:

You would have two IMEI numbers, take a note of the 1st IMEI number that you see in the “About Phone” under Settings.

Serial Number:

Go to Settings>About Phone>Status and you should your phone’s serial number.

Product ID:

Open your phone’s dialer and type the following code: *#*#1357946#*#*

Step 2. Enable Developer Mode + USB debugging

  • Go to Settings>About Phone and keep tapping on “Build Number” until it says You’re a developer.
  • Now go back to Settings, you should be able to see “Developer Options”. Click on it and then move the slider next to “USB debugging” to enable it.

Step 3: Install HiSuite

Step 4: Get your unlock code:

honor 4c unlock bootloader link screenshot

  • Login to your Huawei Account, click “I have read and accept all terms above” and then click “Next”.
  • Fill in your phone details and you will get your unlock code Please take a note of it as we will need it to unlock the bootloader.
  • In case you do not get your unlock code, please send an email to Huawei at [email protected] and they should be able to provide you with the unlock code.

Step 5: Install Minimal Adb and fastboot

  • To download and install Minimal ADB and Fastboot, use the download link below:

https://www.androidfilehost.com/?fid=24521665358595410

  • During installation, please take a note of the installation directory. By default it would be installed to “C:\Program Files (x86)\Minimal ADB and Fastboot” for a 32-bit OS and “C:\Program Files\Minimal ADB and Fastboot” for a 64-bit OS.

[Note: For more information about Minimal ADB and Fastboot package, please visit XDA and support the original creators of the software. (XDA Link)]

Step 6: Unlock bootloader

  • Connect your Honor 4c via a USB cable to your PC/laptop and then unlock your phone.
  • Now browse to the Minimal ADB and Fastboot installation directory. Press and hold SHIFT in your keyboard and then right click on any blank space in that folder and click on “Open command window here”.
  • You should be able to see command prompt window like the one below:

adb location

  • Now we need to verify that your phone is accessible via adb run the following command:
adb.exe devices

You may receive a message in your phone to allow the connection, click Allow when prompted. If the above command does not display your device, then something went wrong with the installation of Huawei HiSuite drivers or your phone is not connected properly to your PC. Below is a screenshot when adb was able to detect my device.

adb recogized device screenshot

  • Now type the following to boot into your phone’s bootloader.
adb.exe reboot bootloader
  • You would see a screen with a white background titled “FASTBOOT&RESCUSE MODE” with the message “BOOTLOADER LOCKED”.
  • Verify that you are fastboot is able to recognize your device by running the following command:
fastboot.exe devices
  • To unlock your bootloader, run the following command “fastboot oem unlock keyyourecieved” from your pc after replacing 123456789 with the unlock code that you received from Huewai’s website:
fastboot oem unlock 123456789

You should see the message “Phone Unlocked” message in the bottom after the bootloader has been successfully unlocked.

  • Now, reboot your phone by typing the following command:
fastboot.exe reboot

Congratutaions, you should have unlocked your bootloader by now. I will link another article soon on how to root and install custom recovery TWRP on Honor 4c running Android 6.0 (Marshmallow).

Do leave a comment below and share if you liked this guide. Cheers!

Source:
Minimal ADB and Fastboot: XDA