Digitizer(Touch screen), Not responding after Tear down.

holy mother load of shiz man!! I'd literally tried everything to get this stupid 3 functioning again. i read your post and was like, "what clips is he talking about, this guy is crazy talking about clips on the.......uhh....ohhh....hmmmm....Looky there, little itsy bitsy bastard clips that i've probably passed over like 600,009 times" i just unclipped all of them, pushed all the connections tight, clipped them back up and shazamm!! Everybody is happy again. By everybody, i mean me and the anti Apple voices in my head!! Serious man, thanks for posting and saving my sanity!!

You are both my HEROs!!! I was like the same thing... What black clips are they talking about and just like you stated, "these guys are crazy... uhh....ohhh....hmmmm, looky, looky, those little b@st@rd clips did the trick... THANKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

i dont know if im just dumb but i have no idea what you are talking about

i cant find anywhere a good video showing what i need to do SOME ONE PLEASE HELLPPP

If you look at the part that connects the ipad to the digitizer (like where you plug the ribbon in at) the little black piece, that's on the ipad, has a tiny little clip on each side of it. If you have ever replaced a ram stick in a laptop or pc, it's the same concept basically. They're f'n tiny on the ipad though. When you initially pulled the ribbon out, the clips don't come undone or even hold it in for that matter. Every thing that plugs any ribbon in has them on it. I just unclipped them and the ribbon slides in just a bit more and clipped them back shut. Apologies for the lack of proper names for everything, guess i just don't care enough to learn them, haha....

This was the fix!

They're FPC (flat printed circuit) connectors. The "flap" is opposite the side where the cable inserts, in the ones used by Apple, at least. They're similar to, but not quite the same as, a ZIF ("zero inserion force," which I never find to be true...)connector. (I sell replacements for iPad FPC connectors on eBay, and believe me, breaking the flaps is a common phenomenon. Replacing the whole connector is a real pain, though--it involves soldering 37 pins (51 if it's the LCD cable connector) plus the anchor points without melting any of the plastic in the connector or any of the nearby connectors. So it's interesting and useful to know that taping the cable in place (and/or putting tape or plastic on the back of it) can work....

e) Fix logic board. Really. It can be done--look for someone via Google who does microsoldering. The digitizer is part of a circuit, and other parts of the circuit can break/short/go bad/fall off. Or sell logic board on eBay, if the price of fixing it is too high. A microsolderer will buy it, fix it, and re-sell it. Keeps it out of the landfill...iPad Rehab is our local expert at this here in upstate NY, but they do (literally) world-wide mail-in service. (I don't think they bother buying boards on eBay and fixing them; that's for us relative newbies...)

What is the thickness of the mylar tape in thousandths?

You could probably use scotch tape or packaging tape.

I never had a problem with countless opening and closing of

these flaps but will keep this in mind if I ever do.

The tape worked for me too! Im using Scotch tape. Is there a difference between mylar and scotch tape? We gotta get the word out!! iPad 2 here

Yeah, one slight major difference. Ever manage to have scotch tape stick to you by the back side (non sticky side)? that's cause it conducts static electricity, something you don't want in the internals of any electronic, especially not an ipad. Just cause it's working now, does not mean it won't eventually short some of the pins on that piece or elsewhere. The reason for mylar is that it is industry know insulator, and in fact you can find it in some other places in the ipad used originally by apple. (holding the light sensor onto the mid-board).

Good luck!

I've never had a problem with opening and closing the flaps over and over either, except when I tried to "open" the connector on the side where the cable inserts...which is why I mentioned that the flap is on the OTHER side. For some reason this is counter-intuitive to me, until I remember that it's basically a clamp designed to hold the end in place.

The little flaps are hard to see, which is why other posters here have not noticed them, and I was able to mistake the back of the connector (on the insertion side) for the flap (on the other side)...

Mylar tape will not help you in this case unfortunately. The I pad mini is built much differently than the ipad 2.

The connector where the gold pins have pulled out is called the fpc connector and you will have to hAve it replaced. Unless you have some serious experience with microsoldering I wouldn't recommend doing it yourself.

Seconded. The "gold" (copper, actually) pins are what make the electrical connections to the digitizer circuits. They have to be there. It's actually possible to insert new pins (not easy, but possible...especially if you have a good microscope), but you would still have to solder those pins to their pads on the motherboard.

Occasionally you'll get lucky and it won't matter--sometimes not all of the pins are electrically active, and/or they are grounding pins, of which there are several, so you can do without one or two. But it sounds like you didn't get lucky in this case.

It's great that that worked for you! Very creative, and makes sense. I'd suggest making sure that the contacts on the extra cable you're using as a spacer are pointed up, away from the electrical connections, or (better yet) coverered with insulating tape to prevent any kind of short. Of course, if it's the same cable type and it's lined up perfectly, you should be OK. But just to be sure...

OK, without buying any part I got the iPad working again. Battery is charged and working fine. The tape trick seems to have worked..... almost. One side (25%) of the screen is just a little darker then the rest. Opon very close examination of the Zif connector I noticed a crack on the top plastic where the ribbon slips in. I believe that this is the cause of the screen being darker on one side. Because of the crack it will not matter if the tape is putting pressure on the connection in place of the clip, at the point of the crack there will never be enough pressure to make a firm connection at that point. I think that using the tape trick is a good temporary fix but in the end your only long term fix is to replace the Zif connector which is what I will do.

Can anyone recommend a good experienced repair shop in Silicon Valley. Ha Ha. I'm sure there are many but I want someone who has performed this tricky soldering job many times without fail. A specialist of sorts. Any suggestions?

Mail it in to iPad Rehab here in upstate NY (no, I don't work for them, but they have trained virtually everybody here in the states who does this repair, as far as I know....anyone who hasn't trained themselves using their excellent videos). Google them--they have a web site and YouTube channel.

The correct tape to use for covering those copper traces is called kapton tape. The chemical name is polyimide tape. It's an excellent electrical insulator and very thin. I'd try replacing that tape with kapton--it comes in various widths, so you can buy some thin enough that you won't have to trim it to run it down the sides. If that doesn't work and all the visible traces are covered, next I would try the various software solutions out there, the simplest of which is to do a soft (or if that doesn't work, hard) reset. After backing up everything, of course, if you can do so without your touch screen working...

iPhone digitizers attach with a very different connector than iPads--on the iPhone, it's basically a plug (line up the connector on the cable with the one on the logic board and push). The iPad digitizer cable doesn't have a connector on the end--it's just flat cable that fits into a connector which then clamps shut. The purpose of the tape people are talking about is to thicken the cable before inserting into the connector, so the fit is tighter.

So...short answer, no. The same thing won't work for you. I've seen plenty of digitizer connectors for iPhones that have no foam on the back and work just fine.

If you can, inspect the connectors under magnification--both the one on the cable and the one on the logic board. Look to be sure that they match and line up, and that there are no bent pins on either of them. Then line them up and press firmly in place. If there's a good fit, the plug should sit flat on the logic board and not be easily tugged off.

If the pins on one of the connectors ARE bent, hopefully it's the digitizer connector that's the problem. That can be fixed by buying a new digitizer. If it's the logic board connector it can still be replaced, but only by microsoldering.

If you're worried about the bare metal on the back of the cable's connector, BTW, just cover it with kapton/polyimide (i.e. non-conductive) tape.

I'm not aware of there being different digitizer connectors for different iPhone 5S versions, but it's possible. I think bent pins are more likely.