So from those that do many repairs what do you think is the percentage of repairs in which the home button doesn't work after moving it to a new screen? 10%? 30%? 70%?

VERY SMART!! I would not have thought of doing that. Depending on what my local repair guy charges I may be doing this myself, but in all honestly if the home button does not work on the new screen I'm getting another phone

ok found the problem. i accidentally popped out the dvd drive (when I was just trying to open it lol) and up under the lip I found three 1/8" long very-flat head screws. unscrewed those and the back came right off.

I am currently working on this laptop and it doesn't open at all like this one. This is only one back... and 18 screws holding it on. I can partially snap the back off but i can't pry it apart by the dvd drive. I'm also guessing the same model is manufactured differently for different retailers. (This happens in the retail hardware world where a dewalt drill from home depot will be made cheaper than a dewalt from ace hardware) so now I"m stuck. any ideas would be helpful. thanks.