Thanks to iFixit's repair guides, I've successfully replaced a battery on an iPhone 4 and broken screens on 4, 4s, 5 and 5s. (I even successfully redid a botched "professional" repair on an iPhone 4!) While the kids I know may not be happy their broken iPhones haven't led to getting new (upgrades), their parents sure are pleased!
Removing the old battery is the most time-consuming part of this repair. Patience is ESSENTIAL.
Meanwhile, I used this repair as an opportunity to do some “dusting”. I’d thought I’d been pretty responsible about keeping my PB clean, transporting it safely, etc. I was flabbergasted how much dust and debris had accumulated in 5 yrs. of use! I used a bulb blower to dust some areas. I used a small vacuum with tiny attachments (great for cleaning sewing machines, electronics, etc.) to suck out addition loose crud.
My PB had eight (8), 2.3 mm screws and two (2), 3.0 mm screws.
Pay attention to how the new battery sits in place before removing the adhesive strips. Although I did this, I didn’t notice that the rubber “feet” on the plastic frame around the middle batteries were very slightly out of alignment. The result was that the case could not be closed tight enough for the screws to fasten properly seal the case. It took a lot of poking around and attention to minor detail in order to get the case to fasten back in place.
I echo the others who found that there was only one screw (on the upper right). The remainder were rubber-like “feet”. I removed them, but they don’t seem to fasten anything, so this wasn’t necessary. As Ralph pointed out, the ifixit replacement battery comes with new “feet” installed.
These directions (and those for replacing the SSD) were very helpful. Everything worked well for about a week after which time the battery started having charging problems (again). The computer will start to charge, get to ~25% at which point the machine reports that it’s charging, but doesn’t get beyond ~25%. “Troubleshooting” in Win 10 doesn’t reveal any troubles to shoot. I am now trying to figure out whether the problem is with the new (supposedly Lenovo-brand) battery or perhaps the power cord. Any suggestions?
I, too, am having enormous problems removing all these screws. The first 1.7 mm came out without trouble, but the 6, 1.6mm screws are terrible. I've made it down to the last one and I'm afraid that the screw head is becoming stripped. I'm working with about a half-dozen tiny-headed Philips head screw drivers and am no longer getting any "bite" to turn the screw.
Be very, very careful when removing a broken screen. My experience was that while most of the broken screen came off, there were many smaller pieces which were stuck to the area around the home button as well as the camera lens. I took my time and used narrow-headed tweezers to remove countless shards of glass. Likewise, I found what I think was an adhesive membrane which I think was supposed to come off with the front screen but remained stuck to the frame. After some head-scratching on my part, I removed the adhesive membrane (tape) and hoped I wasn't removing something important. Thankfully, once reassembled, the phone worked fine!
Thanks so much for this guide! My husband and daughters think I'm a GENIUS for repairing my 12 y.o.'s iPhone 4. Slow and steady is the way to go. A couple of hints/suggestions: use pieces of double sided tape on the "worksheet" to help hold the screws upon their removal. I'd ordered a set of replacement screws in anticipation of losing one in the repair process but to my astonishment I was able to keep track of every piece of hardware. Likewise, small, narrow-tipped tweezers can come in very handy. This is particularly true when trying to remove pieces of shattered glass stuck to the panel. Likewise, I found a magnification lamp (magnifying glass with a light on an adjustable arm) very helpful.