There’s a lot to it. (1) Start up cost - It will cost $2-$4K to get the equipment to properly refurbish. For small time repair shops they have to consider the ROI. Overall I would say you can recover 50-75% of the screens that are good canidates before attempting and the other % is going to break/fallout/defect by the time you’re done or shortly after consumer so the total cost savings will be ~30%. So even in order to break even, you’ll need to run through around 1,000 good screens before you get your initial $ back on the equipment. (2) Owner Time - Typically, it’s going to be an owner or partner in a cell phone repair shop that attempts to learn how to refurbish at first. You must calculate the cost of your time spent (because it will take many hundreds of hours) to get it all down. Is this time the best spent away from your core business? Maybe, maybe not. (3) Employees - After the owner has learned how to do it they will usually hand it off to one of their lead techs to help out. Typical cell phone...

Take a look at these stats on the price increase overtime and how red haze ratios have aided in the shortage price increase and redhaze iphone parts

Some good answers most of which are valid. I'll post my top reasons. My knowledge is based from my company, Harvest Cellular that buys back broken LCD screens here in the USA and sells this product back to the refurbish companies so I'm dealing with China a lot and the conversation comes up often when chatting with our clients. In my eyes, there are two main influences 1) External Supply / Demand A) Official Channels - The big carriers and prepaid guys are starting to sell iPhones as a loss-leader to acquire customers. Official channels push them as over the counter exchanges and Apple's new lower prices warranty options has all of these guys needing more and more refurbished phones. Instead of them being turned back into an LCD screen part to be sold to consumers or repair shops, their going directly back onto devices. B) Red Haze - 5/5c/5s LCD screens were plagued with a red haze tint that appears after several months of usage. This is around 40%. Consumers and repair shops consider this inferior and...

Yes, I've heard of others having the same issue. Logos or no logos isn't the issue and is often misunderstood. Any part that Apple has a patent, copyright or IP rights to could be sized in customs and Apple pretty much files IP docs for anything that it designs (or even make a concept of) to protect their future interest with competition. Most have seen the news in the past year about Apple suing Samsung over multi-touch functionality. An LCD screen that has this functionality even if it's the OS that does the major muscle. I'm not saying this is the specific reason because I wouldn't bet $1 that Apple doesn't have maybe 50 potential IP rights to some aspect of the screens that were seized. The logo misunderstanding is simply avoiding the most obvious of Apple's IP rights; their Brand. One aspect that Customs officials have a fairly easy understanding of (and the manpower to enforce when they can) Just because this one element is removed doesn't mean they can't enforce others. Foreign screen suppliers and...

Tan Tan, since your first suggestion is the common-sense recommendation of checking the settings, I would also add that a screen protector or new lcd replacement film has been removed or is not covering the microphone. Agreed inline with checking apps is to go to the voice recorder and try recording your voice. Speak loudly and could verify by sending the sound bit to your computer where you know sound works. Also if it's in a case that's cheaply made and generic. I've seen loads sold on eBay before that were being dumped because of manufacture error and people buy because their $1. Oh the days of selling iPhones on eBay. Can't help but remember all those calls about faulty cameras showing a green image to find out the original lens protector had not been removed yet. I'm a little confused because OP says upper "microphone". Wouldn't this be the upper earpiece?

The answer is yes it can. But the answer is also no, depending on other damage or faulty parts. With 3G/3GS, if the dock was bad, it was more likely (90% of the time) that the phone wouldn't power on. No matter if it works or not, I wouldn't risk possible further damage by a circuit short if it does or you could get it to power on with issue you've mentioned.

You would need a Cadex battery testing device to get a truly accurate reading. Unfortunately, these cost thousands of dollars. Depending on the model you get. There are ones for testing and repairing, speed at which it conducts the tests and how many you can do at a time. Standard battery testers are too unreliable and incapable of telling you what you need to know. They will usually have BAD FAIR GOOD or EXCELLENT. A new battery will consistently never get an excellent reading and a known bad battery could get fair - good readings. So I would think removal of the battery to test isn't very economical. Their are several apps ( I think I use battery doctor for my Note II) but they also have it for iPhone. If the battery is in a phone now and functional, you could try charging it to 100% , putting the phone in airplane mode and put the brightness down to the lowest possible setting. Change the screen time out setting to stay on till button is pressed and see how long it stays on.

Impressive! The issue with hair dryer is the consistency in the heat directly from the hairdryer. It's not always consist (enough for electronics) and unless you stabilize the distance it's not recommended. Also, the back of a hair dryer sucks in air to blow through the heat coils like a jet engine. All sorts of dust and elements in the air are slung on the electronic devices. Not such a big issue as it can be done. Most people who re flow buy a hot plate. The temperate is accurate, air can blow over the top of your other components and you don't expose heat to other unnecessary areas. We buy back broken LCD assemblies here in the USA from repair shops so this is a task that we do in overseas factory. We use the T-962 hot plate. You can get one for around $250 but there are other versions from $100 or so.

Off the top of my head, I would say you have a 65%-70% chance that a white screen is just the LCD assembly and replacing it will resolve the issue. The other possibility is that the connector on the board is also damaged and it's questionable if it could be repaired or your willing to take the chance that jimmy rigging the connector piece is worth your money knowing it might fully break shortly after. White screen is usually indicator of the flex cable connection from a) ribbon to board or b) ribbon to LCD having it's "teeth" shifted. It's too sensitive of a part to realign and you just hope it's not on the board. Our company buys back broken LCD screens and phones from repair centers here in the US and we've had hundreds like this.

Our company buys back broken LCDs assemblies and phones from repair shops. We've been through thousands of iPhones with this issue. My gut feeling is you have about a 75% chance that it's a bad LCD digitizer assembly and a 25% chance that the connector on the board is bad or other board related problem. Humm... actually thinking, you wouldn't want to try the screen first. You say it wont power on. First thing is to make sure the battery connector is still connected to the board. You can see this fairly easily by removing the back cover (but be careful and read how to do so first) For "free" you should check that and maybe it will cut on and just have a cracked screen. Does the phone make any sound or show any signs of life? Anything show up when you plug the charger into the phone? ...if no signs of life (sound, vibrate etc, assuming that the phone has enough battery to juice up) ...you probably have an issue non related to the broken LCD screen but could have both. If you have it charged or can charge and...