How to disassemble an iPad 4 with your own hands - do the repairs yourself

To disassemble the iPad 4, you need to have an idea of ​​its technical characteristics, which have specific differences from its predecessors. You should not start disassembling the iPad 4 on your own if you have not done this professionally before, since if handled ineptly it will not take long to spoil its functionality. For example, when disassembling the iPad Mini 4, you can damage the Touch ID - fingerprint scanner.

In addition, in this model, not only the scanner, but also the Home button are completely glued, so it is very difficult to remove them; you need to carefully heat the glue, and then use a dielectric spatula to detach them. Also, the Lightning connector is tightly connected with solder to the motherboard. The only joy during disassembly will be the 5124 mAh battery, which can be removed without heating the glue or removing solder.

There are many different videos on the Internet that help you actually study the process of disassembling iPads, but the videos are not always accompanied by a competent explanation, which is why the owner of the iPad is forced to look for other sources of information about disassembling the device. So, what are the features of disassembling the iPad 4 and how to disassemble it?

First you need to determine the tools needed to disassemble the iPad. The first thing you need to do is get a Phillips screwdriver of the required diameter, several plastic mediators (regular plastic cards will do), as well as a hairdryer, a vacuum suction cup with a ring, a special dielectric spatula, and containers for bolts. Of course, for safer screen removal, it is better to buy a special device for removing the front panel.

Once all the tools are ready to disassemble the iPad 4, unplug your iPad and turn it off by holding the Home button until the Apple logo appears.

Front panel disassembly

To begin disassembling the screen, you need to run a spatula around the perimeter of the screen and carefully pry it off. Since this part is not glued, the screen will easily begin to move away from the main part. In this case, you do not need to jerk the screen or make sudden movements, since the display is connected to the main panel with a cable and if you move carelessly, you can accidentally damage it.

Having disassembled the iPad into two parts and disconnected the cables, you need to begin removing the various components located on the main panel. If you disassemble models without 3G support, you won’t have to remove much. First you need to remove the battery and then disconnect the 3G module. The battery is created on the basis of two lithium-polymer batteries.

When the battery is removed, you can remove the antenna and the headphone slot connected by a cable, for which we unscrew several screws. At the same time, there is a special humidity indicator on the headphone jack, which, if moisture gets into the iPad, disconnects the device from power and the service center will immediately determine whether liquid has entered the tablet. Therefore, all warranties are canceled as soon as this problem is found out, which caused the tablet to break down.

After this, you need to disconnect the display cable. To do this, let’s disassemble its lock and disconnect the cable itself from the connector. During subsequent disassembly, you need to unfasten the connector of the volume control keys, for which use a special spatula.

Parsing the main board

To remove the motherboard attached to the back panel, use a Phillips screwdriver to remove all the screws around the board's perimeter, first removing the electromagnetic shields needed to protect the board. After this, you need to unscrew the bolt securing the pin connector and unfasten its cable. Next you need to remove the speaker module, which takes up a significant amount of space.

When all the parts are removed from the back cover of the iPad, you can begin to disassemble the screen itself and its upper part. First of all, unscrew all the bolts around the perimeter of the case and carefully remove the display, disconnecting it from the plastic panel. The fact is that removing the screen in the iPad 4 model is quite difficult, since it is glued to the body. Now we will need a plastic pick, or even several, as well as a hairdryer.

Before removing the screen, you need to warm up the glue around the perimeter of the device, and when the glue becomes soft, then using mediators, prying from different sides, pull the screen away from the body, not allowing the glue to cool. Next, you can use a vacuum suction cup to safely remove the glass. Next, all that remains is to unscrew all the screws that hold the panel and finally carefully remove the screen.

How to remove a board on iPad 4

The motherboard for iPad 4 is based on the A6 processor, which contains ARMv7 cores. Please note that this model has an A5X chip welded to the base of the board. A6X is also built into the motherboard , indicated in red, running on a dual-core 1.4 GHz processor equipped with graphics cores. In addition, the board contains a 16GB flash memory module, indicated in orange.

The iPad Mini 4 model has various components on the board, including the A8 system, a 2GB RAM module, 16GB of flash memory, a Wi-Fi adapter, controllers, and the Apple M8 motion coprocessor. In addition, the fourth model uses an Apple audio chip and a touchscreen controller.

It is also worth mentioning the Lightning connector, which has a digital interface with a reduced number of pins to 8 and a reversible plug. To dismantle it, you also need to warm up its adhesive base using a hairdryer.

conclusions

And so, to summarize, it can be noted that the new iPad 4 has become 1.4 mm thinner, inside of which the main space is occupied by a 5124 mAp battery and built-in stereo speakers. The main processor is based on A8 with support for 2 GB of RAM. By slightly reducing the battery capacity, the manufacturer has achieved a reduction in the size of the fourth generation iPad.

In addition, it should be noted that the Face Time camera module has also changed downward. An engineering innovation was the built-in Wi-Fi antenna, which the manufacturer divided into two parts, placing one part at the top of the case and the other at the bottom, near the speaker. If we compare with previous models of iPads, the communication antenna in the iPad mini 3 was mounted at the bottom, and the iPad Air 2 was mounted only at the top.

In addition, the rear iSight camera, which has 8 megapixels, as well as the touch ID are connected by a cable in conjunction with the display. The iPad 4 display is completely laminated, because the matrix and the protective panel no longer have an air gap, which is why the image quality has significantly improved and does not have blur, since the picture is displayed right next to the glass.