Fixing the Samsung Impression Touch Screen/ Digitizer Issue

Disclaimer: You attempt the following at your own risk. I am not a licensed technician of any sort, just an individual who researched and fixed his own phone. The instructions below are the ones that worked for me, and there's no guarantee that they'll work for you. Thank you.

The most common reason why the Impression's touch screen stops working is that the the digitizer is screwed up. The way to fix this is to switch it out for a new one. A new digitizer costs no more than $10.
See here for other samsung impression parts



Tools and equipment you'll need:

• Small Jewelers Phillips screw driver 
• Small flat screw driver or box cutters (use as a "prying tool")
• Small needle nose pliers (I only needed it once. You could do without it)
• A new digitizer to replace the old one
• See here for other samsung impression parts

Optional Prep:

• Have a pen and note pad handy to write down anything you do in your own words so you don't forget/ get confused
• Have a way to organize your screws because some of them are different sizes
• You may want to work on a white surface as all the screws are black

Note:

The orientation of the phone is ear-speaker = up.

Search Amazon.com for samsung impression digitizer

Steps (photos to follow soon):

1. Turn off your phone and remove the back cover. Remove the battery, SIM card, and memory card (if you have one).
2. Remove the 6 screws along the edges of the back of the phone, then carefully pry off the back cover. It's on pretty tight, so don't be afraid to wiggle your "prying tool" around a little.
3. Gently unclip the the antenna wire from the bottom right of circuit board.
4. Carefully pry, or gently lift (using the needle nose pliers) the round, silver looking thing (speaker?). Be careful not to tear the wire.
5. Unclip the flex ribbon from the bottom left of the circuit board. You can use your prying tool.
6. Slowly wiggle the black speaker on the top left free. Be careful not to rip or detach the wires.
7. Now, carefully and slowly wiggle the board, and "fold" it to the right.
8. Underneath the board, you'll find another flex ribbobn clipped to it. Unclip it, and the board will be free.
9. Remove the 6 screws from the silver part (metal) of the phone, and one from the antenna on the bottom right (black plastic part). REMEMBER TO KEEP TRACK OF WHICH SCREW IS FOR THE ANTENNA.
10. Pry the antenna up, and remove the two screws underneath it.
11. Remove the the silver frame, being very careful not to damage the flex cable in the middle right of the phone.
12. Remove the key pad.
13. Remove the 1 screw holding the flex cable down, and the 2 screws holding the key pad frame to the phone sliding mechanism.
14. Remove the keypad frame from the sliding mechanism, and again, be careful with the flex cable.
15. Remove 5 screws from the slide mechanism (If one of the screws is obscured underneath the meal chassis of the mechanism, just slide it away.)
16. Remove the front housing of the phone by prying gently around the edges. Be careful not to insert your prying tool too deep.
17. If you're having trouble separating the front housing from the sliding section, check to see if you can slide the metal chassis to the other side, thus creating an opening you can feed the flex cable through.
18. Unclasp the small flex ribbon on the right hand side behind the LCD screen-- that's the digitizer flex ribbon-- and slide it out.
19. Remove the screw at the top left of the speaker and unclasp and slide out the flex ribbon on the left behind the LCD screen.
20. Remove the speaker and ribbon carefully.
21. Unclasp the buttons' flex wire on the bottom right, and remove the buttons and LCD screen.
22. Heat the front of the phone slightly (hair drier, steam...) to loosen adhesive, and carefully remove digitizer.
23. Feed the new digitizer flex ribbon through the access hole, and carefully secure the digitizer to adhesive.
24. Clean inside of digitizer to remove any fingerprints, dust, grease etc.
25. Assemble in reverse order.

Search Amazon.com for samsung impression digitizer

Resources/ References:

Thanks to the following references, without which I'd have spent another $200 getting a new phone:

• Get a digitizer here!
• bkroo45 - Amazing video on the process
• julieannjohn - Another amazing video of the process
• See here for samsung impression parts

UPDATE

I took over 30 photos to illustrate the disassembly of the phone. Click here to see them.

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