# [FAILED] Phone Repair Adventure (LG V40 ThinQ)



## sam_86314 (Sep 24, 2021)

So over the last few weeks, the fingerprint reader on my main smartphone (LG V40 ThinQ) was being finicky. Did some research and saw somewhere that applying pressure under the camera could make it work. Sure enough, that temporarily fixes it.

However, when I took it out of the case I have it in, I saw that the back was bowing outward. The battery is expanding and pushing the scanner away from its contacts on the board. I took it to two repair shops, and neither was willing/able to work on it.

Guess I'm gonna have to do it myself. I did a quick test teardown and found that it's pretty easy to disassemble. I stuck a small plastic prying tool between the side and back of the phone and worked it around until it came off. Undid all of the #00 screws on the motherboard cover and that came off. The battery is stuck down with all the adhesive in the world, so I'll need to figure that out (probably have to use a microwaved rice pack to soften the adhesive). And sure enough, the battery is quite swollen.

Since I still need a usable phone, I've reassembled it and have five pieces of scotch tape holding the back on. I've ordered a new battery and adhesive on iFixit. Gonna minimize charging my phone until then.

This is still kind of disappointing, as I've only had this phone for two years. I've never had this happen on any previous phones (which were all iPhones from 2013 to 2019).

I'm wondering if the fast wireless charger that I'm using might've accelerated the battery's degradation. None of my previous phones had support for QC or even wireless charging.

Also, does anyone know of any good easy-to-repair smartphones out there with decent specs?

EDIT: Took some pictures with my Dell Latitude 5179 tablet (hence the horrible quality). NGL, I almost reached for my phone to take pictures of... my phone.













EDIT 2: Permanently damaged the screen now. Any suggestions for new phones are more than welcome. Lesson learned; don't use metal tools when prying the battery off of the screen.


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## Toothless (Sep 24, 2021)

Reason they don't want to work on it is because LG doesn't do phones anymore. Between that and no 5G support is why I switched phones. (OnePlus9 is fantastic, just sayin')

Your best bet is looking around for a battery and doing it yourself, VERY carefully.


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## sam_86314 (Sep 24, 2021)

Toothless said:


> Reason they don't want to work on it is because LG doesn't do phones anymore. Between that and no 5G support is why I switched phones. (OnePlus9 is fantastic, just sayin')
> 
> Your best bet is looking around for a battery and doing it yourself, VERY carefully.


Yep, already have a battery and adhesive ordered from iFixit.

I've considered OnePlus, but I need a headphone jack. Also can't stand the punch-out front camera.


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## ThaiTaffy (Sep 24, 2021)

Phones are notoriously getting harder and harder to repair and I don't think it's so much a right to repair issue more a technology issue. We are cramming more and more in yet trying to keep them as small as possible. I'm not anyway a phone technician I guess I could be considered more a cheapskate but I've always fixed my own phones and tablets as well as family's devices, all I can say is the more you fix a certain product the easier it seems.

As far as battery degradation batteries optimum capacity is always 50% (stable capacity) the closer you keep your battery at that level the less stress the cells accumulate, so when repairing yours I would get it as close to that as you can before adding heat or pressure. A good tip is to slide dental floss or any other fine filament wire (high E guitar string works best from my experience) behind the battery and slowly cut through the adhesive.


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## Ferd (Sep 24, 2021)

sam_86314 said:


> I almost reached for my phone to take pictures of... my phone.


  happens to me sometimes 


sam_86314 said:


> any good easy-to-repair smartphones out there with decent specs?


The way I see it is if you want to be able to repair something in the future , avoid buying rare and premium phones , most people use midrange and the parts are available much easier than a premium flagship , not to mention that repairing a flagship is expensive due to premium parts ....





sam_86314 said:


> I'm wondering if the fast wireless charger that I'm using might've accelerated the battery's degradation. None of my previous phones had support for QC or even wireless charging.


I doubt that caused any serious amount of degradation, the only way it’s possible is if the coils overheat then yes heat kills batteries faster , if your Qi charger causes heat avoid it , and use a lower amperage charging brick , I think 2Amps 5v is the sweet spot for long term ..
If you’re using wireless charging for convenience and hate plugging a cable everytime , then get one of those magnetic cables, you leave the connector always plugged in the phone , and it attaches magnetically to the cable when you need it , less stress for the connector too which is great ....


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## Toothless (Sep 24, 2021)

sam_86314 said:


> Yep, already have a battery and adhesive ordered from iFixit.
> 
> I've considered OnePlus, but I need a headphone jack. Also can't stand the punch-out front camera.


I didn't know about the headphone until after I bought it. Was a bit upset until I realized that bluetooth is just so much easier if you can remember to charge once a day at most. (My headphones go for about 10hrs)

Camera doesn't bother since it's in a thick case. Performance over the ThinQ is about 3x on EVERYTHING. Trust me, I benched. That's not to say my V40 isn't still being used, as I got cameras smashed (already dead) and epoxied for work. 

Good luck on the battery swap! An intact spicy pillow is best spicy pillow.


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## tabascosauz (Sep 24, 2021)

sam_86314 said:


> I'm wondering if the fast wireless charger that I'm using might've accelerated the battery's degradation. None of my previous phones had support for QC or even wireless charging.



It's still lithium-ion LiPo so the usual boring routine applies, don't charge past 80, don't fast charge, don't do anything that gets the battery above 30c......but in reality probably only the heat management is realistic. 3300mAh isn't huge and I'm guessing you want to use the battery capacity you paid for. Pretty similar to my old OnePlus 6T and I for sure would not cap it to 80%.

It's 18W fast charging, shouldn't really be a problem, but then again depends on heat. No idea if your phone is well designed thermally or a nuclear reactor in your hand. Not much control you have over that.

If you're just charging overnight, I would use a slow charger and save the 18W block for when you need it. My OP6T gets a bit warm when I Dash Charge, but my Poco DE stays cool at 18W fast charge.



sam_86314 said:


> Yep, already have a battery and adhesive ordered from iFixit.
> 
> I've considered OnePlus, but I need a headphone jack. Also can't stand the punch-out front camera.



Samsung probably has a couple lower midrangers with a 3.5mm jack, but they are probably slower to far slower than your phone. Poco X3 Pro has a headphone jack. The Xperia One III has one as well, but it's not cheap.

As for the punch, you might have to live with it. Everyone's doing it, and from that oppo or whatever phone recently it doesn't look like camera-under-screen is quite ready for primetime yet.

Do you use the 3.5 jack daily? Could something like a Fiio BTR3K or BTR5 work? The former isn't so expensive. The 3.5 jack on my iPhone 6S+ is now so loose it can barely keep a plug in, and moderate use of the dongle on my 6T killed the inbuilt DAC. I'm also thinking the BTR3K is the better solution.


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## sam_86314 (Sep 24, 2021)

Bad news.

While prying the battery out, I nicked the screen and damaged it.

I'm going to probably give myself a concussion now...

Welcoming any phone suggestions. I'd prefer an OLED screen, a MicroSD slot, and a headphone jack. No punch-out cameras; I'm fine with notches.



tabascosauz said:


> It's still lithium-ion LiPo so the usual boring routine applies, don't charge past 80, don't fast charge, don't do anything that gets the battery above 30c......but in reality probably only the heat management is realistic. 3300mAh isn't huge and I'm guessing you want to use the battery capacity you paid for. Pretty similar to my old OnePlus 6T and I for sure would not cap it to 80%.
> 
> It's 18W fast charging, shouldn't really be a problem, but then again depends on heat. No idea if your phone is well designed thermally or a nuclear reactor in your hand. Not much control you have over that.
> 
> ...



BTR5 is probably a fine substitute. I absolutely despise Samsung, so I'd prefer to avoid their products if possible.


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## Deleted member 202104 (Sep 24, 2021)

sam_86314 said:


> Bad news.
> 
> While prying the battery out, I nicked the screen and damaged it.
> 
> ...



T-Mobile by chance?


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## sam_86314 (Sep 24, 2021)

weekendgeek said:


> T-Mobile by chance?



Sprint, technically, but yes.


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## Deleted member 202104 (Sep 24, 2021)

sam_86314 said:


> Sprint, technically, but yes.


I'll send you a PM.


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## tabascosauz (Sep 24, 2021)

sam_86314 said:


> Bad news.
> 
> While prying the battery out, I nicked the screen and damaged it.
> 
> ...



Sorry to hear that. Don't feel too bad though, in the age of glass sandwich phones i'd imagine it's super common. Is it just a portion of the screen that's messed up or the entire thing?

The Xperia 1 III literally ticks every single one of those boxes. I'm not aware of even a single other phone out there that also does while retaining high-end performance. Only reservation I have about it is SD888, wouldn't pay $1300 for a repeat of SD810 thermals in an SoC, but aside from that one point I really love how the phone looks and performs.

Do update us if you get a BTR5, I'm close to pulling the trigger on a BTR3K and just want to know how the sound quality is.


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## Deleted member 202104 (Sep 24, 2021)

tabascosauz said:


> Sorry to hear that. Don't feel too bad though, in the age of glass sandwich phones i'd imagine it's super common. Is it just a portion of the screen that's messed up or the entire thing?
> 
> The Xperia 1 III literally ticks every single one of those boxes. I'm not aware of even a single other phone out there that also does while retaining high-end performance. Only reservation I have about it is SD888, wouldn't pay $1300 for a repeat of SD810 thermals in an SoC, but aside from that one point I really love how the phone looks and performs.
> 
> Do update us if you get a BTR5, I'm close to pulling the trigger on a BTR3K and just want to know how the sound quality is.



The Xperia 1 III is about the only phone out currently that I have any interest in.  I just can't spend the $1300 on something that may not get timely updates, or only be supported for 2 years.  The V40 I have stopped at exactly 23 months as far as security updates.

I tried the Pixel 5a, but it was a total fail at WiFi calling.  Where I live the service isn't strong enough to be able to rely on cell service only.


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## sam_86314 (Sep 24, 2021)

tabascosauz said:


> Sorry to hear that. Don't feel too bad though, in the age of glass sandwich phones i'd imagine it's super common. Is it just a portion of the screen that's messed up or the entire thing?
> 
> The Xperia 1 III literally ticks every single one of those boxes. I'm not aware of even a single other phone out there that also does while retaining high-end performance. Only reservation I have about it is SD888, wouldn't pay $1300 for a repeat of SD810 thermals in an SoC, but aside from that one point I really love how the phone looks and performs.
> 
> Do update us if you get a BTR5, I'm close to pulling the trigger on a BTR3K and just want to know how the sound quality is.


I have been looking at Sony's phones. They're everything I want, but their prices are absurd. An older model might be an option.

Here's the carnage.






Screen still works, just a magenta line and some dead pixels around where I nicked it.


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## Toothless (Sep 24, 2021)

weekendgeek said:


> T-Mobile by chance?


T-Mobile will not support the V40 after the network update. It doesn't have 5G and cannot work with new sim cards. No point.


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## Deleted member 202104 (Sep 24, 2021)

Toothless said:


> T-Mobile will not support the V40 after the network update. It doesn't have 5G and cannot work with new sim cards. No point.


Is it just the V40 specifically, or anything that doesn't have 5G?


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## sam_86314 (Sep 24, 2021)

Toothless said:


> T-Mobile will not support the V40 after the network update. It doesn't have 5G and cannot work with new sim cards. No point.


That's something I've been worried about with my V40 anyway. I flashed the US Unlocked firmware onto it a while ago and I don't think VoLTE works. Once they shut down 3G (which will make coverage even worse, if that's even possible), this phone might not be usable anymore.


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## Toothless (Sep 24, 2021)

weekendgeek said:


> Is it just the V40 specifically, or anything that doesn't have 5G?


Anything 5G I believe that cannot accept new sim cards. I tried with my V40 and yeah, no.


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## sam_86314 (Sep 24, 2021)

Toothless said:


> Anything 5G I believe that cannot accept new sim cards. I tried with my V40 and yeah, no.


This'll probably piss off a lot of people (or maybe just my family since we don't have any 5G phones).


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## Toothless (Sep 24, 2021)

sam_86314 said:


> This'll probably piss off a lot of people (or maybe just my family since we don't have any 5G phones).


I'm just hoping MetroPCS will keep the old network long enough to get my V40 replaced as my work phone. I don't want to reuse my ZTE again.


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## Deleted member 202104 (Sep 24, 2021)

Toothless said:


> Anything 5G I believe that cannot accept new sim cards. I tried with my V40 and yeah, no.





sam_86314 said:


> This'll probably piss off a lot of people (or maybe just my family since we don't have any 5G phones).



I'll have to call them tomorrow - I can't imagine that everyone with 2 year old phones would have to replace them.  Ugh.


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## Toothless (Sep 24, 2021)

weekendgeek said:


> I'll have to call them tomorrow - I can't imagine that everyone with 2 year old phones would have to replace them.  Ugh.


I took my phone in and that's what they said after I spent hours with the sim card.


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## tabascosauz (Sep 24, 2021)

@sam_86314 have you used a punch-hole phone before, or just predicting? I was pretty leery of it as well but honestly prefer a centred punch-hole to the weird notch-ish of the OP6T or the fat notch on iPhones. It doesn't really get in the way since you won't have anything in the very middle of the status bar anyways. Notifs and clock on the left, signal and batt on the right, just like every Android phone since 2010.

Left corner punch-hole phones are pretty weird though, not gonna lie.

A lot of stock and custom ROMs allow some customizability when it comes to notch behaviour. Some AOSP ROMs have full notch options in Developer Options and sometimes proper customizability elsewhere, afaik stock Oneplus allows you to exclude the top of the screen comprising the thickness of the notch (basically moving the status bar down, not ideal), MIUI allows you to keep the statusbar where it is but disable transparency which gives a black status bar and hides the punch-hole.

Just thinking cause it seems like the punch-hole camera is the only nigh-impossible requirement to satisfy, without shelling out $1300 for an Xperia or going to Samsung. Speaking of which, aren't there some lower end SD600 and SD700 Xperia III phones?


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## sam_86314 (Sep 24, 2021)

I read on iFixit that it's not a good idea to reuse the battery after it's been removed because the removal process usually ends up mangling it. Looks like the V40 is useless now.



tabascosauz said:


> @sam_86314 have you used a punch-hole phone before, or just predicting? I was pretty leery of it as well but honestly prefer a centred punch-hole to the weird notch-ish of the OP6T or the fat notch on iPhones. It doesn't really get in the way since you won't have anything in the very middle of the status bar anyways. Notifs and clock on the left, signal and batt on the right, just like every Android phone since 2010.
> 
> Left corner punch-hole phones are pretty weird though, not gonna lie.
> 
> ...


I haven't used a phone with a punch-out camera.

I'll admit, I felt the same way about notches too, then I got the V40. As long as I can hide it, I'm fine I guess.

Though in reality, I'd prefer no front-facing camera. But I guess I'm the only person in the world who hates selfies.


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## ThaiTaffy (Sep 24, 2021)

sam_86314 said:


> Though in reality, I'd prefer no front-facing camera. But I guess I'm the only person in the world who hates selfies.


Nope I hate all photos unless I don't know their being taken


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## tabascosauz (Sep 24, 2021)

sam_86314 said:


> I read on iFixit that it's not a good idea to reuse the battery after it's been removed because the removal process usually ends up mangling it. Looks like the V40 is useless now.
> 
> Though in reality, I'd prefer no front-facing camera. But I guess I'm the only person in the world who hates selfies.



I hate the very idea of selfies, but I need to video call a lot with friends in other parts of the world. Especially in this past year and a half.

The hole punch depends on if it's well-done. On my Poco F3 the hole is the size of the camera, so it's very small, and it's centered perfectly. Probably not all phones are like that though.


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## ThaiTaffy (Sep 24, 2021)

As I'm pretty much an oaf I'm more inclined to have as big a bezel as I can on my phone that way I'm less likely to smash the screen no idea what screen my current phone has stolen but I haven't really noticed the notch though as you can see I'm more function over form






400grams and a 10kmah battery


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## sam_86314 (Sep 24, 2021)

I've been thinking.

The whole time I've had the V40, I've been paranoid about taking care of the screen. I've kept the brightness down and tried to avoid things with white backgrounds.

The only time you can really enjoy an OLED screen is in a dark room. If I'm gonna watch any movies or whatever, I'll watch them on my monitor or my TV, which both have VA panels (black levels second only to local dimming and OLED). I think I'll be fine with an LCD.

Then again, OLED is perfect for hiding any notches or punch-out cameras.

With this requirement lifted, the OnePlus Nord N10 looks like a good option. Any thoughts on it?

I also view the headphone jack as a "nice to have". I don't need it all the time, but when I do need it, it's nice to have it right there. I'd rather not have to carry around a separate device or a dongle for that.


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## tabascosauz (Sep 24, 2021)

sam_86314 said:


> I've been thinking.
> 
> The whole time I've had the V40, I've been paranoid about taking care of the screen. I've kept the brightness down and tried to avoid things with white backgrounds.
> 
> ...



The white backgrounds aren't what does OLED in. *Unmoving, static *white icons and backgrounds, with a long/no screen timeout and frequent falling asleep with the screen on, are what does OLED in.

The only issue with white backgrounds and higher brightness is that it'll hit your battery harder, especially noticeable on OLED. Which is why dark grey and true black makes sense on OLED, because you don't gain any battery out of it on IPS. Which is why you can make do with less mAh with OLED if you're smart about dark themes.

N10 5G? Seems like a pretty solid option for the money if you aren't into flashing ROMs. As long as it has all the right LTE and NR bands you'll need. 

Be careful about relying too much on microSD support though. App2SD and generally app SD card access sounds pretty jank nowadays for many manufacturers in Android 10/11, might not be quite as reliable as it used to be in the 4.x/5.x days. I wouldn't use microSD as a crutch for internal storage - but if 128GB is plenty already though then no problems there.


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## sam_86314 (Sep 24, 2021)

tabascosauz said:


> The white backgrounds aren't what does OLED in. *Unmoving, static *white icons and backgrounds, with a long/no screen timeout and frequent falling asleep with the screen on, are what does OLED in.
> 
> The only issue with white backgrounds and higher brightness is that it'll hit your battery harder, especially noticeable on OLED. Which is why dark grey and true black makes sense on OLED, because you don't gain any battery out of it on IPS. Which is why you can make do with less mAh with OLED if you're smart about dark themes.
> 
> ...


I have dabbled with ROM flashing. I'd love to daily drive LineageOS on something, or mess with de-Googled Android. I converted my V40 from Sprint to US Unlocked.

I really only keep stuff like photos, music, and movies on the SD. Apps stay on the internal storage.

Makes it easier to recover that stuff if something happens to the phone, like if some numpty is trying to wrench the battery out and ends up stabbing the screen from behind.


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## ThaiTaffy (Sep 24, 2021)

sam_86314 said:


> Makes it easier to recover that stuff if something happens to the phone, like if some numpty is trying to wrench the battery out and ends up stabbing the screen from behind.


It's not the first time someone's done it I ruined my cousin's 3 S20 doing it hence why I said use a filament wire rather than pry at it. Live and learn.


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## tabascosauz (Sep 24, 2021)

sam_86314 said:


> I have dabbled with ROM flashing. I'd love to daily drive LineageOS on something, or mess with de-Googled Android. I converted my V40 from Sprint to US Unlocked.
> 
> I really only keep stuff like photos, music, and movies on the SD. Apps stay on the internal storage.
> 
> Makes it easier to recover that stuff if something happens to the phone, like if some numpty is trying to wrench the battery out and ends up stabbing the screen from behind.



I didn't mean that the N10 5G would be hard for dev stuff - it's OnePlus, there's already TWRP and official Pixel Experience available for that phone. Lineage is the base for many AOSP ROMs these days but I definitely wouldn't want to daily a Lineage nightly.

I meant that if you happen to be into that stuff you can try finding the Poco X3 Pro, offers the 3.5 jack and SD card you want, just without the OLED and 5G, but with considerably stronger hardware. And it's definitely not a phone you want to use with the stock ROM, but with Xiaomi flashing is pretty easy.

If you do want a good stock experience as well, N10 5G is obviously the one.


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## sam_86314 (Sep 24, 2021)

Just went to a local store to pick up an N10 only to find that apparently Sprint and T-Mobile are still separate and it won't work on Sprint's network. So that didn't work out.


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## sam_86314 (Sep 28, 2021)

Massive thanks to @weekendgeek for hooking me up with his old v40.

Unfortunately, T-Mobile is the absolute worst. They won't finish activating the phone on Sprint because it's an LG phone (because they don't make phones anymore), and apparently, it's incompatible with the T-Mobile network despite being a T-Mobile branded phone. Level 1 and 2 tech support and a local store couldn't help me.

I stuck my old SIM into it, and aside from the occasional "The SIM card has locked" message, it works just barely well enough.

Guess when Sprint's network gets shut down we'll have to switch to Verizon (since we have no other options, AT&T is too expensive).


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## FreedomEclipse (Sep 28, 2021)

sam_86314 said:


> Massive thanks to @weekendgeek for hooking me up with his old v40.
> 
> Unfortunately, T-Mobile is the absolute worst. They won't finish activating the phone on Sprint because it's an LG phone (because they don't make phones anymore), and apparently, it's incompatible with the T-Mobile network despite being a T-Mobile branded phone. Level 1 and 2 tech support and a local store couldn't help me.
> 
> ...


 
You know you could just buy an unlock code off ebay. I've been doing this for the last 10years and the unlock codes have always worked


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## sam_86314 (Sep 28, 2021)

FreedomEclipse said:


> You know you could just buy an unlock code off ebay. I've been doing this for the last 10years and the unlock codes have always worked



The phone isn't carrier-locked AFAIK. Unless that's not what you're talking about?


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## Deleted member 202104 (Sep 28, 2021)

The phone is unlocked - what I think might be happening has to do with the Sprint part of the equation.  Because it's a T-Mobile phone it doesn't have CDMA (Sprint's part of the network).  The phone is compatible with T-mobile directly - it was purchased from them.  I don't know how the two companies are handling the merger.  It almost seems like they're operating as two separate companies with 'Sprint' phones and 'T-mobile' phones.

Sorry @sam_86314 that you're having so many issues with phones/service.


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## sam_86314 (Sep 28, 2021)

weekendgeek said:


> The phone is unlocked - what I think might be happening has to do with the Sprint part of the equation.  Because it's a T-Mobile phone it doesn't have CDMA (Sprint's part of the network).  The phone is compatible with T-mobile directly - it was purchased from them.  I don't know how the two companies are handling the merger.  It almost seems like they're operating as two separate companies with 'Sprint' phones and 'T-mobile' phones.
> 
> Sorry @sam_86314 that you're having so many issues with phones/service.


Yeah, the whole Sprint/T-Mobile thing is way too confusing. I thought they had become one company, but I was very wrong. They still seem to be separate entities, but T-Mobile is shutting down Sprint's CDMA network in January 2022 and Sprint's LTE network in June 2022.

I currently have it working fine with the occasional "the SIM card has locked" popup, which doesn't seem to mean anything. It's hard to tell if the service is any worse because Sprint's service is legendarily terrible to begin with.

We'll most likely be switching providers when the fateful day comes that they shut down the legacy network.

I'm still extremely thankful for this—no need to be sorry for anything.

One thing I have been considering is swapping the motherboard out of my broken V40 into this new one. But I'm hesitant to do that given what happened...


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## ThaiTaffy (Sep 28, 2021)

sam_86314 said:


> Yeah, the whole Sprint/T-Mobile thing is way too confusing. I thought they had become one company, but I was very wrong. They still seem to be separate entities, but T-Mobile is shutting down Sprint's CDMA network in January 2022 and Sprint's LTE network in June 2022.
> 
> I currently have it working fine with the occasional "the SIM card has locked" popup, which doesn't seem to mean anything. It's hard to tell if the service is any worse because Sprint's service is legendarily terrible to begin with.
> 
> ...


From my own experience swapping boards can be a pain my wife's old phone still has overheating issues because of a board swap and I have no idea as to the cause.


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## sam_86314 (Sep 28, 2021)

ThaiTaffy said:


> From my own experience swapping boards can be a pain my wife's old phone still has overheating issues because of a board swap and I have no idea as to the cause.



When I disassembled the broken v40 I saw a small heatpipe under the motherboard with some thermal compound on it. I'd probably have to replace that compound if I were to do a swap.


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## sam_86314 (Oct 1, 2021)

Just switched from T-Mobile to Verizon, so my new daily will be a Moto One Ace for the time being. 

Trying to decide between the OnePlus 8T and the Google Pixel 5a.


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