Resurrecting Samsung Galaxy S6

Performing standard techno-necromancy on a 10-year-old device.

I had an old Samsung Galaxy S6 smartphone laying around. Last I recall, there was a crack in the internal LCD (but not on the glass somehow), making the screen unusable. Some time later, the device stopped charging at all.

Without any specific goal or purpose in mind, more for the sake of practice, I ordered new display assembly and battery.

Process

I followed the great iFixit replacement guides:

Battery
Screen

The patient, with no signs of life.

Back cover removed. Quite a hassle, had to use the heated iOpener 3 or 4 times, and even after that, ended up using a razor blade to pry an opening between the back cover and the frame wide enough to put a plastic pick in.

Midframe assembly removed. This is when I noticed the crack in the battery cable.

This would explain why the smartphone would not even charge. But how did this happen? I could not have done this by accident while disassembling - the cable is underneath the midframe assembly.

Motherboard detached.

Display assembly detached. Very messy. I couldn't get the right location for the picks, so ended up detaching the outer glass first. Accidentally broke the LCD and managed to prick myself with a shard of it.

Blood is required for any form of necromancy.

Carefully cleaned up the frame, mounted the replacement display assembly (it came with adhesives), replaced the motherboard, installed the new battery, and...

To test before final assembly, I shorted the two power pins on the board to turn the smartphone on.

It's alive!

Then, just reassembled everything back.

Overall, not counting the adhesives for the display and the back panel, surprisingly easy to work with. I expected unreachable connectors and more loose wires.