Yes, we've gone from this;
To this;
It's ALIVE!!! IT'S ALIVE!!!
The whole iPod nano screen replacement took about 30 minutes, and cost $21 for replacement LCD (TFT) screen and tools. Before I bought the screen and tools, I pried the nano apart to make sure that I could take it apart, and put it back together without destroying it utterly. After I got the screen and tools, the tools made it a little easier to crack the sucker open, but they weren't required.
Pulling the back off the nano was the hardest part. It had a number of metal snaps in place that I disabled or broke while opening it up, but the case still locks back into place with sufficient tension. Basically, you just need to use a flat or edged tool to slowly work the snaps apart. Take your time with this, and be ginger. Note that there will be some force required to make the final separation of the back and the rest.
Once here, there are a few screws you'll need to remove. Two of them hold a thin piece of plastic in place, keep track of that plastic, and which way it's facing before removing it. The screws are NOT interchangeable, keep track of which screw goes in which hole. You will need one of those micro philips screwdrivers. Don't worry too much about disabling the battery, but be careful not to jab any metal at the circuit board. Lithium Ion batteries have a nasty habit of catching on fire when they're shorted... There's also a small slat of copper colored fiber just left of the bottom center of the battery. Note it's position, it is kind of loose, and will need to be right where it was when you put it back together.
Now that you've got the back off, and the screws out, comes the tough part. There are four parts here now, the frame, the battery, the screen, and the circuit board. All four are connected to each other, and will not spread apart easily. Note that I said spread apart, not come apart. I chose to simply spread the pieces apart, you may choose to remove the attaching parts from each other for ease of screen replacement, but I didn't want to complicate things, and only had marginal difficulty doing the replacement with everything attached.
Here is a slightly exploded picture of the pieces. This is as far as I had to get it to do the replacement. To help you get your bearings in this picture, note the click wheel is facing out on the frame. The dull aluminum square at the bottom left of the screen is the battery (it's only attached by the two wires, so it's a little loose, make sure you support it), the white square at the base of the frame is the backside of the screen, flipped down. The frame window for the LCD has some stickiness on it which holds the LCD in place. It will feel like you're doing something bad when you pull the LCD from the frame window, but don't worry.
That orange ribbon cable is running from the LCD screen to that off-white bar-shaped connector on the circuit board. That bar holds the ribbon cable in place with friction, IT DOES NOT POP OPEN!!! You can remove the ribbon cable by holding onto the ribbon cable firmly, and pulling it down (or, to the top left in the picture) The ribbon cable will slide out of the connector with minimal pressure, and will separate the LCD display from the rest of the parts. Take a look at all the tiny gold connectors at the end of the ribbon cable. Pretty tiny eh? This means that you have to make sure the ribbon cable on the new LCD is seated correctly. Pick up the new LCD, and set it up as the old one was when you pulled the ribbon cable out. Try not to "walk" the ribbon cable into the connector, it should go straight in with a little force. Be careful not to pinch the cable. This is kind of tricky since you need to use some force to get it in, but be careful with the delicate cable. If the cable stops going in, it's probably seated completely. When I did it, I thought it was in shallow, but couldn't get it in any more, so I put it back together and it worked.
When reassembling the nano, make sure that the LCD screen fits onto the circuit board with the four feet on the back of the LCD housing. Try not to futz with the LCD to frame window contact, since it could cause the adhesive on the frame window to bunch up, and warp the clarity of the window. Make sure the battery is seated properly, and that copper colored fabric thingy is right where it was before. Also, match up the HOLD button switch nub on the circuit board to go in the middle of the two prongs on the hold switch on the top of the back. You might have trouble getting the whole thing flush with the frame before you put the screws back in, so don't sweat the bulges until it's all screwed down. Don't attempt to start it up before the back is on, it won't work. It has two connectors on the circuit board that will prevent it from starting up without the back on it. Sure, you could short these connectors and try to power it on, but doing so would start a flow of current through the board while you're handling it, and is not recommended. Once you get the back on (it may take a few attempts to get all the snaps seated properly), plug it in to power.
You should see this :)
PS: I experienced some slippage in my hold switch. It wouldn't come off hold because the hold switch wasn't engaging the nub on the switch inside. I put the switch to the right position, and squeezed the hell out of it to make sure the back and front were seated together properly. After that, the hold button engaged the nub and had the proper tension to snap in and out of hold. Keep an eye on it.
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