So, my wife's just over 2 year old iPhone 7 plus died. The motherboard. She lost everything (reminder: backup these things!).
It took me about 5 hours. That doesn't include ordering the motherboard and fingerprint sensor from China. In this phone, the fingerprint sensor/home key and motherboard are hardwired together. That is, if you replace the motherboard, but not the sensor, the fingerprint functions do not work.
I had two phone kits, with various screw drivers. You need specialty tools. I used AliExpress to find a vendor for the motherboard and sensor. Here are some websites I used.
This is for the main iPhone 7 replacement
https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/iPhone+7+Logic+Board+Replacement/76050I used a heat gun on high to break the seal initially. There are some issues for this, as the plus (A1661 is ours) is a bit different. I had to search for how to remove the front cameras in the plus. I had many small containers, and I marked them (using small papers) with the step in the operation. The screws are TINY. They are also different sizes and lengths, so if you can note that too, that will help. I had one screw that would not go back in. I'm not sure why.
Putting back on the connectors for the antennas was very tricky. I spent well over 15 minutes just trying to align one of them. Both of them did snap in place after a while.
Here's a way to remove and reinstall the sensor:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=An9kUJshRjAI did not have the glue, so I used the old stuff (some was still there).
I used this adhesive tape to try to replace the water seal:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07CK54MYH/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1It comes with two, but I only needed one. I removed the bottom sheet (called a blue release liner) and aligned gently. I had to do this twice before it was finally aligned correctly, then I pressed everything down.
https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/iPhone+Display+Adhesive+Replacement/93983It seems to work, although we're still setting it up.
It was a total of about $230 (not including the phone fix kits, which I already had), for 128gb. It took me about 5 hours. Now, we just have to see if we really want my 6th grader to have this (my wife got another phone, since this took over a month for me to fix).
