I bought myself a broken ereader from ebay.
It worked but the screen was covered in lines and was barely readable.
This is the PRS 600 touch screen model and the touch screen was intact and working as far as I could discover.
sony prs 600 service manual, there are lots of links and it should be free.
Then I took it apart to see how the screen goes in and to check it wasn't just loose connections.
I tried soft reset and hard reset (Sony describes these on its own site) just in case that solved the corrupt screen but didn't hold out much hope.
It is model ED060SC4 and fits the 550 model also.
I decided that Ebay was going to be the route for obtaining a brand new screen.
I chose one with a good price ,the best feedback score and no dubious delivery costs.
It took 8 days to get to the UK from China.
It arrived in a CD container ,enveloped in bubble wrap and inside,it was carefully sandwiched in foam.
The e-reader was once again dismantled.
If I had been thinking carefully,I would have labeled the screws but I didn't think of it and so had to guess which ones were which.
The manual names them by size so you could easily stick same size screws to some sticky tape and write the size on it.
When you get to the ribbon cables,they are held in with a strip that goes across the connector,you need to lift the little flap that is the strip and it is easiest to do with a finger nail, they should flip up and the ribbon cable is no longer held tight so can be pulled carefully out and left sticking up.
If you do manage to snap a flap( I did till I realised they flipped up) you can use a piece of electrical tape to hold the ribbon cable in when you reassemble..
I followed the diagrams in the service manual for this as they are very clear .
Once the pieces were separated, I had to get the old screen off the metal frame to which it was glued.
This was quite tricky because the screen is on very thin glass but it has a plastic backing which is perforated and so I could lever under the defunct screen with a flat thin screw driver and once there was enough to get hold of, it was just a case of pulling it away.
The whole screen came off with the plastic still glued to it.
Not knowing if the plastic backing is a special plastic , I decided I would get the screen off it and reuse it.
This took about 2 hours of wheedling with a thin screw driver and carefully removing the shards of glass that made up the e-ink panel. They cut and flick about so wear eye protection and work where you can clear off the bits into a box as you go.
Now I had a plastic backing with glue and little tiny gritty bits of glass stuck to it.
I lay it on a sheet of cardboard and sprayed it with penetrating oil (WD40) then rubbed away at the remains with a wide flat screw driver until all the glue and grit was loose. A piece of kitchen towel got it off thoroughly.
I did the same spraying on the back of the plastic which has a couple of extra pieces of plastic stuck on.
You need to leave those bits in situ as they allow you to position the plastic correctly when re sticking it to the frame.
The metal frame needed only a light clean.
Now the backing is clean and so is the frame that holds it and the display.
You need to stick the plastic back to the frame again.
I used contact adhesive which I bought in Poundland.
First I checked it would not melt the display by trying it on a few of the bigger shards of the dead screen.
It was fine so I spread a layer over the BACK of the plastic,the side which has the extra panels of plastic stuck to it.
I avoided gluing the panels as they dont have anything to stick to.
Then I spread another layer onto the frame that was to receive the plastic to correspond with the glue on the plastic.
When both glued areas were ready, I carefully laid the plastic back onto the frame and put a flat object on just to be sure it stuck .
Now the critical part of the preparation.
I had my precious new screen to glue the back of.
I spread a layer of glue over the whole back of it ,avoiding the circuit board flap to the side.
The glue was easiest to spread with my fingers.
Then I spread a corresponding layer onto the black plastic which was already stuck to the metal frame.
When they were ready, I positioned the display panel so that the circuit board flap had room to fold around the metal frame where there is a piece of heavy duty double sided plastic the exact shape and size to take it.
I laid the display on the glue and then lay it face down on the foam packing that the display was delivered in, wrapped the circuit board flap to the back and held it down to the double sided strip.
I left it about 15 minutes and went and had a cup of tea.
The picture is of some of the glass shards from the dead screen ,these were the biggest bits. They are razor sharp.
Now the hardest part was done.
I wouldn't know if it was successful until I got it back together and pressed the on switch.
Following the manual again and reversing the procedure to take it apart, I put it back together.
You need to fit the ribbon cables back in once you put the mother board back on so you have to remember to keep them accessible when fitting it all back.
The cover is finicky to get on but should slide into place so that you can insert the two screws.
The power switch initially did nothing and I had to reset the reader by pressing the reset button ( a small hole on the bottom edge) with the touch pen. Unscrew the head of the touch pen and it has a presser to use for that purpose.
Once that was done, I tried powering up.
It worked,I had the whole screen clear and easy to read.
I needed to calibrate the touch pen but the instructions are on the screen.
There was almost no power left in the battery so I pressed the power button and held it 3 seconds to properly turn it off,then plugged it in to the USB of my computer ,it took a few minutes to show a USB logo on it but then proceeded to charge with a little red light on top.
The light goes out when it is charged.
I looked everywhere for how to do this before just trying it myself and found nothing.
I hope someone else finds it useful.
Step 7: Is It Worth Doing?
If you have the cross hatched lines problem on your ereader and you cant read it, it is useless except as a fancy looking USB drive.
Sony I understand replace the screens on models that are under warranty (sometimes).
Mine was not under warranty anyway as I bought it to repair.
If I had already owned the machine and it had broken, it would have cost just the £41.
In the UK,you can buy reconditioned Sony PRS 600 readers for around £59 from Waterstones who sell them through ebay.
So really I only saved about £3 and I have no warranty .
I have learned how to do it myself though which is more valuable to me.
I have to do this because my screen has severe ghosting and is basically unusable (old age maybe)- the new screen looks fine in comparison.
Pretty sure that the newer panels are actually superior quality as the image is noticeably sharper and more defined. Hot wire cutter is also feasible with <44 gauge SS wire if you want to salvage the old screen and also less messy.
1. Use heat (for example from hair dryer) to remove the old screen.
2. Write down (or better draw) where each screw was, because there is plenty of them and it's easy to confuse.