Until we have 10 Supporters, I'll be doing mostly all public posts
Tonight, got an iPhone 11 Pro Max that came in with No WiFi and would not activate.
So basically, it was stuck on the Hello screen.
When you click the "i" it would only show the SN. No IMEI.
When I tried to activate via 3U Tools, it would fail
3u tools will show N/A in the IMEI field.
So clearly, this has WiFi and Baseband issues.
For 11 Pro Max (and similar models), i followed these steps to resolve it
1. Split the sandwich
2. Cleaned the flux off the pads
3. tested in the iSocket Jig
4. I saw WiFi was working now
5. IMEI was still missing & phone will not activate via 3u tools
This is because when you restore an iPhone with baseband problems, you have to restore it again once you fix the board issue.
6. So i restored it
7. IMEI was now present in the "info" screen and 3u tools
8. The phone activated
9. The Control Panel showed "No SIM" which means baseband is good and wifi/bt buttons were not grayed out, so they're working too
10. I was doing all this testing in the jig, so we know the top and bottom boards are fine
11. So now to "reball" the sandwich
12. But, no need. If you clean split, you can just re-add fresh flux and squish the board back down together once the bottom heater has flowed the solder.
13. Put the board back into the housing & now it's fully functional!
This whole process only took about 30 min (or less).
Let me know if you found this helpful or if you have any questions as to why I did what I did.
🙏
If you have a Seek Thermal Cam, you're missing out if you don't have a VCC Seek Stand: https://www.vccboardrepairs.com/buy-seek-stand
Injured Gadgets just got these back in stock, so get them while you can!
It can take us a while to build these out sometimes, so they're sometimes out of stock for a while, but we're working towards always having inventory ready to build more as they sell out.
This stand makes using a thermal cam so easy. So much better than any other thermal solution on the market.
It allows you to get real close up (using my Macro Lens), and easily find where the short is coming from.
Plus it's hard free, so you can have your hands free to try to boot the device from DCPS, while having an image that is in focus & not moving around.
You can even record a video through the app, while you inject voltage into the short, so you can go back & see exactly which component was it that was heating up.
Save yourself lots of time by getting a Seek Cam, Stand & Macro Lens! ...
Anyone who is doing game console repairs, knows how many screws you need to remove to access the motherboard.
Especially the PS5, with the 5,000 screws or so.
If you don't already have an electric screwdriver, GET ONE ASAP.
🌟 Cordless Screwdriver with T9 Bit: https://amzn.to/3E5duCj
🌟Extended T9 Bit: https://amzn.to/3c4YJac
It's rechargeable through micro USB and allows you to easily swap the tips out. You can also fold it to be straight or L shape.
Let me know below if you are already using an electric screwdriver 👇👇
Just uploaded a new repair video on a Samsung S10e bootloop case where the customer needed the data recovered.
The phone would either:
• bootloop on the Samsung logo
• occasionally reach the home screen for a second
• then shut off and start looping again
Basic fixes obviously weren’t going to solve this one. The issue ended up being weak solder joints under the CPU / RAM stack, which seems to be fairly common on these.
For this repair I had to:
• remove the shield
• separate the RAM from the CPU
• clean the underfill
• reball both chips
• reinstall and test on the bench supply
Once everything was back on the board, the phone booted normally and we were able to recover the customer’s data.
Curious how many of you have seen CPU / RAM related bootloops on the S10 series?
Watch it here:
This one came in completely dead with abnormal USB meter behavior. It would detect 5V but amperage was stuck and not ramping.
Power supply testing showed elevated current draw on boot compared to a known-good donor board.
Thermal camera confirmed heat at the USB-C charging controller under shield.
Replaced:
• Charging controller IC - ACE(SN20122027)
• ROM / SPI Flash IC
Restored proper 9V fast charging and normal current behavior.
Original battery was also fully discharged and wouldn’t take a jump.
Full diagnostic + board repair video here:
This iPad Pro 11-inch had already been worked on, but the real problem wasn’t the port.
Using a USB-C PD meter and Mechanic USB-C tester, I was able to confirm abnormal charging behavior and trace the issue deeper into the board. The fault ended up being a failed CD3215C00 charging controller IC and TriStar.
After replacing the ICs, recovering the battery voltage, and verifying proper USB-C PD negotiation, the iPad returned to full 15V fast charging.
This is why proper diagnostics matter. The charging port is only one part of the circuit.
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Repair techs: how often do you see charging IC failures after port damage?
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Watch the full repair video here 👀:
