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 👇👇
Working on a new full length YouTube video right now, and it’s a good one.
iPhone 14 Pro Max – Water Damaged Data Recovery
This board was a tricky one with corroded caps & ICs and had a bunch of issues going on.
Not your typical “replace a part and it works” type of job.
I go through the full process step-by-step:
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diagnosing the faults
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finding the shorts
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clearing the corrosion
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and getting it stable enough to recover the data
Still editing it, but it should be posted soon ✅
If you’re into board level repair or want to learn how to troubleshoot stuff like this, keep an eye out.
Video link will be in the comments when it’s live.
This phone came in after another data recovery tech already attempted it and called it a no fix.
They even wrote “NO FIX” on the back of the phone.
The board had some water damage, and they tried running it through an ultrasonic cleaner, but it didn’t resolve anything.
What really bothered me was the CPU.
They scratched it for some reason (completely unnecessary), and it also showed signs of overheating.
At that point, I didn’t bother chasing partial fixes.
I decided to go straight for a full CPU swap to recover the data.
CPU swap was successful ✅
Phone booted.
Data is intact.
In this pic, I’m backing up the customer’s Inkpad notes.
Another reminder that “no fix” doesn’t always mean no data 😌
Got 2 new workbenches built out at my shop!
One is a larger & more robust shipping bench, where we do all the packing/shipping. So all the boxes, packing material like bubble wrap & packing paper, etc will be on there.
Then there's the actual workbench where I plan on hiring another associate to help us with handling all the shipping tasks & device intakes.
Was this a good investment??
