VCC Board Repairs
Education • Science & Tech
The goal is to share solutions & techniques for microsoldering & data recovery repairs. I'll cover mostly iPhone & iPad motherboard repairs.
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iPhone 12 Pro - Tricky No Power Case.

This 12 Pro came in for no power.
USB Charging was like 0.44A
When you boot from DCPS, the current draw would jump up only a little, like 30mA at most, then back to zero & repeat. Sometimes, it would just stay at 0 to 2mA

I split the sandwich & it booted!

I put it in the sandwich jig & no power. Back to same symptoms

So went back to top board only & it went back to the same original symptoms.

I was trying to rule out the bottom board issue, but it had the same symptoms as when it came in.

Putting pressure on the whole top board then trying to boot again, it booted! So the issue is very sporadic. But I also was fearing the issue was the CPU.

Tested another bottom board & back to dead. Tested top board only & it booted. Wiggled the top board only & it stopped booting.

This made me think... something must be loose. I removed the shield around PMIC, as there are lots of coils around it & started poking them all. Almost none are underfilled on this model. All were good

I then see there's a coil near the CPU, L4200, on LX_SYS_BOOST and sure enough, it popped right off. Just a very light poke, it broke off.

Tested again & it was doing the same symptoms as the beginning.

Replaced it from a donor & it booted. And even after wiggling and twisting the board lighty, still boots! So it's solved.

Reballed the sandwich & invoiced the customer.

I made a quick little video about it, which you can see here: https://www.tiktok.com/@vcc_board_repairs/video/7142677806932036907

🙌

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Which Thermal Cam Do You Have?

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! ...

00:00:12
If you do consoles, you need this.

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 👇👇

00:00:03
Want to join our tech group chat?

One of the perks of being an active member is access to our private Facebook Messenger group chat.

We’ve got a solid group of techs in there discussing panic logs, 3 minute restarts, board level repairs, troubleshooting, tools, weird cases, and sharing fixes.

It’s not a training course, just a chill place for techs to help each other out and talk shop.

If you want in, comment your Facebook profile link below or DM me on Facebook and I’ll add you.

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New Solution Discovered... iPhone 15 Pro 3 Min Restart panic log 0x80000 👀

This 15 Pro came in for data recovery. It came in smashed badly.

I split the sandwich & tested in the jig with a known good bottom board & all known good parts

But yet, it still restarted.

That means it had a board level issue causing it.

I found the panic log said the sensor array code was 0x80000

This was not a previously documented error code, so I had nothing to go by

Based on the backstory, I started checking everything on the board. Diode mode all the common connectors. But nothing.

Then I remembers the 14 Pros require the Gyro to work. Sure enough, rotation was not working

I found the Gyro IC & noticed it was loose

I pulled & it had some ripped pads.

Rebuilt the pads, placed the IC back & it worked! I backed up the data.

Since the Repair Wiki is not longer updateable, I will be posting the new panic logs I find on my Panic Log Cheat Sheet, only available to active members

You can access my Panic Log Cheat Sheet here:
https://www.vccboardrepairs.com/cheat-sheet

...

I'm not sure how I pulled this one off! iPhone 14PM Crazy Data JOb

Crazy recovery job I wrapped up this week on an iPhone 14 Pro Max that was mailed in all the way from Nebraska.

Customer told me the phone had been run over multiple times, and honestly, after opening it up, I thought this was going to end up being a no-fix. The phone was absolutely destroyed. The housing was twisted, the board was severely bent, and the damage near the NAND had me expecting the worst.

First thing I did was remove the board and inspect everything under the microscope. The bend near the NAND and CPU area was pretty extreme, which is usually a very bad sign on these newer iPhones. In many cases, once the board bends this badly, the CPU or NAND can crack internally and the data is gone for good.

Because the board was bent so severely, I couldn’t safely use my normal board heater setup to separate the sandwich board. I had to carefully use hot air instead and take my time through the entire process. Definitely one of those jobs where one wrong move could destroy the last chance at ...

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