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 14 Pro Max - SMC PANIC - ASSERTION FAILED 3 Min Restart Solution

So the iPhone 14 Pro Max will restart ever 3 minutes when these 2 flex cables are unplugged:

1. Prox/ALS that is attached to the top of the screen
2. Charging Port

After comparing the Panic Logs that are generated, I think I found the key thing to look for to know the fault.

When the Prox is unplugged, the panic log it generates, I see it says:
SMC PANIC - ASSERTION FAILED
sensor array 0 - 4 is 0x0, 0x80000

And when the charging port flex is unplugged, I see it says:
SMC PANIC - ASSERTION FAILED
sensor array 0 - 4 is 0x0, 0x40000

Essentially, you look at the last section of the above.
0x4000 is the port
0x8000 is the prox

I have duplicated this mutliple times to be sure that these are the 2 major differences between the 2 panic logs.

I'm to assume this is also true for the 13 Pro Max, as I have seen the "SMC PANIC - ASSERTION FAILED" message in FB group posts

So if you have a 13PM, please give this a test & let me know if that's the case too.

See the 2 attached pics
🙌

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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

My apologies... but it's been over 8 months since I posted a full length YouTube video.

Mainly because it's been super busy at the shop. Maybe it's the warmer weather that caused the demand for data recovery to go up.

But also, we had the pregnancy & then a baby to deal with

This video was recorded back in March but never got around to editing it either

So after back to back to back "no-fix" jobs, I figured I take a break from that stress & try to finish editing the video I started months ago.

So it's finally complete & available to watch (link in the comments)

It's a great video for people who want to learn how to diagnose board level faults, like a blown filter

And how to use your multimeter to find it.

Enjoy!

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How to fix a USB flash drive - THE EASY WAY

Basically, all USB flash drive will have USB 2.0 pins. That's just 4 lines that you need for USB communication.

If it's a USB 3.0 drive, it will have those 4 pins + the extra 3.0 data pins

Get any USB A cable & splice it to find the 4 wires, Black, Red, Green, White. Then proceed with the next steps:

Find the 5V power rail, which typically is a thick trace or there's a duplicate pin. I found that by probing around & found the 2 pins that had continuity to each other

Ground is just any anchor

Then the tricky part was the 2 data lines, green & white

If you loose closely at the design, you'll find there's three pairs of 2 pads, which run together to resistors

Solder the green & white to those 2 pads & connect to PC.

If not detected at all, then you're on a USB 3.0 lines, so it's not that pair

If it's detected, but Device Manager gives an error, then you found it! But Green & white are reversed. So swap them & that should solve it

I've attached a diagram of how I wired them

Then...

Really bad water damage (S21 Ultra)

This board came in looking really bad, so I didn't even bother trying to repair it.

Instead, I went straight for a CPU Swap

Unfortunately, still working on it.

First attempt, it was just bootlooping

I checked UFS health & it looked good

Will keep working on this & let you know how it goes.

Anyone else have trouble with Samsung S21 Ultra CPU Swaps?

I feel like these are the most difficult cases I have to deal with & I have 2 more in my queue 🥹

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