I had this iPhone 12 Pro Max come in for Data Recovery.
It had corrosion near the power button connector, but it actually wasn't that bad.
The device booted, but it was in recovery mode. I would exit recovery mode with 3u tools but would still go back to recovery mode.
This made no sense. Why would water damage do this?
So I flashed an update & it went through successfully, 100% with no errors, but once again, it booted back to recovery mode.
This led me to think...
There was water damage near power button connector
12PM will go into recovery mode if the power button connector is pressed down all the time while booting
Maybe it has to do with the power button connector.
So I booted up the phone & measured the power button pin's voltage. It was like 0.6V.
If you know how power button lines work, they actually have a HIGH signal (1.8V in this case), and when that signal goes LOW (0V), that's how the device is told electrically, to process the power button being pressed function.
Therefore, if the voltage at the connector is stuck at 0.6V (essentially NOT 1.8V as it should be), that means the phone thinks the power button connector is being pressed down.
But it's not pressed down by anyone. it's shorted or failed where it can't be in a state where it has a HIGH signal.
So now it all made sense. The power button line (IO_BUTTON_SIDE_L_1V8) was bad.
Checking the schematics & ZXW, you can see that line basically is generated by the PMIC.
At this point, I have 2 options:
1. I replace PMIC & hope that solves it - it probably would. But that required splitting the sandwich & doing PMIC, which is super risky
2. Or... I feed it 1.8V from somewhere else & hope the voltage from the other 1.8v power source doesn't get pulled down by the short in the PMIC.
The first thing I tried was, jumping PP1V8_ALWAYS to IO_BUTTON_SIDE_L_1V8
Buuuut, then the device wouldn't boot anymore. It would hang at 20mA after prompt to boot.
At this point, I asked some friends about this issue. Sure enough, Aaron Harrington said he had a video on this exact issue, which i'll link in the comments.
Basically, I needed to check the volume button lines as well, which sure enough, were also in a LOW state.
In his video, he jumped PP1V8_S2, which is in that same general area, to the Vol up, Vol down.
Then he jumped PP1v8_Always to power button line.
Not sure why it worked for him, but not me.
So I just decided to jump all 3 lines to PP1V8_S2
And BOOM, it booted! And I got the data! 🙌
So let me know.. what did you learn from this post? Let me know down below 🤔
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 👇👇
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.
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
...
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 ...
