This iPhone 11 Pro came in recovery mode. Customer had already tried to restore it & was getting error 4041.
I had never seen this before, but was thinking maybe NAND due to the error being very close to Error 4014 & sometimes Apple changes things around with new iOS versions (16 in this case).
I tried a restore with 3u and failed at 19%, while the device would show a frozen spinning wheel on the screen, further validating my guess that it's NAND.
Replaced the 64GB NAND with a 128GB, but sadly, same results. It did not solve it.
I decided to check DCPS consumption & noticed during the restore, it was pulling +500mA, even after it had failed. This didn't look normal.
Check with thermal cam, I found PP_AVE_S1 had a short to ground. Wasn't sure what it was supposed to be, so I checked on a donor & it was .300 something, so definitely shorted.
Injecting 1V/1A to this line & found PMIC would heat up. Pulled PMIC & sure enough, short was cleared.
Then it turns out, the replacement PMIC, did not match the part# from the original. So the vendor who sold me a PMIC for iPhone 11, 11 Pro and 11 Pro max, was wrong.
343S00354 is for iPhone 11
343S00355 is for iPhone 11 Pro & Pro Max.
So always check the part# on the IC. Never trust the vendor's labels.
Anyway, replaced PMIC & the device failed at 12% on iTunes flash 😅.
Decided to try again & it flashed successfully! But no IMEI, as I was doing top board only.
Re-sandwiched it & restored one more time & we're fixed!
Too bad I don't have the iCloud info yet, so waiting on that. But all indicators point to a fully working phone
The lesson here is.. check DCPS (Dt880) consumption for any abnormal current draw, before jumping straight to NAND 😂
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 👇👇
A funny example of why board repair are still very human skills.
Someone posted in my Facebook group asking for help identifying a ripped pad on a PS5 fan connector. The connector had been torn off the board, and they wanted to know what signal the missing middle pad belonged to so they could run a jumper.
A commenter decided to let AI handle it.
They fed the photo into ChatGPT and got back a nice-looking annotated diagram showing all the pin functions. The problem?
It was completely wrong.
The AI labeled the missing pad as the TACH signal when in reality that pad is ground.
The scary part is that if you didn't already know the answer, the diagram looks convincing. It has arrows, labels, colors, callouts, and all the confidence in the world. Yet it still gave bad information that could send someone down the wrong path.
This is one of the reasons I don't lose sleep over AI replacing board repair technicians.
AI is incredibly good at summarizing information that already exists publicly. But in...
Had an interesting iPhone 16 Pro Max data recovery come in and wanted to see if anyone else has experienced this....
The phone came in heavily smashed and completely dead. After troubleshooting, I found a VDD_MAIN short. Once I cleared the short, I was able to get the phone booting again.
My original plan was to connect it to a PC and see if I could get the usual Stolen Device Protection prompt so I could proceed with the recovery. However, the phone wouldn't establish a USB connection.
After troubleshooting further, I eventually discovered the board had a sandwich separation issue, which explained why USB wasn't working.
Before digging into the sandwich repair, I started playing around with Stolen Device Protection just to see what would happen.
I noticed Stolen Device Protection was definitely enabled. Out of curiosity, I tapped "Set Up Alternate Appearance." Normally I'd expect it to immediately reject me since I'm obviously not the owner, but instead it actually looked like it wanted to proceed ...
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.
