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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This iPad was a disaster! But I fixed it.

This iPad Pro 12.9 Gen 3 came in for "No Backlight". Usually these are easy to fix. It'll be something simple like a blown filter, diode or a short on a backlight cap

In this case, there was a blown filter, but also previous repair attempt.

One of the pads was just gone with UV mask over it all. After scraping off all the mask, i discovered there was a giant hole.

Turns out, the last tech dug a hole & couldn't salvage the pad. In turn, it had a short within the layers.

This is the worst! It's very difficult to clear a short when it's within layers, because there's tiny little bits of ground everywhere. The more you dig, the more layers of ground you expose & can bridge & cause shorts

After much attempts, I finally cleared the short. I tried to just attach the filter to the backlight line within the hole, but that wasn't working. It always ended up with a short

So I decided to just bypass the pad & run a jumper directly to the next part of the circuit & that worked!

Until..... I noticed the iPad was stuck at 0% battery & not charging with the screen off.

I checked the battery connector & sure enough, there was a bent pin.

I know that wasn't me. I never slide my tool under the batt connector. Always to the side of it, as you can lift it & separate the connector & battery.

Replaced the connector & finally got it all fixed & customer is happy!

With previous repair attempts, it always makes it tricky, because you never know what kind of damage the last tech did & you have to pray they didn't mess up things beyond repair.

I'm glad this one didn't have any serious issues & all were resolvable 🙌

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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
Very Sad Data Recovery Case (iPhone 15 Pro)

I got an iPhone 15 Pro mailed in from New Hampshire for Data Recovery. The front & back were smashed pretty bad.

Took the phone apart & found the bottom board was dented pretty bad

Separated the sandwich to just the top board only and found I had a short before prompt to boot. Tracked it down to a shorted C4222 on PP_VDD_SNS_BPIC

Removed the bad cap & I still had a short. Found the next short on C3499 on VDD MAIN

After that, no shorts before prompt to boot. So I thought that was it...

Well I was wrong. There was a 700mA short after prompt to boot.

Looking at the board under the thermal camera.. heat was coming from the NAND. Although the NAND looked in very good condition with no signs of physical damage. See first pic.

So I decided to remove the NAND to check further.

Without NAND, no short. It would just boot to DFU mode

Closer inspection of the NAND, I found there was a small crack running along the side wall.

When the NAND is cracked, it's GAME OVER. There's no way to ...

I hate these!

I got this Samsung S22 Ultra for Data Recovery. The display connector had some water damage that caused a short on the FPC

After removing the FPC, I found the short was within the layers.

I tried digging it out & it worked, but after placing the FPC back, the short came back.

These are really annoying lol

So I've offered to do a CPU Swap & waiting for the customer to reply 🙏

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July 09, 2025

iPhone 13 water damaged throwing this panic logs. Which part is faulty and needs to be replaced?

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