Things I learned from the 15PM teardown video
1. The adhesive for both front screen & back glass is very gooey/sticky. This basically makes a mess when opening the phones. Black gooey stuff all over the frame & very visible on the natural titanium model.
Not sure if it's just the 2 phones I have or the technique I used to open them. Or it's like this by design.
2. In order to remove the logic board from the housing, you MUST open the back glass first & remove the screw & plate that is holding down the wireless charging/rear flash flex.
So expect to see lots of torn wireless charging/rear flash flex torn. I already see a ton of 12-14 series with torn "5G Flex" that are torn, due to technician not aware there's a soldered flex on the board.
Although, maybe there's a way to lift the board carefully enough out, so you can reach the screw/plate from the front side.
3. The 15PM ALSO has a 5G flex soldered to the board. So those will be ripped, for the above reasons.
4. The overall insides were very similar to the 14PM model. So if you've worked on a 14PM, then 15PM won't be much different.
5. In the US, we have eSIM models only. But where is there room for the international model's SIM Slot? On the 14 series, there was just an empty spot where the sim slot would be located. I couldn't find any spot where an international model would have a physical SIM Slot located at.
So that means, either the international model also is eSIM only OR international model has a totally different internal design (unlikely).
6. The confirmed parts to create a "unknown part" notification have not changed. Battery, Display, Rear Cameras. And of course, Face ID/TrueDepth Camera is still paired.
7. Battery Cycle count is now in the settings > general > about > bottom of the page. It then says "unknown" when you replace the battery.
8. iPhone 15PM does NOT support "Fast Charging" via USB C. It was only charging at 5V/1.13A (5W), when on the same charger, my S22 Ultra was at 9V/3A (27W). Maybe it's due to the battery was around 80%.
I will do more testing to confirm later.
9. iPhone 15PM USB C to another iPhone 15PM USB C does charge the other phone. But it does NOT allow any data transfer.
10. iPhone 15PM USB C to my S22 Ultra, would detect on both phones, that data wanted to transfer, as we got pop ups on both asking access to data. But ultimately, I found no way to access data from either phone.
11. Action button flex is still attached to the volume flex and power button flex. It is also not paired.
12. iPhone 15PM will restart every 3 minutes when the back glass/wireless flex is unplugged. The panic log showed 0x400000. Same as iPhone 14/14P.
13. USB C accessories seem to work. I tried a USB flash drive, USB mouse and USB keyboard.
14. USB C Data Transfer speeds seem slow. Took a "long time" to transfer a 435MB file from iPhone to PC. Unfortunately, the PC didn't show the actual transfer speeds.
I'm sure there are more. But just what I can remember from the livestream.
What did you learn or find the most interesting?
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 👇👇
Working on a new full length YouTube video right now, and it’s a good one.
iPhone 14 Pro Max – Water Damaged Data Recovery
This board was a tricky one with corroded caps & ICs and had a bunch of issues going on.
Not your typical “replace a part and it works” type of job.
I go through the full process step-by-step:
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diagnosing the faults
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finding the shorts
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clearing the corrosion
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and getting it stable enough to recover the data
Still editing it, but it should be posted soon ✅
If you’re into board level repair or want to learn how to troubleshoot stuff like this, keep an eye out.
Video link will be in the comments when it’s live.
This phone came in after another data recovery tech already attempted it and called it a no fix.
They even wrote “NO FIX” on the back of the phone.
The board had some water damage, and they tried running it through an ultrasonic cleaner, but it didn’t resolve anything.
What really bothered me was the CPU.
They scratched it for some reason (completely unnecessary), and it also showed signs of overheating.
At that point, I didn’t bother chasing partial fixes.
I decided to go straight for a full CPU swap to recover the data.
CPU swap was successful ✅
Phone booted.
Data is intact.
In this pic, I’m backing up the customer’s Inkpad notes.
Another reminder that “no fix” doesn’t always mean no data 😌
Got 2 new workbenches built out at my shop!
One is a larger & more robust shipping bench, where we do all the packing/shipping. So all the boxes, packing material like bubble wrap & packing paper, etc will be on there.
Then there's the actual workbench where I plan on hiring another associate to help us with handling all the shipping tasks & device intakes.
Was this a good investment??
