During my recent iPhone 12 CPU Swap Video (linked in the comments), I ended with the phone fully booting, but restarting every 3 minutes.
Since I didn't swap the NFC chips, I have to go through the "Swipe to Recover" screen, where it shows a white screen that says "Attempting Data Recovery".
I like to this of this process as it's "reprogramming the new NFC chips" so it can allow the phone to boot & unlock.
This process can take anywhere from 10-45 minutes, depending on how much data is on the phone.
In the video, when we started the "Swipe to Recover" process, I noticed that within 3 min or so, the phone would auto restart. So without the Swipe to Recover process completing, I am unable to access the data.
Due to how long the video was, I decided to end it there & post the fix here.
First thing I tried was a new charging port flex, as that's the most common fault of 3 min restart for iPhone 12, but no change.
I then decided to diode mode the charging port FPC connector, as that's where the sensor from the charing port flex (pressure sensor aka Prs0) would connect to, to reach the next part of the circuit.
And sure enough, I found a line that was OL, when it should have had a reading.
The line was labeled as "Eiger" (PPVAR_EIGER_S2_CONN) and I know I've seen a panic log that mentions Eiger, as being part of the charging port flex.
ZXW showed that there's a filter near the PMIC shield on that line.
Sure enough, the filter was missing. Most likely caused by my iron, when I was applying the low melt solder to the shield, as a way to make the shield removal easier.
I replaced the filter from the original customer's board & boom! The phone stopped rebooting & the data was saved!
It wasn't obvious that the filter was missing, as it was mostly covered in underfill too! So without measuring with my multimeter, I would have never found it.
Also, it's important to diagnose thing systematically. If you think through "what's the most likely cause of this?"
Then drill into that issue & confirm it's not it, then you move onto the next most likely, and so on.
This type of diagnosing, troubleshooting & fault finding skill comes from years of non stop working through these types of cases. We see so many different types of scenarios, that we can easily anticipate what could be happening, as we've probably seen something similar before.
I hope this post helps you see my thought process of how I help solve this case & successfully recover the customer's data.
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 👇👇
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??
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!
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...
