Andre De Guerin

Hi, tried changing the wifi chip but the wifi is still greyed out. Is this likely to be related to the two small SMD 10K...

Hi, there are a few of this model showing up used. I’d have tried doing a firmware update then IMMEDIATELY secure erase. This seems to work in my experience, resurrected a dead 120 this way. Useful tip: K Linux has a secure erase function. Its generally believed that losing power is a sure fire way to get bad sectors, seems that the revised firmware can mark them but not solve the problem so the spare sector pool gets used up very quickly indeed.

I hear that Apple can in fact repair these. If you can send them the device they have tools that can (supposedly) recover keys from a dead button but its not cheap. There are actually ways to DIY this but still working on it. I had some success using an X-ray device of my own design on memory chips with similar geometry but this is extremely dangerous and only works with an original button. Effectively the code inside is stored on a PROM which lacks an erase window so X-rays of the right intensity can wipe it making the ‘phone’ recognize it as a new button in Apple’s Horizon Machine but to actually re-code the button again needs a lot of effort. Swapping button with a phone containing a matching serial range is possible and others have reported success with this method earlier but YMMV. Generally speaking the closer you can get the serial the better chance it has to work.

Yes, early TVs had this fault. It seems that the problem is actually inside the panel but in the process of working on a laser based repair/reflow technique from the back or side. 1.8W blue light seems to be the key from what I can find, the microscopic solder joints made from (IIRC) an indium tin eutectic have a tendency to come apart even with moderate heat. Same fault as on some early graphics chips.

Don’t ask how I found this out, but the chip in “official” TouchID buttons isn’t actually OTP after all. Its actually an e2prom but with the external write voltage line routed through a cell fuse so when written it gets “Zapped” and goes open circuit or at least very high resistance in order that any attempt to rewrite it would then fail. The way to fix this would be wiping the chip with X-rays. Needless to say it would be dangerous but UV light may work as it has done with many smaller chips of which this is likely to be. Cell size is probably in the micrometre range so should be feasible with something like a Cool-X or similar.

Sometimes this happens on the 5S as well.

Hi, I had a similar problem with an A1533 where the battery completely died. Think it was caused by overheating as the front panel w/LCD was detached from its frame!! I jump started the battery using hooked pins and an external low current charger from an old defunct phone pack but had to take it out of the frame to get to them however this worked fine and phone starts/runs with battery at about 20% The 5S and 5C batteries are very similar but not identical, even if it fits in the available space its connector is wrong. You might have damaged it in the process so worth checking under a magnifier for bent or missing pins, or a cracked connector housing.

Have same problem here. OLED is apparently fine but the digitizer is glitchy. I did also find a crack in the top which *may* be why it had issues but can’t tell for sure until its completely removed.

have heard that the ribbons can be replaced but it needs specialized equipment like Z axis tape (this is for the lines only/blank problem, and a subset of those) but the glass is normally the cause. I have a very expensive camera here with this fault, internal cable went bad but its a special sort of tape more expensive than standard Z axis as used in ipad repairs, chibitronics kits etc. This works fine if the alignment is spot on for relatively large pitch connectors however like calculator panels! If you have a good ribbon and screen then try https://www.adafruit.com/product/1656 might do the trick but alignment needs to be finer than a human hair. Best done under a microscope or better still screen+camera.

Hi, invariably if the fan is clogged then thermal paste will have degraded. I believe that the silicone or other compound eventually evaporates or otherwise decomposes and the result is flaky cooling. Its also worth checking that the CPU is clean, sometimes they get fingerprints on the core and this can cause no end of problems over time even if it "seems" to work initially. Usually just clean it with IPA and do the contact area on thermal pipe at the same time. Also be aware that thermal compound containing silver can cause anomalies with silver migrating into the surrounding areas such as capacitors so you should be cautious and use only a tiny amount. I once trashed a very expen$ive TV by using it on a HOT (hint: don't do this!)

Hi, depending on where you look there are replacement B-grade panels that are sometimes used in airports etc because no-one notices the bad pixels at 30+ feet away. You would have to pay a lot of shipping but the good news is that the module on the back just plugs in. Another option might be to get an ex-display unit which is often a lot cheaper than new.

Hi, I did the procedure. To complicate things this screen did not come with a midframe requiring removal of all the broken glass and glue. 2 part seems to work if applied very thin, use the 30 minute sort if you can’t get the right adhesive strips. Obviously don’t get it on the camera/front sensor assembly or screen connector!!

Same problem here. I ended up putting my “new!” 64GB SSD in an adaptor and used it for a few years until it wore out!

Evidently the chips aren’t much good as withstood less than 700GB of writes according to the onboard diagnostics.

Strangely enough the adaptor worked with the original 16GB SSD and the 64.

Hi. Incidentally while you have it apart check for heating of the chip that controls the USB3 port: this is known to be a weak point. As with many low end laptops they can’t run external devices like hard drives properly so may report incorrectly that they need formatting. Fix is to use external power device.

Hi. Yes its probably a bad control transistor as R11 can’t use Wifi 2.4 and bluetooth at the same time reliably due to a shared antenna it seems like the power availability was marginal to begin with.

I had this happen on my workhorse Samsung mini but looks like the main cause is the same.

Hint: Changing the card is a good bet and they use them on quite a few “unibody” machines as long as the card is in the compatibility list it should work. Don’t use one with any sort of damage though.

If it won’t work even with replacement card it could be worth locating and replacing the bad component.

Is the digitizer actually part of the OLED? Looking at this one if you can see the spudger between the glass, display is already toast.

I did try to test it but any sign of cracking on these is generally terminal in about 12 hours unless you are incredibly quick at sealing it.

Actually did test this and display initially worked but not the day after.

There’s an argument not to use the very thin spudger for exactly this reason!!

Re. copper foil, I’d if possible use some Z-axis 3M tape sold to make vertical connections on electronics EMD shields among other things.Its not cheap but you need very little and only a single point needs to conduct so maybe 3*3mm2 squares positioned on the torn corners are fine.

I’ve used some to repair damaged flexis on Huawei phone after someone else’s botched repair mucked up the ground plane before but its incredibly hard to get it just right, only real application is checking to see if the flexi is only problem prior to replacement.

Yup, bad charging connector. I did notice that on this (dead) phone, its soldering is lousy with multiple blobs where there should be properly angled pins. Has anyone had any success reflowing this part on the actual flex on connector side? Can’t see anything obviously amiss with the connector but its not charging at all and battery voltage sitting at 0V.

Hi, also have the R11 bluetooth glitch. I’d like to try and preserve warranty as in the CI so can’t easily send it back for repair.

Is this likely to work with any microPCIe card or does it have to be the exact unit specified, believe there are 5 GHz variants now which weren’t available when originally launched.

Hi, I had the phone apart to replace the wifi chip.

Has anyone found a source for the two nano sized SMD resistors, because this also causes "no wifi" syndrome due to them being important for the I2C lines.

thanks!!! -A email testing_h "at " yahoo.com