Author: prattspodsltd

iphone 6 plus greyed out wifi

by prattspodsltd

This week we received a phone from a customer that had brought it from another shop only 2 months ago fully working and within this time the wifi had stopped working.
The iphone 6 plus was in good condition. We tested the device to find that the wifi switch was greyed out and they were unable to actually switch on the wifi on the phone.
This is a common issue on iphones and is either caused by a faulty wifi IC or a bad connection underneath the IC.
Luckily the iphone 6 series wifi ic is changeable unlike newer models and does not require any reprogramming, which makes it a relatively easy job for us. We preheat the board to 160 degrees so that we are able to scrape away the underfill surrounding the chip. Once this is done we are able to apply heat to the chip to reflow the solder underneath. We then tested the device and saw that the wifi function had been restored but we did not stop here. We know that once this fault has developed, if not repaired properly it can come back after time. So we reheated and removed the chip. We then cleaned the pads on both the motherboard and the wifi IC, reballed the chip and then reflowed it back into place on the board. This restores the connections much better than simply reflowing the IC. this is a tried and tested method by ourselves and we have found it to last long term rather than it being a short term quick fix.

At Pratts pods and microsolderingrepairs.co.uk we take great pride in our work and always thrive to provide long lasting repairs rather than quick fixes and bodge jobs. We will never let a repair or device leave without us being 100% satisfied with its working condition. We have spent years developing our skills and techniques in microsoldering and are confident we can repair 90% of faults that may occur with your idevices.

iphone 7 not turning on repair

by prattspodsltd

We recently received an iphone 7 that would not turn on.
We plugged it in to charge and got no response from the phone. We then cleaned out the charging port which made no difference.
We then cracked it open and connected up to our DC power supply, it turned on and seemed to work perfectly other than charging. We tested with a new battery and charging port which made no difference. We then tested what voltage we get through the battery connector when charging and we got a very low reading of 0.45v.
In the iphone 7 the common causes for not charging are the tristar (charging ic) and tigris (USB ic). Unfortunately on the iphone 7 when one of these IC’s goes bad it usually damages the other, this means when replacing one we will replace both for peace of mind, otherwise you may find your device suffering from the same fault in the near future.
We believe that if your going to do a job you should do it right, this is why we do repairs our own tried and tested way and if we can find a way to improve a repair, we will do so.
So we disassembled this iphone 7 and tested the charging circuit. Of Course we found low voltages on the 1v8 and 3v lines coming out of the tristar. We replaced both IC’s and this brought the voltages up to where they should be. We then cleaned the board and reassembled for testing. The phone now pulls around 1A through the charger which is perfect and is charging nicely. We are also getting 3.72v through the battery connector which is a very good reading.
The phone was then returned to the customer who was very happy to get their device back and working within a day.
If your having issues with an iphone not turning on or charging please feel free to get in touch.

iPhone 6s overheated and turned off no power repair

by prattspodsltd

We had a customer in this week with an iphone 6s that had gotten very hot and stopped working.
We connected to our ammeter and found that it was not charging at all. After this we opened it up and connected to our dc power supply, there was no amp draw even when we pressed the power button which is very unusual.
We then checked the power button which was working fine. There was also no short on the main power rail which can be a common cause for no power on the 6s. Next we removed the logic board and inspected the bottom of the back where we see most power issues on the 6s and we found that Q2300 had blown and C2330 next to it was burnt out.
We removed these components and replaced with a new power IC and a capacitor from a donor board which resolved the problem. We connected it back up to our power supply and the phone booted like normal, we then reassembled the device and checked that it would charge and work without getting hot and dying again. After testing we were happy with the outcome of the repair, The phone now charges and powers up and works perfectly.
The customer was delighted to get their phone back in working order.

If you have a phone that won’t turn on or charge please feel free to get in touch, we can repair 90% of power issues and are always happy to help.

ipad air no power, previous repair attempt put right

by prattspodsltd

This week we have had an ipad Air 1 arrive that has had a previous repair attempt for no power.
For all repairers any previous repair attempts are usually much more difficult to solve as you never know what the previous repairer may have done to the device. Whether they have overheated components causing bridging under IC’s or damaging parts of the phone, generally these repairs can end in several faults needing rectifying, this particular job included.
So to start this job off we plugged the ipad into charge through our ammeter and saw that it would not pull any current at all.
Upon opening the device we could clearly see that the charging port had been replaced, there were marks on the battery which shows the board had been removed and hopefully the battery tested. The main EMI shield had also been removed and not refitted, showing marks around the tristar (charging ic) this had clearly been replaced, although the job did look good with no major damage to surrounding components. We did however notice that the IC fitted was model 1610A3 where the Air 1 should be 1610A1. From experience we know that the Air 1 in particular is very picky as to which tristar ic it works with, in a lot of idevices these are changeable but on the Air 1 we never swap for another version as we know this can cause issues.
We next removed the board and connected up to our DC power supply. We then pressed the power button and the ipad booted up and seemed to work fine other than charging. We then knew that we were definitely up against a charging issue rather than a no power issue.

So from this we decided to first go to replacing the tristar ic with the correct version. We did this and checked voltages but unfortunately still had no power on the charging circuit. Next we turned to testing the charging port which looked terrible. After removing the previously replaced port we found several pads missing. After checking we found that 2 where for speaker lines and the others where ground so would not be a huge issue.
We cleaned up the pads and fitted a new port, we then cleaned and tested the ipad. After replacement the battery appears to charge perfectly but we did have problems with sound so we then ran jumpers from the charging port to the correct test points for the missing speaker line pads restoring the sound.
After this we covered the exposed solder pads and refitted the board into the ipad and charged it up fully to test the device. After passing our tests it was resealed and returned to the customer who was delighted to have their device back and working after having a bad experience with another 3rd party high street repair shop.

common iphone not charging fault

by prattspodsltd

There is a very common issue across many apple devices, from iphone 5s up to the 8 and ipad mini through to the ipad 6 2018 which is the dreaded not charging, fake charging or rapid battery drain issues.
These are all commonly caused by a faulty/damaged Tristar charging IC and in some models the Tigris USB IC. This IC in simple, regulates the voltage that is put into charging your battery. When this malfunctions it can cause many different issues, such as not charging at all, not charging a flat battery, not powering on at all, rapid battery drain and only charging when turned on/off to name a few.
This damage is most commonly caused by cheap cables being used and charging your phone in the car. Apples own cables can break pretty easily so people often go and find the cheapest possible replacement, which is never a good idea, cheap cables do not have a regulated output meaning the voltage into these IC’s is too high and damages them.
When this IC fails, most repairers will tell you that this cannot be repaired or that it will take several days to a week.. This is because they lack the knowledge and are unable to test these components and replace them themselves. We specialise in board level repairs and know the tristar circuit like the back of our hands. If you’re having problems charging your phone or getting it to turn on please feel free to get in touch. We are confident we can get your device back up and running no matter what the issue is.

Macbook pro 2010 backlight repair

by prattspodsltd

This week we received a macbook pro 15” 2010 from a regular customer of ours.
It was sent in for a backlight repair after water damage.
Our customer has already cleaned the board but this has not resolved the issue.
When we received the device firstly we make sure that it boots and shows a display on an external monitor, which it does. Then we do the torch test to make sure that the fault is no backlight and not no display. We can see the apple logo so we know that the image is being displayed and we are up against a backlight problem.
Next we open the macbook to inspect the board around the LVDS FPC (screen connector), we can clearly see 2 pins that are burnt out (pins 20 & 21) which are responsible for sending voltage for the backlight to the screen. We could see that the connector was burnt out, which would need replacing. We then removed the lvds cable (cable from motherboard to screen) from the connector to check this and this seemed fine from visual inspection. Next we powered on the macbook to check the voltages getting to the lvds connector. The backlight voltages where not present so we disconnected the battery and tested the fuse which was blown. After replacing voltage was restored so we knew that we should just have to replace the connector to have the clients macbook back up and running.
We applied leaded solder to the 30 pin LVDS FPC to lower the melting point of the alloy. Next we used our hot air station to heat the connector and remove it. We then cleaned the pads and surrounding area, and lined up the new FPC. After this we applied new solder to all of the joints, cleaned again and checked the connections.
All looked good so we reassembled the macbook and powered it up. The screen lit straight up proving that the repair had worked as expected.

We repair macbook boards on a daily basis, often after apple have quoted hundreds to replace the board itself rather than repairing it. Backlight problems are very common, along with no image, graphics faults and power issues. If your experiencing any issues with your macbook please feel free to get in touch

iPad 5 DIY screen repair gone wrong

by prattspodsltd

We have spent some time over the last week working on an ipad 5 that someone attempted to replace the screen on themselves.
Unfortunately this repair was with us about a week to get it back to its full glory.
It was brought in as after replacing the screen it would not power on. We connected to our ammeter and got 0.08/0.09 amps which is incredibly low for charging an ipad

We opened the ipad very easily as the replacement adhesive was very weak, straight away we could see that the home button flex had been torn. We removed the screws and gave the board a quick visual inspection. From initial inspection we could see that the power and volume button connector had been damaged. Also the connector for the home button was cracked and the main shield had marks making us think it had been removed before. None of this damage would cause the ipad not to turn on. We removed the main board EMI shield to inspect the components and saw no obvious damage.

We removed the board from the ipad and connected to our DC power supply to see if the ipad would boot. When connected and bridging power button the ipad would turn on and function, when then plugged into our ammeter we would only pull 0.08-0.22, constantly jumping which is still very abnormal. So from this we knew that there must be a fault on the charging circuit.
We then tested the voltages around the tristar charging ic and they seemed ok without checking to schematics. We then inspected the surrounding area and found a slightly damaged resistor, near where the pry marks on the shield was. we replaced this and the ipad would now charge normally.

From here we where able to test the device to ensure there were no more unknown faults before proceeding to repair the known issues.
Next we found a replacement power button fpc which matched the ipad air 1 connector, this was fitted which restored the volume button functions but not the power button. We checked the flex and found that one line from the power button was broken and repaired the flex.
We then turned to the home button, luckily the damage was on the connector side which is an extension flex, meaning instead of repairing the flex one track at a time we can actually replace the cable which is much easier to do and only needs basic soldering instead of lots of tiny micro jumpers.
We then tested this in the cracked connector on the board and although the connector was damaged it was still working fine, we decided that this did not need replacing.

As the ipad 5 is still a fairly new device we have not seen as many of these so do not hold as many spares in stock, this is the main reason for delays in this repair, along with the fact that schematics are available but no board views so components are much harder to identify than older models.
Nevertheless we returned the ipad to a very happy customer that was over the moon to have their precious ipad back in full working order.

Iphone 7 audio IC

by prattspodsltd

There is a very common fault in the iPhone 7 family called audio disease or audio ic failure. This issue usually starts with a phone taking a very long time to boot (sometimes 5 minutes) and intermittent problems with hearing people and people hearing you on the phone.

As the fault develops further the speaker phone option will be greyed out, voice memos won’t work and sometimes the phone will get stuck on the apple logo.

These are all very common symptoms and are a design flaw on this model. The fault develops due to flexion of the mother board near the sim reader, which just like touch disease on the iPhone 6 Plus is caused by tracks being damaged. The fault often develops after the phone is dropped of bent and can often arise after your screen breaks.

All these issues can all be resolved by removing the audio ic, repairing the broken tracks and rebuilding the missing padsZ there is usually one main line that breaks which is the c12 pad.

When we repair audio issues on the iPhone 7 we will run jumper cables to 4 different pads making sure that the issue will not return again in the future and strengthening the connection.

The jumper cables that are installed are much stronger than the original board traces making this a long term fix. On the rare occasion that the IC itself is faulty we can also replace this to guarantee a true fix.

At micro soldering repairs we take pride in our work and carry out this repair daily. Are you experiencing any of these problems? Or do you run a repair shop and looking for a company to outsource your microsoldering repairs to? Why not get in touch today for more information on our services and our B2B rates?

iPad Air 1 half backlight repair

by prattspodsltd

Recently we had an iPad Air 1 in with backlight problems after a regular customer had replaced someones digitizer. This is a very common fault if the LCD is disconnected whilst the screen is on, and is usually caused by a blown filter.

We see this fault, amongst other backlight issues on idevices on a daily basis, we always start by checking with a known good screen. We then visually inspect the connectors and backlight circuits. Next we check filters and fuses which are usually found visually before testing. This is followed by checking for shorts and then we check our voltages.
70% of the time we will be able to physically see what the issue is with backlight faults, which usually makes fault finding very easy. This particular job just needed a quick visual check to see that one of the backlight filters had blown.
We removed the filter to find that one pad had also burnt off. This was not a major problem as we were able to run a micro jumper from the end of the remainnig trace onto the new filter to restore the connection.
This brought the ipad back to life restoring the full backlight.
We cleaned it up and sent it back on its way for another speedy repair and a happy customer that will come back again.
We take pride in our work and ensure that every job brings a happy customer at the end of it. If you have an issue with your device, or if you run a repair business and need a reliable company to outsource your board repairs to please feel free to get in touch.

iPhone 6S no power repair

by prattspodsltd

Today we had a customer in with an iPhone 6S that just randomly died. When plugged into our ammeter we could see that there was no current draw from the charger.

We opened the phone up and connected it to our DC power supply. When connected there was an instant 5 amp draw telling me that there was a full short on the VCC main power line.

We removed the logic board and inspected the vcc main line for any obvious signs of damage or burning. There were none. We know the 6s commonly shorts on the bottom end of the 6s near tigris so we covered this area in freeze spray and injected voltage directly into this line to see what components get hot. This proves what component is causing the issue. We saw that C3795 was getting hot so removed this with our micro tweezers.

Once we removed this capacitor we checked for a short on this line, which was now cleared. We replaced the capacitor with another and plugged the phone back into the dc power supply. This time when plugged in there was no current being drawn until the power button was pressed and the phone began to boot. This is how it should work. We waited for the device to boot and tested basic functionality which was fine.

We were able to return this device to our customer within the same day and get them back up and running with their phone again in no time.