In this post we look at some current techniques in use for recovering the data from faulty mobile phones. We discuss the common problem of bootlooping on the iPhone 7 and 7+, repairing the phone’s C12 pad, methods of fault detection on broken phones and recovering data from Android phones.
iPhone Bootlooping – How to repair and fix
iPhone 7 and 7 Plus bootlooping and lagging is a widespread problem. This usually relates to the Audio IC chip. Although this seems unlikely, the areas in red below get a lot of flexion related strain (from people putting these devices in their back pockets etc.). Because these boards are screwed into the bendable soft metal chassis, any bend causes strain across these “Fault lines”.
We remove the chip which is normally still ok, re-enforce the joints which are loose, most commonly the C12 pad below. Doing this can overcome a lot of bootlooping phones and would be classed as a physical failure.
Cleaning water damaged phones
Methods of fault detection on broken phones
- Get the phone’s schematics
- Learn how to detect shorts – a good method is to use non-conductive freeze spray on the board then apply power with a DC Power Supply in order for the shorted component(s) to reveal itself (see below).
