Bgacenter brought an iPhone 7 with a deformed case for repair. The customer decided to replace the phone case for further sale. Before performing any further actions, we immediately made a backup copy of the data. Since the iphone was working and at any moment there could be a malfunction of the motherboard. Diagnostics and subsequent repairs were carried out at the BGA soldering courses.
iPhone 7 diagnostics
Since during visual inspection, under a microscope, there was a deformation of the textolite of the system Board. The client was offered to replace not only the case, but also the Board. Namely, to transfer the main chips to a known serviceable icloud card.
During this repair, the following chips are transferred:
Board iPhone 7 side A
For diagnostics and repairs-to replace the iPhone 7 Board, Zillion X Work software was used.
This program displays:
You can also use the less informative but free Phone board program for diagnostics.
Board iPhone 7 side B
To replace the iPhone 7 Board, a donor Board was prepared, completely serviceable and not previously soldered.
During the preparation process, the following steps are performed:
iCloud iPhone 7 Board
Before soldering chips “on the compound”, a mandatory action is to clean the compound. Otherwise, the soldering technology is violated and the chip may” blackhead”. A monoblock heater for termopro STM 10-6 printed circuit boards was used for soldering chips.
iPhone 7 Board
In order to perform the transfer, the repaired Board was soldered:
Then prepared the Central processor iPhone 7, namely removed the remnants of solder and compound. Then we rolled the chip using BGA balls.
U0700 CPU iPhone 7
We prepared a memory chip for further work with the IP Box 2 programmer.
The client decided to increase the memory capacity from 32 Gb to 128 Cbr.
Memory iPhone 7
The video shows the removal of U0700 (CPU) and BB_RF – (Baseband):
A programmer is used to replace the Board with an iPhone 7. In order for the new Board to work Wi-Fi applied IP Box PCI E. Pre-checked the installed memory for the number of errors. Then clicking the “Untie Wi-Fi” button unlocked the Wi-Fi.
IP Box PCIE
Installing chips on the icloud card was performed in the following order:
Motherboard iPhone 7
After installing all the chips, washed the remains of the flux and blew the Board with compressed air. Then it was connected to a laboratory power supply to check for a short circuit. During the check, the fault was not detected.
The next step when replacing the iphone 7 Board is the phone’s firmware. To do this, without installing the Board in the phone case, we connected a known serviceable system loop, a battery with a voltage of at least 3.8 Volts, and a display module to it.
iPhone 7 firmware
Connected the motherboard to the laptop, the phone was detected in DFU (device firmware update) mode – the device firmware update mode. 3uTools was used for iPhone 7 firmware. The Board was successfully flashed, the program did not give any errors, and the phone booted up to the activation start state.
Then they activated the device. We checked all the phone’s functions (Wi-Fi, network, cameras, etc.). Everything worked fine.
A report from 3uTools
The following tools and equipment were used:
In the Bga center, you can learn how to perform such repairs on the system boards of phones and tablets. Repair iPhone 7 replacement of the motherboard – one of the “difficult” repairs. This repair can be performed if the main chips are working: the CPU, modem, EEPROM_RF. This type of iPhone 7 Board repair is the only way to restore data when the Board itself is not maintainable (: facepalm.