Minho

Alright, seeing as how I am always answering questions here, I thought I'd reverse the roles here for a bit of fun. I have an...

Hello Mac Experts (@mayer, @danj , @reecee and others) I have an iMac 27", Late 2012 that is not booting properly. It is usua...

This iPad has a dead zone on the left edge of the digitizer, about 5 mm from the edge. I proceeded to do a standard digitizer...

Hello Mac Guru's (talking to you @mayer, @danj, @reecee)! I have another MacBook Air A1466, this one an early 2015. The SSD a...

Hi everyone. This is a follow-up to my MacBook Air 13” (2014) – Water Damage, will not power on. Thanks to everyone who repli...

Hi everyone. I have a water damaged (tea) MacBook Air that was dead as a doorknob. No light on the MagSafe, no fan or anythin...

iFixit has a well earned reputation for quality replacement batteries and they offer a great warranty on them. Several wholesalers (MobileSentrix, Injured Gadgets, UnionRepair) have also stepped up their game in regards to batteries but I don’t know if they will sell to the general public. Generally speaking, avoid eBay and Amazon sellers as low quality batteries tend to get to market through those channels.

I certainly agree regarding the iPhone 7 Audio IC issue, Apple has consistently denied any design flaw on their part. However, regarding you testing the water resistance, I disagree. Take a look at the specs for the iPhone XS Max (https://www.apple.com/ca/iphone-xs/specs/): Splash-, Water- and Dust-Resistant^(3) Rated IP68 (maximum depth of 2 metres up to 30 minutes) under IEC standard 60529 Notice the little “3” in superscript. Here is what the fine print says (emphasis mine): (1) iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max are splash-, water- and dust-resistant, and were tested under controlled laboratory conditions with a rating of IP68 under IEC standard 60529 (maximum depth of 2 metres up to 30 minutes). ''Splash, water and dust resistance are not permanent conditions and resistance might decrease as a result of normal wear. ''Do not attempt to charge a wet iPhone; refer to the user guide for cleaning and drying instructions. Liquid damage not covered under warranty. Apple is doing it’s darnedest to wash it‘s hands of a...

You may have a microphone issue. Try testing the individual microphones to see if they all work. https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT203792 (1) The bottom microphone is for Voice Memo and phone calls. The other microphones serve as error cancellation (2) The (top) front microphone is used for FaceTime calls, Siri and selfie videos with the front camera (FCAM). The top back microphone serves as error cancellation (3) The (top) back microphone is used for videos with the rear camera (RCAM). The top front microphone serves as error cancellation However, keep in mind that the iPhone 7 series of devices have proven to be very unreliable, suffering from flex-based issues similar to the iPhone 6 Plus (Touch Disease). On the iPhone 7, the fault line runs along the top of the SIM card reader and affects the Baseband CPU and Audio IC. Any short copper traces running perpendicular to the fault line while connecting to micro-BGA pads, is subject to failing. On the Audio IC, this particularly affects the C12 pad/trace altho...

The first thing to suspect is that the Audio IC repair didn’t go smoothly. If the “new” symptoms roughly correspond to the Audio IC repair, then I would inspect the workmanship and use that as a clue. Assuming the Audio IC was properly replaced (with jumper on C12 at least) and there no obvious signs of missing, dislodged or bridged components, then I would start probing the the ARC circuit (taptic engine) and work my way from there.

You don’t specify what phones you typically repair… For the iPhone & iPad, they are pretty easy to find when googling. GSM Forum has most of them freely available, at least those that are “available”. When it comes to Android devices, it a little hit or miss and it can be hard to find many of the schematics . Once again, the GSM Forum should have whatever schematics are available out in the wild. If you are repairing mostly mainstream devices, then consider a subscription to a schematic/boardview tool such as ZXW or FCL.

It’s hard to say for certain because I didn’t see the fire myself but IMHO, I doubt the fire caused any damage based on your description. If the logic board looks charred, then that’s a different discussion and you should add a picture of the board to your question so that we can see it. You may have a bad replacement battery or you may have damaged the logic board with all the rpying to remove the old battery. Closely inspect the area surrounding the battery connector on the board to see if there is any damage to the connector. You should also measure the voltage of the battery (directly on the battery itself) with a multimeter to see if it is charged up or not.

You’ve tried a lot of things and generally speaking, you’re troubleshooting is sound. You now need to get access to some “known-good” parts to help isolate the issue as this could still be a screen issue or some accidental damage to the logic board.

After you have eliminated antennae or network locks as the possible culprit, searching issues on the iPhone 6 are usually related to the baseband IC. The baseband IC is very sensitive, just like the Touch IC's on the 6 Plus; it also suffers from poor quality traces and pads.  Go to your phone’s dialing keypad and dial *#06#. You should see the IMEI displayed. If the IMEI is not displayed, the Baseband IC has to be reballed and two small copper traces (U1/V1) have to be rebuilt and solidified. This is commonly referred to as the “long jumper” solution. You can check out this answer (Service is "Searching" indefinitely) (by @teetopp) as it summarizes the issue really well.

The problem is with your OEM screens. The 7/8 series original screens are made by several manufacturers (Toshiba, LG, Sharp) and each phone is calibrated to the screen it has installed. It’s important not to mix and match screens. So for example, if your phone had an original LG screen, you should replace it with an LG screen. This issue seems to be more prevalent on the Plus devices; they can be quite picky when it comes to replacement screens. The only way to know which screen manufacturer you have is to look at the QR Code on the 3D Touch panel. However, even if you have a screen with the same code, it may still be a franken-screen. Lots of refurbish shops mix and match an LCD from one vendor, a 3D Touch panel from another, etc. All you can identify is the 3D Touch panel. Check out this blog (not affiliated) to learn more. It explains how the different mix of products affects the reliability. It turns out that some franken-screens have a much higher prevalence for Touch issues than others. Curiously enough...

I’m not certain I fully understand your description but it sounds to me like the Home Button is damaged in some way. It’s not uncommon for the Home Button flex to get micro-tears during a repair…you may need magnification to inspect it properly. Can you clarify what you mean by “home button flex wire”. Perhaps you can link to a repair guide image so that I fully understand what you are referring to.