hi there I'm Kyle with iFixit I'm Jessa
with iPad rehab so we took the iPhone
board that I just repaired and we dunked
it in water
Kyle had to step outside I left she put
away and what did you add to the water
so we wanted to you know kind of really
give a sort of a real-life example of
what happens to your phone when you drop
it in water and it does depend on what
the solution is which is ninety percent
of the time you're in come on and urine
or cat pee or yeah I mean the toilet
phones are really like most of water
damage but you know now that it's sort
of becoming summer we have swimming
pools and especially salt water I jumped
into a lake once with my phone in my
pocket it survived I mean I shut it off
immediately I waited a day or so you
know I think I took it apart just to dry
it out put it back together and it was
fine right so you know sometimes you get
lucky you do and you know it's kind of
like you know there what should you do
when you drop your phone in whatever
kind of liquid and you know the the
internet tells you to put it in rice and
that is a myth and that's what we're
trying to kind of dispel and the reason
why is because putting your phone in
rice is pretty much the same thing as
doing nothing you're allowing whatever
the liquid is to really dry on the board
so any electrolytes any minerals or
impurities that are in the liquid are
just going to dry on your board and what
you want to do instead is to displace
them so if you you know no matter who
you are if you take a phone and you get
it wet then you can you know follow an
iFixit guide open it up absolutely as
you take it apart get everything out and
drop it into some kind of like isopropyl
alcohol something like that and you know
honestly like there was a guy that is in
the repair community was on a cruise you
know and and it's sort of like you know
you you would have been better off after
his phone like fell in a pool you know
to just drop the entire phone in alcohol
if it's an important phone you know
that you'll probably have to replace the
screen and the camera but you know
you'll be you can even use distilled
water if you if yeah you could use
distilled water you know and it's it's
not the water that's necessarily the
problem it's the impurity water doesn't
actually conduct electricity and itself
while there isn't corrosive end of
itself it's all the elements that are in
there either it's the chlorine and the
rule of the ammonia in the pool or if
you jump into the ocean and why the
ocean do then you've got the salt that's
curling it so you have to get those
impurities off exactly so you know I
like this example that we did so we we
dropped this uh this iPhone in water
intact so the board was optional and
looked fine yep an hour ago yes okay yep
and you know we we we've looked over
this you know it's kind of like hey
let's do a cool time-lapse thing let's
see what's going on and you know I was
surprised looking over the video that
within 30 seconds you could see Frank
corrosion on the board itself so in
there we missing we put it in the water
wall was on and the ocean is going to
happen much faster if Brett's
electricity is moving through it yes so
why is that what does that happen how
does electricity accelerate it well you
know electricity is you know moving
charge and what you're kind of doing is
like this like electroplating kind of
operation really you know so if you're
combining electricity plus like charged
components you know little ions you know
charged particles then that is a recipe
for shorting out electrical circuits you
know so that's that's kind of what
happens so let's take a look at that
exact board this is the same word that
you just weren't terrified to see what
this looks like I haven't looked at this
board yet you attacked my phone this
looks awful yeah looks like I can't see
the board through all the corrosion and
everything it's between every single
component it's probably shorting one
component to the next look at those pins
like there's no way you could possibly
connect something and get a solid
connection there right and you're going
to be really sad because of course you
know where the phone is going to be
really hit is on the power line so the
battery connector because you have the
most current flowing through there is
going to get the most corrosion and you
can see that leftmost pin is the is the
power pin yeah and that's what I saw the
most and it's acting as electromagnet
long all the particles to the pens it's
really sad
okay so you know so this this is you
know you know really this is about as
bad as this is bad
yeah this is bad and you know so what do
you do in this situation
I think the point to kind of take home
with this is that this phone was fine an
hour ago
we put it in you know some water that
had like a tablespoon of salt in it for
some electrolytes in there to kind of
mimic you know you know kind of a
standard solution and this is what it
looks like we didn't do anything else to
it
and that's you know like like if we then
if you just imagine what would happen if
I had this phone you know sort of intact
and I hadn't looked at the board and I
just said let's just put it in some rice
and cross her fingers it's done it's
already happened you know so you're it's
just gonna continue to get worse and
corrode over time well so the most
critical thing is to turn it off right
so the first thing you want to do you
drop your iPhone or any other phone if
you have a traditional phone just take
the battery out yank the power
immediately with with an iPhone you got
to get in and this is the battery
connector just pop off that battery
connector right and now at least there's
no current going through it and then you
can work on on cleaning it
water damage as far as the jet you know
like if your general repair and your
going to do what our damage this is
difficult you know it's sort of
difficult just for the entire industry
how do we make water damage you know
profitable for a repair shop to do and I
think that they're in at least in my I
have a strong opinion that you know
professional water damage cleaning means
that you take the board out and that you
expose the board by desoldering the
shields okay and that then you address
the corrosion with a quality ultrasonic
cleaner so I want to look here at some
other boards that I brought to do this
with because I brought a few because it
tends to be pretty open-ended some of
them come back some of them don't
so we want to kind of look at a few here
so you can see some of these shields
I've got this board you've got all these
shields so you can see the corrosion on
the outside you can't see the corrosion
underneath the shield you got to get
those shields off right
and this is where we start to say well
maybe we're moving beyond the realm of a
DIY repair you can try the create the
best you can clean with alcohol brush it
do anything yeah if you can fix it great
if you can't then it's time for the next
level which is right desolder the
shields which require microscope and and
some fine soldering equipment and then
an ultrasonic cleaner and we're going to
talk about what that is in a minute
right so here's a lot of times you'll
find customers that don't realize that
their board has been water damaged so
let's look at this board do you see that
there's a capacitor here right there
yeah and how it's nice and shiny on one
end and dark on the other right same for
this one it's nice and shiny but then
dark it should look like this one nice
and shiny on both sides so there's been
some kind of material this is water
damage okay
this component right here it should be
you know shiny solder on both sides it
should look just like this one here but
it doesn't that is water damaged and
that's incredibly hard to see with your
naked eye it is you know then look here
there's corrosion here this stuff on the
phone is actually sort of a protective
coating so that sort of protects some of
those components from from water damage
all along here looks fine that's normal
normal normal but then when we get to
this this is sort of a kind of a classic
spot that tends to get a lot of water
damage there's a bluetooth Wi-Fi pieces
here that's component is so water damage
that it may be non-functional so when
you're doing repair one of the first
things you know when you're doing board
level troubleshooting one of the first
things that you want to do is a visual
examination of the board after you get
that history you know to sort of guide
your thinking because water damage
really changes everything you know it
changes what you're going to be thinking
about in terms of like you know possible
causes and problems right you could be
diagnosing something else and realize oh
this was caused by water damage it's not
just a routine failure right yeah and
that that happens to me all the time I
don't know how many like YouTube videos
that I
started that were this is going to be
about a charging system we talk to you
about the charging system and then I
open up the phone it's water damage you
know that just people but it's
incredibly common you go running in the
rain and sure okay so let's talk about
how to fix water damage okay so this um
so this phone then when I see that the
board has evidence of water damage
I really can't feel comfortable doing
any repair until I address the water
damage okay and that always to me means
the same thing
taking the board out desoldering the
shields putting it through ultrasonic
cleaner so we've got a board with water
damage how do we fix it okay that's a
that's a really good question we're
going to desolder the shield's to expose
the board but then after that we're
going to treat it with ultrasonic
frequency vibrations so we need an
ultrasonic cleaner so what I know about
ultrasonic waves is you need some kind
of medium to transmit the waves to the
object so what kind of medium are we
going to use so we are going to use a
specially formulated for electronic
cleaning solution that's called Branson
EC or Branson electronic cleaner and
this is a very expensive specially
formulated it's not super expensive you
know it and you only use it at 3% okay
with distilled water so it's kind of
like a electronics detergent you know it
just sort of helps to create the right
pH in order to help kind of address the
specific type of corrosion that you
would get on an electronics board we
could use distilled water though right
it would probably work to some extent
distilled water with distilled water
wouldn't be taro yeah it wouldn't be
terrible but we couldn't control the pH
it would be sort of all over the place
and you know you you really sort of want
to you know kind of control the the pH
because you're trying to kind of break
chemical bonds
okay what's what's special about this
ultrasonic cleaner so this is an
expensive ultrasonic cleaner and it's an
investment for a repair shop that I
think repair shops should make because
it very easily and quickly pays for
itself because it's very good and the
reason it's very good is because you
know sound waves have to
prynt frequencies and so ultrasonic
ultrasonic waves in this machine are
generated by sweeping through all of
those different frequencies because the
different components on an iPhone board
are going to oscillate at different
frequencies so as we enter the frequency
then you'll be able to kind of shake the
shake the corrosion off a little bit
every object has its resonance frequency
yeah I've seen that bridge in Washington
that yeah okay so you find the resonant
frequency of the object you vibrate a
little bit you really at maximum
vibration it's gonna shake writing out
the detergent will be in there right
it's really the best you can do and you
know honestly I you know this this
thing's expensive and I bought it
because I did not believe in it and I
wanted to sort of I intended to make a
video that was kind of like why spend
all this money you know like it's gonna
be fine to use the the the inexpensive
jewelry style cleaner and I was wrong
you know it was totally wrong I gave it
a shot with some boards and these are
boards that you'd try the cheaper
cleaning right like boards that I had
had that I not just cleaned with
ultrasonic but really worked on like I
had you know been under the microscope
replaced components and I had given up
and said not repairable and then you
know this this one board in particular I
remember as soon as I got that thing I
just put it in there with Branson EC
fired it up five minutes and it turned
on no problems Wow alright so you're
knocking the competition a little bit
yes let me show you what the competition
is so this is a back ooh 903 oh that we
got off alibaba this is it's like 15
bucks you have to read you have to get
the self and the labels on here it has
microcomputer intellect control yeah
that is hmm it also has intellectualized
time hypothesis that's my favorite
intellectualized
time I don't even know what that means I
feel like it's something that I do every
day okay so as I figure out how to use
my intellectualize time hypothesis
machine yes see I can just I can put the
board in here right and fill it with
liquid and push it on and it's going to
do some kind of ultrasonic thing it's
gonna make bubbles and it's gonna it's
gonna you know seem like you're doing
ultrasonic cleaning and that very well
might be better than nothing it might be
better than nothing yeah so if you're a
consumer and you have
while the damage born you just want to
try you know you can you can try this
it's pretty inexpensive and it's
probably going to be better than what I
tried when I had that massager with
except of alcohol on top of it so yeah
you know obviously there's a spectrum
from the $15 ultrasonic cleaner all the
way up to the $100 professional-grade
ultrasonic cleaner and we're hoping to
be doing some more testing and see if we
can find a sweet spot somewhere in
between here there might be more
accessible you know there probably a
wire well there probably is this is big
and it's big because I can put a Macbook
board in there you know mostly Macbook
boards you know a lot of general repair
shops you know if you're kind of like uh
I'm not I'm not sure about board repair
and I'm definitely not sure about
Macbook board repair you know if you
take a wet Macbook board and you throw
it in there a lot of times it'll it'll
come back
Emily worth a shot okay so let's let's
do a repair on I mean we're gonna take
my incredibly encrusted board and we're
gonna try to fix this one we're gonna
give yep well we can put that one
through and you know there's no reason
to not do a few of them at a time okay
look how it's still wet under the shield
yeah and this is I was looking at I was
like oh this board is dry it's safe to
power back on nope you get under the
shield and right sure there's still
moisture under there the corrosion on
the iPhone 4s and the for these shields
are detachable so there's no reason to
not take off the shields of course
you're going to take off the shields
alright you can just drop that in there
now okay so so we've got this yep we'll
be able to recognize visits the for us
not throw it in okay so here's one here
now this has come to me and this is I
think the future of you know maybe you
don't want to do water damage because it
is um you know it's a rabbit hole you
know no rabbit hole so no you know so
let's um this is an iPhone 6 this shield
is just a sticker so I just took that
off okay
this shield we will have to disorder
okay this shield we will disorder okay
and then when I look at this phone under
the microscope I have I can kind of make
a decision here and when I look at this
phone this is the top of the board that
looks good
oops this power/power flex area looks
good
Bluetooth Wi-Fi area looks good I don't
see any franc corrosion or oxidation
this all looks really untouched by water
at this side of the phone okay
so I am going to leave this shield which
covers just the processor well it has
like a kind of a thermal paste I'm going
to leave that alone
because I don't think it's necessary or
worth it all right so now how do we
actually do solder the shields so they
are connected on here by these joints
and for most of the phones Apple did use
a relatively low melts odder so they're
probably specifically to make rework
easier yeah
because we're not the only ones this
assembly needs an example we'll run it
through the factory they'll find a
defect they'll actually do board repair
in the factory right so I'm gonna stick
it in the Omni vise okay and then this
particular shield tends to be a little
bit more difficult than some of the
other ones that are out there so let's
go ahead and give me some hot air so I'm
just going to kind of heat and I'm
really just listening for like the
shields of hot you hear that pop pop pop
yeah
and you're using the rework station
hot-air gun instead of a soldering iron
because why I could use a soldering iron
um you know I could kind of go through
and I used to do that this tent for me
actually tends to be faster and you know
if you only have a soldering iron if you
only had a soldering iron you could even
run the low melt around the edge of this
thing with some flux okay and that would
be that would come right up and if
you're wondering why are there these
shields on here it's because as these
phones run at very high frequencies they
have a lot of electromagnetic
frequencies going on between the various
components and so these shields are
there to isolate certain parts of the
board from other types of the board okay
so we just took off the logic board
shields and now before I drop it in the
cleaner I just want to kind of do an
inspection because if I do see corrosion
in a specific spot then when it comes
back out of the cleaner I want to like
look at that spot because that is kind
of a clue for for damage I also want to
make sure that my my removal of the
shield didn't like you know like flex
some some solder around somewhere or you
know short something out and that does
happen sometimes a little ball will fly
up and in short something up this looks
pretty normal
we're going to add this board to the
ultrasonic cleaning mix this is an
iPhone 5c and I want you to tell me Kyle
as you've kind of looked at a little bit
of water damage now if you see anything
that looks like water damage oh yeah if
you look like at that capacitor on the
left yes like it's got some damage we've
got lots of curvature yeah I don't know
it'll definitely benefit from ultrasonic
cleaner cleaning but you know right
there that that is going to be a burned
burned filter all right so the last
board we're going to do we took out of
the phone and we're seeing some visible
damage even the component that was
knocked off in the process of repair so
this is going to be a bit of a bit of a
project so we just dishonored the
shields on here
there's a little bit more focal damage
on the back of the board and let's go
ahead and just get them all cleaned up
so I'm going to throw this in and this
is board number three in the ultrasonic
cleaning bath okay I've got this on
maximum strength we're going to run it
at about 42 degrees Celsius so there's a
heater in here it's gonna heat the water
up and we're going to run it for four
minutes let's see what happens all right
it's done okay I feel like I'm on a
cooking show or something you stuck it
in the oven we're gonna take it back out
so let's see what's inside alright so
after it comes out we're going to need
to actually brush off the loosened up
corrosion and we also you know this is
water so we kind of want to displace the
water with this is just isopropyl
alcohol and this is just a brush so this
one was the for us this is the bad one
now you you know they the corrosion
comes off but there's really a
difference between corrosion and
oxidation I think like if a capacitor is
is internally damaged so that current
goes through it instead of being
separated there's no magical amount of
cleaning and should I clean it again
should take the shields Oh should use a
different cleaner no it's you can't like
bring things back from the dead in
unless you replace it so you know
replace it and then it'll be fine
but you'll you'll see when we look under
the microscope that Wiles are like fuzzy
green stuff the corrosion is is removed
that you'll still be able to see the
like evidence so we are squirting
alcohol onto here to dry it off what the
alcohol is doing is displacing the water
and then the alcohol has a much higher
of after the point than the water does
so we can set it here without all on it
and alcohol will evaporate I usually use
compressed air after this to really get
it so that it just doesn't smell like
alcohol anymore then it's ready to go
and the old iPhone 6 now this one didn't
so I can see that you are accustomed to
having an assembly line here these comes
in batches all right now we're gonna let
those one sort of hang out for a second
but we'll go ahead and look under the
microscope this is this is the one you
fix the
for us okay so let's see how bad is it
see how bad it is so you can see that
there are you know it's definitely off
the oxidation right like this capacitor
you know this is going to be the
negative side this is where the you know
sort of current was flowing through it
same for this one same for this one same
for that one okay so this would be
something I would consider you know it
still shows you that even though the
corrosion is gone and it has really been
cleaned it has clearly been damaged are
we missing a component there yep so this
this whatever was on this component is
totally totally totally gone corroded on
both sides so it would have been like
one of these where it wasn't sort of
anchored by this so what happened there
that the salt got under attacked the
solder joint corroded it and then in the
process of handling look yeah like this
one this this this elodea shorted out
capacitor see how it's not you know this
one's anchored down because the the
ground side is relatively okay probably
same for this one it's just held in
there by underfill Wow the underfill is
like tar black looking stuff yeah sure
this connector used to look really
horrible and so that looks good you know
so there's this pin here is missing that
we would and will the pin is still here
so so the movement on this joint look at
that okay so it's not going to be
electrically sufficient right now but
you know we could take a soldering iron
we could turn that up we could make that
joint again so with this joint the
solder itself to spread so much this all
the solder is gone right and that's
what's happened underneath a lot of
these components is the solder has been
eaten away right could this board be
saved
um maybe yeah you know right now it
would need a significant amount of work
so we could kind of like tally through
it here's your what you just did so this
connector is now insufficient again so
you know we could
go through here and address these things
now one of the most common failures that
you might have if you said let's just
dry it out and see what happens
you know what would probably happen is
that you would have a short on the board
so a short circuit this capacitor if you
know it's it's native job is to sort of
separate ground from the positive line
right if it itself becomes internally
damaged that it kind of becomes like a
hole in the middle like a channel you
know then it then you show you the vigor
bouncing it turns that into a wire so
that entire line and anything else
that's on that line is now directly
connected to ground so if you try to
power on the phone the electricity won't
be pushed through the entire circuit
board it'll go straight through the
little like you know hole in the fence
you know the bad cap that's short you
know so how do you find the short if
there is a short on the board you can
figure out what component is it a lot of
them look bad but probably all of them
aren't actually shorted through and
turned into a wire so how do we find
that so what do you think we could do ah
so if we know that's the capacitor
that's bad I would look at the schematic
and see what else is on that line and
the schematic what you can do is you can
you can attach it to either a known good
battery and then you'll feel it getting
hot somewhere okay you know or you can
use a IR okay yeah you can use one of
those like fluorescent infrared cameras
you can do this is this is a poor man's
way you know where you eat oh it's that
you know and I've done that you know
that's a good way to what I do now is
I'll I'll coat it with freeze spray okay
and then I'll watch where and then and
then at the moment that I connect the
I'll usually use a DC power supply in
the moment I connect it something will
just turn turn dark immediately and that
that's and it shows you the way yep so
let's put this one aside okay and let's
take a look at no the other ones work so
now we're going to just kind of like
look around here to see are there any
water damage components that we need to
address or anything else that we need to
dress so we've got a phone beforehand we
could see it was really bad around this
filter in the connector and now it's
looking better but we still clearly are
you know have some additional is it a
gunk in there that's preventing
electrical connectivity or well this it
may be great but I wish you know because
you know because this phone has very
focal damage so it's very minor then it
makes sense for us to go ahead and just
spend a few minutes with the soldering
iron to just kind of beef up these
connections and also to spend a minute
with a multimeter to sort of you know to
do a quick test we want to find out if a
capacitor is shorting out the board so
capacitors normally should not have
continuity across them right because one
side is ground and the other side is the
line so if we put probes on either end
of a capacitor we should not hear a beep
got it
so let's alright waiting with us over
the continuity mode and we're going to
watch okay so here's a good-looking
capacitor here and I don't hear a beep
if I put the tips together I hear a beep
got it and if I measure just the both
sides I don't hear a beep if I measure
put one tip on ground on this shield
here one side is ground and the other
side is not ok so that's a healthy
capacitor now let's take a look at one
of these components here so right here
this component is not a capacitor it's
not tan and that's something you know
you might need to work with a schematic
look up a few things until you kind of
develop that just sort of by recognition
feel but it's not a capacitor this is a
filter so a filter kind of acts like a
resistor and it should have it's sort of
like a bridge in a roadway so you have
to have connection to both sides of the
roads on either Shore so should we have
continuity through a cross a filter yes
yes so let's see you know do we we do ok
so that's good so that means that is
working what would it sound like if
filter itself was corroded and bad I
either wouldn't get you would not get it
right so that would be the thing a lack
of continuity when it's a filter so it's
like we're kind of like fishing for
opposites here we're looking to see do
capacitors not beep which is good and if
filters do beep then that's good so let
me ask you what do you think this
component is right here that sort of the
component in question it looks like a
filter to me it looks like a filter to
me as well I don't know that it is but I
think that it looks like a filter and we
can kind of get a clue as well by just
looking at the line it looks like it
goes from this LCD pin across through
the filter and then continuing on it
doesn't look like it connects to ground
you can really kind of read it as a map
you know this is the ground look how
it's a big plane of ground the and the
you know component in question right
here it has a little roadway it's not
connected to ground there and it's not
connected to ground connected to this
little roadway there so it is going to
be a filter so it should if it's good
have continuity across it so let's test
that and it does and it does so that's
good and we should have continuity all
the way from here to the LCD pad and we
do in the LCD pin all right so it passes
your visual inspection yeah and a little
electrical inspection so now we're ready
to give this board a try I think so yeah
this one's definitely ready to give it a
shot because there's no you know obvious
thing that would that would churn it up
so we're gonna dry it off okay I have
probably a good idea any remaining
alcohol so I'm gonna just you know use
that and then it doesn't still smell
like alcohol
it feels pretty dry I could you know
kind of leave it under a lamp or
something you know that would probably
be a be a good idea for today we're
gonna give it a try so I'm just going to
stick it back into the housing and throw
a screen on it this is just sort of a
you know kind of loose test alright so
we've got this thing back together we
put the board and we're using a test
battery on here let's go ahead and fire
it up and see what happens okay Hey look
at that okay an Apple logo so it doesn't
mean anything until it comes to food
we've also got what looks like a test
pattern or something on this yeah that's
typical of like sort of you know the
digitizer not making good connection
that can be a screen problem like a test
screen will typically be like that so
this has been an introduction to water
damage repair rain a more intensive
fashion than you normally would and the
key lessons to learn out of this is the
first thing you have to do is disconnect
it from power you gotta stop electrons
flowing through the device and then pull
it completely apart use displace the
water displace the water some houses
raise the weather with alcohol yep and
then you remove the board from the
device you can solder the shields these
oh no yeah you really have just no and
me just from this example if you can't
decide or the shields or if you choose
not to desolder the shields then you're
really not addressing 80% of the board
and that's really if you're running a
repair shop so if you're thinking about
taking your phone to a repair shop you
really need to be asking questions are
they going to be taking the shield's off
what kind of ultrasonic cleaner do they
have that they're using is it a sweep
frequency ultrasonic cleaner are the
shield's coming off
Branson EC or what are you using to
actually do the cleaning
fantastic well it has been so much fun
to have you here I check out Jess's
channel yes I've got a YouTube channel
where you know I I you know just sort of
address repairs that are interesting or
like a little bit something unusual you
know and we're just gonna have fun I'm
going to be making a YouTube kind of a
parody video of my time here fantastic
and your channel is it's the iPad rehab
channel on YouTube okay so check out
iPad Rehab on YouTube subscribe I fix it
we'll have lots more in-depth repairs
coming down the pike all right thanks
Kyle thank you