hi I'm Kyle with iFixit and I am excited
to have Jessa Jones here with us hi Kyle
excited to be here thanks for coming on
so Jessa we got to know you earlier this
year uh when you know we were telling us
stories about these amazing fixes you
were doing for them ah so Jessa is is
now kind of famous in the repair world
for doing repairs that everybody thought
wasn't possible before usually she's
taking something like an iPad where the
circuit boards on the iPad is dead and
repairing it right yep I mean it's
really like these are um little cities
made of Legos really they are you know
and even though it looks really small
you know all of those little houses and
cars are just pieces you know and you
can take them off you can find
replacements and you can stick them back
on and you know and it is totally
totally doable so a circuit board is a
whole bunch of components that are
mounted on a baseboard right and so how
are the various pieces how are they
connected to each other well you can
kind of think of a you know a circuit
board as a whole bunch of tiny wires
that are kind of in meshed in this sort
of multi-layer substrate and then there
are components that kind of connect
these tiny wires in the board so the
tiny wires the border these roadways
that service these different components
and the components come in a couple
different flavors there's ones that are
little capacitors like you know like
this one right here and then there are
ones that are inductors like this one
right here there's a diode here like
that and then there are bigger sort of
chips that are something like that and
that guy sits on an array of these tiny
little solder balls right the
creativeLIVE 16 by 16
whatever it is yep so ball grid array
BGA chips okay which are awesome
replaceable and when we're doing tear
downs normally that's what we're
identifying we'd say we saw three four
3s so we look it up in our database when
we say okay this is I don't know what is
that and particularly we're looking at
this chip you know you kind of after a
while kind of just get a feeling for
what the people in the neighborhood look
like you know and this is a power chip
but you know so this is a this is an
iPad Mini retina and you know just from
experience a chip that looks like that
ends up being the power management IC
chip or the power controller chip I want
to go back and ask a bit about how did
you get into this industry with you
what's your background well my
background is is um completely different
you know I have a PhD in molecular
genetics okay which like DNA I love DNA
yes and DNA is smaller than these phones
yeah so yeah these are big so you feel
like going through mixing DNA and
affixing phones right yeah everything is
big all of us are exactly the stuff is
huge you know of course you can repair
those traces like they're like you know
like 100 chromosomes good for the
processor so um but but my training was
sort of you know molecular genetics is
sort of thinking about things in a
problem-solving kind of way you know
where it's all about pathways and a goes
to B goes to C and when something
happens and causes a disease you know
what what went wrong in the pathway and
we do a lot of microscope work and we do
a fair amount of micro pipetting so that
is sort of like a little bit of fine
motor skill to kind of transfer to
microliters but not for from a well a -
all be you know there was a little bit
of that but I had largely kind of moved
away from that because I had four kids
okay and that's a like it's it's hard to
be a full-time scientist with four kids
yes it is right so I took some time to
be a stay-at-home mom and super fun you
know so stay-at-home moms are really
like professional cleaning ladies plus
fun rappers well I've seen the pictures
on on Facebook I mean you know
absolutely adorable kids and they look
like loads of fun and trouble oh yeah
yes exactly
loads of fun and loads of trouble for
sure you know
but it has been it has been fun and I
think that the stay-at-home mom
community you know kind of tends to feel
like your world gets very small I can
remember this moment I mean I have a PhD
I did a lot of training you know but
there was this moment where I was
standing at the grocery store and I was
really like applying all of my
analytical brain power to decide whether
or not clean linen would be a better air
freshener to get or should I just stick
with the Apple I know you know it's hard
to graces yeah hard try so it's like
your world gets really small right you
know and so um I when my kids started
stepping on iPhones and iPads and you
know my daughter's flushed the one okay
you know so she flushes her iPhone are
you red Maya you're right yeah she
flushes your iPhone yeah like this is it
yes this is you know this was it and and
that that's sort of you know that my
twins my twin 4 year old girls I think
they were they were like you know I
don't know like 2 or something they
flushed my iPhone they had previously
washed another iPhone that I had just
before that and I didn't realize that
they'd flushed the iPhone I just knew
that the toilet was clogged you know Mom
the toilets clogged all right put it on
the list of annoying problems that I
have to solve today you know and I
didn't think anything up until like
later that night I'm a heavy user of the
Find My iPhone app ok we're going by my
iPhone the house it's like BB beat by
the toilet oh no it was a big red X and
it is offline offline I was like wait
that thing was charged up you know so
there's there's no way that oh no you
just have like this moment of
realization you know where you know
somewhere it is stopped but yeah we're
like the battery like the toilet being
clogged and the offline Oh No here's No
so so yeah it was in there and the thing
that was amazing about it is that I um
you know I immediately went to I fix it
and I you know followed a guide to take
the thing apart and then right
this point you assemble it dry so dry it
up you know and and with a new battery
it would work okay but it wouldn't
charge and so it seems you know so then
I you know did a new charge port so new
battery new charge port it would not
charge but it would work other than that
Wi-Fi everything I mean that was amazing
he'd been in a toilet you know right and
it just wouldn't charge so it was like
it you know that just seemed like a
solvable problem you know and then it
was sort of you know it was it was old
turkey from answers who told me you know
when I posted this question you know and
I kind of gave this a history and just
and just asked I had no idea like you
know is it possible to repair this now
like you know what what's the next step
and he said you know here's a picture of
the board and this is like what he's
fantastic at you know right these are
the components you know so he here's one
that said you know well there is a
charging coil on there and you know you
could replace that in theory if you
couldn't have the right yet known enough
and he is used to so on on the answers
form
you know everybody comes along he says
that to that 99 out of 100 right we're
gonna say oh I guess I can't fix that
right so here's the one I love Andre
yeah you know I mean it is kind of like
I don't know you would do the same thing
I'm sure you know where it's like all
right fine did I'll order a soldering
station you know so you got into this
kind of accidentally somewhat
incrementally yeah you didn't have a job
to keep you busy so when the kids were
in bed maybe you deal with things over
time people will started sending you
with things to fix like how did you get
go from like repairing a few things on
your own to helping other people right
that's a good question so I you know um
I can I I kind of started with general
repair you know I had done a little bit
of board level work but you know sort of
I think everybody that wants to do board
level work has to know general repair so
that means screens and batteries and
cameras and things like that this is
like level 3 repair right whatever level
one exactly simple things level 2 you
taking apart doing more diagnosis okay
so level 3 is now we're gonna actually
fix the board right exactly so I started
with sort of level 1 kind of repairs
which you know it's it's pretty natural
to kind of you know you start sort of
fixing phones in the community and then
you make a little Craigslist ad then
you're like one of those Craigslist guys
and I can remember the first screen
replacement I did for a Craigslist
person was like a first like real person
I didn't know yeah and I was so like
nervous about it for another I mean it's
just a heat another step of confidence
from doing things on your own getting it
for somebody else right yeah it was
terrifying you know but then it went
well and he was so thrilled and he you
know I made money you know and it was as
a stay-at-home mom being able to sort of
you know contribute in some way is
really powerful and I think that I think
that the stay-at-home mom community is
filled with talented people that would
like to kind of do something a little
bit on the side and this is repair is
fantastic for that you know well it's
one job at a time right yeah busy you
just don't take any more jobs right and
and every you know if you're a
stay-at-home mom you're gonna know
somebody that's got a crack screen right
you'll be able to follow and iFixit
guide you'll be able to do it you know
and so you can start out that way one of
the women that came to the practical
board repair course you know same thing
where she just started started doing it
for her daughter and then her daughter's
friends and now everybody in school and
it kind of it's very natural that way
you know so that's great so what what
kind of advice would you give to
somebody starting out um so to somebody
who is who is starting out with general
repair which is the first step you know
I would say that you that you want to
kind of build an experience base so you
would start repairing for friends and
family and kind of just ask around
everybody is going to have some device
in a drawer that's kind of broken or has
a cracked screen that they kind of don't
know what to do with so you might be
able to say I'll do this just for the
price of the part so that I can get
experience and it's an older device and
people would be like sure you know so
it's a good way to kind of build up your
experience based one problem at a time
you know so a lot of people are like
where do you learn all this you know
where do you get all the information
right you're like you just start solving
problems one problem and making mistakes
you have to work your way through and
you have
come up with a hypothesis you try it
maybe it works maybe it doesn't in
overtime you're a building up your
mental model you do you kind of have to
become an efficient like phone physician
or a diagnostician
you know like an iPad Mini you know
where you you're going to kind of get
one that has some problem maybe you can
solve it maybe you can't but you'll
learn a lot about that problem in
thinking about it and trying to solve it
and seeing what does the what does the
world already know about this you know
and then you'll you'll learn that and
then you'll be able to kind of build on
that and recognize patterns from that so
from here let me just show you a couple
of examples that I have this is is just
what I happen to throw in my suitcase on
my way I fix it from my you know stack
of repairs so these are common things
that you would have these are like
things that people you know actually
sent to me for mail and repair you know
and this this one here that we've been
looking at is an iPad Mini retina and so
iPad Mini retina can have a failure of
the backlight just like the iPad Mini
original it's a little bit less common
in the retina but it still can happen so
the backlight is a high voltage
component yes that is powering the LEDs
around the outside of the yes the
display then making it light up so if
the backlight isn't working you can look
at it you can have a dim screen you can
still see things maybe your touch screen
is working yes but it's very very dim
right yep so you can you know see you
like with a flashlight if you applied
some light you know you can see the
image you know
so the backlight backlight sort of it is
kind of like a general general line that
typically fails across lots of devices
not even just Apple devices you know
right but you know you can have just a
failure it's a high voltage kampala
higher pressure seller asked you know
parts of the device it's going to be
heating up cool down more so it's going
to be more yes it's going to be more
susceptible to a short you know if
you're kind of like shorted something
out then you're shorting that high
voltage to ground that's going to cause
like a transient you know current spike
that can damage a component and here's
what that might look like under the
microscope so I'm gonna have you and I'm
putting you totally on the spot again
because that's what you're here I like
to do that all right you're doing well
so I'm gonna have
you tell me when you see what you're
gonna tell me where the backlight filter
is on this thing are you ready I'm ready
I have no idea what it's like all right
okay here we go so we're on a little
tour of the neighborhood you know I'll
kind of walk you around a little bit
this here is the you - I see chip okay
for the iPad Mini retina so that's that
one that can be and is in the Mini
retina and every other device damaged by
the wrong using the wrong charger okay
so now we're going to kind of like
cruise around the neighborhood and
looking for something sports or any kind
of damage here's not damage that people
sometimes think this that's fine that
this is like a marking okay that is
meant to be there okay see how some of
these have like a dot yeah yeah that's
normal that's just to help them orient
it when they're assembling it okay oh
there you go okay so I can i it's I mean
I see it there there here's my magic
pointer yes right you're right exactly
since you see that with your naked eye
are you really need the microwave a Shia
well I have like the worst vision in the
world I think I think that's pretty darn
hard to see it's right around here
yeah I mean this board looks totally
fine looking at it even getting close in
I know exactly where the look and it's
the slightly different color but you
throw them to the microscope and
immediately yeah I was clearly obvious
right yeah that it's that it's over
bolted yep and then we can we can drill
down even further which is fantastic so
you can see that yeah I mean there's no
barrier we have a failed component yes
yes so that's you know so here in the
iPad Mini the backlight is sort of you
know generated by this inductor which we
call the coil and you know want one of
the we were talking about how the
Internet's full of lies everybody says
that all the coil or you've got a back
like I mean for the place the coil well
look at the coil you knows it was this
coil looks totally fine you know and a
coil is really just a coil so inside
that square is a coil of wire it's like
a slinky you know and it's kind of like
how do you break a slinky like you
really
then the inductor is what's changing the
voltage I'm holding it from mobile touch
the high voltage yes so it is less like
it's following the battery voltage yes
you know to the like higher like 16 or
so volts for the backlight circuit and
then there's a backlight diode and the
diode is Mark J H and here I have it
there so that diode fails the diode does
fail yeah and and in this case the diode
I'd be very I'd be skeptical of this
diode because the filter is so horribly
field sometimes the filter can fail just
visually in a way that's kind of minor
or it'll look pretty ok except it'll
have like a little like blob of solder
in the center of it you know and so
that's kind of like a minor that one's
really good okay yeah sure so then I'd
be kind of worried that maybe the diode
was like insulted it's early mid Ben you
know okay so this is fascinating so you
can look at this yeah under a microscope
get a feel where some of high voltage
circuitry is and often times you can
find a problem yes right so if you did
not have any other information you know
you could solve this repair problem you
know this is going to be solved by just
replacing that component right with with
with another one other common problems
same same kind of thing here this is a
Samsung Galaxy s3 which just tends to
have a really weak charge port so the
charge port on this one and I also loves
that this microscope you can kind of
like pull it off the edge of the table
here so that I can like use the table if
I can actually yeah look straight down
under which is pretty cool so the charge
port is something that is caught it's
going to suffer a lot of wear and tear
yes on this Samsung it's got a kind of
flimsy USB port right and so you can see
it's got all kinds of gunk inside there
right yeah so maybe the connector itself
is for another is the connector been
pulled off of the board well you know
whenever you you know you're inspecting
for visible damage you're looking for
corrosion anything green because this is
sort of exposed to the elements you know
it's not like protected inside the phone
right and so they do tend to fail you
can see sometimes they'll be wobbly and
then you can sort of look to see where
the electrical contact is
self is made so if we sort of look at
the actual pins that those pens look
corroded or on to that see if you can
like get a better view of that yeah I
mean these these ones look horrible you
know they're Frank green corrosion you
know right right there on the edge of
that pin let me see if I can focus on so
a big part of why we have step-by-step
instructions and we help people keep
track of screws and we're so particular
about the length of the screws on these
devices that if you have a one point two
millimeter screw and a 1.4 millimeters
screw and you put the long screw and the
short screw slot you can short things
out you can cause problems yes and
that's never been more apparent than in
the iPhone 5s so here's one that's come
to me with a note that says you know
like I I'm sure that I mixed up the
screws nobody realizes that until until
after and we're never going to do it
again but so what does that look like
you know so so the in the iPhone 5s long
screw damaged by putting any of the
longer screws in the short screw hole so
which one is it it's the one that is
right here okay so right above the
processor mm-hmm and it's on the you
know right side so the bottom right and
then if we kind of look at it not all
blue screen of death is caused by long
screw damage but often it is so the
first step is visual inspection so is
this one caused by long screw damage
let's take a look so there's a metal
shield cut that the the screwed screws
in yeah let's screw bracket yeah okay
and then and then underneath it is just
the bare PCB yes yep and we can take off
this sticker here's another thing
everybody should do for visual
inspection you know take off any kind of
like removable sticker so that you can
see the board this is pretty easy to to
you know take off that sticker there and
you'll be able to see like is something
damaged or burned or knocked off and um
and so you've got the PCB and it's a
sandwich layer of wires yes and if you
run the screw too far into that
and you start smashing those wires into
each other yes smashing them into each
other or just sort of tearing them
they're very fine they're like you know
fairy wing hair yeah they're really
they're really easy to to just tear you
know and if you tear them then you're
then the you know then between two
components where one is sending data and
one is listening for data you know you
wash the bridge out you know there's no
there's no communication there Aaron's
right and so the phone kind of responds
with sort of like a generic freakout of
blue-screen reboot I don't know what's
going on you know and you have no idea
cuz yeah I could just put the thing
together I really did everything right I
don't have any screws left over what
could possibly be wrong well you're
caused invisible damage right underneath
that screwed the screw bracket yeah that
started on there and that's hard to tell
I mean can you tell by looking at that I
can tell just from experience and I
think that it's a little bit more crisp
in the oculus than it is on the so I
just went through the bottom of it yeah
I mean on this this one is actually
really really classic so you know down
at the bottom of that screw hole it
should look like a smooth black you know
it should look just as smooth and black
as this battery but it's there's clearly
at the bottom of that there in offer and
impression you know you don't even have
to you can see the copper but you don't
have to see the copper in order to kind
of have that damage because it's just
sort of like a crushing tearing you know
underneath that black conformal coating
got it and like maybe we can kind of
drill around so in order to repair this
you would desolder that screw mount
yep and then you have to scrape the
traces or you scrape the cover off and
get into where you can access the traces
yes so you can kind of see like that
it's irregular on the edge of the sort
of circle cavett so that shows that's
definitely that's classic so if we were
to you know do this repair we would have
to desolder the shields now this is
really tiny you know like I think we
kind of look at something really big up
there and we forget how tiny
I mean these are inside there right
there incra no there was no way to tell
with your naked eye was no way yeah I
mean this whole thing you could you know
you could put a grain of rice and it
would mask the entire thing exactly I
think that's a really good overview
these three examples are pretty kind of
fascinating each of them are different
and I think they expose so the different
set of skills that you have to have to
be able to fix these things yeah so we
are going just is going to here all week
and we're going to continue to be
recording more videos with you and we're
actually going to dive in and solve some
of these problems you're gonna solve
some of these I'm delighted yeah so so
we're gonna learn said Jessa has offered
out of the goodness of her heart to
teach some of us iFixit people where
we've been taking things apart for a
long time but we've never done this kind
of low-level Microsoft repair so she's
going to be teaching us how to do it we
have no idea how to do this so we're
kind of excited to learn ah so this is
teach the teachers and you know we
flipped the rolls around this is
wonderful because we taught you how to
take these things apart that's right and
you have completely surpassed us in your
skill box so now we're going to do the
information exchange the other way and
you're going to get a watch us kind of
struggle along the way where we don't
expect to be able to get it working I
really think it's the best way to teach
you know what to rather than me kind of
sitting like I'm learning to solder this
you know I mean it's sort of like
troubleshooting in real time what it's
really like for you know somebody with
experience and repair to say I'm going
to I'm doing it I'm going to do board
level repair I'm going to the next level
watch me do this and to just kind of get
that real-time guidance you know and and
sort of help you through the the trouble
spots that's the best way to learn I
think so well so that makes a lot of
sense so subscribe to our Channel and
stay tuned for the next videos
you