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Fourth generation iPhone. Repair is straightforward, but the front glass and LCD must be replaced as a unit. GSM / 8, 16, or 32 GB capacity / Model A1332 / Black and White. This page aims to help users troubleshoot, fix, and seek help for the iPhone 4.

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Baseband Chip broken, error -1. Need knowledge on replacing chip

Hey guys,

I have recieved and old water damaged iphone from a friend that she now has no use for. I and trying to fix it in my spare time.

The phone was lost outside in her yard for the whole winter and recovered the next year. I have taken the motherboard and cleaned it with isopropyl alchocol. The phone works almost perfectly besides the baseband issues.

I originally got the phone restored, and it was on the phone activation screen. I could not activate due to carrier lock. I then got her to come over to try her SIM card and this is when it still didnt work. I assumed there was something wrong and tried restoring it. I got it restored and the phone now said connect to itunes. Itunes continuily could not activate the phone and kept giving me the error message '' cannot continue with activation at this time....."

I then went for another restore, only to get error -1. I read about this error and tried all solutions. The furthest I have gotten was I hacktivated the phone and got it turned on completely. This gave me the ability to check eveythings working behaviour. EVERYTHING still works besides the always searching for service and there is no baseband information in settings.

I believe this is a baseband chip failure. I would like to know all possible solutions that could work. I am willing to solder and rip apart the motherboard because this is just a phone for my spare time.

Thanks,

Josh

Answer this question I have this problem too

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I've got the exact same problem, only i bought the phone online ,and the advert stated that it says connect to iTunes, for an astronomical amount i bought it, thinking that i would be able to fix it.

I tried updating it and if it is almost finished it gives the -1 error, i sent the phone in for repairs and they say that i need a new motherboard because there is a baseband chip failure, but it is the same price as a new phone. Please tell me how you got it of the connect to itunes screen?

Thank you!

by

You can activate the phone through a hactivate method. This includes jailbreaking your device and you also need a working lock/power button as you will need to place phone in DFU mode.

If you dont have any base knowledge, just google "hacktivate iphone iOS 6" It is a very simple process.

If you cant find anything on hacktivate just reply back here with your email and I can help you out.

by

hey josh so i have the same problem and i wanna hacktivate it like u did

so how can i do this thanks

by

any more information about that baseband ic chip???

by

hey josh can u mail me the hacktivating trick on prvnyadav28@gmail.com

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Baseband Chip has a lot of glue arround it and inside it. I cleaned the glue arround and I used a heat gun at 270 C for about 7-8 min to seperate the Chip. At least i destroyed the dots that connect the Chip with notherboard, i completely destroyed the motherboard. Dont try this. Better heat the Chip for about 10 min at 200-230 C and if you are lucky this will work again. Sorry for my English, hope you understand what i want to say!

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One of the most harmful advices I've ever seen!

1. Underfilled chips ARE NOT reflowable! Heating such an IC till solder melts guarantees the solder to "boil" and try to "escape" from [underfilled] closed space due to heat related expansion, making UNDER THE CHIP BRIDGES (shorts)!

2. Heating the ICs for such a long time is totally against any specification for modern IC packages. The ICs are designed to withstand reflow temperatures (like up to 260C) for about 30-40 seconds. Heating it for minutes 99% guarantees dead IC!

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Hi all after some extensive research on the subject (constantly searching for signal ) you read all the forums and hey some will say it's an antenna problem so you replace it with no joy others say it's a time and date issue fixed with a manual edit yes it can be tedious as it will skip forward or back 10 years if you try to go to quick. Or someone else said replace the SIM card reader anyway you've done all of the above and still nothing. here is what I found!!start here! If you've ever removed a SIM card before you will notice that almost immediately the phone says no sim! But with a broken or damaged ic/baseband chip,without SIM card inserted, you will have notice that your phone Never says no SIM card and when you do put one in it's still searching only to continue forever. So then after all of this you think hey I'll just update with iTunes wrong again because hey presto error-1 so then more research and apparently it's the baseband chip causing the issue the whole time just had a quote of $85aus for parts and labour to repair it. If your thinking of trying to reflow it yourself or place it in the oven for 20 mins @180. consider the fact that for less than $100 you can have it repaired properly and a Pretty much new phone again if your still wanting more check out micro soldering or baseband chip repair on YouTube then decide yourself. Hope this helps and saves everyone else from the same headaches.

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hello have you got an adress for that repair? I could not find any!

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i had the very same problem. after a water damage my phone was searching for service all the time and could not even tell if there was a sim present or not. restores aborted at firmeware update with error -1. some rare times with error 23.

via redsnow i was able to reinstall and activate ios 5.1.1. wifi was working for a few hours - but baseband info was missing and still no service. 6.1.3 update without baseband worked but phone got still no service.

since a phone without service was useless to me, i took the fun and disassembled it and heated the logic board alone in an oven at 180 celsius degree for about 20min.

after that the restore was flawless and the phone is working! i am not joking!

hope that helps.

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I will try this and let you know. my iphone 4s also gives -1 error after resetting ios 8.4 jailbroken.

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reflow with heatgun or oven will make it work for a short amount of time, enough to get it activated and jailbroken but doesnt fix the problem

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So everyone put your iphone in the oven. yeah!

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If you have a hot air station you can try reflowing it, his worked for me.

Just heat up the baseband chip and maybe it will work after that.

Let me know!

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I used that method along with a third party recovery application, and it worked pretty nice

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What was the 3rd party app? I'm thinking about trying it

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Same problem here with my iPhone 5c.. restore error (-1)

After trying everything with no succes, I put the iPhone between a pillow and my laptop, which is pretty hot underneath, I would say around 60'C (more or less)

The iPhone got hot pretty quick and then I retried the restore with succes! I even had some cell reception after I replaced the SIM card and managed to make a call..

I'm not sure if the baseband issue will remain fixed for a longer term but at least there's some improvement.

Hope this helps..

Cheers, Bernie

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hey, That was true?

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Just wanted to check if your repair worked over longer period of time?

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Hello, no it only worked until after the restore. Once the iPhone cooled down, there was no working baseband again and no cell reception.

Baseband chip will need to be replaced. I haven't tried anything else since. The phone is somewhere in a box ever since.

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Hi josh....!! i need your hand to solve this issue my mail id '"" invention_s@yahoo.com ""

Josh thank u in advance

:)

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The best bet is to reflow with hot air gun, the chip may have a dry joint , with flux and check that the components adjacent to the chip become shiny almost melting, then cool it, without the metal shield attached to the frame and test, if you get a signal then you do not have to change the chip. It is quite cumbersome procedure to replace the chip but most of the time just reflowing does the trick.

Mushtaq

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bro go karol baag u ll find the solution there they ll take 1000 or 1500 rs from u

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My suggestion is to heat the base band chip remove it, have it cleaned on the board re-ball the chip and solder back and it will work, or short cut, just heat the chip and apply liquid flux applying liberally. advise which of the methods worked.

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Josh will be eternally grateful.
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