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Repair information and guides for the Apple iPhone 5s that was announced on September 10, 2013. Model: A1533, A1453, A1457, A1528, A1530, A1518

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iPhone 5s - Infinite boot loop (after screen replacement)

Hi,

After I replaced the LCD digitizer on an iPhone 5s, it has gone into an infinite boot loop:

1. You can see the Apple logo for about 1 min.

2. The LCD turns bluish.

3. Restarts and does the same thing again.

4. After the second time, the phone turns it self off, and it is no longer possible to turn it on again. If I remove the battery, and then up it back in, the same thing happens.

I've tried replacing the battery and cleaning the connectors with isopropyl alcohol, but no luck.

Here is a video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_IiF7B33...

Any ideas?

Answered! View the answer I have this problem too

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5 Comments

Have you tryed dfu mode and restore?

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i have the same problem about twice a day with my 5s. mine repeats the cycle of going blue then off and then to the apple screen, many times.

by

i have the same problem but red screen.

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I have the same problem: apple appears for about 3 secs then goes dark. then on, then off. The phone is less than 1 1/2 years old.

The battery is fine.

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34 Answers

Chosen Solution

Hello Fixers--just fixed another long screw BSOD tonight. Man that was tiny---here are some pictures from real life that show you the long screw problem. NOTE: In this phone, there was NO copper showing in the screw hole. I removed the bracket and the solder mask was intact. You could see pressure had been there, but no tear.

Here are the pictures:

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Great job Jessa and thanks for the pictures. Your right that is very tiny

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great job thanks

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Looks like you have put the screws back into the wrong places! In most cases, this is what causes the iphone 5s blue screen. Double check that they are in the right spots and that the mother board is not damaged.

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thats wrong... my iphone 5s has never been taken apart and is new and is literally in an infinite reboot loop. as im typing its doing it. its been going on for about 10 min. now. People say to reboot it while its rebooting and all these little things but to be honest, it pretty much trash and get a new one...

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@ board level what is being done to the motherboard to repair the screw issue?

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Micro jumpers are applied to bridge the torn traces under the screw bracket

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swapped my screws around back to the rite places and yes it works, thanks so much, you rock!!!

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i never even putt screw but its still doing the same

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here is the problem, we have found it iphone 5s blue screen Fix the problem is to do with the screws being placed back in the wrong slot ,

Regards

Jim

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Repairing long screw damage does solve some of the iPhone 5S blue screen problems after proximity flex issues are ruled out. We have seen some 5S BSOD in the absence of long screw damage or prox flex problem. There is still more to learn about this problem.

To keep information together, we have also seen a case of long screw damage in the iPhone 6 as well. So watch those screws! Here is a case report blog post on that. http://mendonipadrehab.com/entries/gener...

Long screw damage repair is definitely not a DIY repair---you need to restore continuity across 7 lines that run across the diameter of a screw in a 50 uM space. Tough!

Definitely call Jim if you're in the UK. If you're in the United States and suspect long screw damage for your 5S BSOD, feel free to contact us to help---click my name to see my profile with contact information

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Apple utilizes amongst other things an I2C and SPI bus for a lot of the cross board peripheral communication; Any time you are getting a blue screen and reboot one of those buses is having problems sending and receiving data. In the case of the severed traces it is a physical, easy to identify cause. However, if any of the chips connected to one of those buses is damaged, it pulls down all communication on that line and when the boot process tries to initialize any of those devices it ends up reading in corrupt data, causes a memory overflow and crashes.

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Yup--and I would suspect the charging logic "U2 chip" as in the iPhone 5 as a primary candidate for damage in the absence of visible or liquid damage. Would you agree iRepairNational? Tell us more about your thoughts on this :)

jessa

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I am just starting to work a on phone with BSOD. It did not have long screw damage on the bottom right screw. And none showing through the bottom left. But after careful examination of that last screw hole, I noticed it was lightly offset. So I poked at it and the screw bracket moved. It had long screw damage in the sense that a long screw had ripped it from the board.

I carefully picked it up. Beneath it, I could see continuity for a number of components is disrupted since their pads attach to this screw bracket. I will be working on this today, and hope to be able to post a picture if that @#$! camera focuses right.

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Yes, replacing U2 for bluescreen after water damage would be a good start. For non liquid damage, you need to do a little 'forensics' to determine what was most likely shorted by the previous repair attempt since literally any chip on an i2c or spi bus can cause the issue.

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I have a solution for this. Most of the time, this is caused by mis matching screws. See this photo.

Copy + paste link http://i59.tinypic.com/309j1ug.jpg

http://i57.tinypic.com/jhbmdd.jpg

Mixing up the two screws is a nono!

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what i did was go back and loosen the screw a bit. worked perfectly.

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Loosing the screws worked for me too

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Omg your a genius and have just save my iPhone 5s! My phone has been in bootloop all the while after I replace the battery and won't start! Following your instruction & diagram and snap! It works! Tks johnny!

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You might have banana'd the camera flex connector. Disconnect the camera flex and try starting it up.

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had an iphone come into the shop, got smashed by a car door. complete makeover, put all back together again and was stuck on red screen then rebooting and staying on the apple logo. took all apart and put back bit by bit testing all the time and turns out the rear camera cable was bent so much it was restarting the phone and cause it to hang and have a wee fit!!

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Guys)) the only problem everybody's having is improper screw installation which leads to shorten I2C line - it's quite hard microscope work now

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i have taken all the screws out and took the board out and connected it and still have the issue, i have replaced everything that could possibly be replaced and still no luck. This has happened 3 times to me.

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A lot of good answers here; for a detailed look (and repair photos) at what happens when you swap the short 1.2mm screw out for the longer 1.3 or 1.7mm screws for the screen connector plate check out our blog post:

http://blog.irepairnational.com/2014/09/...

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Peter a simple battery change could sort your problem out!

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Yea mate a battery that's faulty will just give you a boot loop that was the case in the iPhone 4 and 4s I would give it a try it's a !@#$ of a lot cheaper than buying a screen

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Email jessabethany@gmail.com she can help

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Hi,

I had this issue and replaced the front camera flex and it worked fine.

After close inspection I found that the LDR (I am guessing that is what it is), that comes across and sits below the screw mount for the long screw, was damaged. It was clearly sitting wrong and when the long screw was driven into the mount, the component has sustained damage.

This worked well, I assume it isnt a universal fix, but it may be a fix for some folks out there!

Cheers,

Calvino @ Esperto Group

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I had same problem . Iphone werk perfectlly fine until I plug in camera flex cable. I think I tried to put front camera by force and something is damadge in camera flex cable . Now I had Oder new camera flex cable . I hop it works fine . Any other slotion

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When I replaced my friend's 5s display, it would go red then reboot. I fixed it by doing a hard reset by holding the home and power buttons, you can look it up. Sometimes the phone doesn't "recognize" or work with the display right away. Doing a hard reset re calibrates, not sure what the actual term is, the display so the iphone recognizes it and will boot. Hold power and home button together at the same time for 7 seconds then let go of home but keep pressing power. I only know of this from when I replaced my iPod touch 4th gen display and the guide on ifixit had a note mentioning it.

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try disconnecting and then reconnecting the screen. I had this problem with my buddies iPhone

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I've tried it several times, with three different screens, without any luck. The screen has also been tested on another 5s, where it worked perfectly.

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It is the flex ribbon I think so. Change the flex ribbon.

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See if the phone will come up in iTunes with a different screen assembly attached or with none at all. Then you can eliminate that as a possible cause.

Look for damage of fuses and components/ ic's around the screws and compare the board with a photo of another board. It's common to let your screwdriver slip and chip a component off the board.

Check that the battery is properly seated in the connector and again check for damage

Good luck

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This isn't super helpful, but one that I was working on had this same issue. I left it on in its boot loop while taking it apart to diagnose the issue, and it snapped out of the loop as soon as I took out the topmost screw of the plate holding down the battery connector.

Again, it's not super helpful but it leads me to believe there may have been some sort of debris near the battery connector causing a short or something. Be sure to clean off the motherboard in that area and the area near the flexes for the display connectors.

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This happened to me as well after replacing the display assembly on an iPhone 5S. Phone would start with the standard Apple logo and then screen would go blue and then reboot repeatedly. Would not stop nor would iTune recognize the phone. What it turned out to be was the home button cable was not seated correctly. Reseated the connection and it worked perfectly. Good luck

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I have had this issue many times now. Every time except this most recent, I have fixed the issue permanently by un-seating the sensor/camera flex cable, powering on the phone, and plugging it back in while the phone was powered on.

After this you could reset the phone, remove the battery, ext. and the issue would not persist.

Yesterday I repaired a customer's phone and the issue happened again. I did the same as I always have and it worked through multiple test resets but as of this afternoon the problem came back and disconnecting none of the peripheral devices from the logic board seems to have fixed it.

I have also attempted to force an overheat of the phone to no avail.

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This may help . Always turn the iPhone 5s off before plug and unplug screen . If you want to test the screen before install it , plug the home button flex before switching it on . If your iPhone behave abnormal , unplug the battery connector and reconnect then switch the phone on . Good luck . Some iPhone 5s screen manufactured cause iPhone screen to go blank so make sure the second screen is not from the same manufacturer usually identified by the stamp it sticker with initials .

Sam

mpr-oxon.co.uk

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Con is right , it sound like a short somewhere. Check the cables if there are any expose solder joints touching the cable shield . Also check the metal cover covering lcd circuit may have come off . If not then I suggest get an OEM battery from a reputable supplier. I had an issue with iPhone 5 and even with OEM , this particular iPhone 5 not initiate charge once battery totally drained . I had to put a genuine battery from another phone . Hope that helps

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cheers sam i have replaced the battery this evening. i now have a new problem every time i push the screen back onto the body the phone cuts out its fine works normal tun you push the screen back an everything dies, its quite annoying. do i need a new body???

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Peter sounds like it's a problem with the flex cables of the screen wen they are folding down as you push it must be causing a short .. Check that the cables are bent and no creased

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I just changed changed a screen in a 5s and was getting the Apple logo with lines going across then to a red screen boot loop. After replacing the proximity cable, I now get the blue screen boot loop. I got the phone after someone else tried replacing the screen so I can't say whether or not the screws were put in the wrong place as Jim's link above suggests is the cause. I can say I have examined all of the screw holes and can not find any damage to the pcb or any tracks. I will report back when I do find the solution but the link above is not a sure diagnosis.

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Jimmy I'm afraid that when you were placing the emi shield back over the LCD connectors you mixed up the screws and have used a long screw on one of the bottom screw holes that are ment for small screws. This means that the long screw has torn traces below it so doesn't matter what you do you will need a repair on the motherboard.

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Try to loosen the screws on the plate a little, i did it on a hunch. Technicians like me often get the screws pretty snug instinctively. -JB

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I just replaced screen on an iPhone 5 (not 'S') phone myself. New bat sorted it.

It was boot looping, I put it into recovery mode (screen showing usb+iTunes logo) but it would error 21 on pc iTunes, and 2001 on mac iTunes. (strange that they read differently)

I then realised I had damaged the battery cable. bought a new cable and the restore worked!

HURRAR!

note: without the battery installed, the restore will not work.

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I bought an iPhone that did the same thing and a restore fixed it

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I replace an iPhone 5s screen have replaced several of them probably thousands but I am also getting the red screen it does have something to do with the proximity sensor because if I turn the phone on I get the red screen But I open and disconnect the proximity sensor/front camera then the phone will work fine,to be honest with you because of the screws problems I just decided to leave the Metal shield/plate out,but I still cannot turn the phone off and then back on without getting the red screen and I've already changed the proximity sensor three times,if anybody can please help that would be much appreciated it's driving me nuts

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The red screen or sometimes blue/green happens when the auto brightness sensor is damaged, I would recommend getting an original cable and replacing it, if this does not work then perhaps you have damaged some component around this connector on the board

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I agree with Jim, it sounds like one or more of the passives around J1 is possibly damaged.

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What is the cable sensor to replace it??. rnavarrete@okemosolutions.com

Tks!.

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Ive just encountered the blue screen of death boot loop. Mine stops when I remove the proximity /camera cable . It will even jump out of the boot loop if I remove the cable while its on ! . Interstingly I can put the cable back on and its fine until turned off - then it boot loopz again, I have to pull the battery and cable.

I didnt get the screws wrong so unless I overtightened and tore the nut from the board a touch I cant see how I would have a short problem there.

Next step for me new proximity camera sensor

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I have a 5s that when the cable shield is installed the LCD malfunctions. When not installed LCD works perfectlly. What could be the problem? I've checked for grounding and can't see any! Can I just leave it off?

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I am having the same problem with an iPhone 6. When I plug in the front camera cable, the get the loop. But when it is unplugged, everything works great. Is that cable ONLY for the front facing camera? I am not getting any sound out of the ear speaker and I am not sure if this is a separate problem or if it's part of the camera cable issue.

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Werk it find with new camera flex cable

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Usually if you see the blue screen after the apple logo. It means you have trace damage on the logic board due to mixing up the bottom screens on the shield that holds down the screen flex cables. The only fix is micro soldering by a competent person or a new phone.

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I just fixed the issue

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Then I had to do Itunes restore.

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I've tried everything including swapping battery, LCD assembly, Prox sens(Plugged in and out during start up), BB flex, etc. I've been doing this a long time(22yrs) and thousands of phones, and have not seen this BSOD on a iPhone yet; nevermind the 5s I'm having the problem with now. The PCB below the Flex cover EMI lower two screw holes is fine; no scratching or wear(Totally black). I have a pic, but cannot figure how to upload. There's no liquid damage residue and watermarks are white. Yet another Apple Bomb mystery...

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[image|584649] This is the MoBo I'm working on, but the zoom pic I have, although clear, is eveidently not enough pixels to upload...

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How much would it cost to repair the long screw tracers on an iPhone 5 32g? Or is it just not worth it?

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Blue screen means a screw on the mainboard has been tightened too much.

If you replaced something and screwed any screws in yourself, check the tightness.

They just need to be tight enough to not get loose; never over tighten..|

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Hey guys hoping you could help me, I took my iPhone 5s on an around the world trip, and it suffered water damage, I had that sorted then 3 days later the screen just stopped working,more phone was still on as it vibrated when the mute switch was flipped. I took it to a repair man who got the screen going again but now it's stuck in a recovery loop, where it shows you the red iTunes symbol with a lightning connector underneath it. So I plug it into my laptop and everything seems to be going to plan, iTunes says that the phone needs a restore and a reboot. When I select yes, it extracts the software then on the phone it turns to the apple picture with the loading bar underneath it, then suddenly turns to a blue screen, then back to the black screen with the iTunes logo. Any info on what this could be, or how I can fix it?

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check this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FiGLiVaX...

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Hello, can the iPhone 5S be repaired if the screw bracket has been ripped off and took some of the board with it? I've seen the pictures here of that bracket removed and the board still has a silver ring around where the bracket was. The phone I'm working on does not have that silver ring on the board. Here are some pictures of the board and the bottom of the bracket that came off.

Block Image

Block Image

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Hello, I didn't found how to remove the bracket, I need to simply apply a force? use hot air? or what else? how did you do it?

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I am going through this as well. However, I damaged the front camera port on the MB and this is why my device probably doesn't boot up properly.

Check the connectors on the MB. One of the replacement screens I bought didn't have the connectors properly aligned so I kept pushing & pushing hard and bent the pins.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qDeZhc0...

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Espen will be eternally grateful.
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