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Repair information and guides for the iPhone 6 that was released on September 19, 2014. Model Numbers: A1549, A1586, and A1589

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Slight water damage, new battery, clean logic board - what next?

Good afternoon guys,

Posted this question a few weeks back:

"Working on my wife's iPhone 6. She was running back in April of this year and got caught out in a pretty good rainstorm. The phone itself was secure in the front pocket of a rain jacket but she had her earbuds in. It seems as the water tracked down the cord from the earbuds and got into the phone.

When she got home, the screen was acting funny and not responding well. We let the phone dry out for several hours and tried a hair dryer several times. Later that evening it started working properly so we decided to back it up to iTunes on our PC. That was were the fatal error occurred. About half way though the back up , the phone died. Phone went black and won't power up. It also felt warm to the touch. I took the phone apart and the water indicator next to the sim card was only slightly pink around the lower edge but there were signs of moisture in the phone."

Since then, I've installed a new battery and completely removed / cleaned the logic board. The water indicator up top was still white. Under a magnifying glass, the only visible corrosion was a slight amount at the eyelet for the screw on the rear of the logic board, at the wifi module. I realize that not all corrosion is visible so I gave the board a good alcohol bath / scrubbing and let it dry for a few days.

Phone wouldn't turn on, so I plugged it in to charge the new battery. The phone got a little warm to the touch around the just below the sim card area. I unplugged it and same results. Charged it the next day, phone never got warm but wouldn't turn on.

Since the water entered through the headphone jack, would the next replacement need to be the Lightning connector / headphone jack? Any guidance is greatly appreciated!

Thanks!

Answered! View the answer I have this problem too

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So the shields on the board need to be removed and the corrosion needs to get cleaned. Or it will cause more damage. If it's not turning on and getting warm ok the bottom of phone/board. Pretty likely the Tristar needs to be replaced and or batt_main needs to be looked at. If you want to proceed I'll find parts and guides for you. Or if this is out of your wheel house. Send it out to board repair shop. Either local or mail in

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It sounds as if you are on the right track to begin with...but water damage can be a crazy thing when it comes to electronics. To replace the Charging port would be a good place to start, but to have an ameter to see if the phone is taking current would be helpful too.

Use a multimeter with very fine tips to check that the phone is also taking in power and charging the battery, also watching a few good Youtube videos of reputable Techs that give tutorials on what and how to check around the board for shorts (Like PP_VCC_Main and PP_Batt_Vcc) and proper voltages.

Components are very tiny and having a good Scope or magnifying glass can help as well.

You are in the right spot to receive lots of suggestions and advice but there are just some jobs and troubleshooting that are not for the DIY repair.

I know you gave it a Alcohol bath and scrubbed up a bit, but what you see is only about 20% of the board and components...the other 80% are located under the several shields around the board and could probably take the phone to a reputable Microsoldering tech to remove those shields and put it in a Sonic cleaner...

Once there, most techs do not charge unless they repair it, so to have them probe around and find/repair the problem would most likely be the way to go.

However, with water damage, even an experienced tech with all the right tools may be able to get your phone up and running again but can't guarantee that some other issue may pop up a day, week, or months after the repair due to corrosion under all the different components.

Best of luck to you and if I can help out by adding anything else, feel free to post back a comment and adding my user name in the comment :) @teetopp

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