Salt Water Damage Data Recovery on iPhone 12 Pro Max - Motherboard Diagnosis & Repair Demonstration

In this video I attempt to recover data from an iPhone 12 Pro Max that was damaged by salt water. I show the full diagnostic process from start to finish and they steps I take to repair this motherboard. This job had a few surprises for me and I go over some important concepts when dealing with water damage data recovery. I find a NAND short, MAIN short, and shorted display and touch ICs. I touch on some concepts about what components are needed such as i2c resistors. I find a partially shorted CPU line and show how to verify what the measurement should be with ZXW. I show the physical process of cleaning, harvesting, and replacing ICs. I am surprised by a bootlooping Apple logo when I thought it would be a done deal. I then find a bad CPU data resistor and explain how obscure some causes of Apple logo bootloops can be, such as this rarely checked resistor.

This is a good watch to show many different issues that can be encountered when dealing with water damage data recovery and why it is important to be extremely thorough. Water damage can throw curve balls at you so strong diagnostic skills are needed.

Also, I mention I wonder what will happen if I tried to update with that bad CPU resistor. I tested this on a different board after this video was published and the phone will actually pass update and go back to apple logo bootloop after. Just some nice extra info :)

If you need iPhone Data Recovery, fill out the intake form here: https://www.iboardrepair.com/

00:00:00 - Intro
00:01:43 - Measuring power button fpc
00:02:28 - Revealing corroded area
00:04:02 - Finding NAND short
00:09:10 - Splitting layers
00:12:45 - Removing shorted MAIN cap
00:15:14 - Removing corroded ICs
00:23:45 - Discussing how i2c resistors are needed
00:30:06 - Finding partially shorted 1v2_SOC line
00:33:11 - Cleaning IC pads
00:41:05 - Harvesting and placing new ICs
00:52:38 - First test, finding a bootlooping Apple logo
00:54:53 - Finding bad CPU resistor
00:59:19 - Replacing resistor and cleaning pad
01:07:03 - Testing again, success!
01:08:07 - Conclusion