Chosen Solution
So I recently transferred the hardware of a scuffed up but fully functional 16GB Rose Gold iPhone SE into a new Silver shell an also installed a new screen and battery. The expectation was that after this refurb the phone would function like new, but sadly not. This phone was fully functional before the shell transfer so this one’s on me. :( Upon testing the phone after the repair, I often encountered an issue where the phone would suddenly shut off 3-5 minutes from booting up. This is probably a kernel panic and that a quick backup and restore should fix the issue but after attempting this 4 or so times the issue persists. Not only that, after switching off and attempting to reboot, the phone struggles to get past the Apple logo, which will stick there for a considerable amount of time considering it’s fresh iOS boot. However, the phone rarely gets past the boot sequence after this, and instead switches off repeatedly. When the screen shuts off it doesn’t shut off in the normal fashion, but in a strange blotchy effect that looks well… unhealthy. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-81GECX… (Video of the issue) During troubleshooting I noticed that my replacement battery cable that connects to the logic board had been scuffed up a bit and the copper coating was showing. This cable was pressing slightly against the logic board and the shell and I thought that that was the issue and there was a shorting issue. However, upon covering up that scuff with some electrical tape and also the shell where the cable was touching the issue still persists. If anyone has any advice, fixes or ideas about what the issue may be please respond asap and run me through what to do if possible. I’ve repaired several iPhones but this is my first shell transfer and all other things work well as far as I can tell. Thanks, Will
I agree, that shutdown doesn’t look healthy :>). Considering you did a housing swap, it could be just about anything. You know for certain it worked fine before so let’s build from there. Was the replacement housing completely empty (no flexes) or was it already partially built up requiring only a logic board swap? Was the replacement housing an original housing or an aftermarket? Here’s the reasoning behind the questions. Cheap aftermarket housings are known to have higher defect rates. Even an original housing can have defective flexes (they’re available for a reason, something was wrong with the phone) so you are dealing with unknowns. Unless you know for certain that the replacement housing and whatever was left inside it was 100% functional, ideally you will want to transfer over all of the known good stuff from your original housing. However, that also comes with risk as even a small tear in a flex can cause issues. Think about the points I raised and use that to help guide your troubleshooting. I would start with a full inspection of the flexes and housing. If the original housing is still available with the flexes untouched, I would install the logic board there to see if you can get back to a working state. You need to eliminate as many variables as possible and work with whatever known-good parts you can identify. The phone will boot with nothing more than a battery and Lightning port connected to the board (just plug it to an iTunes enabled computer). Then add stuff bit by bit. Add the screen (with no FCAM connected), then add cameras, buttons sensors etc.
