Chosen Solution
I recently purchased this Ipad 2 A1396 as I was certain I could get it working again. With little experience behind testing filters and fuses I wanted this to be a learning experience. The main issue is that the backlight is not on, causing the screen to display dim. So before I go out and shell out the extra money on an LCD that may possibly or may not fix the issue, I’d like to start with testing the circuit. As far as the research shows it’s that the coil or filter are the usual suspects.
So I pulled out the handy multimeter and test the coil first. Looks good to me as the circuit completed with a long beep. Now when I test the filter/fuse I get no beep at all. Before I go ahead and replace. Is there anything else I should check for? Or do you know of a way to bypass this and should I? Also thank you for all your previous help.
I did get this working after replacing one of the faulty resistors. Thank you all.
I wish I had an answer for you but those backlight issues on ipads have always been a nuisance. Have you checked out http://www.cyberdocllc.com/ before? I found them searching for information on this topic in the past and emailed them for help. Even if you do not use their service, they may be willing to help you troubleshoot it since we are all one big repair family :) Best of luck to you and godspeed.
Justin–this is an easy problem, very solvable. 1.) a hard reset will cure many backlight problems in the iPad 2–I’m sure you’ve tried that 2.) it is never the coil, I swear I’m going to put that on a T-shirt! 3.) it is always the filter, and sometimes also the diode. Your filter is located under that EMI shield bracket near the diode. The filter is the small component that looks black–I’m on a phone so I can’t label it for you. If it is burned you can see visual damage. You’ll need to replace the filter. If you’re not a microsolderer then send the board to someone like me or Marcus’s (cyberdoc) new technician since he’s not doing repair anymore, or any of the eBay folks. It is very straightforward. Now measure your diode. Set your multimeter to diode testing and put the black lead on one leg of the diode, red lead on the other–should get a reading of 1 or 150-180. Switch leads and take second reading. If you have a 1 in both directions diode is bad, otherwise diode is good (usually it is good) With a new filter, good diode and good coil–the only variables left are the lcd connector and the lcd itself Jessa
