iPhone 5SE Charging issue and no display

[TiptonRepair]

So this is the second time this phone has been in unfortunately. The first time, it would not charge and there was no display. New battery and still did not boot. Replaced tristar since I did not find any shorts and diode mode readings seemed fine. Phone then charged and booted. I then charged it to 100% using our charging setup and the phone fully tested. Customer returned the next day with the same issue except this time, the USB ammeter shows 0.08A with his battery and 1.32A with a new battery. Still no display.

The strange thing is there was no display when it was brought in the first time, but the Tristar seemed to fix this issue. He did bring in his charging cable and block which are both Apple OEM and provide the correct current and voltage while charging.

[TiptonRepair]

The phone is not in DFU Mode either....

[Jessa_the_Professa]

Tristar failure is unusual in iPhone SE. I would be very hesitant to change tristar in a SE unless I was sure.

Rule number one. Did you test this board in a known good housIng?

Next—what did tristar tester say?
what was the dcps behavior of the board initially?
what about now?

when you say “no display” do you mean that the device had no display but was booting and was otherwise detected by iTUnes? Or do you just mean that it was “no boot”?

[TiptonRepair]

I don't have a tristar tester and use the good old fashion method of try battery, try charge port, try screen, try Diode mode on LCD connector (Backlight), try Diode mode on VCC_MAIN / VBAT. My DCPS cable does not have the 5SE connector unfortunately, so I have to manually connect wires or simply use a battery until I get one. I hardly ever see an SE...

The device (with my 80% charged SE battery that pulls 1.3A using the USB ammeter in this phone with the new tristar) does not boot and is not recognized by iTunes or 3U even after leaving the device connected for over 30 minutes. New known good charge port also tried but no change.

Before, phone would not charge or boot using above test method. Now, phone will charge and used to boot until customer had it connected to charger over night. So back to square 1 but the device does charge now.

[Jessa_the_Professa]

Okay, let’s start with the name. This is IPhone SE. Not 5SE. It is like an iPhone 7 in the housing of a 5s.
You use the iPhone 7 battery connector on dcps. Or solder wires. You must connect to dcps because this phone doesn’t boot and step one is “connect to dcps”

DCPS will tell you if the phone boots but has a display issue and usb connection problem, or if it boot loops, or if it is brain dead etc. There is no substitute for dcps here. If you don’t have a squid with a 7 connector then get one from iPad Rehab Supply.

[TiptonRepair]

Lol. ok, sorry.. force of habit since they look just like a 5S. I never did try the 7 connector on the DCPS. Thanks for the tip! That just made life soooo much easier. This is only the 2nd or 3rd SE that I have seen in my shop for microsoldering.

So... with DCPS connected and request to boot, it does show it is trying to boot. With test screen and his old screen, there is display. Put MB back in frame with original components and phone boots with his battery. It is like I could disconnect the battery overnight and the phone would then boot. Going to try plugging and unplugging the charge port over and over to see if it stop charging or dies.... this is getting strange.

[Jessa_the_Professa]

did you put back all the shields correctly after the first job? This sounds like a rule #1 problem. Does the phone charge with known good parts outside of the housing? Narrow down your part or installation problem.

[TiptonRepair]

The first time, the phone fully worked and was 100% tested and passed before the customer picked it up. His original battery was at 63% (known after tristar was replaced and phone booted) when he brought it in and we charged it to 100% and left it off the charge until he picked it up the same day. The phone was then tested again while he was checking out and passed all tests again.

The second time, the phone came in and did not appear to boot and only pulled 0.09A using his battery. We suspected a battery issue and temporarily put in another battery which charged at 1.3A, but the screen still would not turn on. I had him drop the phone off so I could look into it again. This time, all I have done was leave the battery disconnected overnight and came back in today, posted this, and tried on the DCPS. Now the phone boots with all the original parts he had. Soft resets when there was no display did not work and I could not get it into recovery mode or to recognize on the computer.

[Jessa_the_Professa]

Sounds like parts problem. I would start over. Get a known good housing. See if you actually have a board problem or not.

[TiptonRepair]

So, it has been a full 24 hours and I changed nothing but the tristar the 1 time (first visit). The phone has still been fully functional and charges up to 100% with no issues. All I did was leave the battery disconnected overnight and now the phone appears to be fully working now. Super strange! Soft resets did not work, disconnecting the battery and putting a different battery did not work, but leaving the battery disconnected overnight, it now boots and fully works. I don't know of any capacitors in this phone that will hold a charge that long... this one is really strange!