Fixing a Dead iPhone 16 Pro Max: Multi-Chip Nightmare (Shorts + ROM Hack)

This was a tough one! This dead iPhone 16 Pro Max came in showing no power and no charge, only drawing a flat 125mA from the charger. My diagnostic process led me through multiple chip failures, unexpected shorts, and a tricky firmware hurdle.

Initial diode mode measurements on the Vbus and CC lines seemed fine. I had to remove the main board and cut the shields covering the ACE and Charging ICs to go deeper. Probing the power lines around the ACE chip, I found its internal 3v3 LDO was shorted. The charging IC was also abnormally warm.

I replaced both chips with parts from a donor board, hoping it would be a simple fix. But it wasn't! A mystery 125mA current draw remained, even with the phone off. Thermal imaging revealed the 'Austin chip' (the component for camera autofocus power on the schematic) was heating up. A shorted capacitor on its 6V output was only half the problem. The chip itself was damaged too. After replacing the cap and the Austin chip, the current draw was finally gone.

But my troubles weren't over! The phone powered on, but it would only negotiate 5V at 450mA – a clear sign of ACE ROM mismatch. My attempts to flash the phone and preserve data via 3uTools failed, trapping the phone in recovery/DFU mode.

The final fix? I had to get serious. I pulled the bin file from the donor ACE chip's ROM using a CH341A programmer and jumper wires, then successfully wrote that clean dump to the target board's ROM. Once the correct ROM data was present, the phone restored successfully and fully restored 15V PD charging.

Watch the full, detailed step-by-step micro-soldering and diagnostic process to see exactly how I brought this advanced device back from the dead.

#iPhone16ProMax #MicroSoldering #PhoneRepair #NoPowerRepair #iPhoneRepair #ACEROM #ComponentLevelRepair #BoardRepair #DeadPhone #CH341A

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