Micro Soldering replacement 1608A1 Power IC on iPad 4

This iPad4 (A1460) repair was actually contracted out to us by another repair business that weren’t able to fix it personally. (For professional reasons, we won’t name them here). They knew that we had the expertise and advanced equipment required to diagnose and repair more advanced problems.

To cut a long story short, the iPad was showing no signs of life. There was a good chance this was a power issue, but the original business had only carried out basic checks on the battery and dock. (As two of the quicker and easier areas to check, this is what one would typically expect from a “no fix, no fee” business- see our article on the matter to find out why this is).

Fortunately, we were prepared- and able- to spend a lot more time on it, and identified the problem as one with the 1608A1 chip (also known as U2, U5900 or U1300) responsible for charging via the USB port amongst other things. That explained why there was no power!

(Damage to the power chip like this can often be caused by cheap cables or low-quality charging devices, in particular in-car chargers not designed to meet the necessary standards).

The chip was a bit of nuisance to work on, having had the gaps between the solder ball BGA connections filled in (“underfilled”) with epoxy. This is good from the point of view of improving rigidity. (Many think its omission in the iPhone 6 was one of the factors in the touch disease issue).

Having removed the chip, we replaced it with a new one (complete with new solder balls) and we got it back in working order where the original company couldn’t.

We’ll also note that it required a new battery. This was because the original business had attempted to reflow the device (heating up until the solder melts so any broken connections re-form) but they hadn’t removed it from its case nor even removed the battery. As a result, the old battery was actually partially melted. This is very dangerous for the person carrying out the repair, as well as the customer if they’re using the damaged battery afterwards. (Something we suspect would have happened if the repair hadn’t needed to be handed to us). It was also- in short- incredibly stupid and incompetent.

Enough said- another repair, another good job. Well, on our part anyway…