Your iPhone’s WiFi is the one of the most important features on your iPhone. Without it, you need to find alternative ways so that you can still browse the internet, download apps, jailbreak or unlock it. The typical symptoms of non-working WiFi on iPhones are:
- It finds and loses network
- It doesn’t connect to WiFi
- WiFi grayed out
- Your WiFi password is not accepted although you’re sure that it’s correct
- It connects but connection drops after a short while
- No WiFi address under Settings > General > About
- It works when you put it inside the freezer – only for a short moment
- You’ve tried everything here including reading the Knowledge Base articles and taking it to the Apple Store
Fortunately, there is a possible DIY method you can try at home by reflowing the logic board (a.k.a. motherboard or PCB). Essentially, you are “baking” your iPhone’s logic board to melt the solder connection of the WiFi chip to improve connectivity; thus hopefully resolves your iPhone’s WiFi issues.
Disclaimer: Do not proceed if you are unsure what to do. We will NOT be responsible for any damage caused to your iPhone. Always practice SAFETY FIRST.
What you need
- An iPhone with broken WiFi
- iPhone opening tools (screwdriver and suction cup)
- Oven thermometer
- Oven
- Patience, lots of it…
Instructions
- Disassemble your iPhone (find YouTube video tutorials here). Remember to detach the digital camera CMOS sensor from the logic board.
- Turn on the oven and set the temperature to 196 degree Celcius or 385 degree Fahrenheit.
- Place the logic board onto a cooking sheet or aluminium foil with EMI shield up.
- Once the oven has reached the desired temperature, put it into the oven and bake it for 7 minutes.
- When time is up, leave the oven door opened and leave the logic board to cool down for 60 minutes. Do not attempt to touch or move it. Be patient.
- Finally, reassemble your iPhone and test the WiFi connection.
If the oven trick above works for you, great, otherwise, there have been cases where some people have been successful after a second/third attempt. If all fails, you can contact us and we will just replace the WiFi chip for you. Good luck and leave your comments below.
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HAS ANYONE TRIED THIS ON AN IPHONE 4 BOARD
You can do software update or just change the wifi chip on logic board, This is 100% solution.
Hi,
Will this fix the baseband chip problem? because when i put iphone on the freezer it get fixed but only for like 5 minutes then again no baseband..
it's actually the wifi chip
yes i know but there is also no imei no bluetooth no wifi also blank modem firmware on iphone 4, but when i put the iphone on the freezer for like 10 minutes it get fixed but only for a short time 10minutes or so… wireless keeps working and bluetooth but not modem firmware.
Thank you for your reply
the baseband chip is either broken or has bad connection, most likely broken
can you fix it? and how much it is going to cost?
tried 2 times at first wifi didnt connect at all, i put a match to it for 30seconds and my wifi worked for about a mintue then it will loose connection and regian 30mins later for about a minute, so i baked it and my wifi completly stopped, i baked again and now it worked for 3mintues and it just stoped again… at the end of the instructions u mentioned u will replacethe chip? how does that work? please email me thank you
Hi could you quote me a price to replace warter damaged wifi chip on iPhone 4 .
Many thanks
Dan
is it just the chip? water damage board is tricky to fix especially if there's a lot of water entered the iPhone
Did it.
Now both of my iphones don't turn on anymore :(
Sad.
Hi, thanks for the video, I live in Mexico, and have an iPhone 4S (not 4) with the grey wifi issue. Can you ship the wifi ship over to mexico and what would the price be? Does it need additional programming or flashing, etc?
I already took my iPhone 4S to them and they changed the wifi antenna, it didn't fix the problem. My plan now is to buy the 4S wifi chip from you and have it shipped over to mexico so I can take it to the repair shop and they replace it…
a 4S is tough to fix, please check with them if they can do BGA/SMD soldering
Thanks for replying bro!
I don't think they can… Their "shop" is pretty basic and they seem to have only basic soldering skills and equipment… They did offer me a "logic board" swap… would that fix the problem? Do you carry a logic board for 4S 16 GB?
yes swapping it should fix all issues, make sure to test it
AWWWESOME technique!!! I tried with my 4S which had WIFI Greyed out and even after freezer technique Wifi used to drop off and this one worked perfectly fine. It requires consistent amount of patience and determination.I used a hotgun to heat only the Wifi chip area nstead of the Oven. Wonderful tip. Kudos Beijingrepair!!
I personally speculate the reason you branded this particular posting, “DIY:
Fix iPhone WiFi by Reflowing the Logic Board (PCB) with Oven | Beijing iPhone Repair”.
Either way I actually admired it!I appreciate it,Ethan
How much do you charge to replace the wi-fi chip on the phone?
Which model.