iPhone 15 Pro USB-C Charging Failure & No Touch Repair
- Aaron Harrington
- Mar 26
- 5 min read
Advanced Motherboard Repair Case Study
Watch the full repair:
Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/4j27I7kuvL0 (with comments & chapters)
The Problem [00:00]
This iPhone 15 Pro came in with two linked symptoms:
touchscreen not working
not charging normally
The phone would not register touch input, and the normal charging indicator would not appear the way it should.
At the time of this repair, early industry findings pointed to a serious issue affecting some iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max devices: a failure involving the USB-C charging circuit and a second paired encrypted chip. That meant this was not shaping up to be a normal charge-port repair or even a simple charging IC swap.
The key problem: replacing the charging IC alone was not enough. Both the bad charging chip and its paired chip had to be transferred together from a donor motherboard.
That makes this a much more logistically difficult repair than older iPhone charging faults, because it requires a full donor board rather than a single off-the-shelf chip.
Step 1 – Separating the Sandwich Motherboard [01:47]
After removing the motherboard from the housing, the first step was to split the interposer so the affected board area could be accessed.
The board was placed on a heating platform set to 235°C, but the platform alone was not quite strong enough to release the board cleanly. As the temperature topped out around 226–227°C and began dropping, hot air had to be added from above to help complete the separation.
This board had a lot of large ground pads holding it together, so it took extra heat and patience to get the sandwich apart cleanly.
Step 2 – Identifying the Two Chips That Had to Move [04:00]
Once the board was open, the failed area could be shown clearly. The repair centered on two chips:
the charging IC that had gone bad
the chip paired to it
Using board view software and the earlier work already being done in the industry, it was determined that both chips had to be replaced together for the repair to succeed. A donor motherboard was brought in for that purpose.
The important detail here was that these two chips were described as being paired to each other, not necessarily to the CPU. That meant both could be transplanted together from the donor board onto the customer's board.
Step 3 – Pulling the First Chip and Preparing for Transfer [05:24]
The first chip pull did not come off as cleanly as hoped, which meant reballing was going to be necessary.
That is one of the risks in this kind of repair. Even when the diagnosis is correct, the physical transfer work still has to go right. A less-than-perfect pull adds time and complexity immediately. Even so, the process continued and the donor board strategy stayed the same.
Step 4 – Moving Both Paired Chips from the Donor Board [08:18]
With the plan confirmed, both required chips were moved from the donor board to the customer's board.
The hope at this stage was simple: if nothing unusual happened and both transferred properly, the donor setup should restore the missing touch and charging behavior.
This was also the first real-world test of the exact solution on the bench, so there was still some uncertainty until power-on testing could confirm it.
Step 5 – Protecting the Paired Chip During Installation [10:21]
The second chip transfer required especially careful handling. A nearby capacitor was removed first to make the work safer and cleaner. Fortunately, that chip came off well enough that it did not have to be reballed. That mattered, because damaging this chip would have meant needing yet another donor iPhone motherboard just to source another matched set.
As the chip was installed, there was a slight alignment concern at first, but once it settled and showed a little movement into place, the placement looked right.
Step 6 – First Test: Top Board Only [12:42]
Before moving to the jig, the repaired top board was tested in the original housing.
At this stage, the board was sitting at the proper height over the bottom board but was not actually connected to it. That meant some limitations were expected, including a likely 3-minute reboot due to the wireless coil relationship.
Even with that limitation, this first test immediately showed the repair was working:
the phone showed an Apple logo
the phone fully booted
touch started working again
charging behavior returned to normal
The charging percentage indicator now appeared correctly, confirming that the original no-charge symptom had been resolved alongside the no-touch issue. That was the breakthrough moment of the repair.
Step 7 – Final Jig Test and Stability Confirmation [14:20]
After the top-board-only test succeeded, the board was placed into the jig for final confirmation.
In the jig, the board appeared stable:
no 3-minute reboot
charging normally
battery shown at 93%
ready for data extraction
At that point, the repair path had been confirmed successful. The paired-chip transfer solution worked and restored both of the original failure symptoms.
The Result
Device: iPhone 15 Pro
Condition on arrival: No touch and abnormal/no normal charging
Main issue: Charging IC failure with paired encrypted chip dependency
Repair type: USB-C paired-chip transfer
Main fault symptoms:
Touchscreen would not register input
Phone would not charge normally
Standard charging indicator behavior was missing
Problem required more than a charging IC replacement alone
Work performed:
Motherboard removed from housing
Sandwich board separated using heat platform and top hot air
Failed charging IC and paired chip identified
Donor motherboard sourced
Required chips extracted and transferred
One chip required reball work after a rougher pull
Second chip transferred successfully without reball
Repaired board tested first in housing, then in jig
Outcome:
✅ 100% successful board-level repair. Touch function returned, normal charging returned, the phone booted properly, and the board stabilized in the jig for data access.
Nerd Corner (For Technicians & Repair Shops)
A few details made this repair especially important:
This was not a one-chip fix.
The charging IC alone did not solve the problem. A second encrypted paired chip had to move with it.
That makes donor dependency a major issue.
You cannot just order one replacement chip and finish the job. You need a full donor motherboard to source the matched pair. This may change with future suppliers.
The symptom pair matters.
On this case, no touch + not charging was the tell. Those two failures together pointed to a deeper board-level issue instead of a simple charge-port repair.
Top-board-only testing was enough to prove the concept.
Even before full jig confirmation, the Apple logo, restored touch, and normal charging behavior showed the repair path was correct.
Execution risk is high.
Damage to the paired chip during transfer would have forced another donor-board sacrifice. That is why this kind of case is outside the scope of normal repair shops.
iPhone 15 Pro USB-C Charging Failure – Common Questions
My iPhone 15 Pro is not charging and the touchscreen stopped working. Can that be related?
Yes. In this case, both symptoms came from the same motherboard-level failure path.
Can this be fixed by replacing just the charging IC?
Not here. This repair required moving the charging IC and the paired encrypted chip together.
Why is a donor motherboard needed?
Because the needed chips are not treated like a simple one-part replacement. A donor board provides the matched components required for the transfer.
Is this a charge-port issue?
Not in a case like this. The root problem was on the motherboard, not a simple port replacement.
Can this affect the iPhone 15 Pro Max too?
Yes. This repair approach was discussed as relevant to both the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max with the same no-touch / not-charging symptom set.
Need Help With an iPhone 15 Pro or Pro Max That Has No Touch and Is Not Charging?
If your iPhone 15 Pro or Pro Max has these symptoms and you need professional board-level repair or data recovery help, fill out the intake form here:
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