Why This Water-Damaged iPhone 16 Pro Max Was Stuck On Apple Logo

This iPhone 16 Pro Max fell in a pool and never worked right again. When I put it on the bench with good parts, it showed some classic water damage symptoms: it looped on the Apple logo on its own, and dropped straight into recovery mode the second I plugged in a charger. The voltage was stuck low on the power button line even though the line was not short and it was not disconnected. The theory is that the cause was a corrosion bridge from the power button line to a nearby antenna line. While the board was wet, that bridge held the power button line low — and the CPU reads low voltage on that line as the power button being physically held down. That's why the phone kept trying to boot by itself. The constant drain eventually damaged the PMIC, so it could no longer put the proper 1.8V back on the line. Fixing it meant splitting the board and replacing the PMIC — and the underfill on the 16 series is exceptionally tough. Phone fully booted. Data recovered. Chapters 00:00 iPhone 16 Pro Max that fell in a pool 00:29 First look at the water-damaged board 01:01 Removing the shield 02:44 Testing main for a short 03:28 A strange amp draw that acts like a button press 04:55 The power button line is missing its 1.8V 05:59 Apple logo boot loop and recovery mode 07:27 Root cause: a corrosion bridge to the antenna line 09:34 Why the PMIC is the culprit 10:41 Trying a 1.8V jumper first (it didn't hold) 13:08 Splitting the board to replace the PMIC 16:05 Removing the PMIC: Brutal Underfill 28:36 PMIC out: assessing and cleaning the board 48:23 Flattening the pads 53:11 Checking the pads and fixing the barometer line 55:08 Replacing lost components from a donor 58:05 Reinstalling the new PMIC 59:53 First test after the swap 1:00:47 A new surprise: a partial short on main 1:02:14 Thermal camera finds a cracked chip (VDD_MAIN) 1:04:49 Removing and replacing the cracked chip 1:09:26 Final tests, clean boot, and data recovered Case category: Water Damage Failure type: Corrosion on the power button line + damaged PMIC (Apple logo boot loop) Actual billed price: [set your water-damage recovery price] Start your water-damaged iPhone data recovery here: https://www.iboardrepair.com/water-da... Read the full case study here: https://www.iboardrepair.com/post/iph... Follow iBoard Repair 🌐 https://www.iboardrepair.com ▶️    / @iboardrepair   📘   / iboardrepair   🎵   / iboard_repair   💬   / discord   #iPhone16ProMax #WaterDamage #DataRecovery #Microsoldering #BoardRepair #iPhoneRepair #PMIC