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REPAIR + RECOVERY GUIDES FROM THE BENCH
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Real repairs.
Real explanations.

Short, no-fluff guides written from the bench. Diagnosis steps, real pricing, what we see go wrong with phones, laptops, MacBooks, consoles, and storage every week. If we wrote it here, we've fixed it — usually a lot.

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Burnt capacitor and scorched solder mask on an iPhone 14 logic board Data Recovery · Board Level Latest from the bench

This iPhone 14 Died Without Warning. The 5V Rail Took the Power IC With It.

No drop, no water, just dead. A capacitor on a high-current 5V rail had failed short and destroyed the power management IC with it. Removing that chip means heating the board with the CPU sitting directly underneath.

8 min read · Video Read the story →
iPhone 17 Pro Max with shattered front glass still showing its lock screen Phone Repair · Glass Only

Shattered iPhone 17 Pro Max Glass? We Replaced the Glass, Not the Whole Screen.

The front glass was shattered but the display still worked. Instead of a costly full screen for the newest Pro Max, we separated just the glass and re-laminated new glass to the original Apple OLED.

7 min read Read the story →
Shattered iPad front glass on the bench before a glass-only replacement Tablet Repair · Glass Only

Cracked iPad Glass? We Replace the Glass, Not the Whole Screen.

The glass was shattered but the display worked. Instead of a $250–$600 full screen, we separated just the glass and re-laminated new glass to the original display on our OCA machine.

8 min read Read →
Xbox Series X standing on the Fix It Lads repair bench Console Repair · Xbox

Someone Else Fixed This Xbox HDMI Port. We Had to Undo the Damage.

A botched HDMI repair left this Xbox Series X with burnt flux and two ripped pads. We cleaned it up, rebuilt the footprint, and fitted a new port, the right way.

7 min read Read →
PS5 showing the blue light of death before repair Console Repair · PS5

PS5 Turns On for 2 Seconds Then Shuts Off? Blue Light of Death, Fixed

Blue light on, then the console dies after 2 seconds. The cause: a shorted capacitor pulling the board to ground. We found it with a thermal camera at 107°C and replaced it under the microscope.

7 min read Read →
iPhone 13 powered back on with its photos recovered Data Recovery · iPhone

A Shorted Capacitor Killed This iPhone 13. We Recovered the Data.

A dead iPhone 13 pulling 1.8A: a shorted capacitor on the NAND power line. We found it with a thermal camera and replaced it under the microscope to get the data back.

7 min read Read →
Dead MacBook opened up for board-level data recovery Data Recovery · MacBook

A Cheap Charger Killed This MacBook. We Recovered the Data.

A dead MacBook with no backup. The cause: a failed CD3215 power chip, likely from a cheap charger. With the SSD soldered to the board, we did a board-level repair to get every file back.

8 min read Read →
iPhone with new glass laminated over its original Apple display Phone Repair · Glass Only

iPhone Glass-Only Replacement: Save $130+ vs Apple

Cracked glass but your screen still works? We replace just the glass and keep your original Apple screen for $289 — over $130 less than Apple, with no aftermarket downgrade.

8 min read Read →
PS5 mainboard close-up during HDMI no-signal diagnosis Console Repair · PS5

PS5 No Display? HDMI Port Repair Guide

The 3 most common causes of "no signal" on a PS5 — bent HDMI pins, fried HDMI IC, or APU encoder failure — and how to tell them apart before you pay anyone.

8 min read Read →
Thermal camera image of an overheating PS5 mainboard Console Repair · PS5 Thermal

PS5 Overheating? $120 Fix Solves 80% of Cases

PlayStation 5 cutting out during Warzone matches? Our standard $120 service (deep clean + liquid metal refresh) solves about 80% of thermal shutdowns — or $140 with fan replacement.

8 min read Read →
PS5 DualSense controller before a TMR stick-drift repair Console Repair · DualSense

PlayStation 5 Stick Drift? $70 TMR Fix — Lifetime Warranty

We swap drifted DualSense sticks for TMR magnetic joysticks — $70 per controller (both sticks), lifetime warranty against drift. No more replacing $90 controllers every year.

7 min read Read →

More guides shipping every 1–2 weeks — phone water damage, hard drive recovery, MacBook logic board failures, and more. Got a question we should write about?

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