Tag Archive for: Leeds

Rework for Mobile Device Repair

Background

Mobile devices can be damaged either through normal use, deliberate snapping or failure of specific chips which are vital to the device powering up successfully. Consequently, digital forensic units are routinely faced with mobile devices which cannot be powered on to a stable state such that data can be extracted using commercial forensic tools. Where possible and practical, such devices need to be repaired by removing and replacing the damaged or faulty chips on the device’s printed circuit board (PCB). These techniques are referred to as “rework” within the electronics industry.

Course aims

Successful removal and replacement of chips from a mobile device PCB requires appropriate equipment and skilled techniques to ensure that the circuit board and surrounding components are not damaged in the process. This may include desoldering using specialist hot air tools, preparation of replacement chips using stencilling techniques and re-soldering of the replacement chip (again with skilled use of hot air).

Rework for Mobile Device Repair is a 4½ day course designed to teach delegates how to safely de-solder faulty chips from an iPhone PCB and resolder working replacements. The intention being to return a device to a bootable state where data can be extracted using commercial forensic tools.

Delegates will also learn how to repair damage to pads on the underside of any chip caused by accidental or intentional physical damage. Delegates will be working primarily on iPhone models (including those with “stacked” PCBs), however the techniques taught on the course can be used on any PCB with surface mounted chips.

The course also includes hands-on experience in chip-off techniques for data extraction from feature (“burner”) phones as well as eMMC flash memory chips from unencrypted legacy Android devices, satnavs and vehicle systems.

What you will learn

By the end of the course, students will be able to:

  • Safely remove and replace iPhone chips to repair faults which prevent data extraction
  • Successfully clean and “re-ball” chips in preparation for repair
  • Repair broken pads on printed circuit boards (PCBs) caused by physical damage to a mobile device
  • Recover the contents of flash memory chips
  • Explain and justify their actions in court

Who should attend?

Delegates must have previous soldering experience. Ideally this will have been achieved by attending our Mobile Device Repair course (or other Control-F courses involving hand soldering).

Rework for Mobile Device Repair sits alongside our Intermediate Mobile Device Repair course which focuses on the diagnosis of board-level faults that may necessitate chip removal. Digital forensic units will gain maximum benefit where staff have attended Intermediate Mobile Device Repair and Rework for Mobile Device Repair.

Intermediate Mobile Device Repair

Background

Android and iOS devices typically need to be in a bootable state in order for data to be extracted using commercial forensic tools. Digital forensic units routinely encounter devices which are sufficiently damaged that extraction cannot take place – the device either fails to start at all or repeatedly displays the Apple logo (a “boot loop”). Although the replacement of broken screens and batteries within digital forensic units has become widespread, a subset of damaged devices require more complex fault-finding and repair techniques.

Course aims

The printed circuit board (PCB) within a mobile device is home to many tiny electronic components which work together to ensure that the device can boot and function normally. The failure of a single component on the PCB (for example, due to excess power) may lead to the device not powering at all, or “boot looping”.

Intermediate Mobile Device Repair is a 4½ day course designed to teach delegates how to identify and repair common board-level faults. Delegates will learn how to recognise components on a PCB and determine whether they have failed. They will then learn micro-soldering techniques to remove or replace faulty components in order to return a device to a bootable condition such that data can be extracted.

Delegates will gain vital hands-on experience of interpreting circuit board schematics and utilising them to locate short circuits which can then be repaired.

Delegates will primarily be working on iPhones during the course, however the techniques taught can also be used to troubleshoot and repair Android devices.

What you will learn

By the end of the course, students will be able to:

  • Identify specific components on a printed circuit board (PCB) and explain their function
  • Successfully diagnose PCB-level faults which prevent data extraction
  • Replace faulty PCB components including screen, touch and data port connectors
  • Diagnose and resolve short circuits on a PCB
  • Explain & justify their actions in court

Who should attend?

Delegates must have previous experience of mobile device repair and soldering. Ideally this will have been achieved by attending our Mobile Device Repair course.

Intermediate Mobile Device Repair sits alongside our Rework for Mobile Device Repair course. The fault-finding skills required to identify faulty chips is taught on Intermediate Mobile Device Repair – the replacement of those chips using hot air techniques is taught on Rework for Mobile Device Repair. Digital forensic units will gain maximum benefit where staff have attended Intermediate Mobile Device Repair and Rework for Mobile Device Repair.

Mobile Device Repair

Background

Being able to safely repair damaged mobile device exhibits in-house has become increasingly important for digital forensic units. Charging problems, cracked screens, faulty buttons or damaged data ports are common issues which may prevent successful data extraction. Digital forensic units need to be able to get devices working quickly and safely in order to prevent the inevitable delays, costs and continuity complications associated with taking a device outside the organisation to be fixed.

Faced with a “dead” device, a mobile examiner needs to be able to quickly identify the fault (or faults), confirm whether the repair(s) can and should be conducted in-house and establish the risks associated in undertaking
such work. Although YouTube is awash with “how to”  videos for device repair, undertaking such work without properly understanding the risks could easily mean that a vital evidential exhibit is further damaged by the attempted repair. Not only that, such videos assume that the actual fault with the device has been reliably identified.
Digital forensic units need staff who can quickly and accurately identify faults and then select the most pragmatic means of repair.

Course aims

Mobile Device Repair is a 4½ day course designed to teach mobile device examiners how to identify and repair common faults with mobile devices which might prevent data extraction. Students will learn a systematic and efficient approach to fault finding designed to quickly identify common obstacles to data extraction. The emphasis of the training is on performing the simplest and most cost effective repair possible in order to acquire data from the device. Students will gain experience in disassembling, repairing and re-assembling Android, iPhone, Windows Phone and feature phone devices. Importantly, the course will include instruction in the soldering techniques required to replace data ports which are integrated into the main circuit board of the device.

What you will learn

By the end of the course, delegates will be able to:

  • Identify and resolve charging and battery issues with mobile devices
  • Replace glued and non-glued screens on mobile devices
  • Replace modular and soldered components on mobile devices
  • Transplant circuit boards from damaged evidential exhibits into “donor” devices to facilitate data extraction
  • Explain and justify their actions in court

Who should attend?

This course is targeted at new or existing mobile device examiners. The course includes close work with small components and therefore requires good eyesight and a steady hand. Previous experience in handset disassembly and soldering would be beneficial but not essential.

Rework for Mobile Device Repair

Background

Mobile devices can be damaged either through normal use, deliberate snapping or failure of specific chips which are vital to the device powering up successfully. Consequently, digital forensic units are routinely faced with mobile devices which cannot be powered on to a stable state such that data can be extracted using commercial forensic tools. Where possible and practical, such devices need to be repaired by removing and replacing the damaged or faulty chips on the device’s printed circuit board (PCB). These techniques are referred to as “rework” within the electronics industry.

Course aims

Successful removal and replacement of chips from a mobile device PCB requires appropriate equipment and skilled techniques to ensure that the circuit board and surrounding components are not damaged in the process. This may include desoldering using specialist hot air tools, preparation of replacement chips using stencilling techniques and re-soldering of the replacement chip (again with skilled use of hot air).

Rework for Mobile Device Repair is a 4½ day course designed to teach delegates how to safely de-solder faulty chips from an iPhone PCB and resolder working replacements. The intention being to return a device to a bootable state where data can be extracted using commercial forensic tools.

Delegates will also learn how to repair damage to pads on the underside of any chip caused by accidental or intentional physical damage. Delegates will be working primarily on iPhone models (including those with “stacked” PCBs), however the techniques taught on the course can be used on any PCB with surface mounted chips.

The course also includes hands-on experience in chip-off techniques for data extraction from feature (“burner”) phones as well as eMMC flash memory chips from unencrypted legacy Android devices, satnavs and vehicle systems.

What you will learn

By the end of the course, students will be able to:

  • Safely remove and replace iPhone chips to repair faults which prevent data extraction
  • Successfully clean and “re-ball” chips in preparation for repair
  • Repair broken pads on printed circuit boards (PCBs) caused by physical damage to a mobile device
  • Recover the contents of flash memory chips
  • Explain and justify their actions in court

Who should attend?

Delegates must have previous soldering experience. Ideally this will have been achieved by attending our Mobile Device Repair course (or other Control-F courses involving hand soldering).

Rework for Mobile Device Repair sits alongside our Intermediate Mobile Device Repair course which focuses on the diagnosis of board-level faults that may necessitate chip removal. Digital forensic units will gain maximum benefit where staff have attended Intermediate Mobile Device Repair and Rework for Mobile Device Repair.

Mobile Device Repair

Background

Being able to safely repair damaged mobile device exhibits in-house has become increasingly important for digital forensic units. Charging problems, cracked screens, faulty buttons or damaged data ports are common issues which may prevent successful data extraction. Digital forensic units need to be able to get devices working quickly and safely in order to prevent the inevitable delays, costs and continuity complications associated with taking a device outside the organisation to be fixed.

Faced with a “dead” device, a mobile examiner needs to be able to quickly identify the fault (or faults), confirm whether the repair(s) can and should be conducted in-house and establish the risks associated in undertaking
such work. Although YouTube is awash with “how to”  videos for device repair, undertaking such work without properly understanding the risks could easily mean that a vital evidential exhibit is further damaged by the attempted repair. Not only that, such videos assume that the actual fault with the device has been reliably identified.
Digital forensic units need staff who can quickly and accurately identify faults and then select the most pragmatic means of repair.

Course aims

Mobile Device Repair is a 4½ day course designed to teach mobile device examiners how to identify and repair common faults with mobile devices which might prevent data extraction. Students will learn a systematic and efficient approach to fault finding designed to quickly identify common obstacles to data extraction. The emphasis of the training is on performing the simplest and most cost effective repair possible in order to acquire data from the device. Students will gain experience in disassembling, repairing and re-assembling Android, iPhone, Windows Phone and feature phone devices. Importantly, the course will include instruction in the soldering techniques required to replace data ports which are integrated into the main circuit board of the device.

What you will learn

By the end of the course, delegates will be able to:

  • Identify and resolve charging and battery issues with mobile devices
  • Replace glued and non-glued screens on mobile devices
  • Replace modular and soldered components on mobile devices
  • Transplant circuit boards from damaged evidential exhibits into “donor” devices to facilitate data extraction
  • Explain and justify their actions in court

Who should attend?

This course is targeted at new or existing mobile device examiners. The course includes close work with small components and therefore requires good eyesight and a steady hand. Previous experience in handset disassembly and soldering would be beneficial but not essential.

Mobile Device Repair

Background

Being able to safely repair damaged mobile device exhibits in-house has become increasingly important for digital forensic units. Charging problems, cracked screens, faulty buttons or damaged data ports are common issues which may prevent successful data extraction. Digital forensic units need to be able to get devices working quickly and safely in order to prevent the inevitable delays, costs and continuity complications associated with taking a device outside the organisation to be fixed.

Faced with a “dead” device, a mobile examiner needs to be able to quickly identify the fault (or faults), confirm whether the repair(s) can and should be conducted in-house and establish the risks associated in undertaking
such work. Although YouTube is awash with “how to”  videos for device repair, undertaking such work without properly understanding the risks could easily mean that a vital evidential exhibit is further damaged by the attempted repair. Not only that, such videos assume that the actual fault with the device has been reliably identified.
Digital forensic units need staff who can quickly and accurately identify faults and then select the most pragmatic means of repair.

Course aims

Mobile Device Repair is a 4½ day course designed to teach mobile device examiners how to identify and repair common faults with mobile devices which might prevent data extraction. Students will learn a systematic and efficient approach to fault finding designed to quickly identify common obstacles to data extraction. The emphasis of the training is on performing the simplest and most cost effective repair possible in order to acquire data from the device. Students will gain experience in disassembling, repairing and re-assembling Android, iPhone, Windows Phone and feature phone devices. Importantly, the course will include instruction in the soldering techniques required to replace data ports which are integrated into the main circuit board of the device.

What you will learn

By the end of the course, delegates will be able to:

  • Identify and resolve charging and battery issues with mobile devices
  • Replace glued and non-glued screens on mobile devices
  • Replace modular and soldered components on mobile devices
  • Transplant circuit boards from damaged evidential exhibits into “donor” devices to facilitate data extraction
  • Explain and justify their actions in court

Who should attend?

This course is targeted at new or existing mobile device examiners. The course includes close work with small components and therefore requires good eyesight and a steady hand. Previous experience in handset disassembly and soldering would be beneficial but not essential.

Intermediate Mobile Device Repair

Background

Android and iOS devices typically need to be in a bootable state in order for data to be extracted using commercial forensic tools. Digital forensic units routinely encounter devices which are sufficiently damaged that extraction cannot take place – the device either fails to start at all or repeatedly displays the Apple logo (a “boot loop”). Although the replacement of broken screens and batteries within digital forensic units has become widespread, a subset of damaged devices require more complex fault-finding and repair techniques.

Course aims

The printed circuit board (PCB) within a mobile device is home to many tiny electronic components which work together to ensure that the device can boot and function normally. The failure of a single component on the PCB (for example, due to excess power) may lead to the device not powering at all, or “boot looping”.

Intermediate Mobile Device Repair is a 4½ day course designed to teach delegates how to identify and repair common board-level faults. Delegates will learn how to recognise components on a PCB and determine whether they have failed. They will then learn micro-soldering techniques to remove or replace faulty components in order to return a device to a bootable condition such that data can be extracted.

Delegates will gain vital hands-on experience of interpreting circuit board schematics and utilising them to locate short circuits which can then be repaired.

Delegates will primarily be working on iPhones during the course, however the techniques taught can also be used to troubleshoot and repair Android devices.

What you will learn

By the end of the course, students will be able to:

  • Identify specific components on a printed circuit board (PCB) and explain their function
  • Successfully diagnose PCB-level faults which prevent data extraction
  • Replace faulty PCB components including screen, touch and data port connectors
  • Diagnose and resolve short circuits on a PCB
  • Explain & justify their actions in court

Who should attend?

Delegates must have previous experience of mobile device repair and soldering. Ideally this will have been achieved by attending our Mobile Device Repair course.

Intermediate Mobile Device Repair sits alongside our Rework for Mobile Device Repair course. The fault-finding skills required to identify faulty chips is taught on Intermediate Mobile Device Repair – the replacement of those chips using hot air techniques is taught on Rework for Mobile Device Repair. Digital forensic units will gain maximum benefit where staff have attended Intermediate Mobile Device Repair and Rework for Mobile Device Repair.