Chosen Solution

Dear Sir, My ipad mini now cannot be turned on , i tried everything , e.g. holding the power and home button together, shaking it , charging it, …. It’s still black , Could you please help me to turn it on ? Best regards John

Hi John, Eric has given you some good advice, I’m starting to like that guy :) I would just add that iPad mini “no power” is commonly one of two things. 1.) True no power = the iPad is not recognized by iTunes when plugged into the computer. This can be several things, but the common one we’re seeing a lot of is an inability for the iPad to charge due to ’non-Apple charger’ damage to the charging ic inside the iPad. This chip is very sensitive to voltage fluctuation. If the chip is damaged, the mini can’t charge, and will present as a dead mini. This is the most common cause of no power IF the mini has never been opened and not seen water. 2.) No display = the iPad is actually on, it is recognized by iTunes. There is just nothing on the screen. This rarely occurs in unopened minis, but it is extremely common in any mini that is under repair. The iPad mini backlight filter acts like a fuse for the backlight circuit. It is very sensitive to damage from a sudden spike in amperage that occurs when you disconnect the LCD flex from the mini motherboard without first disconnecting the battery.

Hi John, Did your iPad receive any damage recently? Has it ever been opened/worked on before? What happened prior to this issue? When you say it is black, do you mean that you cannot see an image on the screen at all, or is the screen displaying an image but there is no light so it is too dark to see? Have you plugged it into a computer to see if it is recognized by your computer? Have you tried a different cable/charging brick to make sure it is getting power? I will need a little more information from you in order to give you some possible causes.

Kind of necroposting, but since this is my exact problem, why not chime in instead of making a new post for the same issues. Just checking some things :

  • the iPad Mini I have here (actually I have two, both died within a week after being used with the same crappy charger and fake cable) is completely dead. I measured the battery, which is at 2.65v. Should be enough to start it up, right ?
  • first thing I did was seeing if it pulled any current, it didn’t. Just stayed at a comfortable 0.00a.
  • saw nothing blown up or damaged on the board under the microscope
  • measured and got short to gnd on caps C8119 and C8120, which makes me think it’s either U2 or PMIC. Replaced U2. Still nothing. -measured diode D8100 which gives me 0.162v when the battery is not connected and 0.0v (short) when the battery is connected. Anything else I can try before I’ll attempt to replace the PMIC (which should arrive this week) ? I don’t have a spare known working battery here, but since the one I have is at 2.65v and doesn’t cause a short on its own, I’m not readily saying the battery is bad.. which might be wrong ? update : removed the PMIC (what a to remove).. and the shorts are gone. Now let’s pray I didn’t pull any pads. It really took a lot of heat (500 degrees celcius) and a !&&* of lot of flux. I removed the underfill around the PMIC before I started, but still.. this is one of the most stubborn ICs to remove I have encountered so far.

Hi jessabethany and Eric I mean option number 1 , the ipad has no power and cannot be recognized by itunes when plugged, How can i change the charging ic inside the ipad ? Best regards John

The screen froze up when it was trying to update the messenger app and won’t boot up. I can’t even turn it off.its stuck in reboot mode.help! Thanks

Hi John, If none of these solutions work for you, something might be wrong with its hardware and need replacement. The most common reasons are the backlight on the screen assembly, or the backlight coil on the logic board is damaged. It’s might be time that you give Apple a call or go to a retail store nearby.

i pad not turned onn