What is “Audio IC disease”?

The Audio IC issue appears on both the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus & is now one of the most frequent faults being repaired on a board level. Owners of the devices will notice:

• Slow booting of the phone.
• “Audio Devices not found” message when going into the Voice Memo application.
• Voice Memo application won’t allow you to record a message.
• Callers can’t hear you.
• Siri can’t hear you.
• Speaker greyed out on calls.
• Earpiece speaker not working in calls.
• Stuck on Apple logo (with Taptic feedback).
• Your phone takes a long time to turn up.

Why Does This Happen?

We believe that this is another manifestation of the same underlying problem that plagued the iPhone 6/6 Plus with the touch disease problem that we brought to the world’s attention in 2015. With the touch disease, it is the M1 pad under the Meson Touch IC chip that separates from the board due to the inherent bendiness of the iPhone logic board during normal daily use.

On the iPhone 7/7 Plus, as the phone ages, the subtle bendy/bouncy forces of daily use eventually stretch and flex the thin wire of the C12 pad as the solder ball attached to it is wiggled like a nano-sized paper clip.  Over time, C12 becomes an increasingly poorly attached and your phone begins to show the symptoms of Audio IC failures.  Eventually, C12 will detach completely and you will have full blown Audio IC disease, meaning that your phone will have a really difficult time even turning on at all.

How long does an Audio IC repair take?

The turnaround time for an Audio IC repair is normally 3-5 working days. Your device would need to be sent away to board level technicians.