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Poll: Would you put your iPhone in the oven if it meant fixing your wifi?

Would you put your iPhone in the oven if it meant fixing your wifi?

  • Anything to get my wifi back

    Votes: 13 9.0%

  • I'd need a bit more info

    Votes: 37 25.5%

  • You are insane

    Votes: 91 62.8%

  • As if you would have an iphone to begin with

    Votes: 4 2.8%
  • Total voters
    145
A

aussiedj

macrumors regular
Original poster
Dec 31, 2008
146
1
Brisbane
So this guy explains about micro-fissures (tiny fractures in the solders) affecting the iphone 3g wifi, and how to go about fixing those by placing the board from your iphone in the oven for 7:30mins at 385º F / 200º C.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l1azZWWkmSg

I am contemplating doing this, and would like to know just how many of you would actually go ahead and do something like this.

I asked the guys at macfixit.com.au (awesome online-store btw), and their response was: Regarding your second question, we have not heard, nor can we endorse such actions with putting Apple products into an oven.

Clearly to most people, anyone who wants to put their iPhone into an oven is clearly insane. But apparantly, it's not the much different from the original assembly process.

Comments vary on the video from, "Thank you you fixed my wifi how can I ever repay you", to "I did what you said, now my iPhone gets stuck at the apple logo & won't get passed it". Hense my dilemma.
 
I would never toss my iPhone into the oven to "experiment" and find out if wifi is going to work or not.

If your iPhone is still under warranty take it to Apple and get a replacement.
 
Not under warranty, and no longer under contract, and unfortunately the Optus network in Australia gives me a constant download speed of 7kb/s...

So it's really a question of, would I be happy with a 4G instead of a 4Gs if the oven decides that the iphone board looked at it the wrong way & decided to cook it. :mad::apple::mad:
 
LOL, at least use a convection oven!

(SRSLY! More uniform heat distribution.)

This is essentially how the board is soldered in the first place. Solder paste is applied to the circuit board, the components are set on the solder paste, and the whole thing is heated up at once to "reflow" the solder. The paste melts, bonds, and solidifies.

However, it's a bare board at that point (no case, etc.), the heat is precisely controlled, any heat-sensitive parts are not yet installed, etc.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reflow_soldering

Bad news: the temperature recommended is unlikely to do anything for you. Typical minimum "liquid zone" temperature for reflow soldering is above 420F. You want to stick your iPhone in a 420F oven?
 
Last edited:
When my Xbox 360 RRoD'd I put the motherboard in the oven to melt the solder which supposedly would fix it. I figured it was already broken so I had nothing to lose if I broke it even more. Well needless to say it did actually work, but subsequently I got the red rings a few days later...
 
Only if I didn't care if it ended up destroying the phone instead (basically, if it was one of those, well if I don't try this I'm going to replace the phone anyways so I really have nothing to lose by trying).

But I wouldn't do it cause I couldn't afford to replace the phone and I'd rather deal with a phone with no wi-fi than the high chance of destroying the phone so none of it works. Wi-fi isn't that important to me.
 
I'd never do such a thing. I wouldn't recommend it either unless you REALLY know what you are doing. And if you have to ask, then you don't really know what you're doing ;)
 
PsstGreek said:
I would never toss my iPhone into the oven to "experiment" and find out if wifi is going to work or not.

If your iPhone is still under warranty take it to Apple and get a replacement.
Click to expand...

This. I'm not going to bake my iPhone. Out of warranty, I might take it apart and pull out a soldering iron, but no way would I bake it.
 
jtara said:
LOL, at least use a convection oven!
Click to expand...
Fan Forced.

jtara said:
Bad news: the temperature recommended is unlikely to do anything for you. Typical minimum "liquid zone" temperature for reflow soldering is above 420F. You want to stick your iPhone in a 420F oven?
Click to expand...
That would be to initially melt the paste no? Just a guess, but having "micro-fissures" being tiny fractures, I would have thought that a lower amount of heat would be just enough to fuze the cracks together.

reebzor said:
When my Xbox 360 RRoD'd I put the motherboard in the oven to melt the solder which supposedly would fix it. I figured it was already broken so I had nothing to lose if I broke it even more. Well needless to say it did actually work, but subsequently I got the red rings a few days later...
Click to expand...
Well that's semi-positive, how did if feel to have actually fixed your xbox by baking it in the oven for those 2 days? Obviously fail by 3rd day, but RROD could have been unrelated.

ChazUK said:
I'd take it to an Apple store and pay for an out of warranty repair if available.... (Boring I know!) :D
Click to expand...
I would rather try, and break it, than be that boring.
 
I've had my 3GS for about two years and somewhere down the line my wifi stopped working(kinda?). It works barley downstairs where my router is located but once I get up the stairs it doesn't pick up my router. My first gen iPhone picks up my wifi. I would try almost anything to get my wifi up again. :eek:
 
aussiedj said:
That would be to initially melt the paste no? Just a guess, but having "micro-fissures" being tiny fractures, I would have thought that a lower amount of heat would be just enough to fuze the cracks together.
Click to expand...

^ My initial thoughts.
 
Well so far, I have 1 single supporter. No I didn't vote myself. (Thanks Sonic04GT). And 18 people think I'm insane...
 
aussiedj said:
Well so far, I have 1 single supporter. No I didn't vote myself. (Thanks Sonic04GT). And 18 people think I'm insane...
Click to expand...

I believe you completely! I'm not an expert on manufacturing but it seems like it would make sense. I just don't think I'd bake my entire iPhone just to fix wifi unless I knew for certain that it would work and not harm any other components of my phone. ;)
 
awadeee said:
...I just don't think I'd bake my entire iPhone just to fix wifi unless I knew for certain that it would work and not harm any other components of my phone. ;)
Click to expand...

It's only this part that goes in:

PreCook.jpg
 
From a cooking standpoint, you'll need an oven thermometer as many ovens run hotter or colder. For example, mine runs about 25-50 degrees hotter than it should.
Something to consider when it comes to baking your electronics.

ETA: Personally, I'd save up the money to buy another iphone. While it won't solve your problem now, you should be able to afford a phone in about a year or so.
 
Last edited:
As someone else mentioned, the boards are soldered using heat already and this is just trying to duplicate it. I've done some construction work in factories with board lines and seen this in action and its pretty neat.

Supposedly, this was why you could cover an Xbox 360 with a towel and use its own heat to reflow the solder (I assume with no air moving, the temperature right at the connection points would get pretty hot, but I know there was no definitive "fix with this method)

I had to take apart my $3000 2001 Mitsubishi HDTV in 05 or 06 to re-flow some solder joints on teh convergence board, but I did that with an iron, once I had that board out, so I might be inclined to try this on an iPhone.

I do remember seeing this page several years back about how to solder a robotics kit board using solder paste and a toaster oven. http://www.seattlerobotics.org/encoder/200006/oven_art.htm Of course this is doing the first time and re-flow is a bit different, but it should give you hope that the idea is not totally crazy.
 
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