DATA RECOVERY CASE STUDY 

Samsung Galaxy S23: Fried OVP & MAX IC Data Recovery

Recovering data from a completely dead device destroyed by a massive voltage spike from a faulty charging cable.

Device

Samsung S23

Issue

Dead, No signs of life

Service

Charging Circuit Repair

Result

Fully Repaired

The Problem

This Samsung Galaxy S23 was sent to us from another repair shop. The customer reported that the phone slowly died over time, refused to charge, and briefly displayed a moisture warning message. When plugged into our USB-C ammeter, the device showed absolutely no signs of life and pulled zero power.

Our Diagnostic Process

Connecting the bare motherboard to our DC power supply revealed an 18mA standing current draw before even prompting to boot—a massive red flag indicating a primary short circuit. Testing the main power rail (VPH power) confirmed a direct short to ground.

After removing the motherboard shields, the culprit was obvious: a severe electrical burn had physically melted the coating off the Over Voltage Protection (OVP) chip. A faulty charging cable had sent a massive voltage spike directly into the board, frying the protective circuitry.

The Repair & Recovery

  • Clearing the Initial Short: We safely desoldered the burnt to a crisp OVP chip. Measuring the board confirmed the VPH power line returned to a healthy diode mode reading of 0.264, and we installed a fresh OVP chip.
  • Secondary Failure Discovered: When attempting to boot the device after the OVP replacement, it remained dead with the same 18mA draw. We discovered the main power rail was outputting 0V.
  • Thermal Imaging: Injecting voltage directly into the VPH line and utilizing our thermal camera revealed a distinct hot spot hiding under the MAX IC (the main charging and power management chip). The initial voltage spike had cascaded past the OVP and killed this chip as well.
  • MAX IC Replacement: We removed the internally shorted MAX IC and installed a healthy replacement harvested from a donor board.

Result: After replacing both the burnt OVP and the shorted MAX IC, the standing current draw disappeared entirely. The phone successfully booted past the Samsung logo, allowing us to perform a full extraction of the customer’s data!

Watch The Full Repair Process

Watch as we trace the short circuit, replace the burnt OVP chip, and use thermal imaging to track down the secondary short on the MAX IC.

“The most important data on this device was the customer’s new born baby pictures were safely recovered.”

Junayd

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