Chosen Solution
So, here’s the background on my problem. Dropped phone in salt water. Did NOT try to turn it back on. Took apart, cleaned to avoid corrosion and dried it. After a few days, put back together. Blank screen, iTunes recognized it but would error when restoring. iTunes Stopped recognizing. Installed new battery and dock connector. Phone was charging but would not be recognized. I say it was charging only because the battery was getting a little bit warm, so power had to be going into it. Now it’s not doing anything at all, no warmth coming from the battery and the computer will not recognize it. I’ve tried multiple cables and usb ports on two computers. I may have put a screw back in the wrong spot and damaged the mother board but I honestly don’t know. I’ve tried everything I could think of and most of the phone repair places near me only do simple stuff like screen replacement. 1.) How can I go about troubleshooting this problem? 2.) Is it possible to restore an iphone without the screen cables hooked up? I ask because I can determine if it’s a screen problem as well as something else.
This is a belated answer so hopefully it can be of use to folks who search for and find this question. Salt water damaged phones are the worst and in my experience have very low rates of success. At best you may get some data off and if you’re really (and I mean really) lucky you may even save the phone if the water ingress was minimal. The problem is that salt water…is full of salt. While freshwater does create corrosion and mineral deposits, it can be localized and that helps with the troubleshooting. However salt water leaves salt residues all over the place, serious damaging and corroding components that are under power to the point of them vanishing completely. And that is just what is visible! The only way to potentially save a salt water phone is to remove the logic board, remove the protective shields, clean it in >90% IPA, let it air dry and hope for the best. Beyond that, it requires someone with board level experience to troubleshoot the board and as I mentioned earlier, salt water phones have low recovery rates.
