physically deinstall/access phone/tablet internal memory

Question

i've never seen the circuits inside of a smartphone or a tablet . please tell me how the memory chip is installed ? Here by "memory" i mean the non-volatile storage aka. rom .

i guess that we can remove the memory chip and connect it to the computer as mtd or mass storage .

even if chip is soldered on the board , maybe it is still possible to attach wires to the solder joints and access data when the power is off ?

i want to know how to do it or why it is impossible .

score 3 · Answer 1 · answered Aug 15 '12 at 01:34

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Here's an iPad 3 Teardown.

http://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/iPad-3G-Teardown/2374/2

as you can see, all of the parts are surface mount, and many of them are probably BGA, making it impossible to get to the pins.

What do you think would be easier with direct access to storage?

answered Aug 15 '12 at 01:34

rfdave

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With direct access to storage i can bootstrap a new OS to it . – 把友情留在无盐 Aug 15 '12 at 03:04
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I'd like to add that essentially every phone since at least 2005 or such uses BGA for all IC to board connections since it's easier to cram high pin/pad count per surface area. You'll need a special BGA prototyping board in order to even externally get to the chip. – moshbear Aug 15 '12 at 10:40

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Aug 15 '12 at 19:15

For something like an iPad, even if you could directly access the ROM, there are almost certainly security measures in place to prevent you from loading a new OS onto it.

However with certain Android phones, people have been able to successfully interface through JTAG and load an OS even if the phone is "bricked".

Here is a thread on using JTAG to unbrick a Samsung Captivate.

And a wiki for the HTC Magic and Dream.

I'm sure you could find others.

physically deinstall/access phone/tablet internal memory

2 Answers2