Chosen Solution
I have an iPhone SE that got dunked into the Caribbean a few years ago. The display never turned on since, but I just realized that there are pictures on it that I would really love to have again. I took it apart and tried a replacement screen, but it stayed off while iTunes recognized it. I’ve bathed it in Isopropyl Alcohol and scrubbed it with a toothbrush, but still no dice. I’d rather not take it to a “genius” because it’s expensive, so if anyone has an idea I would be eternally grateful. The phone is locked with a passcode, and it doesn’t unlock with TouchID because it restarted. Alarms still go off, I can record it with QuickTime player, just can’t touch the screen or see the screen.
Picture is not very clear, but from the little I can see there seem to be quite a few darkened pins on the board connectors. Brushing the board without removing the shields is a bit like taking a shower with clothes on, result is very partial at best. Not that the results will be much different in any case probably, salt water is the worst for electronics and isopropylic alcohol doesn’t undo damage, you’d need some skillful pro to fix damaged components and rails. If you don’t want to pay someone for data recovery, the only alternative is to invest in time and tools to learn how to fix a board.
Do not take it to Apple. They will tell you it cannot be fixed and you should have backed up your data. By what you have described, it only needs the backlight or image repaired. A good repair shop should have no trouble grabbing your data off it.
Yeah sounds like the logic board is damaged which is not fixable because the photos are on the logic board so replacing that would not help. Sorry to hear about that.
