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Three ways to get your iPhone XS Max to us
You can walk in, book a collection in Gauteng or send your phone from anywhere in South Africa. Whichever you choose, you get a free diagnostic and a written quote first.
In person
Drop it off at the workshop
Come to our Silvamonte workshop on any business day. Parking is free and so is the diagnostic, which we do while you're there. If your XS Max needs a new screen or battery, we can usually fit it while you wait or on the same day.
Shop 4, Silvercrest Shopping Centre
11 Swemmer Rd, Silvamonte, Johannesburg, 2192
Mon–Fri 09:00–17:00 · Sat 09:00–13:00
Gauteng · R300
Door-to-door via Eliz Courier
Eliz Courier & Messenger Services picks up your iPhone XS Max and brings it back, anywhere in Joburg, Pretoria, Centurion and the East Rand. The round trip costs R300. Send us a WhatsApp to book, and it's usually sorted within 24 hours.
WhatsApp to book collection →
Nationwide
Ship via The Courier Guy
We cover all of South Africa, from Cape Town and Durban to PE, Bloem and Polokwane. We book The Courier Guy to collect from your door. Your iPhone XS Max travels to us insured, we repair it, and the same courier brings it home.
WhatsApp to arrange courier →
Something wrong with your iPhone XS Max? Book a free diagnostic.
You get a written quote before we start · WhatsApp us what's wrong and we'll quote you quickly.
⚠ No touch / unresponsive touchscreen — interposer solder fault
A well-known fault on the XS Max, and on the XS, is touch that stops working, either fully or in parts. The screen isn't damaged. The cause is failing solder joints on the motherboard interposer. The XS Max's logic board is a two-layer sandwich, with the top and bottom boards joined by a grid of tiny solder balls. Age, heat cycles and drops can crack those joints or break their contact, and that cuts the signal path to the touch digitiser.
- The display lights up normally but doesn't react to your touch at all
- Touch comes and goes, working one moment and failing the next
- Certain areas of the 6.5" screen ignore your touch while the rest works
- Touch stopped working after the phone was dropped or left somewhere hot
- A new screen didn't help, because the problem is in the board and not the display
How we fix it, with an interposer reball: We take off the old solder balls between the two board layers, clean the pads, put down new solder balls and reflow them under a microscope. That restores the electrical connection and brings full touch back. It's a repair we do regularly on the XS Max and the XS.
Already replaced the screen and touch still doesn't work? Then it's almost certainly the interposer. Bring your XS Max in for a free diagnostic.
Want your iPhone XS Max fixed?
The diagnostic is free · 6-month warranty · Written quote before we start · R300 pickup in Gauteng
iAssist Repair, Shop 4, Silvercrest Shopping Centre, 11 Swemmer Rd, Silvamonte, Johannesburg, 2192
✅ We stock batteries for the XS and XS Max — authorised service centres no longer do
Most Apple Authorised Service Centres in South Africa no longer replace batteries on the iPhone XS Max or the XS. The batteries have dropped out of their supply chains. So if an authorised repairer told you they can't get the XS Max's bigger battery, they're right about their own stock. It isn't true of ours.
We keep OEM-grade batteries in stock for the XS Max, and for the XS too. You can have yours replaced on the same day at our Silvamonte centre. A new battery brings back full capacity, stops the throttling and gets the phone working properly again day to day.
⚠ NAND storage failure — stuck in iTunes / DFU mode, P15 programmer repair
At its age, worn NAND flash storage has become a regular repair on the iPhone XS Max. The NAND chip holds iOS, your apps, your photos and the rest of your data. Years of reading and writing every day leave worn sectors and slower write speeds. The failures that follow look like software problems, but they aren't.
Where many shops go wrong: If a phone is stuck in iTunes or DFU mode and won't restore, repeated DFU restores won't fix it if the NAND storage chip has a hardware fault, so we test the NAND first. No software restore can fix a failed NAND. Error codes 4013, 9, 14 or 21 during a restore point straight to the NAND.
Our fix: We replace the NAND and program it properly with the P15 NAND programmer. That includes your phone's unique serial number, Wi-Fi address and baseband data. We also suggest moving up to 256GB in the same job. The board is already open, so the upgrade adds very little to the cost of the whole repair.
Is your XS Max stuck in iTunes or DFU and failing restore after restore? Get a free board diagnostic before you try another restore.
Common questions
iPhone XS Max repair — frequently asked questions
My iPhone XS Max touchscreen doesn't respond at all. Is it the screen or the logic board?
If a new screen behaves the same way, the fault is on the board. The XS Max is known for this: after a drop, the solder joints between the layers of its sandwich board crack and cut off the touch signal. What fixes it is an interposer reball, not another screen.
Is glass-only refurbishment worth doing on the XS Max's 6.5" OLED?
Yes, very much so. The 6.5" OLED is the most expensive part in the phone. If the panel is intact, replacing just the glass costs a lot less than a full screen. We check for burn-in as part of the diagnostic.
My XS Max has a bright green vertical line but it's never been dropped. What caused it?
It's a known manufacturing defect in one batch of XS Max OLED panels. The line shows up with no drop and no damage, so it isn't anything you did. A screen replacement sorts it out.
Can Face ID be repaired on the iPhone XS Max?
Often, yes. We use the JCID tag-on flex method, and it's R1,500 if it can be fixed. If the IR camera itself has failed, Face ID can't be brought back. The diagnostic is free, so you pay nothing before you know where you stand.
My XS Max charges wirelessly but not through Lightning. Is it usually the IC or the port?
Usually it's the Hydra charging IC, damaged by cheap cables, rather than the Lightning port. A free diagnostic tells us which one before we start any work.
Can I still get an iPhone XS Max battery? Authorised centres told me they don't stock it.
They're right about their own stock, because the battery has been dropped from authorised supply chains. We source OEM-grade XS Max batteries ourselves, so we can still fit the bigger battery, and we can do it on the same day.
My XS Max is stuck in iTunes mode and the restore fails with error 4013. Is it NAND or software?
If error 4013 keeps coming up restore after restore, the NAND flash storage has failed. We replace it with the P15 programmer, and we strongly recommend going up to 256GB in the same repair.
Is it worth repairing an iPhone XS Max in 2026?
For a battery or a screen, yes. The A12 chip still does the job. An interposer reball or a NAND repair is a case-by-case call, and we'll work it out with you. The 6.5" OLED is worth keeping as long as the repair cost makes sense for what the phone is worth to you.
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