[Device Repair] R7027:
Yup! I think it's called flying by the seat of one's pants. 😅

I know I was a little mad when I first learned about this, because this enforced encryption significantly reduced my chances of data recovery, and nobody asked me if I want this or not. They just assume I'm a secret agent and I need double encryption on my phone. They didn't do that on Android 5 even though FDE (full disk encryption) was added already in Android 4.4 if my memory serves me right, but it was never mandatory, you had the choice to enable it if you wanted to. But not anymore, not since Android 6. It's completely done in the background and without your knowledge. Even if you don't have a PIN or password on you phone, it's still encrypted, it uses it's own internal encryption keys that are generated during production of the phone at the factory. I did a whole write-up on this over on Reddit. I think it was on Android 8 they made it even more difficult by switching from FDE to FBE (file based encryption) where every single file is individually encrypted. And there is no option to turn this off, not unless you root your device or something (and maybe not even then).

What should the reading be? Do you have a reference value? I'm not sure about capacitors, but resistors can behave differently when they are measured in the circuit vs. when measured out of circuit. So to be absolutely sure you have to remove them and measure. Maybe it's the same with capacitors. I'm not sure.

That "jig" might be a reference to Samsung's magical/mythical "Anyway" box. You can buy those now on Ebay, so they are no longer that secretive. There was a nice report on this on XDA actually, that's how I learned about it. Then I learned some more and learned that I can make my own UART cable without any box, and that there are other, better boxes available that can do the same thing that box does. Anyway!

Same thing here. It's like walking blind through a mine field. I put the red on ground first, in continuity/diode mode, I probe with the black, and then I switch around and put black on ground and probe with red in voltage mode once I know (or think I know) which point is ground on the component. I think this is the right idea. Flying by the seat of my pants here. I've been learning mostly from YouTube guides. There is one guy from England that I think is excellent at explaining things. His channel is called Adamant IT. Check him out.

Yup! I still don't have that microscope I was going to order. With holidays closing in and all that things have slowed down. I may try to hot air that capacitor back on dry, without a microscope. Before my cat sniffs it up his nose or something.

It's important to have good lighting. One thing that many overlook I think. I take help from my expensive Olight Seeker Pro 2 flash light, which is very strong. By pointing it at different angles and bouncing the light off the walls, I was able to snap some pretty impressive pictures with my new Galaxy S22. Pictures look like they were taken by a microscope. Lighting can mean the difference between being able to read the fine print on the chips and only seeing a black square. I also use a Energizer headlamp, cheap but strong and useful.

It might be the secondary power supply for the display that's gone? There is at least two power rails and each has its own power IC, there is one for main power and one for display. This is according to my limited knowledge of mobile phone circuits.