Chosen Solution
Hi folks, My 5s has the well known charging issue. Plugged in, it shows the charging sign, but the charge won´t go up. This happened some time ago on a trip to New York (I´m from Germany), so I had the battery changed in a repair store. The 5s worked fine after that for about a month, then it stopped charging again. So I opened it and found out that a battery for a 5c had been installed. Great. I decided to replace the battery again myself. I got an ifixit-battery and connected it to the phone just by pressing down the plug. I didn´t install the covers for the display-connectors, battery-cable and the homebutton cable and didn´t use the tape to stick the battery in. I put the display on the phone without pressing it down and started the phone. It booted properly and with the charger plugged in, it loaded up to 100%. Strike! So took the battery out again, stuck it in with the tape, attached the covers and closed the phone. It booted perfectly again after that. I used it for a day without any problems. Everything worked fine. In the evening I plugged in the charger and the phone didn´t load again. Charging symbol appears but percentage doesn´t go up, just like before the battery replacement. I opened the phone and disconnected the home button, battery and display again, reconnected everything without installing the covers (the same procedure as the first time I installed the new battery) and started charging: nothing! The phone is booting properly and shows the charging sign, but the percentage doesn´t go up. Does anybody have an idea what causes this strange behaviour? The battery appears to be fine because it got charged up the first time, so I suppose it´s a problem of the chargement system. I allready tried different chargers and cables and cleaned the lightning connector, but to no avail. What really bugs me, is that the phone charged the first time without the covers and the display put in their proper place. Maybe there is a loose contact somewere? I don´t think Apple will help here, because the phone has already been tampered with and shows a lot of traces of use. So what should I do next? Any component I can replace to solve the issue? Has this happened to anyone here before? Thanks in advance for any help: Marcus
You are experiencing failure of your phones U2 charging chip. The phone will acknowledge being plugged in but never charge. Its usually caused by cheap aftermarket charging cables that allow unregulated voltage spikes to fry the u2 chip because they are not made to Apple specs. A good shop can perform this board level repair for you but make sure theyre reputable becaause it is definitely an advanced repair. This is not one for the guys in the kiosk at the mall haha. Also, the 5c and 5s use the same battery, part number and all
Hello Andy & Ben, Thanks for your answers. Actually I´m using a FM-transmitter in my car which can also charge the phone. So that´s possible. I´m using only original Apple cables and chargers at home. So a fried U2-chip is a possible explanation. But I didn´t give up yet and found something interesting: the 5s will charge perfectly without the cable-covers for display/battery/homebutton-connectors installed and when the display isn´t snapped in place. The moment I snap in the display in, it stops charging. I pry the display back up and it continues charging. I repeated this three times. All this time the phone worked perfectly. So maybe its a mechanical problem and not the chip. Any ideas what could cause this effect? Tomorrow I´ll try if this happens too when the connector-covers are in place. I still got the faint hope that the U2 is still OK and it´s only a loose contact somewhere. I already invested 90€ for repair and spareparts. A U2-replacement will be about 120€ here in Germany, together that´s what a used 5s with scratches is worth. Marcus
