Iphone 3GS... Is it dead.

Hi to all,

I described in detail exactly the same problem yesterday in topic 'iPhone 3GS battery died?' http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2103226&tstart=45


To summarize: Had iPhone 3GS for 2,5 weeks, all working 100%. One afternoon came home, started charging at 20% only to found few hours later 'charge icon'.. did this and that, and phone came alive with 100% suddenly. Since then it has been acting weird with battery indicator jumping, phone dying already at 28%, recharging to 100% in 30min, phone dying after 55min use, ...

I returned the phone yest to store but in Spain the warranty by them is only 7 days, so instead had to call to Apple and they'll send courier to pick it.

NATURALLY, I still tried to do restores and play with the phone to see if anything would work. Last night after what seemed heavy battery drain, the battery indicator suddenly jumped from 50% to 98%, and started to act like normal, so after 1h or more use the indicator was at 88% - which was actually super good. Well, a few minutes later phone automatically shut down.

I started to charge again, and noticed in the beginning phone was trying to startas it had enough charge supposedly, only to reset itself in the boot process. This happened a few times but then I went to sleep. This morning I woke with 100% and phone powered on.

The battery life still *****, as it dropped to 30% on my way to office, so after 1h or so use.

Even if this phone would start to work normally, I could never trust it again, so Mr. Courier - PLS GET THIS %#&!%!

Try a DFU recovery:

1. Open iTunes and connect your iPhone.
2. Simultaneously press the home and sleep/wake buttons until the Apple logo appears (ignore the red slider if it shows).
3. Continue pressing the home button alone until iTunes sees your phone in recovery mode.
4. Follow the prompts to restore.

no he cant do that he is stuck at the low battery screen, which means he cant turn it on.

you obviously did some damage to your iphone so that battery wont hold a charge, it happens. just take it back to apple and report it as a defective battery and they will replace it for you at no charge.

ps: itunes will not recognize it ether because it is "dead".

Exact same thing happened to me last night, was using the phone no probs, indicator reported about 70% charge, put it down on the side, picked it up about 20 mins later and it was dead, nothing had happened to it inbetween (not dropped, moved, even looked at!)

The phone is completely dead and when plugged into a charger shows the flat battery screen, left it on charge all night and in the morning it was showing the same screen - had taken no charge whatsoever and when unplugged from the mains died again instantly. Taking it to O2 this morning to get them to fix/replace it, will try to remember to post what they say happened to the phone when I get it back.

For ref is a black 3Gs 16gb, up until this point hadn't experienced any overheating problems like the ones which have been described in the news recently, so no warning or idea as to what may have caused this.

I have had exactly the same problem, got one week of work out of my 3GS, but I usually have it pluged in and syncing at work. The first weekend on the Saturday morning it had gone down from 98% battery to 20% warning, I thought it was a glitch and restarted and it went back to 90% charge, then the battery started to go up and down rapidly for a couple of hours until it died.

I was then presented with the ‘no charge’ icons, plugged into mains - no charge, plugged into the USB on an iMac - no charge, tried a new cable - no charge, forced restart - no charge. Eventually it rebooted and looked OK, but the battery was still going nuts. I got it to work and tried a full restore in Itunes, still the same.

I thought I could keep it charged until I got a replacement but it dies and after much fiddling sometimes comes back to life.

The only way I seem to get it back is by plugging into mains, forcing a restart and then leaving for 10 minutes and pressing power, but this is not guaranteed.

Oddly enough It now seems to be working OK holds a charge, I will still be trying to get a replacement, as I can’t trust it and will be speaking to O2.

Very frustrating, but I guess it is a dud, there also seems to be a software issue with 3.0 and the 3GS.

Thank God.

I thought I was going mad. I've had 2 3GS do this to me now. Hoping to back to the Apple Store this weekend to sort another one out.

O2 were useless as they are out of stock.

Both times the phone starts to overheat, battery starts to drain in minutes. Once it's drained it just will not come back to life again.

Having to use my 3G as my phone, until I get a replacement.

Glad to hear I'm not alone!!!

George

Well took the defective phone to the Apple store yesterday, the guy at the 'genius' bar didn't take too long (< 2mins) before agreeing the phone was dead and just swapped it for another (thankfullly had sync'd with iTunes just before the phone died, otherwise would obviously have lost data).

Asked my Apple 'genius' if he'd seen this before, he claimed not though a woman who was booking an appointment in front of me with a 'concierge' was describing the exact same problem, conincidence or are super cool, 'we're-your-mate', laid back Apple telling their store staff to take the company line on such questions....?

Absolutely same thing happened to me as well.
3GS was 7 days old. Battery started to heat up. Within 2 hours battery was empty.
For a while it was showing the red "need recharge" screen. Now it is just
a dead brick.
I wish Apple would admit that there is a major problem with 3GS batteries.

I had a similar overheat problem with quick battery drain. I was able to plug it in when home and it charged fine. 4 days later (after an overnight charge), I tried to navigate the apps and everything was in slow motion. I rebooted and it said to connect to iTunes to restore. It kept giving me Error 6 part way through the restore process. Took it to the Genius bar, and they got the same error and replaced the phone (phone was 19 days old). Replacement seems to be fine. Hope there aren't too many "bad apples" out there. I never had to get replacements for my 2G or 3G iphones (both of which continue to work well to this day).

Another dead one here. White 32GB 3GS. My wife received it last Wednesday so it is only 6 days old. It was sitting on the table, she picked it up and saw it was as at a 75 percent charge. Brought it in the car and laid on the dashboard tray and drove off to pick me. 20 minutes later she arrives at my work, picks the phone to call me downstairs and sees the red battery gauge. Tries to charge it with the car charger (no joy). We bring it home and I plug it into the wall with the ac adapter and cable it came with and let it charge for 3 hours. Still stuck at the low battery screen and it has not moved a nanometer. Call up Rogers (our provider) and the tech has me try a soft reset, a hard reset and synching with iTunes. Nothing, the phone is a brick! He apologizes and orders my wife a replacement. He claims she will receive it on Thursday. I'll believe that when I see it.

According to an online serial decoder the 3GS was built at factory 88 in Shenzhen, China on the 22 week (June) of 2009. The iPhone was never dropped, left unattended in a stopped hot car and was kept in a SwitchEasy Capsule Rebel with screenprotector since the day it was unboxed.

meh what did we get ourselves into, dead batteries, yellow screens and overheatings. apple has to recall this **** and maybe consider quality control. honostly, less defective rates in iPhone 2G. no wonder the 3G S costs 179 buck to make.

My iPhone 3GS is only 2 weeks old and since a couple of days ago the battery charge drained much faster than usual. I also noticed that around the same time, there was a noticeable delay when the home button was pressed, the phone wouldn't wake up instantaneously, it took almost 5-10 seconds to wake up. Last night, the phone was low in charge, I plugged it into the charger and in the morning the phone was completely dead. I tried hard reset but that didn't work either. I'm on my way to the Apple store. My iPhone has a hard case, I wonder if the overheating issue is exacerbated by the the case.

Add another to the list... Used my phone this morning, then plugged in to top off the battery. Unplugged it at around 90% charge. Pulled it out 5 minutes later, hit home, and nothing. Plugged in again, got the dead battery icon. Went through the forced recovery routine with iTunes to no avail. Currently on hold with AppleCare. Will update with final resolution.

Looking like another one here as well...

32G 3GS Black.

Got home and it was at about 70%, just went to grab it and it wouldn't respond. connecting it through USB gives me the low battery icon.

In the past week, I noticed serious battery drain. I thought I fixed it by doing a hard reset two days ago (thought I had some rouge push thing going on).

I had plans to go somewhere other than an Apple store tomorrow...

Crap. If it gets replaced, do you keep your SIM card, phone number, & billing too?

And another....

32GB 3GS Black

2 weeks old. no problems until yesterday red dead battery gauge popped up when battery was at least 90% charged. Reset and plugged into wall adapter and after 4 attempts to reboot and get to home screen, it worked.

iPhone worked all night, plugged it into wall adapter on nightstand when i went to bed. Woke up with red dead battery again. This time it is bricked. No resets work. Connecting to iTunes doesnt work. iPhone not kept in any holder to cause heating.

This is my work phone and now I have to wait 2 hours for Apple Store to open at 10 AM, drive downtown and pay $20 to park, just to go exchange for new one. I am ******.

What gives Apple? Where is the notice of problem with direction on fixing problem? Come on, you are supposed to be better than Microsoft! This reminds me of the RROD with Xbox 360.

DIGISPY