Why isn't my BRAND NEW iPhone charging?

Question

Why isn't my BRAND NEW iPhone charging?

I just got my iPhone on Friday. It's Tuesday. When I plug it in, it charges for a little while and then switches over to discharging. I had it on the charger all night last night and when I woke up this morning, I was greeted by a red battery graphic and a warning. This is whether or not I have it in the wall or on my PowerBook charging.

I have an app on it called "System" that actually displays the percentage charged. I turned it off (off -- not just with the home button) and let it charge for about two hours. It actually got up to 68%. As soon as I unplugged it, however, it told me 58%. Bug in the app? Or an extra indicator that I may have gotten a lemon of an iPhone?

Jeremy

PowerBook G4, Mac OS X (10.4.11), iPhone 3G 8GB, iPod Touch 32 GB

Posted on Jul 14, 2009 11:43 AM

Reply

Answer 1

ColeV

Level 1

5 points

Jul 14, 2009 11:55 AM in response to Jeremy Coulson

well im guessing you didn't purchase it with a warranty

obviously, if you did, it would be fixed

if not, im guessing that yes, the battery must be screwed

Reply

Answer 2

paulcb

Level 6

19,239 points

Jul 14, 2009 12:01 PM in response to Jeremy Coulson

Ignore the post above, he doesn't know what he's talking about. You have a 1 year warranty through Apple. It does sound like you have a battery and/or charging problem. Can you try someone elses charger? If not, try resetting (not restarting) the phone as such...

Reset: press the home and sleep buttons until you see the Apple logo, ignoring the slider. Takes about 5-15 secs of button holding and you won't lose any data or settings.

If that doesn't work, you can try "restoring as new" as per p. 200 in the manual... http://manuals.info.apple.com/enUS/iPhone_UserGuide.pdf

If that doesn't work, contact Apple... http://www.apple.com/support/contact/

Reply

Answer 3

Jul 14, 2009 12:18 PM in response to Jeremy Coulson

My guess is 1. a faulty charger or 2. a faulty battery. If the (fine) suggestions above don't work, I'd try either another charger or replacing it with Apple.

Reply

Answer 4

Jul 14, 2009 1:11 PM in response to zacharace

It's still on the charger. I just got back from a meeting and haven't checked it yet. I'll try the resetting solution, though. I had to do it on my wife's iPhone once to fix something.

A faulty charger I can live with. That's a simple $30 fix I can procure at Wal-Mart or the AT&T store. A faulty battery would be sad. But it's definitely in the warranty period, so we'll see how it's charging now!

Jeremy

Reply

Answer 5

Randy Fast

Level 4

1,426 points

Jul 14, 2009 1:19 PM in response to Jeremy Coulson

Does it charge when you connect it to a computer USB port? Have you tried a different cable with the same wall charger?

Apple will replace the wall charger for free if it's broken. Call them up, they will overnight you a new one and you just send the broken one back in the same package.

Reply

Answer 6

Jul 14, 2009 1:22 PM in response to Randy Fast

It's at 71% after another hour of charging. Let's see how well it holds.

It does this both on the charger and on the PowerBook. I have another cable from my iPod Touch and one from my wife's iPhone, so I will try those out tonight.

Jeremy

Reply

Answer 7

Jul 14, 2009 5:31 PM in response to Jeremy Coulson

Alas, folks on the phone at Apple concluded it's a bad battery. I have an appointment at the Apple store on Friday evening to get it replaced. Too bad the Apple store is 2 hours away with rush hour traffic.

Jeremy

Reply