iPad Air 4 will not detect charging cable

I think iPad OS 15.6.1 bricked my iPad Air 4.

5 days ago I noticed my iPad was at 5% battery so I plugged it in. I didn’t pay any attention until it shut off and when I turned it back on, it was at 1%. Shortly after, all I could get on the iPad was the dead battery screen with the white cord telling to plug it in even though it had been plugged in for about 20 minutes.

Fast forward to today. It has been plugged in for ~120 hours now with no change other than now the battery is completely dead and the screen won’t come on at all. I feel like I’ve tried everything. I tried hard resetting it via the dead battery screen. I tried heating it up with a hair dryer to try to jump start the battery. I tried plugging and unplugging it multiple times. I’ve tried multiple cords and power bricks. I’ve tried cleaning the charging port. I tried wiggling the cord. Nothing works

After some internet digging I found out about the problem the iPad mini 6 had before the 15.6 update. I read that some iPads weren’t detecting the charging cords or any other accessories. This sounds exactly like what is happening to my iPad. Even when I had it plugged in, the white cord stayed on the screen.

I feel like I have one option left. I have a feeling that if I could just do a true hard reset it would fix the problem. However, with the battery completely and utterly dead, this isn’t an option. My plan is to buy a replacement battery, open the iPad, and plug the replacement battery in. It has been my experience that replacement batteries carry a charge on them. With some juice from the new battery, I will perform a hard reset and possibly upgrade to iOS 15.7. I might even wait to do this until iPad OS 16 is released. I’m hoping that that will clear my issue. If this fails, I will be out about $100 and my only option at that point would be to pony up for a new unit.

Thank you for reading all that. It has been a very frustrating few days. When I bought the iPad I was thinking it would, at the very least, last me 5 years not 18 months. The thing is hardly used. Anyway, thank you for your thoughts. Any comments are welcome.