Skip to main content

Repair information, troubleshooting tips, and guides for the sixth iteration of Apple iPhone, announced on September 12, 2012. Model: A1428, A1429

2520 Questions View all

Replaced Battery, Constantly Reboots and unchanging battery percent

I've recently replaced my iPhone 5's battery with a cheap $10 one from amazon.

Right after, I've experienced many problems. Every few minutes or so, my phone reboots itself and I get a panic message in the diagnostics.

Another issue is that my battery does not change (percent or icon) until I reboot my phone.

I've done the following:

Reset all settings

Restored as new

Restored from backup

Removed the sim and put it back

All of these did not work, unfortunately.

I've even put back the original battery, however I still experience these problems. I'm guessing that I may have damaged the original battery trying to take it out, so maybe that's why it doesn't work.

Anyway, I've ordered a replacement from here and am currently waiting for it to be delivered so that I can see whether I damaged something internally or whether it was both of the batteries.

Does anyone have any suggestions or ideas?

Edit:

I've received my iFixIt battery and have installed it.

It did not fix my issue unfortunately. Does anyone have any other suggestions?

Also, when using iBackUpBot's error log I get:

Could not get event from temperature service

Could not get value for gas gauge

Unable to lookup battery voltage

Answered! View the answer I have this problem too

Is this a good question?

Score 39
14 Comments

let it empty itself till it powers off. Recharge it. Repeat this process three times and report back.

by

I've already recalibrated the battery, and that didn't work. Does anyone have any other suggestions? I'm still waiting for my iFixIt battery.

by

Any ideas on this issue ... I have the same problem

by

All the replacement process are OK , but after charged several hours , no battery , it's seem like a fault battery . I did the same procedure again , but still the same, very disappointed!

by

Any ideas on this issue ... I have the same problem

by

Show 9 more comments

Add a comment

24 Answers

Chosen Solution

I found the cause...

Magnified inspection of the motherboard revealed two resistors missing from the bottom right hand side of the battery connector next to the standoff hole. (look just right of the green indicator line in this photo at the bottom of the battery connector… on mine the two resistors closest to the standoff hole are gone http://img829.imageshack.us/img829/5991/... ). Each time you shut the phone off then power back up it reboots every three minutes for 6 power cycles then operates normally aside from no accurate battery percentage. It would seem that I must have hit them with the standoff itself during removal or replacement?

I would guess that if anyone else has this issue to look at the condition of this group of resistors very closely and perhaps a little love touch from a .5mm solder gun on each end of the resistors or forced air in this group of resistors "MAY" reflow the resistors to the board

Block Image

Was this answer helpful?

Score 9

6 Comments:

Is this definitely the issue? Is there any other way to fix this without a soldering gun? Would a simple alcohol wipe potentially work? I'm not too familiar with this.

by

How can you reflow the resistors if they are gone?

by

Catalin--you don't reflow missing components, just replace them. This is the kind of thing we see all the time at my shop. Straightforward board repair, not expensive. Feel free to find your way to our mail in board level repair instructions by clicking my name to go to my profile.

Jessa

by

my iphone 5s keeps rebooting every 3 minutes how to fix

by

They're absolutely tiny! Have you actually soldered this? How'd it turn out?

by

Show 1 more comment

Add a comment
Most Helpful Answer

I was going to suggest pry damage at the battery connector. I work a lot on the iPad mini and I've seen what I call "fingernail damage" at the battery connector a few times. On the mini, one of the local capacitors near the battery connector is required for the 'gas gauge' function of the iPad. If it is knocked off, the iPad will actually charge okay and discharge okay, but the battery percentage will never change---it is just frozen at the same value before the damage occured. You can get into a boot loop (like you're describing here) when the actual battery percentage is too low to support keeping the iPad powered on, but the iPad doesn't "know" that the battery is low. No logic is engaged to prompt the user to charge, no low battery icon etc. If you charge the battery up some, then the auto boot problem disappears, but the battery percentage does not change.

All of this is fixed by simply replacing the missing filter on the mini, and voila, back to normal.

The iPhone 5 may have a similar problem with pry damage at battery connector. In addition, the iPhone 5 has a usb charging ic near the A6 chip that acts as a charging system 'fuse' and can be damaged which will cause the phone to report that it is charging when it is not.

I try not to be too spammy on these threads, but if you're having trouble finding someone local to help you with a board-level repair, feel free to drop me an email via my profile.

jessa

Was this answer helpful?

Score 15

5 Comments:

How do you replace a missing capacitor? Do you have any pictures of what this looks like?

by

Capacitors like these are electrically attached to the board with solder. There is no robust way to reattach a capacitor without using something that can focus heat--like a soldering iron--right onto the broken solder connection in order to quickly melt the solder and re-establish the electric connection. On a scale this small, it would be really easy to lose the capacitors entirely unless you have the right tools---a microscope and a soldering iron with a tip much smaller than the conventional soldering irons.

by

Jessa,

I want to compliment your superior skills and know how on this thread. You are the reason I was able to diagnose my problem being exactly what you said "pry damage" from my fingernail rough housing with the battery connector. So I'm missing FL11, C279, C9, and C364....just as you expertly described.

I don't know what the !&&* I am thinking trying to fix this myself -- it's what got me here in the first place! It took me a lot of researching to figure out what the schematic abbreviations meant, but I think I got'em. For anybody going a similar route:

Caps: Digikey Part # ------> 445-7189-1-ND

Inductor: Digikey Part # --> 445-8668-1-ND [120 Ohm, 210 milli-amp]

Jessa any advice on how I can succeed?

by

Great job Ryan! I love a guy that can find his schematic and learn how to read it! The caps are there to just filter the data signal, but the FL11 filter is required for continuity in the line. Try just replacing FL11, if you can get that back on there, then your problem may solve. It is a tough area, you can use some hot air and tweezers to give yourself a little more room next to the connector by removing the EMI shield that is there. You'll want to ideally replace the lead-free factory solder that is on there with some leaded solder on the pads. That will make it easier to attach the component. I use hot tweezers, and a microscope. Good luck! You can always mail it in if you feel like throwing it against the wall.

by

HI Jessa,

Looks like I have the same issue. Happy I found this thread but sad this is Logic Board damage. I had to replace my camera twice due to the seller sending me a defect. Looks like it was one too many times. I replaced the OEM battery with a newer OEM battery and still have restart and stuck battery percentage issues. Odd thing was the issue didn't start happening until a week after I made the final repair, pulled it off the charger when it started happening.

If I can find a place here in Chicago to make the repair, how much could I expect to pay and how long would I expect turn around time to be? This is one repair I believe is outside of my set of IT skills.

Thanks!

by

Add a comment

Sound like a bad cheap battery let us no how you get on with the ifixit battery

Was this answer helpful?

Score 1

10 Comments:

Try the ifixit battery and let us no of your findings

by

It will arrive on Monday. Hopefully it will fix the issues, otherwise I'd have to pay for an Apple store person to change it for $80...

by

I think the new battery will sort it out

by

I've received the new iFixIt battery and the problem still persists.

I've restored as new and the battery percentage is still stuck and the phone reboots constantly.

by

Sorry to hear this I near sure this would have fixed your problem..

Does any1 out there know if the iPhone 5 has the same problem that the iPhone 3GS had with apn numbers on the battery?

by

Show 5 more comments

Add a comment

I have one in my shop right now doing the same thing… Battery percentage does not change and the phone reboots constantly with the original battery and with a new one. Originally the phone came in with a bad power button so we changed the Power/Mute Lock/Volume button flex ribbon … which appears to have caused the new issues.

May try another ribbon just to eliminate that as the cause but Ive personally repaired hundreds of 5 series with bad power buttons and never had this issue afterwards.

WEIRD!!!

Will post results.

Was this answer helpful?

Score 1

1 Comment:

Hey Matt, I think you right. Someone fixed my power button, but after that my iphone 5 starts rebooting every 5 minutes or 10, I think if the iPhone starts to so that after fixed power button that might be something related to the power button, I will buy the flex ribbon and see what happens, I really hope that's reason .

by

Add a comment

Hello Guys,

FYI, I got exact same problem.

Battery level indicator freezing, never changed value till phone reboot.

uncontrolled reboot when plugged in in order to recharge. (mac or sector)

Solution:

Discovered that my Second hand iPhone had a chinese battery inside,...

After placing a certified battery inside, problem solved.

so,...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JRMOMjCo...

Cheers,

Was this answer helpful?

Score 1

1 Comment:

Do you know where I could get a legitimate battery for my iPhone 5? I'm getting the problem and not sure who to trust. BTW... I live in the UK so if you know anywhere where I can order to get it to here then that'd be great. :) Cheers.

by

Add a comment

Replacing the battery will help with a depleting battery where the phone constantly dies after little use.

For a phone that blue screens or constantly reboots and doesn't cahnge the percentage of power, this is the power module or charge connector that has become damaged so will need replacing. Wasn't too expensive for a phone shop here (around £35 for dock connector replacement which was diagnosed by Apple, which I found after paying £40 for a battery replacement previously!!!!).

Hope this helps. It has solved my charge, blue screen, rebooting and battery percentage not dropping issues.

Was this answer helpful?

Score 1

1 Comment:

Garry...this has been the most definitive explanation of the cause of these three symptoms. Finding a company to do this repair here in the Boston area is a challenge. Thanks for your posting, however.

Christoher

by

Add a comment

Thanks for getting back to me so sorry to hear about your phone. I got a dud battery as well, not exactly the same I am waiting on a new battery today. I pray that I don't have the same end result. I spent so much money on phones this year, I had my phone stolen, the one I purchased ended up being a dud and now what I've done to this one. I'm no expert but it was really easy to change out the battery, I'm very disappointed the battery was a dud. Again thank you so much for explaining.

Was this answer helpful?

Score 1
Add a comment

Hi there, I was facing exactly the same problem that has been discussed here.

After replacing my battery on my iphone 5 the battery panel got frozen (it updated

only when restarting the phone) and the phone rebooted constantly when it

was charged.

Here is my solution: I had my battery being replaced by a local shop

(NOT an authorized apple dealer) and when the problem occured I

brought back the phone multiple times to the shop. The guy in the

shop was quite collaborative, so he tried one battery after the other

(there were original apple batteries, at least there were packed like that).

Anyhow, after putting in the third or forth battery the problem stopped.

So, my solution is, replace the battery, and if that doesn't work, send back

the battery and have it replaced by a new one and try again. It seems

that these batteries are somewhat fragile.

Good luck with your solutions.

Was this answer helpful?

Score 1
Add a comment

Hey guys, I created an account just to post the solution I found to this issue.

Background: Changed the iPhone battery to a new one

Issue: iPhone would not ready battery percentage, it would always freeze and after a while when battery did died, it was constantly restarting with a white screen for 3 seconds and stuck in this loop. I was able to restore and back up when I got lucky and the phone stayed on, but after a while the issue came back and the restart loop of death came one.

Solution: I read on the comments here on the tape piece on top of the battery conector

There is a small circular connection just bellow the battery connection (under the frame/once you take out the 2 screws), This piece gets loose, this is where you need to make sure it is properly making a connection to the metal just below (another circular connection), I noticed this was moved and after correcting it, my iPhone came back to life and upon connecting it with a cable it showed the red battery/need charge sign. Now the iPhone is working normal and reading battery percentage..

You can see the connector thing I mentioned here just bellow the knife, its the round one with the sponge on top (http://www.encorenews.ca/wp-content/uplo...)

Hope this helps and all the best to all of you!

Was this answer helpful?

Score 1

1 Comment:

This site can’t be reached

by

Add a comment

I've done the same to my iphone 5. Replaced the battery and must have scratched something. I was extra careful as I just spent 2 days soldering together a complicated kit, but I guess I wasn't careful enough!

Went to the Apple store today and they checked out the phone. Told me the battery reads as null. Told me there was logic board damage but no further info. Guy suggested to wait it out for a while as its more or less working now.

Its annoying but at least I know the new battery is keeping a longer charge as my old one was draining quite quickly.

Was this answer helpful?

Score 0
Add a comment

Hi guys, i was also having this boot loop issue whilst having a battery percent that wouldn't rise or fall, after several attempts I found that simply tightening the screws on the battery ribbon protector stopped the boot loops but didn't fix the battery percentage issue.

After taking the iPhone 5 to a trusted repair shop which is the only place the phone has been repaired (screen connector fixed), they ask me when I had my battery replaced? Obviously I have never had the battery replaced :/ I asked why they thought this, they replied with, the battery has a small gold sticker on it, this isn't normally on apple batteries? Can someone confirm this for me, as if my battery was swapped to a knock off battery, it was clearly swapped out by the repair shop and could be the result of the battery percentage problem, the knock off batteries!

Was this answer helpful?

Score 0
Add a comment

Another cause of the boot loops Which i discovered myself, is the new batteries, wherever they come from, usually dont have a foam sticker on top of the connector.

YOU MUST PUT ONE ON!! - in my case i didnt have one so covered the connector with electrical tape. Otherwise the logic board will detect interference and wont do a full POST.

and hence create a boot loop.

Simon

Was this answer helpful?

Score 0

1 Comment:

Just to avoid confusion in this thread---the foam is completely unrelated to boot looping. The only purpose of the foam is to help the upper shield push the battery tab down into the connector so that it doesn't pop out when you drop your phone. There is no electrical conductivity between the top of the connector and the shields. I have replaced hundreds of iPhone batteries, foam is not required for sure.

by

Add a comment

I had this same issue replacing my 5s battery today, after reading your comments I found that it rebooted 6 times, and then that was it. Then the battery showed 6% and did not change after being on the charger all day. So I took it apart again, and added the electrical tape to the top of the battery connector, since my replacement battery did not have the foam on top of the metal connector. As soon as I turned it back on and the battery showed 83%, it did the reboot 6 times again, so I'll keep my fingers crossed, but it seems ok now. Thanks for all the comments, they certainly helped me.

Was this answer helpful?

Score 0

9 Comments:

Can you explain what you mean exactly by putting the electrical tape on? i am having the same issue and want to try it. thank you.

by

The connector that attaches to the logic board should have a foam sticker on the top of it, like the battery has that was original to the phone. The knock off battery I bought from Amazon did not have the foam sticker, it was just metal. I reassembled it like that, and the metal to metal connection screwed my phone. I tried an iFixIt battery that had the foam sticker, and it did not help. Apple store won't touch my phone now that I opened it myself. I thought the phone was going to be ok once I got it to stop the reboot loop, I had to use the program reiboot to get it to stop the reboot loop, but the battery percentage never was always just stuck whenever it felt like it, and it would randomly start the reboot loop whenever too. Basically my phone was totally useless. I upgraded to the iPhone 6, and just sent my 5s to iCracked to see if they can find out if it is fixable. I don't have the skills to replace parts on the logic board if it is damaged.

by

Any word yet?

by

guys--this is a straightforward problem and it has nothing to do with a foam sticker on the battery. If you knock of FL11 filter near the battery connector, the phone will never be able to talk to the battery and get the temperature/gas gauge data that it needs. After some time, the board will shut off if it doesn't hear from the battery. The only solution here is to replace that tiny component, no big deal. Be careful, the other nearby components are capacitors, so if you short together one of those, you'll short out your whole phone.

by

You know, these comments are really interesting. The foam connector piece being important, the electrical tape, the pushing hard on connector, all of these issues come down to that FL11 inductor that Jessa is talking about. But how come some of you pushed hard, tightened connector more, or put electrical tape, and succeeded? I wonder if it is due to the change in capacitance being read at the connector point...sort of like the way a trackpad works....your finger causes the amount of charge to change at that point of contact. Perhaps the system "knows" it is an apple battery because of a subtle, yet definite, discrepancy in voltage, which could be impacted by the resistance added by tape or foam piece..... or subtracted by pressing harder on the connector (thus increasing voltage). Jesse, you would know the explanation better than me. I am going to do a shot of jaeger and give the FL11 a try tonight. FOR ALL THOSE WITH THIS PROBLEM LISTEN TO J.BETHANY ---> MAGNIFY YOUR CONNECTOR FOR ANALYSIS. - Ryan

by

Show 4 more comments

Add a comment

After changing my battery from the apple store, i started having boot loop problem. So i went to apple and they offered a simple solution: turn on your iphone by pressing the home and power button simultaneously. Although my battery percentage is frozen but i've successfully gotten out of the 3 minute boot loops

Was this answer helpful?

Score 0

2 Comments:

You are only out of your boot loop because you charged up the battery a little bit. It will begin looping again when the battery discharges. When the battery percentage is frozen--this means there is a break in communication between the board and the battery. The board doesn't "know" what the battery gas gauge really is. So it will not engage the low battery logic, and will continue to try to boot a phone with a dead battery = boot loop.

You still need a new battery, or a board repair depending on where the break in the line occurred.

by

My 5c started to have this problem too. It was the original battery and nothing is bought and replaced. I get boot loops every 2minutes and 40 second. However, the battery percentage gauge is working fine.

by

Add a comment

Hello,

I had same issue with iPhone 5c, after replacing the battery I would experience the phone rebooting randomly and never changing percentage until a restart.

I have since fixed this issue and I believe the cause was the replacement battery I had was 1560mAh while my original battery was 1510mAh. Since replacing with with a 1510mAh battery the phone no longer reboots and the percentages increases/decreases correctly.

Hope this helps.

Was this answer helpful?

Score 0
Add a comment

I also had the new problem of rebooting and unchanging battery charge levels after battery replacement, (although greatly improved battery life), the problems were fixed with installation of a second battery. My 5S battery has 3 terminals, call them ABC. I had ~4VDC from A to C, but A to B or B to C were 0V, and infinite ohms (using either polarity, note that measuring resistance on a potentially energized circuit is only meaningful if it's actually an open circuit as was mine). The 3 conductor flat ribbon cable goes to a tiny circuit board on the battery cap, likely something was wrong there as the 3pin flat ribbon connection to main board connector was good. My good battery measured a few volts A to B (about half the voltage of A to C), but it should not read an open circuit as the bad one did.

Was this answer helpful?

Score 0
Add a comment

I had the same problem but was able to fix it. Try this:

The problem seems to be with the battery connector onto the mother board. The reason it is looping is because it doesn't recognize the battery. While I had the phone open, I disconnected the battery and plugged the phone into the charger and pressed the on button. The phone continued to loop as it was doing before with the battery connected. While the phone was looping, I reconnected the battery a few times until the phone recognized the battery all of the sudden. After this the battery seem to work just fine. I quickly backed up the phone just in case (you should definitely do a back up before doing all this). Hope this helps.

Was this answer helpful?

Score 0

1 Comment:

can you keep the battery working without doing this every single time?

by

Add a comment

I spent 28 dollars to replace my battery, IT WORKED! :)

Was this answer helpful?

Score 0
Add a comment

I have a damaged SE. same issue. reboot every 2-3mins ..stuck at 1%. what's the equivalent chip's name of FL11 on Iphone SE?

thanks.

Was this answer helpful?

Score 0
Add a comment

After I replaced my battery my iPhone kept restarting every 2-3 minutes, not charging more than 13% etc. I thought that the battery is damaged, but the problem was that the contact from battery was a bit oxidezed. A little contact spray helped me solve the problem and the phone works now perfectly.

Was this answer helpful?

Score 0
Add a comment

I Had this same issue when I bought a new battery. I charged the battery right up and then took it out and shoved it to the side for a week. Continuing to use my old battery, I then switched the battery back and it hasn’t restarted once and charges up and down perfectly (calibrated nicely). One think I did notice too was the ribbon cable wasn’t bent like my original apple one it needs to fold twice, I also did this but I can’t see that having much of an impact.

Hope it helps!

Was this answer helpful?

Score 0
Add a comment

Hello, maybe late but i hope it will help someone

this happened to me 2 times, one time with an iPhone 6 Plus and the second time with the iPhone SE, just after the battery replacement the iphone started to restart every 2 min and when i put it on charging it get stuck in the same percentage.

What i did to repair it is change the charging flex, i don’t know why but this has worked in the two iPhone’s.

Was this answer helpful?

Score 0
Add a comment

I fixed my issue by using Electric Contact Spray. It seems that either phone’s contact plug or most probably battery’s jack oxidized and didn’t make perfect contact. After I sprayed these 2 jacks it worked like charm.

Was this answer helpful?

Score 0
Add a comment

Ok, in my case, one of four micro resistor was losed. I bridged , because is not possible for me another choice, and seems who it work. I will advice against if it catches fire.

Thank you for your aknowledge.

Was this answer helpful?

Score 0
Add a comment

Add your answer

Dominick will be eternally grateful.
View Statistics:

Past 24 Hours: 1

Past 7 Days: 12

Past 30 Days: 60

All Time: 160,361