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Fourth generation iPhone. Repair is straightforward, but the front glass and LCD must be replaced as a unit. GSM / 8, 16, or 32 GB capacity / Model A1332 / Black and White. This page aims to help users troubleshoot, fix, and seek help for the iPhone 4.

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iPhone won't turn on - won't restore, even DFU mode.

Hey guys, I have a bit of an unusual (to me) issue here. I'll start from the beginning.

I do minor iPhone repairs on the side, and a customer brought me an iPhone 4 that supposedly wouldn't charge, and wouldn't turn on. My first thought was the charging port, but once I got the phone and started testing around, I noticed that the battery connection on the logic board had come un-soldered. I don't have the tools to make this kind of repair, so I had it quoted by a local phone shop but my customer didn't want to pay that much with the uncertainty that it would fix the issue. Long story story short, I bought the phone from him (for parts, if nothing else) and now I'm trying to get it working.

I did have the local shop repair the battery connection, but when I picked it back up they informed me that it was stuck in recovery mode.

Playing with it at home, I'm finding that this is a strange type of recovery mode... With one exception, I can't get any response out of the phone at all. The power button does not trigger the "connect to iTunes" screen, never attempts to power on or anything... however (the exception), when I plug it into iTunes, it detects a phone in recovery mode and gives the option to restore it, at which point the apple logo comes on the screen, and the loading bar appears beneath it but never begins filling up. iTunes stays stuck on "waiting for iPhone" but never seems to get anywhere. I left it like this overnight and found no change this morning.

Does anyone have any thoughts as to what I can do to get this phone working? If nothing else, I'll just throw another logic board in it but I would like to think that this one could be salvageable.

Thanks!

Answered! View the answer I have this problem too

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3 Comments

Did you replace the dock connector as well?

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That's actually a good point. I was thinking that it was fine since it would come on with iTunes, but charging and power don't necessarily require the same pins. Let me throw a new one on there and see what it does. Thanks!

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Alright, so I threw another dock connector in, and it doesn't appear to have changed the situation at all... even tried a couple of different cables just to rule that out as well.

Any other thoughts? :) Thanks!

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5 Answers

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Hi,

I think you have a broken NAND CHIP.

Had the same problems like you.

Change the logic board is the only thing you can do.

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I see. Is there a way that I can test this to be certain? I mean, I can change the logic board all day long, but is there a way that I can determine for sure that this one is irreparable (within practicality)?

Thanks!

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its so expencive in my contrey egypt cant i do anything els

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excuse me sir, i have the same problems and already gotten the parts to do it. i'd like to know whether changing the logic board will change its IMEI number and ultimately leaving it urecognisable by Apple?

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You could possibly send it to a micro soldering shop, and see if they can fix the issue, but the NAND is tricky...

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ohh okay then, but is there any way i can be sure it's hardware problem coz i've tried restore and it came out as error 18 which is non existent in iphone help

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im going threw same thing almost unbricked mine though in box me if u still having troubles @ fitzy648@gmail.com

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look guys idk what is happening to my iphone i just searched for "my i phone is not working after trying to put it on dfu mode" i pressed the home and the sleep/wake botton it turned off..... then after some time it didnt rispon ir any thing i tryed to charge it for 10 or 20 miniuts but nothiing happened MY DAD IS GNNA KILL ME IF HE KNEW PLZ HELP

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The same thing has been happening to my iPhone 5s, I haven't dropped it or gotten it wet. Before it turned off it would always freeze due to the fact that I have no storage left. I've been trying to get my phone into DFU mode but it just wouldn't work.

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same thing happened to me...iphone wont even turn on but the itunes recognised it in dfu mode. It can try to restore it but the phone is stuck at apple logo while the itunes said "waiting for iphone" then comes the error that it cant be restored. The ONLY thing that will work is to wait until the battery depleted, then when I try to turn it on the charge logo appeared, and after charging, it can be used again normally. but it will turn off by itself in near time, usually overnight....is this some kind of hardware problem or what?

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A lot of the time those problems are caused by cheap data cables, use a genuine Apple cable for stuff like that and turn windows firewall off as it won’t play nice with Apple it won’t let it be restored I’ve seen it a hundred times and helped folks with the same issue. When it gets stuck like that while connected to the PC it’s almost always cheap gas station cable that’s fine for charging but $@$* for data, or windows firewall throwing a monkey wrench in your operation.

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