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Repair information and guides for the Apple iPhone 5c that was announced on September 10, 2013. Model: A1532, A1456

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Phone off and unresponsive - may need new battery?

Hello, I just found this site and in advance, I really appreciate your help.

Well my iPhone 5c is pretty dead, I'm thinking I need to replace the battery. Phone not under warranty.

That's pretty much it... There's a black screen and it's off. No sound, no vibrate, and holding power + home does nothing. It's been plugged in for the past 15 minutes or so to see if something happens - nothing so far.

I also have an iPod Touch (5th Gen) with exactly the same problem. Not sure what happened with either of them, they were probably dropped but I know they haven't been on for months, at least. The Touch I will try plugging in after I'm done trying with this one.

Hoping to get this fixed soon :)

Answered! View the answer I have this problem too

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If the iPhone and iPod have sat for months than the batteries probably have discharged. Lithium ion batteries have built in protection to keep them from overcharging and discharging to much. If the batteries have not been charged or used in months and had a low charge months ago the batteries protection may have put them in a sleep like state. Plugging them into their normal chargers is not able to wake them in this state. In order to wake the batteries you would need a boost charge. Boost charging works by supplying the battery with a higher current for a short period of time. It's the same idea as jumping a car battery. Most people are unaware that most lithium ion batteries have this kind of technology and end up throwing out batteries that are asleep, not dead. They make special boost chargers that can wake a lithium ion battery but they are pricey. There are other ways(can be dangerous if not careful) that you can wake a battery. You can find these methods on YouTube by searching for how to wake a lithium ion battery. Replacing the batteries are a good option too. As others have said make sure to use the correct charger to prevent damage to the charging ic and the battery. Hope you find this information useful and I wish you luck on your repairs.

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5 Comments:

Learned something new today and for that i thank you.

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Your welcome Hari, I learned about this a while back when I was playing around with some of my old cell phone batteries. I took an old USB charging cable for a PC and cut the micro USB connection off to expose the wires. Since a PC USB port puts out a little over 5v it is a high enough current to boost and wake the battery. I then took some extra multimeter probes and connected them to the black and red wires of the USB cable. Plugged the cable into the PC and put the black probe to negative and red to positive on the battery, held them there for about 15 seconds and then removed them and checked the voltage with a multimeter. I repeat this process until the battery is over 3V. I found out a battery will not power on a phone unless it's at or above 3.4V. I believe the battery will enter the protective sleep mode when it discharges somewhere below 2.75v. So once the battery is over 3v you can then use your regular charger to continue charging the battery. The things a person can learn when their broke and bored.

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You sir, were made for diy. This is something i will be able to use in the future and may even be able to bring some dead batteries to life. Tnx again!

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Wow, will definitely look into that soon. Thanks BurnieG!

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I know this is months late, my old iPhone and iTouch are still sitting here, I gotta try this thanks! Interesting to know too.

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You might just want to do some experimentation - try a different power outlet, use a different charging cable/charger, and see if you can get either device to charge that way.

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8 Comments:

The outlet and cable work fine with my other 5c.

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Another possibility, besides battery, could be damage/dirt/lint in the charging port of the phone.

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One thing I noticed is that the iTouch gets hot when plugged in, but still not charging or doing anything.

Looks like I'll be buying new batteries for both of these.

Thanks for your suggestions!

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Are you using 3rd party chargers?

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75% sure that this is a certified Apple charger. I bought it from eBay but it was advertised as certified apple, looks completely the same, and didn't break in a week like other fake chargers.

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