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Repair information and guides for the Apple iPhone 5s that was announced on September 10, 2013. Model: A1533, A1453, A1457, A1528, A1530, A1518

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5s Loudspeaker stopped, possible short?...

Hi Everyone,

A few days ago the loudspeaker in my iPhone 5s suddenly stopped working. No water damage, no drops, no distortion prior, nothing... it was working one minute then literally the next it wasn't.

I've reset settings, checked that it's not stuck in headphones mode, updated to iOS11 and the headphones work fine.

I had changed the battery 1 week prior but the loudspeaker had no obvious issues afterwards, and seemed to function correctly.

So I bought a replacement loudspeaker and installed it, but no dice.

When I tested the speaker contacts with a multi-meter, I could see slight milli-voltage change when I raised or lowered the volume of a song playing, so I connected some wires to the old loudspeaker and hooked it up to a headphone jack to test that it was functioning (it was).

I then cleaned the two contacts in the phone and held the wires directly on each contact, no sound... however when I accidentally touched the wire on the metal on the case to the side of the contacts, I noticed sound...

So upon further testing I figured out that if I hold one of the wires (that's connected to the old loudspeaker) on to the left hand contact in the phone, and the other wire on any other metal surface in the phone; sim-card holder, metal frame, metal plate covering screen connectors, etc., the speaker works!

So it seems that there is a short(?) of some sort somewhere, causing the speaker to not work when connected to the actual contacts... but does allow it to work when one side of the speaker is connected to the left hand contact on the phone, and the other side of the speaker is touched/connected to seemingly any metal in the phone... (Let me know if this is not a clear enough description and I'll clarify further).

I have no idea which part(s) to test or replace now (or even if I can do so without micro-soldering?).

Does anyone have any idea of what it could be, or at least what to test next?

I appreciate any advice.

Thanks,

Ollie.

EDIT: Made a new ground. Speaker works but distorted.

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Quick update in case anyone else comes across this issue too...

I connected a small piece of bare wire to the negative terminal, of the speaker and used a drop of super glue to fix it to the side of the speaker. I put the speaker back in place and pushed the wire against the phone frame/case to make an earth/ground.

Now the speaker sort of works with bad distortion, but at least I have *some* sound now.

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An update for this issue... I replaced the lightning connector/flex cable assembly and my loudspeaker works perfectly!

There was nothing wrong with the old loudspeaker either, that still functions. It was 100% a fault in the lightning assembly. I hope this info helps someone else...

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Sounds like a weird grounding issue.

Did you try lifting up the loudspeaker prongs a bit to ensure it connects with the charging port assembly?

On the charging port assembly negative should be on left connection pad and positive on right connection pad.

I don't know if the below is okay to do:

So I guess you could solder a wire from the negative pad to something that is ground to get the loudspeaker to work, you could do the same to the loudspeaker instead.

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Thanks so much for the prompt reply Ben!

Yes I did bend the prongs of the speaker to make sure they would connect, though as I mentioned I even used wire so that I could make sure the connection was good and it still didn’t work.

It’s interesting that you say negative on the left because it ‘seemed’ to be the opposite on my phone; - wire from left contact on phone to speaker, and other wire from speaker to anywhere on the phone. I also tried the opposite way on the contacts but it didn’t work.

Great suggestion about soldering a new negative, to be honest I had thought of that too but was hesitant in case it makes a new problem or fry’s the phone.

Do you think it would be ‘safe enough’ to wire the negative to the body as suggested?

I’m just not sure why the negative would suddenly not work at the contact on the Charing port assembly...?

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try disconnecting and reconnecting the port if that doesn't work try a new port

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Hi Gtech, thanks for chipping in... which port are you referring to?

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The charging port on the 5s the loud speaker sits on the two gold squares on the port. Check that it may be out of place or just replace it.

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Thanks and sorry, I don't quite follow how the charging port comes into play?... The two gold squares are not really near the charging port itself.

Do you mean change this whole assembly? - https://eustore.ifixit.com/out/pictures/...

Thanks,

Ollie.

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im sorry for not being clear yes the whole assembly i havent met any one that changes just the port yet. because the whole assembly is so cheap.

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Thanks for clarifying. I’ll change the whole thing and see if that resolves the issue.

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Ollie A will be eternally grateful.
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