A Problem Charging My iPhone, and a Novel Solution
Lately, it’s been harder and harder to charge my iPhone. I figured there was some kind of corrosion on the inside, as it seemed to work with some cords but not others. In Frankfort, a few days ago, late in the evening I realized my phone simply refused to charge at all – even when plugged in.
Normally, I can kind of jiggle it and get it to catch. But that night, no amount of tweaking would get it to even recognize that it was plugged in. It got to the point where I had to physically push the cord in, and hold it with a constant amount of pressure for it to work.
Liz suggested I use a rubber band, but I dismissed that option outright. A few moments later, she showed up with a super large rubber band, and in a few short seconds… she got the thing working and charging.
So I officially stand corrected. And need to publicly state that Liz was right, and I was wrong. The rubber band totally worked, and continues to be the best solution for keeping this guy charged in the short term.
I’m hoping to take this guy in, during lunch today, to have it examined. My guess is there’s just something loose, and hopefully it’s not difficult to fix. But nowadays… I dunno. I really hope my only option isn’t to purchase a new phone, as there’s absolutely nothing wrong with mine other than this loose charger issue. If I had to choose between $200+ and the annoyance of a rubber band… I’m thinking the rubber band might win out for a little while.
Note to self: clean your keyboard.
avoision (June 9, 2014 at 8:14 am)A newer solution! Got a lot of advice from my team at work, and my manager/co-worker Jose said he had a similar issue with his phone some time ago.
His problem, it seems, was a lot of loose lint getting compacted inside the slot. I took a needle tonight, and basically pried around in there like it was the world’s worst Q-tip. After removing a few fairly sizable chunks of lint, my phone is back to normal!
So: if anyone else has this problem – dig around the slot for lint! It’s probably packed in, and preventing your cord from allowing your phone to properly charge.
avoision (June 9, 2014 at 9:11 pm)Huh, interesting! Thought of you and this while listening to npr this morning talk about how Radio Shack is going to start fixing phones in the spot. Glad it’s working better.
Andrea (June 10, 2014 at 8:41 am)