Can the iPhone 4 run without battery?

[mpetersen3]

My iPhone 4 has stopped turning on. I am trying to diagnose the cause of the problem. Holding home+power appears to do little, even after charging. I have taken the battery out (just in case this was an issue with the software being stuck in a bad state, although the screen looks visibly off).

I am wondering if it is possible to run the iPhone 4 without the battery through the cable only? (this has not worked for me but I am trying to narrow down the problem and this would eliminate the battery from the suspect list and leave the logic board). Does anyone have any experience troubleshooting these beyond swapping the charger, trying DFU mode and holding home/power?
Thanks,
M

 

[nebo1ss]

My iPhone 4 has stopped turning on. I am trying to diagnose the cause of the problem. Holding home+power appears to do little, even after charging. I have taken the battery out (just in case this was an issue with the software being stuck in a bad state, although the screen looks visibly off).

I am wondering if it is possible to run the iPhone 4 without the battery through the cable only? (this has not worked for me but I am trying to narrow down the problem and this would eliminate the battery from the suspect list and leave the logic board). Does anyone have any experience troubleshooting these beyond swapping the charger, trying DFU mode and holding home/power?
Thanks,
M

There is a very good chance it is nothing more than the power switch at the top. There is a very high failure rate on these switches.

Mine failed as well and I cannot turn it off or put the phone in DFU mode. I intend to do the repair myself when I get around to it but if my phone was to go off I would not be able to turn it back on, and would be in the same position as you.

 

[Brad02]

There is a very good chance it is nothing more than the power switch at the top. There is a very high failure rate on these switches.

Mine failed as well and I cannot turn it off or put the phone in DFU mode. I intend to do the repair myself when I get around to it but if my phone was to go off I would not be able to turn it back on, and would be in the same position as you.

Your phone should turn itself on even if the switch is broken if you hook it up to a charger and its in the off state.

My iPhone 4 had an issue where the phone was on but the screen was just blank. Do you see anything on the screen at all (Apple boot logo)? Have you tried calling it while it was in the "off" state. My phone would ring but the screen was just dead. I could do a DFU mode restore and the screen would start to work again but only go out a day or so later. Really weird issue. Apple store swapped it no questions asked luckily.

 

[Gav2k]

Op to answer your question, no you cannot run the iPhone without the battery in it, the iPhone does a power up check on boot and part of that process is to check the battery charge level. If the battery is below 5% or not present it will not boot.

 

[mpetersen3]

Thanks for the replies,

It looks like this is likely the battery or the logic board, as it has been plugged in for sometime, but the screen has never come on. Does anyone know if the iphone 4 and 4s have the same battery? My friend has the 4s and i am thinking of testing his battery in mine, if that is the case.

 

[stu.h]

Your friend will let you invalidate his warranty just so you can check your battery?

Anyway, no, they have different connectors.

 

[carpenter940]

Op to answer your question, no you cannot run the iPhone without the battery in it, the iPhone does a power up check on boot and part of that process is to check the battery charge level. If the battery is below 5% or not present it will not boot.

I came to this website because I was interested in this question. I repair Ipods sometimes and I came across a second generation touch that while the battery was removed it still booted when hooked up to a sync cable. Other than being haunted, what could be the cause of this? shorted somewhere?

 

[roritor]

Op to answer your question, no you cannot run the iPhone without the battery in it, the iPhone does a power up check on boot and part of that process is to check the battery charge level. If the battery is below 5% or not present it will not boot.

This is actually not true. I have read this in several other places as well. But I am here to tell you that, from many instances of experience, this is not the case.

I have not tried it with iPhone 3G or 3G S as I had no reason to, considering the way it is built (I would have had to specifically re-assemble the iPhone with no battery, as the battery is pretty much the very first part put back into the phone on re-assembly) although now I am curious and will go try it out. With iPhone 4 and 4S, running the phone without the battery is something I do on ocassion when I am doing a repair and I am testing boot/touchscreen, etc. capability without re-assembling the phone. The battery is pretty much the last thing you put back into the phone before sliding the rear, glass backing into place and sealing the phone back up. So, often I don't bother putting in the battery if I'm not done with the job.

It does start with no battery, that's all I can say.

I came to this website because I was interested in this question. I repair Ipods sometimes and I came across a second generation touch that while the battery was removed it still booted when hooked up to a sync cable. Other than being haunted, what could be the cause of this? shorted somewhere?

carpenter940, it wasn't haunted. They do boot with no battery as long as they're connected to a power source.

 

[enanphi]

i have tried switching my iphone 4 without the battery it turns on but no wifi & bluetooth, as well no simcard... after 5-8mins it will shutdown...

 

[h4lp m3]

delete me

delete

 

[jpr12]

iPhone 4 run and function w/no battery... just connected to usb?

My iPhone 4 was wet. After drying it will not start and battery does not seem to charge. It will start up in recovery mode when connected by usb to xp pc w/itunes. When itunes attempts to re-install software, it errors after about several min into the recovery, after initializing the setup software on the pc.

I am trying to determine if it might be just the battery. Does anyone know if iPhone can go through the recovery process without a functioning battery; connected to usb?

This is actually not true. I have read this in several other places as well. But I am here to tell you that, from many instances of experience, this is not the case.

I have not tried it with iPhone 3G or 3G S as I had no reason to, considering the way it is built (I would have had to specifically re-assemble the iPhone with no battery, as the battery is pretty much the very first part put back into the phone on re-assembly) although now I am curious and will go try it out. With iPhone 4 and 4S, running the phone without the battery is something I do on ocassion when I am doing a repair and I am testing boot/touchscreen, etc. capability without re-assembling the phone. The battery is pretty much the last thing you put back into the phone before sliding the rear, glass backing into place and sealing the phone back up. So, often I don't bother putting in the battery if I'm not done with the job.

It does start with no battery, that's all I can say.






carpenter940, it wasn't haunted. They do boot with no battery as long as they're connected to a power source.

 

[lundoeer]

Can the iPhone 4 run without battery?

I try to repair a iPhone 4 that had water. First I dried it and tried it, I saw the mainscreen until the battery was empty. It was not so long because the battery went down from 8% to 0% even with the charger on. I then cleaned the motherboard and tried it. It is still not able to charge the battery, but when the charger is attatched, I can get to menu with the 4 digit code and it calls for Itunes . Thats all. I can not do a recover in any way. Get the error 1602 or 3194.
Is my battery dead, Is the charging cirqurit dead, or is the mainboard faulty? And is it causing me not to do a restore?
Any way to charge the battery outside the phone with a lab power supply?
Thanks.

 

[lundoeer]

After charging the battery outside the phone I am now able to start the Iphone 4. Everythings works but there is a shortage that drains the battery, even when the phone is complete off.

 

[pennystone]

I have exactly the same symptons (except for shortage) after a water accident. No charging, working fine with a charged battery. Any progress?

After charging the battery outside the phone I am now able to start the Iphone 4. Everythings works but there is a shortage that drains the battery, even when the phone is complete off.