iPad 1 bad battery question.

[sniffs]

I know the iPad battery questions have been beaten to death, but did Apple purposely design the iPad's to not boot if they have a bad battery?

I have an iPad 1 that plugged into the 10W wallplug, it'll show the Apple logo and boot loop. I can get it to show the recovery mode, but the moment I unplug it, it dies.

If I plug into my Macbook, the LCD backlight briefly flashes and turns off. I can get it to DFU mode, but the moment iTunes tries to restore, it goes to "Preparing iPad for restore" and it reboots it to that backlit flash again.

Is there no way to get it to boot? I see iFixit has ipad 1 batteries for $49 dollars and I'd install it myself.. is that roughly what Apple would charge me for their service or would it be like 2-3x as much?

 

[Traverse]

If the battery is completely dead and won't hold a charge it won't start. Yeah, I guess "Apple destined an iPad not to start if it has a bad battery" since if the battery is dead there is no power to start the ipad. There is only one battery.

 

[sniffs]

I meant that if the iPad is plugged into a wall charger, even with a bad battery it should still boot up.

I can boot a laptop with a bad battery, or boot it with no battery at all.

 

[zorinlynx]

Sadly, iOS devices are designed differently than laptops in this regard.

iOS device:


Power input ---> charger ----> battery ---> device

Laptop:

Power input ---------------------> device
| ^
|----> charger ---> battery

In essence, the battery is the source of power for an iOS device. The power input charges the battery. If there is no battery, there is nothing to charge, and the device won't start.

Most phones from most manufacturers are made this way; Apple isn't unique here.

This design is cheaper, as it only requires ONE voltage regulator to power the device, after the battery. A laptop has multiple regulators, one for input power to the device, and one from the battery to the device, on top of the charging circuit itself.

EDIT: My ASCII art rendered nothing like I entered it. Arrgh. But you get the idea.

 

[sniffs]

Makes sense.. just seems that it's a throwaway mentality.. if the battery is bad, I can't power the device up to get my stuff off it, so I either buy a battery and install it myself and save my content, or send it to Apple, they charge me alot more to do the same thing and then they wipe it.

Anyone know if the iPad 2 battery fits inside the 1? I have a broken iPad 2 with a spiderweb cracked screen..

 

[Night Spring]

Makes sense.. just seems that it's a throwaway mentality.. if the battery is bad, I can't power the device up to get my stuff off it, so I either buy a battery and install it myself and save my content, or send it to Apple, they charge me alot more to do the same thing and then they wipe it.

Anyone know if the iPad 2 battery fits inside the 1? I have a broken iPad 2 with a spiderweb cracked screen..

It is a bit of a throwaway mentality, but it's also necessary to get the iPad so small. A second voltage regulator would take up more space, and would probably add weight, too.

And I doubt the battery from the iPad 2 will fit the 1, the designs are pretty different. I'm sorry to hear you have data on the iPad that wasn't backed up. Didn't iOS 5 have iCloud backup?