iPhone 5S randomly dying... with a twist.

[ryannel2003]

So I've had my iPhone 5S for over a year now and other than having to replace the LCD due to me dropping it, I haven't had any issues with the phone. Last month I went to use my phone and I noticed it wasn't on. The battery had at least 50% left and when pressing the power button to turn it on it wouldn't respond. After repeatedly pressing the power and home buttons about 4 or 5 times the phone booted up and behaved normally. It never did it again until this past Tuesday. So on Tuesday the phone did the same thing but this time it continued to die even after I rebooted it. I would check Facebook, Twitter, use Safari, etc. put the screen to sleep with the power button and within a span of 5-10 minutes I would go back to use it again and it wouldn't respond. I had to use the same procedure I did the month previous and repeatedly press the home and power button until the Apple logo would appear.

Now here is the crazy part... if I am using the phone at work and stream music all day long the phone doesn't die. It's only happens if I use it a few times to check apps and then lock the screen on the phone. If I don't use the phone all day it won't die either. Yesterday I streamed music all day and it was fine when I left work until I stopped using it on the way home. Sure enough, phone wouldn't respond to any inputs unless I did my procedure. Any ideas on what is going on? CoconutBattery says the battery has a capacity of 90.6 with 300 load cycles. Am I looking at a new battery?

Phone is out of warranty and I don't want to spend tons of money to get it fixed. I have an upgrade, but I would rather not use it. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[ryannel2003]

I also forgot to mention I have backed up and restored the iPhone and it has already died once since the restore.

 

[I7guy]

I also forgot to mention I have backed up and restored the iPhone and it has already died once since the restore.

Bring it into a store and let the genius run a diagnostic. Could be an intermittent hardware issue.

 

[ryannel2003]

Bring it into a store and let the genius run a diagnostic. Could be an intermittent hardware issue.

The only problem with that is the closest Apple Store is nearly 100 miles away. I might just have to suck it up and take the phone up to them on Saturday and see what they say about it.

 

[I7guy]

The only problem with that is the closest Apple Store is nearly 100 miles away. I might just have to suck it up and take the phone up to them on Saturday and see what they say about it.

There are some free hardware utilities
/diagnostics on the App Store. Maybe poke around and see what may help diagnose a potential battery or other hardware problem.

 

[uid15]

Call Apple & do diags:// - never mind all these suggestions of diagnostics apps, have it STRAIGHT from the horse's mouth; AppleCare

 

[ryannel2003]

The phone has actually been behaving since this morning. I noticed that 95% of the time when it happens is when I use the home button to wake the screen up. If I use the power button, it behaves fine. So I'm going to monitor the situation and see what happens. If it continues, I'm just gonna take the phone to an Apple Store and have them check it out. Besides, that will give me an excuse to check out the new MacBook.

Thanks for the help guys!

 

[ryannel2003]

Well I'm pretty sure it's the battery. Once the phone gets below 90% of battery life according to the icon, it starts acting up. Just did it twice to me on the way back home. The whole time I was at my friends house it was perfectly fine until I left and the percentage was below 90%. There is a local cell phone shop that specializes in iPhone repair and I'm going to have them diagnose it tomorrow and if it needs a battery I'll replace it and have the thread updated.

 

[ryannel2003]

Just to update this one last time. I took the phone to a local repair shop that specializes in iPhone, told them my situation and they said it sounded like the battery. I had them replace it and as soon as I walked out the door the phone died on me again. They put the old battery back in the phone and refunded me my money so no harm there.

Called Apple and they said it sounds like a motherboard issue. The out of warranty cost for the phone was $270... No thanks. I upgraded to a 6. Nice phone so far, but not as much of a one handed experience like the 5 was.