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Need some advice on my 3gs that wont charge, turn on fully, or restore

Hustler

Hustler

macrumors 6502
Original poster
May 31, 2010
416
63
I noticed yesterday when plugging my iphone into power that it would not show the charge symbol but instead the plugged in symbol. I tried powering it down with the sleep key and swipe to power off, and also shutting it down by holding sleep and home button until it flashes off.
I can still not get it to accept a charge. Well needless to say the battery fully drained, and now when I plug it in, the screen will just display the empty battery, with a sliver of red with the lightening bolt in it. It stayed that way overninght and didnt charge (on OEM apple charger). You can sometimes get it to switch to the apple symbol while it boots up. As soon as it boots it instantly will flick off, accompanied by a beep or vibrate. It will cycle like this until you force the phone to shut down by holding sleep/home button. After this its back to the empty battery with sliver of red sign.
I read some info online about it and found some had success with putting it into DFU mode and restoring the phone. I CAN get mine to go into DFU mode but when it comes to restore the phone in itunes it gives an error "Iphone could not be restored. Uknown error (3194)".
So here it sits unwilling to charge.
Any suggestions??
By the way if it matters, I'm out of warranty, and its a 16GB phone, NOT jail broken running on 4.1.0 was the last update (I'm pretty sure thats the last update I had)

Thanks,
Brad
 
well thats not something a restore would typically help. they may have just gotten lucky. it sounds as if your battery is bad or your dock connector (charging port). more than likely its the dock connector since your batter still has some charge until it all ran out. make sure you get the complete dock assembly not just the charging port. it will include a new antenna, mic, speaker, and charging port.
 
thanks for the tips so far guys.
I cant update to 4.2.x even if I tried because it wont connect fully to itunes to do anything except attempt the restore screen.
As far as the info about it maybe being the dock connector, my brother raised a point that with the phone plugged into power, it shows the lightening bolt with the sliver of red.
However when you unplug it from power, for a couple of seconds it shows a plug in sign with a plus sign next to the lightening bolt. His idea is that the dock connector seems to be flowing energy to the phone because it will keep it alive enough to show the power sign on the screen. As soon as the power source is unplugged it seems to go from 1/2% of battery to 0 as it shuts off.
Let me also add that neither my brother or I have any experience repairing iphones or the power flow of their circuits.
Maybe this info will help with some more ideas or conclusions. (as much as there can be online with nothing physical to inspect infront of those in the know)

thanks,
Brad
 
Correction, it doesnt show plug/plus/lightening bolt, its plug/arrow towards/ lightening bolt.
 
It won't connect to iTunes because of your dock connector!try to clean out the port with an old tooth brush. Maybe that will help
 
I just tried that, and its still not wanting to charge.
 
I would replace both the battery and the dock connector at the same time. It won't cost that much more and no additional labor time.
 
thanks for the link mattro, I tried ALL those suggestions and none worked.
yay!
chargit, check your pm please.
 
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