"New" out of the box 1st Gen Iphone not charging

[JT-N]

Hi all, newbie here.

I purchased a "new" 1st Gen Iphone off of eBay this past week. It was listed as "new" as well as being jailbroken and unlocked for use on Tmobile (my carrier).

I got it in the mail yesterday and everything on it function wise appears to work like a charm, as well it does actually appear to be "new"... it came in the factory box with all the clear plastic protector stuff on it along with all the factory sealed accessories. By all accounts this is either a new or a very high quality factory refirb. It has zero scratches or any sign that anyone else has used it ever.

I hooked it up to my computer and my Itunes read it (and continues to read it) just fine. I can synch, transfer files, you name it. The phone itself seems to function 100%. I have not yet set up my email or gone too deep into the sub functions too far yet but I have to have a crash or other problem.... except one.

The phone does not seem to be able to charge correctly. Out of the box the phone showed what appeared to be a 100% charge on the battery. Over the course of me trying it out, playing with it and synching it to my Itunes it dropped to about 70%. At that point I noticed it did not seem to be charging when hooked up to Itunes on my computer's USB cable. When plugged into the wall or plugged into my computer (using two different USB cables, the dock, without the dock ,etc.) the phone shows the lightening bolt on the little battery and shows the big battery which normally indicates charging... except the actual amount of charge never seems to budge.

So I installed BossPrefs and turned on the battery percentage reading and watched it. I plugged it into the wall using the included dock last night and let it "charge" all night long (8+ hours). The phone charged from 45% up to about 55% and then for some reason dropped back down to 50% then hovered there a while, never actually "charging" much beyond that. When unplugged the readout drops about 5% and seems to drop at a normal rate when the phone is being used, but when you plug it back in to recharge you get the same yo-yo recharge. It started at 38% this morning and got up to about 50-55% again and stalled, dropped down 5% or so and yo-yo'ed back and forth, never really getting past that.

I've restarted it multiple times, I've tried multiple cords, the wall adapter, my computer, I've tried adjusting every setting I could think of, airport mode, wifi on/off, push on/off, I've even restored it and re-jailbroke it twice (first time to 3.0, second time to 3.0.1) and it keeps "not charging" doing the same thing. I know it is not the cords or the wall adapter as I also own a jailbroken 3.0 Ipod Touch that recharges perfectly fine using all the "parts".

I left it plugged into the wall adapter without the dock at home this morning when I left for work one last time on behest of the seller, and when I get home I truthfully expect it to say 50% just as it did when I left. What could be causing this? The seller keeps telling me it is a "software issue" but I've done just about everything I could think of software wise to "fix" this but it just does not seem to want to be fixed. Has anyone else had a problem like this? The phone -works- fine, I have yet to find a feature that is broken or not working, but it just refuses to charge properly.

 

[countrydweller]

Could be the battery, it's old, never been charged.

 

[JT-N]

Is this "typical" behavior of a bad battery? I'm not sure as this is the first apple thing I've ever had that didn't charge like a house on fire right out of the box.

 

[Knowlege Bomb]

This is why I *always* buy new if I can't find somebody I know to buy it from.

That seller will swear up and down til the day he dies that the phone was working as it should when he sent it to you. I think you got ripped off.

I'm not sure how eBay works with refunds but you could always give that a shot. If that falls through restoring and taking to Apple to see if there's anything they can do may be your last resort.

 

[instaxgirl]

Have you let it run all the way down then charged it back up again?

It's a 2 year old battery that's never been charged, it was never going to be perfect. Apple does do a battery replacement programme thought don't they? If it's really bad you could always get it replaced.

 

[japanime]

If it was already jailbroken and unlocked for use on T-mobile, then it was certainly used by somebody -- at least once.

Sounds like you got a used iPhone that was kept in pristine condition, but one whose battery had been worn down.

Contact the seller -- they may have been unaware that the battery couldn't old a charge. They may do the right thing and offer you a refund if you return the phone to them.

 

[JT-N]

The battery has not been run all the way down yet, I was fearful to do that once I noticed it was not wanting to charge like every other Ipod I own. I am also not so sure this is a "brand new phone". The odds of this being a completely untouched brand new phone seem astronomical to me, which makes me think this is a refurbished replacement phone.

Add to that the battery was apparently fully charged when I opened it and the seller or the person he gets his phones from would have had to have opened this phone, jailbroke it then resealed it, which means the battery was used/charged at some point after it rolled off Apple's assembly line.

I -also- HATE buying used. I wanted to try out an Iphone but I did NOT want to buy someone's scratched up hand me down nor get suckered into a two year contract with AT&T paying upwards of $80 a month for what I already get with Tmobile for $45 a month.

I already have a dialog going with the seller who claims to have a "3 day no questions asked return policy". This is technically day two, so if this is still not resolved tonight then back it goes. The seller has miles and miles of positive feedbacks of buyers who bought by all accounts the exact same thing I did, which makes me believe that this seller was not trying to rip me off... this may just be a factory defective unit. But I don't know that for sure. I know a lot of people who have told me Iphones are finicky and I'm trying to figure out if this is a jailbreak software issue or if this is a physical bad battery issue.

 

[Knowlege Bomb]

The battery has not been run all the way down yet, I was fearful to do that once I noticed it was not wanting to charge like every other Ipod I own. I am also not so sure this is a "brand new phone". The odds of this being a completely untouched brand new phone seem astronomical to me, which makes me think this is a refurbished replacement phone.

Add to that the battery was apparently fully charged when I opened it and the seller or the person he gets his phones from would have had to have opened this phone, jailbroke it then resealed it, which means the battery was used/charged at some point after it rolled off Apple's assembly line.

I -also- HATE buying used. I wanted to try out an Iphone but I did NOT want to buy someone's scratched up hand me down nor get suckered into a two year contract with AT&T paying upwards of $80 a month for what I already get with Tmobile for $45 a month.

I already have a dialog going with the seller who claims to have a "3 day no questions asked return policy". This is technically day two, so if this is still not resolved tonight then back it goes. The seller has miles and miles of positive feedbacks of buyers who bought by all accounts the exact same thing I did, which makes me believe that this seller was not trying to rip me off... this may just be a factory defective unit. But I don't know that for sure. I know a lot of people who have told me Iphones are finicky and I'm trying to figure out if this is a jailbreak software issue or if this is a physical bad battery issue.

Well it's good to hear you had the smarts to know to buy from somebody with positive feedback.

Hope you can get this resolved without a headache from the seller. Good luck!

 

[JT-N]

Oh I've mulled this purchase for weeks, hunting through all the listings on eBay for what I thought was going to be the most affordable "least messed with" 1st Gen IPhone I could find. The seller I bought from has been very good at responding to my questions before and after the sale and has given me no indication they are going to flake out on me... you never know with eBay though.

I have just been reading so many threads on so many message boards related to 1st Gen IPhones not charging, but showing charge indicators. Then in all those threads everyone was throwing out every crazy suggestion they could think of... restart it, restore it, unplug it then replug it, hold it upside down and hop on one foot... I've tried everything I've seen so far with no really noticeable fix. Obviously the phone IS charging to some degree as it was down below 35% this morning and since jailbreaking it for the second time before I left for work it was reading a charge of 55%... so it did gain 20%, but it appeared to be stalled out around the 50th percentile again.

 

[JT-N]

I just got home and in the 7 hours I was at the office the phone managed to charge from 54% to 61%. I contacted the seller and they are going to exchange it with another "new" phone for me. I'm packing it up to mail back now.

Thanks for the help, hopefully this will end this little issue with an exchange.