Mom's phone is dying

"Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing." (granfury) 12/19/2016 at 23:47 • Filed to: None

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It’s an older iPhone 5. Battery not lasting long and heating up whilst in use. She doesn’t see any signs of the screen popping up from the battery ballooning like I experienced with mine. I know Apple still has a recall on these and I’ve asked for the serial number so I can check it; the folks are on vacation in Fiji right now and have limited Internet access. (checked - not eligible under the recall, but I know the Apple store has been very good to me over the years when it comes to defective devices).

Has anyone changed the battery in one of these? I did that job in my 4S and it was pretty easy, but the cheap battery wasn’t much better than the original; changing the battery on a 3G iPod Touch was a nightmare by comparison (the patient didn’t survive the surgery). Is it worth it to take it somewhere and spend $60 for a new battery, installed, or is it time for a replacement phone? I figure that an SE would serve her well for a number of years.

Steve in Manhattan > Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing. 12/19/2016 at 23:53

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Time for a 6S ... loved mine, but then got a free 6S Plus so I’m good.

Tazio, Count Fouroff > Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing. 12/20/2016 at 00:00

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Hmmm ime (iP4, then iP6) when things start to not work right, they just keep on not working even righter

With iP6 finally saw the wisdom of my SO who’d said “Dump it” with the first hints of issues with the iP6

Just my 02 cents fwiw

Best wishes whatever you decide to do

SlickMcRick > Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing. 12/20/2016 at 00:01

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Get the SE. I was all Android all the time until I had a killer opportunity to get the SE for a great price. Just make sure to get the 64 GB version. All of her accessories if she has any from the 5S will fit. Some clown on me and say that my screen is too small. I don’t often times feel you need more than 4in real estate to navigate. It’s essentially a 6S in the 5 body, a design which I love.

Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing. > Steve in Manhattan 12/20/2016 at 00:08

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I recently bought a 6S Plus 128GB and love it, but it’s probably too much phone for the parental units; they also have iPad minis, so a phablet is probably encroaching into that territory. I’m thinking that the SE would be about the right size and will last her for years.

ttyymmnn > Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing. 12/20/2016 at 00:14

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I just passed my phone on to my son, and it needs a new battery, and there’s a local shop that will do a 5S battery for $59. I watched a video about it online, and, while it doesn’t look all that difficult, I wouldn’t want to try it myself.

smobgirl > Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing. 12/20/2016 at 00:47

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I got a new phone for $79 because that happened to mine. Gonna rock this 5S forEVER.

Zibodiz > Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing. 12/20/2016 at 01:35

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I fix phones professionally. If you’re good with tiny (watch-repair-sized) screws, it’s a piece of cake. The batteries are about $15 on Amazon, and I’ve never gotten a bad one there. 99% of the time, they come with a little toolkit that gives you the special screwdriver you need. The iPhone 5 & newer is super easy to work on.

Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing. > Zibodiz 12/20/2016 at 01:52

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Doing the battery on a 4S was relatively simple, and it’s nice to hear that the 5 is probably easier to work on. Conversely, I destroyed a Motorola Atrix when replacing the digitizer, and this was allegedly an easy phone to work on.

Rico > SlickMcRick 12/20/2016 at 07:34

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My girl loves her SE she upgraded from a 5 and did NOT want a 6 or anything bigger than a 5. Once the SE was rumored for release she decided to wait and has never regretted. Sometimes I think about downgrading from a 6S to an SE for the comfort of having a smaller phone.

Zibodiz > Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing. 12/21/2016 at 03:26

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I’m not familar with the Atrix, but I hate working on Motos (especially the Droid series). They were never engineered to be repairable.

Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing. > Zibodiz 12/21/2016 at 06:18

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There’sa website I use to get instructions on how to repair all manner of devices and they usually give a difficulty rating. However, I don’t know who assigns the rating - is it objective or could it vary depending on the experience of the author. I don’t agree with the ratings given to the Atrix, but I do agree with what they said about working on a 160GB iPod - had I read these instructions I might not have attempted to replace the drive with a CO card as I nearly bled out in the process. On the bright side I did get valuable life experience and a reminder to read the instructions first, as well as a nice 160GB drive to put into my own iPod...

Zibodiz > Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing. 12/21/2016 at 20:51

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Oh, I hate iPods. I have no idea how a company that produces such an easy device to work on (the iPhone) can make such a horrible device to work on. Clearly, they need to share some engineers beween departments.

Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing. > Zibodiz 12/21/2016 at 21:38

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The first through the fifth generation models with hard drives, as well as the mini, were a breeze to work on, but after that they became a royal pain. I’ve upgraded a number of them, mostly replacing failed hard drives with SD or CF cards; one time I even used the HD from a dead GPS to get one running. One of my favorites was a 4G color (Photo) model that I used as a transfer device for a digital camera that used SmartMedia cards, which are limited to 128MB. With a 32GB CF card I could empty the SM cards over and over. It also became lighter and had better battery life so it was a win/win and probably a better device than it was when it rolled out of the factory.

I’ve tried working on some nanos and they were horrible, but given the tiny size I can understand why they are such a pain. Touch models are hit and miss, but I haven’t worked on any since the 3rd generation; I would expect them to be close to the iPhone, but looks may be deceiving. Haven’t opened a shuffle, but I expect them to be a lot like the nano.

But the iPod is just about dead. It was good while it lasted, but everything must come to an end. My old favorite, a 6G nano, needs a battery replacement and is just collecting dust. I did find a screaming deal on a 7G nano that someone had listed as a mini, and had a low opening bid. I won, but I hardly ever use it. In fact, with a lot of these devices, they’ve become so small that I tend to lose them...

Zibodiz > Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing. 12/22/2016 at 03:10

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Interesting, I’ve actually never had an opportunity to work on an older model, but I just assumed they were hard. The touch has much more difficult ribbon connectors than an iPhone; they’re on the back side of a board that can’t be fully removed without damaging a ribbon that’s glued to the inside of the case back, so you have to pry it out slightly, then work blindly to try to replace the cable. Getting it off is easy, but snapping the new one in is a pain. To make matters worse, it’s held on with adhesive brass tape, not with a clip or anything sensible. But I digress.