Thursday, September 21, 2017

iPhone 4S Revived from Black Screen...I't's Alive, but.. dead again

This is not about food, but about fixing my iPhone 4S.  It's an old phone, and it is still in a very good condition.   I hate to dispose it or traded in, but about three weeks ago, my phone won't turn back on after I powered it off.  I could not figure out why, but I assumed that it's time to replace the battery.   I have been using my iPhone 4S as home security camera using the freeware "Alfred".   That morning, the iPhone was bugging me to update to IOS 10. Since I already delayed it for several weeks, may be I should update it before I update Alfred, I thought.  Yet, I was thinking ... what for?  I am not really using this phone but as a camera to monitor my front door, so I can use iPhone 6 to monitor my home from office.  It has been working very well, except that morning when I decided to update to IOS10, then, update Alfred, it happened.  The screen turned very dim first, then, the screen somehow is dead.  It would not respond to my swiping or to the depressing of the home button.  So, I thought it needs to be rebooted.  When I powered it off, the phone did not come alive.  It stopped responding totally.   Out of desperation, I went to YouTube to find solution.   Luckily there were many information related to how to fix iPhone 4S when the battery stops charging.  And I also found out that there is battery replacement kit and learnt that there are two screws at the bottom of iPhone 4S on either side of the power connector.  Sad thing is, after I got my first shipment of the replacement battery, the phone did not charge nor revive.   I followed every instruction there is to reset, to do this, do that.   But nothing.  I decided to return the first battery and got another.  While waiting for the second new battery to arrive, I reviewed many iPhone 4S battery related postings on the YouTube.  When the new battery arrived on Tuesday, I was so glee to install it.  Charged it and pressed the power button.  Alas!! no sign of anything.  Not even the normal vibe... nor the apple logo.   REALLY?  maybe it's the Charge Cable... Today, out of desperation, I even purchased the new charge cable for iPhone 4S.  Did it work?   Did it start to charge?  Did iPhone power up?   NOPE!  dead as a door nail.   As I was almost convinced that may be the power management IC got toasted or some other costly issue, I decided to go over some more YouTube video on the How to Fix iPhone 4S that won't power up or with black screen.  Then, I came across one of many video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6JppmamwqEE   under the title "ALL IPHONE 4,5,6, PLUS: How to Fix a Blank Display, Black Screen, Wont Turn on?"  There was no clear indication out of the many solution presented that would have worked, but as I listened carefully, one of the solution got my attention, and I tried it and it worked!!   It is similar to how to do the RESET by holding down the power button at the same time with Home button, but this one is different.  The instruction was to Hold Power Button 1st, then, Count 1, 2, 3, then, Hold down HOME Button.  Release when the APPLE logo appears.
Da, DAAaa!  in a few seconds more, my iPhone displayed my home screen!!  SAVED!!!
So, it is as good as new!
Hope this would help some people who held onto their good iPhone 4S and end up with similar issue.  We can continue baking and take good pictures, etc.
. . .  Spoke too soon... I am so sad.  The next day, I thought I better do a backup of the iPhone 4s, I clicked on it to see how it is doing.  Whaaat!!! what happened??it's dead!!   Then, when I touched the home button, low battery icon showed up.  I quickly reconnected it to the phone charger.  Just hoping and hoping that it would become alive again.   Nope!! No power.   No matter what I do, it would not power up.
Sunday, October 1, today's test is to connect it to the PC.  PC seems to know that a USB device is connected.
iTunes seems to know "a phone" is connected, but when I click on File\Device, it would not list the phone.
It tells me that the connected phone is in the Restore mode, so it asks to do to find Software Update and to do Restore... everything seemed all right.  It seems that it knows the iPhone 4S is connected.  Then, while it is restoring the phone to ios 9.3.5 and verifying the phone, and waiting for the phone, it stops with "... Unknown error occurred (24)..."
Anyone know what's going on?


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