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ipad charging irregularity

bradleyheathhays

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Recently my iPad 4 had been giving the impression that my charger cord might have a short. I'd plug it in and it would say 'not charging.' But then a number of hours later the battery showed an increase in charge. After some round robin testing with other devices and charger cords the problem seemed to be coming from the ipad.

The charging port was clean with no obvious obstructions. Thought about cleaning the contacts w/ electronics cleaner on a q-tip but ended up not doing it.

Since then it's stopped charging altogether, and the battery has run out.

Now, when it's initially plugged in it shows the battery symbol w/ a red line at the bottom. That line has blinked in the past, but for the most part I think it's been staying solid. I'm guessing the blinking indicates active charging. At times plugging it in will prompt it to show the 'insert cord' symbol at the charging port, other times not. In the middle of being hooked up for a few hours the screen turns on w/ the apple symbol as if it's turning on, but then nothing happens.

Anybody know of what's going on here? I can probably order a kit and pry the thing open if that would help in the investigation. I'd much rather fix this myself if at all possible.
 

NSquirrel

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If you can power up the iPad, there are some battery utilities (free, I think) that give an indication of the theoretical and current maximum capacity of the battery. Hence you may get an idea as to whether the battery has reached the end of its life.
 

J. A.

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Welcome to iPad Forums!

Use a different power outlet when you try charging your device.
Also, force restart your iPad: press and hold Home and Power button simultaneously until you see the Apple logo. As soon as it’s visible, let go of both buttons. Your iPad should power up on it’s own.
If it doesn’t, use recovery mode to get it working again. You’ll find the instructions here:
If you can't update or restore your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch
If that doesn’t help either, it might be necessary to contact Apple.
 
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bradleyheathhays

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Jupiter, the charging box (inverter?) I'm using is genuine apple but the cord is aftermarket. As the iPad had been charging on these same cords for a while I'm assuming it's not the charging setup, although I could be mistaken.

Squirrel, thanks for the info. My experience with batteries is that they fade slowly, so this is a new experience for me. Is it possible the battery has failed just all at once?

J. A., thanks for the welcome. Unfortunately, the force restart isn't working. Only response I've seen is when plugging the charge cord in and you get the drained battery symbol.

If anyone has advice on troubleshooting with a multi-meter I'd be open to getting in there and taking some readings.
 

NSquirrel

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I agree that batteries do tend to fade, but a faulty cell is not unknown.

Before you take it apart, do you have an Apple retailer nearby? They may be able to confirm battery, cable or charger for you quite simply and instantly e.g. using their own charger and cable and one would hope at no cost. You could then decide whether to repair yourself or the way forward. If it isn’t the battery, but something internal to the iPad, they may not do any repairs if it has been opened up already.

If no Apple retailer, trying someone elses charger and cable would be an idea as J.A. suggested above. (If trying someone’s iPhone charger, just take care, as an iPhone charger is rated at 1amp, whereas I assume the mini is like my air2 with a 2amp rating and hence could overheat the other charger if used for too long.)

Finally, cables and the conductors, if multi-stranded inside them, break quite easily and at the charge current it wouldn’t take much additional resistance to make the on load charge voltage too low.
 

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