With the iPhone 4s being relatively new, most problems with the iPhone 4s Battery are caused by damage rather than the battery wearing out. Usually what happens with all rechargeable batteries including the iPhone 4S battery is that as the number of charge cycles increases the battery’s ability to store power will decrease. This only becomes noticeable over a long period of time unless the battery is damaged in some other way. The iPhone 4S battery is not hard like your regular household batteries. It can be bent or crushed quite easily and either of these can damage the battery and decrease the amount of charge it will hold. Heat will also damage the iPhone 4S battery so be careful about leaving it in hot environments and especially using it while it is too hot. Sometimes a faulty battery will also produce too much heat. This can be bad enough that the iPhone is too hot to hold. This sort of problem needs to be fixed immediately as there is risk of fire or explosion.
You may also damage the battery through creating a short circuit or tearing the ribbon cable connector. Usually this kind of damage happens during repair or from exposure to water.
The common causes of faults with the iPhone 4S battery are:
· Dropping the iPhone 4S and damaging the internal structure of the iPhone 4S battery.
· Dropping the iPhone 4S and causing damage to the small controller chips on the battery.
· Removing the battery while performing other iPhone 4S repairs and bending or crushing the battery in the process.
· Tearing the Battery ribbon cable by either incorrect removal or forgetting to undo the iPhone 4S battery screw before removing the battery.
· Shorting out the iPhone 4S battery by using a metal tool instead of a plastic tool to unplug the battery connector.
· Water damage - Corrosion on the iPhone 4S battery connector or in the battery controller chip.
· Leaving the iPhone in a hot car or using it in a hot environment until the overheating warning appears.
Signs of problems with your iPhone 4S Battery:
· iPhone 4S doesn’t hold charge for long.
· iPhone 4S never charges to 100% (try software restore first)
· iPhone 4S turns on but shows flashing apple symbol. (4S battery unplugged or too damaged to produce any charge)
· iPhone 4S battery symbol appears when charging but stays in the red no matter how long it is left on charge.
· iPhone 4S gets extremely hot while in use or while charging. (make sure you are using iPhone charger and not iPad charger. While iPad charger is normally fine and charges faster, in some iPhones they cause overheating.)
There are some other faults that appear to be a battery problem but are caused by other components:
· Water damage: corrosion and shorting of other parts of the iPhone may cause the battery to drain quickly.
· Jail breaking of the iPhone can also cause battery drain problems or incorrect readings by the iPhone 4S battery controller chip.
· A damaged charging dock can appear to be a battery problem. If the iPhone lcd doesn’t display anything and the pc doesn’t pick up the iPhone 4S then the problem is most likely the iPhone 4S dock connector.
