iPad Air A1474 0 to 100 and 100 to 0 in no time

Hi everybody,

I've been dealing with a pain in the rear iPad air lately that seems to have a mind of its own. The lady who brought it to me initially wanted to get a new battery but after taking a look at it, I realized that its not so much an issue with the battery but how the logic board is reading the battery.

She had said that before this started the battery life was perfect, but then it started going from 100% battery to off with the battery symbol with the three red lines to show the battery being dead (versus the thick red bar they normally show). She would plug it in afterwards and wait a few minutes and the ipad might power and show the battery being at 100%.

I was able to duplicate this in the shop and actually had a long stint for awhile where even if it was plugged in it would show charging but never actual charge or turn on. Keep in mind I've got a few known good cables and charges here that produced the same result.

So during this stint where it refused to turn on or charge, I left it unplugged and would hit the home button constantly throughout the day to help drain the battery completely. After a few days, I plugged it in and left it for 24 hours and got it to power on ok. I had read on some site awhile ago that this is how you get the ipad to do a battery recalibration. Finally had it booted once again, played a youtube video to keep it on and test the battery life. It went back to dead after about 15 minutes or so.

So after that I tried doing a hard reset with the home and power button. Still getting the same thing. Updated to iOS 11.3 (Which ever is the latest out at the moment), same.

Now yesterday I went full tilt and backed up the iPad, did a full factory reset (turned off, held home, connected to pc and did a restore through itunes), set the iPad up AS NEW, and attempted to run through a few hours of youtube videos. It lasted about 15 or 20 minutes, but this time when the ipad decided to turn back on it showed the battery was down to 73% (versus always showing 100).

I've got it plugged in to charge at the moment while powered off. But I'm really not sure what else I can try at the moment, I'm really trying to avoid unnecessarily opening this ipad up

Just spent the last hour, hour and a quarter playing solitaire on it. Got the battery down to 61% and then it shut off. Plugged it in and it is currently showing 47%. Got it powered on again, got down to 44% and powered off again.

I hate to say it but it sounds like a logic board issue. Ifixit list the cost of a replacement logic board at $149.99 from them. I am sure there might be cheaper places. But to me it is either a battery issue or logic board and I lean toward the latter. The cost of a new board plus your labor will make that an expensive repair.

Lisa

Any chance that something like Coconut Battery.app could help with some diagnosis?:
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/use-coconut-battery-to-check-iphones-battery-capacity.1998798/

The cost of a new board plus your labor will make that an expensive repair.

Click to expand...

Gee, do good techs actually charge little old ladies for labour for such a repair…??? :Blushing:




- Patrick
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Depending on when she purchased it, that particular model is from 2013 so it could very well be a bad battery. Logic boards on iPads are not generally repairable anyway and would have to be replaced. And as Lisa mentioned, that would be an expense of more than the iPad is currently worth. You might ask her if she dropped the iPad (even if it doesn't show damage) since that could damage the logic board. But right now I would suspect the battery first.

pm-r said:

Any chance that something like Coconut Battery.app could help with some diagnosis?:
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/use-coconut-battery-to-check-iphones-battery-capacity.1998798/



Gee, do good techs actually charge little old ladies for labour for such a repair…??? :Blushing:




- Patrick
=======

Click to expand...

If it is a business they do..... and I resemble that remark!

Lisa

Thank you pm-r! I had used the Coconut Battery app before and had completely forgotten about it.
Looks like a worn out battery, current capacity is 1200/8820 so when the battery meter is showing 100% its only charged up to 1200mAh and is in reality only charged up 13.6%.

Thank you guys for helping me confirm this, I didn't want to go down the digitizer opening road if I didn't have to.