Dirty Lightning

Shortly after replacing the battery in my iPhone, I noticed that it did not always begin charging when I plugged in the lightning cable. I would have to reinsert the connector and/or wiggle the connector to begin the charge.

I figured that the lightning cable was going bad, so I ordered a new cable, but it did not make a difference. Charging was still intermittent, so I ordered another lightning cable, but the problem persisted.

Although charging was intermittent, the iPhone would get fully charged eventually, so I left well enough alone. But well enough got worse the last few days and I had to do something.

I used a flashlight to look in the connector to see if there was an obvious problem. Instead of bare metal, I could see various shades of grey matter inside the connector! It was full of dirt.

I took a straight pin and used it to clean the connector. I couldn’t believe all the crud I pulled out of there! I worked at it for about a half hour until I could only see bare metal inside.

I then plugged in the lightning cable and the iPhone began charging immediately without interruption.

Battery Day

Lately, the batteries in my iPhone and MacBook Pro have been discharging rapidly. The iPhone is over five years old and the MacBook is over six years old, so I figured it was time to replace their original batteries.

Amazon sells replacement battery kits for $15 and $50 respectively. Both kits include all the tools required for the task.

I viewed how-to videos on YouTube. The only difficult part of the tasks seemed to be removing the old batteries, which were attached to the iPhone and MacBook cases with a two-sided tape-like adhesive. In the past, I've handled worse do-it-yourself computer tasks successfully, so I ordered the batteries from Amazon.

Saturday was Battery Day.

The iPhone battery replacement was not too bad. Working with the tiny screws with my 68-year-old eyes was the most difficult part of the task.

Removing the two-sided tape was a little tricky. You are supposed to grab the tape at one end of the battery and pull it out from under the battery, but the tape kept ripping in my fingers tips. I finally used a needle nose plier to get a good grip on the tape and pull it out.

The job took about 30 minutes from start to finish and was a success. The iPhone is now like new with regard to its battery discharge rate.

The MacBook Pro battery replacement was easier than I expected because the glue holding the battery to the computer case had dried out over the past six years and it did not take much prying with a small chisel to free the battery. It took about 45 minutes to do the job and like the iPhone, the MacBook Pro's battery discharge rate is like new now.

I would have completed the MacBook battery replacement more quickly except that I had a big surprise when I opened the case: dust all over the interior of the computer including large dustballs, as you can see in the photo above. It took an extra 10 to 15 minutes to remove all the dust before I screwed the cover back on to the MacBook case.

I was very pleased with the results. Besides saving money, I also saved time by avoiding a visit to the Apple store.

Surfin’: Got Batteries?

This week, Surfin’ solves the mystery surrounding our little friend -- the battery.