Here’s how counterfeit cables can destroy your iPhone and cause it to stop charging …
If you’ve ever been caught short with low battery when you’re out and about its very tempting to run into the petrol station, or a discount store to grab a dirt cheap one ‘just to keep you going’. It honestly isn’t worth it … . You may save money in the short term and it may get you out of trouble temporarily but you may regret it in the long run because cheap chargers can kill your iPhone.
Damage linked to cheap charging cables is something we see more and more. But how do we know which are good and which are bad? As a rule you should look for accessories that show an MFi certification (Made for iPhone, iPod or iPad). This licence ensures that this third party device will work with your phone. We stock MFi cables from £9.99.
“The MFi cables are important because they have a chip inside the cable that will protect your device from voltage fluctuations that will kill the device.”
Cheap charging cables on the other hand can cause some serious damage. These cables want to give your phone unlimited power. Your iPhone can’t handle that amount of power and eventually, the cable can burn out a very important chip on the motherboard. The damaged chip seriously affects your iPhone’s ability to charge properly.
Common symptoms of this kind of damage are:
- Not charging
- Fake charging (shows its charging but the battery percentage doesn’t change).
- Various iTunes errors
- Battery drains to random % then phone shuts off
- Battery charges up to a certain random % then phone shuts off.
Replacing the battery or charging port doesn’t resolve the situation.
If you think you’ve already damaged your iPhone due to a cheap charge cable, all is not lost. We offer microsoldering services at the ilab that can repair this damage, come in to store and we can talk you through this.
Of course, it’s easier to just avoid using non-MFI chargers in the first place, so think about it next time you’re tempted to put one in your £700 iPhone!
