Tag: battery

How to know if your battery or charge port is bad

Posted on | by Dawn Heller

Often times we are asked to determine if the charge port is bad or if the battery needs to be replaced on a device.

If a device has trouble taking a charge, that would indicate a problem with the charge port.

If a device has trouble holding a charge, that would indicate a bad battery.

For charge port trouble, often times it just needs to be professionally cleaned. Most iDropped stores do this for free; others charge a nominal fee. If you have to hold a cable a certain way to charge it, or it feels like it doesn’t go in all the way, or if the cable won’t stay in the port, that is a symptom of a bad charge port that just needs to be professionally cleaned. 

In terms of symptoms of a bad battery, we’d advise you to check the settings for the battery health. Usually if the battery health is 80% or less on an iPhone, it is due for a new battery. Or, if it simply says “Service” in the battery settings. 

If a device charges slow, that can be the battery and/or the charge port, or a deeper issue on the charging circuit. Most of the time it is the charge port at fault. Sometimes it’s the battery. Rarely is it a deeper board issue, but that is possible. 

Drop by your local iDropped electronics repair shop for an honest assessment of your charging port and battery performance. Hope to see you soon! 

Is it worth it to get your smashed screen replaced or just buy a new one?

Posted on | by Dawn Heller

Cracked screens, smashed back glass, lines on the screen and touch not working — these are the problems we see every day in our phone repair shop.

Some people ask us, “is it worth replacing my screen or should I just get an upgrade?”

The short answer is, most of the time, yes it is worth repairing! And, it usually takes an hour or less. 

When is it not a good option to repair it? Certainly we are fans of keeping technology useful long past the one to two year cycle that manufacturers and wireless providers recommend, but there is a time to let the old tech go.

Because manufacturer improvements are so minimal anymore, most people keep their phones for about five years or so, rather than opting for a new one every year. After five years or so, you should consider upgrading.

Within the five years or so of ownership, many people do encounter mishaps that leave them with cracked glass, black screens, lines on the screens, can’t touch anywhere, and of course batteries do go bad over time and need replacement. iPhone screens and batteries are considered common maintenance services. Most of the time these can be handled by a local independent electronics repair shop.

If a phone experiences severe liquid exposure, sometimes that is equivalent to be “totaled” within reason, and at that time it makes more sense to invest in a replacement over repair. We can talk more about liquid damage on another article, but liquid exposure, or a severe drop or fall that causes board damage is another reason when it makes sense to replace a device over a repair. Most of the time though, liquid damage can result in a recovered working device. 

It is still common for us to see iPhone 8 series for screen replacements! What can we say, iPhones are built to last, and the longer you hold on to them, the more money you can save and put towards other expenses in your life, rather than a phone payment. We do see older iPhones on occasion, but not as many.

Why clog up landfills with perfectly usable tech? Tech repair is noble, much kinder to our planet than getting a new device every one to two years.  

iDropped has fixed thousands (maybe millions?) of devices since 2012. We’re locally owned and operated. We care about our customers and their devices. We’re proud that so many have chosen us as their local electronics mechanics for iPhones, Samsung phones, Motorola phones, Playstation, Xbox, Nintendo, iPads and iPods and other phones and electronics. If you have a tech problem, give us a call or stop in some time for an honest and fair assessment.