Are you having issues charging your iPhone even after the charging port and the battery have been replaced? You might wonder what exactly went wrong with your phone even though it has always been kept neatly in a case and so carefully handled that it has never fallen or dropped in water, and so has never been broken or damaged. Please read on to find out the major reason why your iPhone may have charging problems and what to do to fix this problem.
Practically, there are several reasons any model of your iPhone or any device can stop charging, but in this post, we'll focus on a particular reason behind this issue, that is, the so-called U2 IC chip.
What is iPhone U2 IC Chip?
The iPhone U2 IC chip is a quite tiny microchip about 2mm wide. This microchip also has 36 solder connections on its bottom.
This essential U2 IC chip is a major part of the circuit controlling the USB functions such as charging on the iPhone. However, this powerful microchip is also delicate and can be damaged by voltage spikes and irregular electrical signals.
Amongst several chips on the connector, there's one responsible for filtering the current from the charger and removing electrical spikes that may damage your device. Also, there's another chip that safeguards the charging process via a password-protected “handshake”.
Furthermore, using fake and substandard charging cables or plugs can also damage your iPhones and other iOS devices. So, it's very important to only use recommended and standard USB cables on your iPhone and iPad.
Sadly, many cheap and knockoff cables out there do not contain these useful chips and may just flood the device with excess current, or fail to protect the device from electrical spikes and fluctuations coming from the charger. Even though they may appear to be working well at first, these cables may damage your device's motherboard or kill it completely. This is why you should always buy a genuine Apple charger.
Though this list is not exhaustive, some of the most common symptoms of a damaged or burned-out U2 IC/Tristar chip on an iPhone are:
- Not charging at all
- Charger doesn't charge battery
- Fake charging (even though device displays the charging indicator (lightning bolt), the battery level doesn't increase)
- Battery stops charging at a random percentage
- Various iTunes error messages which indicate there's a USB interruption
- Battery level suddenly drops from a higher percentage to a lower percentage
- Battery drains to a random level and then the phone dies
The signs listed above are some common symptoms that may show when a U2 chip is faulty in an iPhone if the battery and other parts are assumed to be working well and there's no signs of drop damage and water damage on the device.
In this case, if your iPhone cannot be switched on or won't charge, the best option is to replace the small-but-powerful U2 IC chip, which is essentially a motherboard repair.