decisions, replace battery locally or warranty replacement - j/b considerations

[B737]

a small pickle...with my early jailbroken 3GS
ive never had any sort of battery issues with my device. then over the past 3 weeks the phone is charging rapidly to 100% and im getting about 2.5 hours of usage from it (max). typically id get 6-7. The phone was purchased new when it was released.

Im on 3.1.2, and really dont feel like jumping through the fiery hoops to restore it back onto 3.1.2, since that its been fine for the past several months. theres been no software changes either. Ive tried several tests disabling/uninstalling any processes to see if that made any meaningful difference and it did not.

I can either go to apple and have my early model 3GS replaced under warranty and be be stuck with a late model (tethered j/b) 3GS thats going to be on 3.1.3 from the get go...

OR...

have a guy locally swap out my battery with a new one.

im really leaning towards having the guy swap my battery out. Im not sure sure that having a new replacement phone outweighs the benefits of my current set up.

My other thought was to bring it to apple and ask them to just replace the battery, and pay for it. However, i have a hunch that would never work, since its under warranty and ive voided it with the j/b.

the battery situation is just getting worse as each days passes.

anyone been in this position before?

 

[gixxerfool]

Have you recalibrated the battery? Letting it die til it shuts of, 2% I think, then charging it all the way back up to 100%? just a suggestion.

 

[B737]

oh yes... at least 3 or 4 times over the past few weeks.

 

[fishmd]

I totally feel your pain. I am in a similar situation, having an early model 3GS as well with some problems. I know if I take it to apple, they will replace it, but I don't want a newer model baseband/firmware. So I am holding out. I don't have a battery problem though, so at least mine is usable.

My only concern about having someone replace the battery would be what if that does not fix the issue? Then you are SOL. You have now replaced the battery, really voiding your warranty, and then you may be totally stuck.

Also, once the battery is removed, I am not sure what would happen to the phone. You may have to do a firmware restore etc. anyways.

Finally, if you take it to Apple, they will not replace it unless your phone is updated to the latest firmware which is the 3.1.3. The reason for this is that this firmware was made to fix the exact battery drain problem you describe. So if you take it to apple, they are just going to tell you to update first and then if you still have the problem, bring it back.

All that to say you just may have to suck it up and upgrade the the latest firmware. If you still have the problem then bring it to Apple. A new jailbreak will come out eventually, you just might have to wait till 4.0.

 

[B737]

fish, good post man, very good points... its a tough call

 

[Earley008]

This may go a little off the topic and im very sorry if it does but this seemed an appropriate place and I could not find another thread along these lines.

I jail broke my 3g for a brief period and it ended up considerably slowing it down with the 3gs insides does the jailbreak work better. also i am wondered off the benefits nowadays as it always use to be the video camera etc that was mainly added.

I am on 3.1.3 am i under the right impression that i cant jailbreak?? what i have found so far cannot give me a definite answer, i always thought a simple restore will wipe the device anyway?

and is it possible you could replace the battery yourself? I have not tried myself but there does seem to be a lot of videos online showing how too. In my opinion the apple service is better than the jailbreak so i would restore and update, but like i said i do not know how other people rely on the jailbreak (i dont need it unlocked)

Thanks for you help

 

[gixxerfool]

This may go a little off the topic and im very sorry if it does but this seemed an appropriate place and I could not find another thread along these lines.

I jail broke my 3g for a brief period and it ended up considerably slowing it down with the 3gs insides does the jailbreak work better. also i am wondered off the benefits nowadays as it always use to be the video camera etc that was mainly added.

I am on 3.1.3 am i under the right impression that i cant jailbreak?? what i have found so far cannot give me a definite answer, i always thought a simple restore will wipe the device anyway?

and is it possible you could replace the battery yourself? I have not tried myself but there does seem to be a lot of videos online showing how too. In my opinion the apple service is better than the jailbreak so i would restore and update, but like i said i do not know how other people rely on the jailbreak (i dont need it unlocked)

Thanks for you help

You have a 3G you can still downgrade and JB 3.1.2.

 

[Earley008]

You have a 3G you can still downgrade and JB 3.1.2.

sorry didnt read that back through, i have a 3gs now.

I jailbroke my 3g last year when i had it, thats what i was trying to get
across, just saying i have experience of jailbreaking it. Was just wondering what peoples experience with the 3gs jailbreak is?? and all i find with my searching is people unable to jailbreak 3.1.3 - i couldnt come to a conclusion

thanks

 

[pixelated]

@Earley008
I have never had any problems with the JB(specifically) on my iphones, and have never found the process to slow either my 2G or 3Gs.
Are you sure that it was simply the JB that slowed down your 3G, not multi-tasking or specific JB apps?
But unfortunately if you are on 3.1.3 and have not JB before, you will just have to wait to find out

 

[Earley008]

@Earley008
I have never had any problems with the JB(specifically) on my iphones, and have never found the process to slow either my 2G or 3Gs.
Are you sure that it was simply the JB that slowed down your 3G, not multi-tasking or specific JB apps?
But unfortunately if you are on 3.1.3 and have not JB before, you will just have to wait to find out

Thanks for the info. I take it you are saying that i can't jailbreak yet?

I did have winterboard i think it was called that installed but i did get rid of that as i was not bothered with the themes, i liked backgrounder and i saw a multitasker like safari the other day and was thinking that alone was worth the jailbreak! I wonder why the 3.1.3 is such a pain for the developers to break?

 

[gixxerfool]

Thanks for the info. I take it you are saying that i can't jailbreak yet?

I did have winterboard i think it was called that installed but i did get rid of that as i was not bothered with the themes, i liked backgrounder and i saw a multitasker like safari the other day and was thinking that alone was worth the jailbreak! I wonder why the 3.1.3 is such a pain for the developers to break?

Iv have had zero issues with my JB 3gs. No lag or anything.

I'm going to go out on a limb and say that it very well may not be a pain just that they are holding off on a release to see what Apple's next move is. Just my opinion.

 

[Earley008]

Iv have had zero issues with my JB 3gs. No lag or anything.

I'm going to go out on a limb and say that it very well may not be a pain just that they are holding off on a release to see what Apple's next move is. Just my opinion.

I would say thats not a bad take on things, but i thought they would have just sent it out as soon as they had it.

Do you think the iphone wil get 3.2 when the ipad is released?

 

[B737]

thanks dude...

 

[fishmd]

Sorry to bring this post back to life. Just wondering what the OP ended up doing.

All of a sudden over the past 2 days my phone has started draining the battery like crazy. I had to fully charge my phone 3 times yesterday. This AM it drained 20% in just half an hour, not even using it.

I guess I am gonna have to try a restore tonight and keep it 3.1.2 to keep my jailbreak. Thankfully I have all my SHSH things stored with Cydia servers. If that does not work though, I may be sunk and have to take the thing to Apple. Argh. I have a untethered jailbreak/unlock and everything. So sad.

 

[B737]

Hey Fish,
My standby time was ok, i was averaging 12-15 hours of standby which is good for my 3GS, my usage time was getting halved down to 3 hours or less though.

Cydia had my hashes as well, and i was able to easily restore the phone from 3.1.2 to 3.1.2, set up as new and re-jailbreak with redsn0w. I finally saw 5 hours of usage again. I will say that i do still notice some flaky activity with my battery but my usage time has gone back up.

flaky is defined as. sometimes it'll run down to 15-18 percent then jump down to 8. ill plug it in at 2 percent and instantly go to 12 percent. sometimes the phone will run for a pretty long time at 2-3 percent before it quits. Since i did this over the last weekend the battery usage has come down into the mid 4 hour range.

originally i had shied away from restoring the firmware to 3.1.2 while reading around the net about the how to's, i was just buried in reading, but had i known it was going go that easily and smoothly i would have done the restore a while back.

I did call the apple store and ask them, If i have a 3GS thats under warranty can i bring it in for only a battery change? Apple said they will only exchange units and never replace only a battery in the same device.

i say go ahead with the restore and report back!

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/877735/