iPhone 4 charging issue

[mojolicious]

I'm at the bottom of the family's iPhone foodchain, and am currently rocking an iPhone 4.

For a few months it's had occasional moments of madness whether charging from a plug or a USB port, boinging away, charging > not charging > charging ad infinitum.

But today... it's trickle charging. Incrementing by 2-3% an hour, while not showing the charging symbol nor appearing in iTunes if connected to a Mac. I ran the battery flat to see if that would make it buck its ideas up, but not dice. It *did* show the 'connected' graphic on screen when first plugged in, though.

The battery, needless to say, is a dodgy eBay number. But it's at least and year old and terms of battery life it's been very good up to this point.

Any clues/suggestions? Am scrabbling around to find another olde worlde charging cable but it doesn't 'feel' like a cable failure.

One of my daughters' contracts is ending in a month's time and she'll be upgrading to an SE, at which point I'll inherit her 5c. Therefore not contemplating a new battery or swapping out the charging unit; would be cheaper to bring my daughter's upgrade forward.

 

[Willo34]

No, it just sounds like the rip off battery has had it's day...try hard reset or charge it with an iPad charger and see if that goes quicker...

 

[mojolicious]

Thanks, Willo. mrs mojolicious remembered she had an old speaker/radio/dock gathering dust in a cupboard at work, and brought it home. The phone is charging correctly from that, so it was obviously an issue with the cable (a nice, heavy duty ribbon cable, possibly Belkin, but at least 3-4 years old).

I'm just surprised that it's possible for a faulty cable to a) not trigger the 'lightning strike' icon, b) not register the iPhone as physically connected to the Mac, while c) still providing (very slow) charge.

Ah well... four weeks to my preloved 5c, the Undisputed King of iPhone Aesthetics.