iPhone 7 battery replacement gone bad

[NT650]

I had the battery replaced on my son's iPhone 7 on August 17 at our local Apple Store.
The next day he started having trouble with the phone. It took a LONG time to boot up. The phone would suddenly shut down. When making phone calls the other party couldn't hear him nor could he hear them. And the speaker button was greyed out.

So, on August 26 we took his phone to a different Apple Store, near where he attends college. They ran some diagnostics and told us they could replace the phone for $319.

It's my belief the battery replacement created the problems he experienced. But the Apple Store would not warranty the battery replacement work and told us there was no other resolution.

Does anyone know if replacing the battery could cause the problems we were experiencing?
Anyone else have a similar problem? Or a different outcome?

Joe

 

[Banglazed]

https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/...er-loop-disease-boot-loop-hangs-on-apple-logo

They should still warranty the repair since it’s not long before you experience the issue. You can try to contact them via their support chat.

 

[NT650]

Thanks for the link.
Was wondering if I should return to the store that did the battery replacement, and speak with someone there?

May be best to try Apple support first though....

 

[JPack]

Bring it back to the original store. That's the only resolution, really.

It was working before the repair, now it isn't. Escalate the issue in-store.

 

[NT650]

I assumed returning to any Apple Store would resolve our issue. The store near my son's college said that since they didn't do the replacement they couldn't vouch for the work done.
Sounded like a cop-out to me. But my son really needed to return to college with a working phone. So we accepted their offer......

 

[BugeyeSTI]

Definitely bring it back to the original store and explain the problem to them. I agree all Apple stores should cover the work done by other stores regardless of the reason for the failure of the device.

 

[Minho]

Here's the thing...the audio problem that occurred after the battery replacement is a well know and documented fault in the iPhone 7.

The iPhone 7 series of devices have proven to be very unreliable, suffering from flex-based issues similar to the iPhone 6 Plus (Touch Disease). On the iPhone 7, the fault line runs along the top of the SIM card reader and affects the Baseband CPU and Audio IC. Any short copper traces running perpendicular to the fault line while connecting to micro-BGA pads, is subject to failing.

On the Audio IC, this particularly affects the C12 pad/trace although there are 4 pads/traces along the fault line. Of those four, the C12 pad (I2S_AP_TO_CODEC_MCLK) is the most critical as it is a communication protocol line between the CPU and the Audio IC.

Here are the typical symptoms, as collated by the repair community:
# Voice Memos app / Loudspeaker on call - greyed out
# Siri doesn’t hear you / Caller can’t hear you
# Most other Audio related issues that aren’t solved by modular replacements
# Long boot times (3-5 minutes)
# iTunes detects the phone but stuck on the Apple Logo

This is a very common repair for the independent micro-soldering tech community. Apple has refused to take ownership of this design flaw. As to why it happened at the moment it did; it's probably a coincidence. This phone would have failed sooner or later as the copper trace will eventually fail once it is compromised. Doing the battery replacement may have added an additional stress to the logic board and caused it to happen immediately after but as I said, this would have occurred anyway.

An experienced micro-solderer would have done a permanent repair for about $125 - $175, some even charge less (caveat emptor).

 

[NT650]

I will definitely argue the point about the added stress to the logic board while the battery was being replaced.

I appreciate everyone's input, thanks!

 

[jagolden]

Definitely go back to original store.
Had my 6S+ battery replaced in June. They messed up the screen when they did it. Gave me a nice new refurb with new battery and twice the storage just for the original $30 battery cost.
Play nice, act a little "stupid" about tech and issues. They should kindly take care of you.

 

[NT650]

Today I had the time to call Apple Support. Thought I'd start with them. I explained my situation; our conversation was escalated and then escalated again. The outcome is that Apple will refund my cost for the replacement phone! Couldn't be happier.
Thanks for all your support.

 

[pika2000]

Today I had the time to call Apple Support. Thought I'd start with them. I explained my situation; our conversation was escalated and then escalated again. The outcome is that Apple will refund my cost for the replacement phone! Couldn't be happier.
Thanks for all your support.

Glad to hear the positive outcome. Apple support via chat/phone seems to have a bit more leeway than the people in the stores.