Clicks of Doom

Sorunum

I received an iPhone 4 from a friend. It was very smashed, and for a good reason. My friend had it when he was younger, and he left it on the top of a car. When he drove away, it fell off the car onto cement, and was clipped by the front and back wheel of the car. I have included pictures of how smashed it was.

Tamirim

I plugged it into the wall using a genuine original Apple 30-pin cable, and it actually showed signs of life. The Apple logo appeared on it's display, and stayed there for a while. I left it there, thinking it just needed to charge, and did some work on my laptop nearby. It was quiet in the room, so I was surprised when I started to hear clicking sounds. I looked around, and what I saw almost stopped my heart.

The back panel of the iPhone 4 was separating from the rest of the phone, all on its own. I quickly unplugged it from power and removed the tiny screws from the bottom, and completely removed the back panel. The battery had swelled to a gargantuan size, pushing the back off of the rest of the iPhone.

I quickly removed the battery from the iPhone 4, and later disposed of it safely. I am currently working on getting a new battery, front panel, and back panel for the iPhone 4. It is my goal to completely restore this iPhone, and keep it as an interesting piece of obsolete Apple history.

Önerim

The moral of the story is that you should always check the batteries and other dangerous parts of devices in particularly bad condition. If one of these parts fails catastrophically, it can damage the device and create other risks, such as fire hazards.

Because Apple used Pentalobe screws on the bottom of the iPhone 4 to secure the back panel, it would have been incredibly hard to remove the battery. Luckily, I had the necessary tools, but this story could have ended very differently if I didn't. Yet another good reason for Apple to adopt repair-friendly policies.