Monday, May 30, 2011

iPhone troubles

Don't be afraid of messing with your phone. The legendary WKRP's "Phone Cops" need not be feared.

As of late, I have been noticing that my iPhone 3GS has been having a really short battery life. I would charge it overnight, put it in my pocket in the morning, and by 6 PM would be down to about 20%.

I know that rechargables lose life over time, and my phone will be two years old come July, but this seemed a little extreme. I would hardly use the phone during the day, if at all, and experience significant battery drain. Something else was going on.

I tried deleting apps that I had recently installed, thinking that they were sucking the battery dry, particularly the Denon and Peanut apps. No change in battery life.

And then, a few days ago, I accidentally dropped my phone. HARD. It fell from the kitchen counter to the hardwood floor, a distance of about three feet. I cursed, because I treat my expensive stuff like it is expensive, which it is. Unlike people I know that think nothing of dropping their phones or iPods in the toilet and complaining that they don't work any more. "Apple builds sh*t!", they would claim. But that's a subject for another blog post.

After the drop, the display would say "No Service". I couldn't make calls, and couldn't get texts, though I could access WiFi without problem. BlueTooth worked as well. I basically had an iPod Touch, but with a really short battery life. Now, to be honest, this wasn't the first time I had dropped my iPhone, but the drops were "gentle", as from the seat of a sofa to a carpeted floor. Not good for it to be sure, but nothing I would think to be fatal, either.

After the hard drop, battery life dropped faster than ever. I tried resetting the phone in software as found on several websites. No joy to be found there, either.

After perusing the net about this problem, I grew some cojones and decided to try opening up my phone, thinking that I had broken the cell antenna in the drop. Replacing the antenna/dock module seemed to be a routine remedy for this situation. A friend had an iPhone with a broken display that he offered to me for parts. Very kind of him. (Thanks, Robbie!)

I'd never opened a cell phone before, but I found it's not hard to do. On the 3GS, it involves removing just two miniscule screws (using a Phillips #00 screwdriver, available at your local Sears or big-box retail hardware store) and a suction cup, similar to one of those to hang chotchkes on glass windows. The rest is mostly undoing snap-together connections. But be warned, these components are extremely tiny and hard to work with even if you have slim fingers. I followed the instructions at ifixit.com, which is a great resource for a lot of electronic woes.

My problem turned out to be that connector #7 had come loose (the connectors inside the iPhone are marked with orange numbered labels), most likely completely becoming separated in the last drop incident. It had probably begun to to work loose (causing rapid battery drain) in earlier drops, and the drop to the kitchen floor finished it off.

Five minutes of futzing to reconnect the wire, and battery life is back to normal!

EDIT June 10. 2011: It's been quite some time since (almost 2 weeks) since I opened my iPhone and checked the antenna lead. So far, my phone feels new again, at least as far as battery life goes.

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Technology: Massive Fail or Just a Screwup?

I went to the dentist this morning. The tech, who I have been seeing for years, and who I thought was familiar with my history, asked me:

"Have you been taking your anti-biotics?"

I replied, "I didn't know I was supposed to be taking anti-biotics."

She: "Our records show that you have an artificial heart valve."

Me: "Unless you put one in at my last appointment or aliens abducted me and implanted one, I don't remember ever having heart surgery. I think I might remember that."

I thought it was amusing this morning. Now I am not so amused. Has my health care record been corrupted, either accidentally or intentionally? How in the hell do you find out?

Will this mis-information propagate to an extent to some point in the future where I might be denied coverage due to erroneous information, or be mis-diagnosed?

I can imagine a future scenario in a hospital: "Hey, his records indicate that this guy has an artificial heart valve. It might be failing. Let's replace it with a new one."