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.

I've known torture and I've known pain...

...and it has nothing to do with a film with Michael Caine.

My beloved Canon 5DII and it's usual companion, the 24-105 took a quick bath in a Norwegian lake on Monday. So far, the lens seems to have recovered electronically, but there are dried water spots on the second element from the front. I took it in to my favorite camera shop, Penn Camera, for an estimate. If it's fixable, I'll be without it for 4-6 weeks and be out probably $400. Bummer.

The camera seems to be salvagable. I had it sitting on the heated bathroom floor in the Bergen hotel room for 3 days, and it partially worked, but it wouldn't take a picture. The mirror would freeze at about the 2/3 point when the shutter was pressed, and the rear display indicated "Err 20".

At least the fog in the rear and top displays went away. I noticed that it wouldn't hold the date and time settings, so when I got home I looked through the instruction book and was reminded that the camera has a little coin battery, a CR1616, in addition to the rechargeable battery. I took this out (which requires a fine Phillips screwdriver to access) and tested the battery with my voltmeter: 0.38 volts it said. The battery is rated at 3.0 V.

Having had experience with dead/dying mobo computer batteries in Mac desktops, I figured that the weak battery might be causing the camera to malfunction. Off to search for a CR1616, and found one at Walgreens for $4. With nothing to lose, I put the new coin battery in, and voila!, it seems to be working fine now. As I use it, I will post further reports.