Panicking! iPhone won't turn on!

By Tammie, 17 January, 2013

Forum
iOS and iPadOS
I have an iPhone 4. My phone was working fine earlier, but when I went to unlock it, it won't turn on! Any suggestions? Please help!

Options

Comments

By Chelsea on Tuesday, February 5, 2013 - 12:45

If you can, try plugging it into iTunes. iTunes might tell you if something is actually wrong. Or you could at least turn voiceover on again. Also, sometimes it won't turn on when the batteries really low. Plug it in and see if that helps.

By Toonhead on Tuesday, February 5, 2013 - 12:45

Hi You have to try to stay calm, even if you want to panic. Ok. As Chelsea suggested, use the sync cable that came with your iPhone and plug it into the USB port. one end goes into the phone and the other end goes into the pc just as normal. Your computer *should* recognize it. If the battery is really really low it may take a few minutes for this to happen. If it does, you know the phone is at least working in some way or another and that's a good sign. Now, try doing a tripple click home if you have that turned on, i hope you do? and VoiceOver, *should* turn on and you should be ok. If it doesn't, you'll need to go into iTunes and turn VoiceOver back on. I have the new iTunes 11 and they've moved things around to the point that i'm not very good at explaining how to do it from there, but someone else will hopefully be able to help further if you need it. If your computer recognizes your phone you should be ok. hang in there, and please let us know how it turns out.

By Siobhan on Tuesday, February 5, 2013 - 12:45

In reply to by Toonhead

Hi tammy. First off, don't panick, I know you are, I was too. I have a four as well. When mine wouldn't work out of nowhere, i did what they've suggested and turned in itunes. except, it didn't work for me. It might for you. If it doesn't try this. Plug in the phone to the wall and leave it there for hours. I mean over night if possible. When you wake up it should be working. If not, let us know ubt try plugging into the wall and leaving it for awhile then hitting the power button. Also feel the charger, it should feel warm after awhile letting you know it's charging. If you want more help let me know.
Once this happened to me where the phone wasn't speaking. I got a sighted person to look at it, and they saw that everything was working and Voiceover was turned on. For some reason, the volume control went down to zero. Try turning up the volume as well. Don't know that it will work, but you can try it.
Thanks all for your help. I have a co-worker who knows a lot about the iPhone. We actually ended up doing a hard reset. It fixed the problem, thank goodness!

By Toonhead on Tuesday, February 5, 2013 - 12:45

In reply to by Tammie

Glad everything worked out and that your iPhone works again. yay!
It's so annoying! But my fiance is sighted, and he was able to help me. Raising the volume is the first thing I try now if the phone seems to not be working like it hould--I.E., VoiceOver isn't responding/sounds don't seem to be working. Thanks, Shersey

By Unregistered User (not verified) on Tuesday, December 5, 2017 - 12:45

Hi all here!

So, I'm having a very similar issue like this topic is pointing out, but much more serious. I'm using a 5S. First one I had was a brand new, it was working perfect for some months, when at once the headphone jack, earpiece and microphone stopped working, for a strange and weird reason. I sent it to a store, and got a replacement phone. Then, troubles continued. That replacement device was refurbished, and it had problems with boot loops and panic logs, from the beginning it was not working as it should. So, again went to a store, got the second replacement. This one seemed to work good for some time, when it decided to start frustrating me again with random reboots, panic logs and it sometimes even couldn't be turned on, it stays stuck on the Apple logo and I can do nothing about it.

I'd like to mention that all of the common troubleshooting things are not helping me, they are just temporary. So I tried a hard reset (power + home button, for about 7 seconds), sometimes it helps, sometimes not. Then, something comes weird from here. If I succeed to restore it to factory settings, it surprisingly works acceptable, but not for a long time. I only didn't try restoring through DFU mode, because I don't want it to upgrade to iOS 11, since it's not working well on 5S, I'd like it to stay on 10.3.3. I'm hardly having a doubt that apps have something to deal with it, it also happens if I remove all the apps and clear data.

As I was exploring, panic logs are in most cases refering to a hardware failure. Have you ever had any of those issues, and how you managed to solve them if it can be fixed? Once again, all the ordinary repair things that I mentioned didn't help. The device turns on and stays at the Apple logo forever, no matter what I try to do. Any ideas would be appreciated, since it becomes really irritating and kinda unresponsible from Apple.

Regards.

By david s on Tuesday, December 5, 2017 - 12:45

Hello,

I know you said you restore using DFU mode because you don’t want to update to IOS 11. Where did you get the firmware? Are you using the same firmware on all the phones you had/have? If all three phones gave you hardware problem, I would really suspect the firmware.

I don’t recommend searching the web for a firmware but if you don/t have access to other firmware, that may be the only choice if you don’t want to update to 11. The other option would be to Jailbreak which will then install a different firmware. Personally, if I had to choose between those two, I’d update to 11.

HTH and good luck.

By Unregistered User (not verified) on Tuesday, December 5, 2017 - 12:45

In reply to by david s

Hello! Those three phones I had, including the last one that I use, are replacement refurbished units. Regarding firmwares, as I know, it's not a wise idea to mess around with them. If it would be signed by Apple now, I'll restore it without thinking about it. As you probably know, Apple stopped signing 10.3.3 months ago, so the only option I have is to upgrade to 11, but I wouldn't do it if I don't need. I suspect it's not about firmware, because panic logs are not related to firmware issues. I'm starting to believe that it has some problems with Nand chip or something on the logic board. It seems to me that the board is not in a very healthy condition eather.

At this point, I am really not for the Apple's policy. The device is out of the warranty, so I'm sure they would tell me that it can't be repaired, and offer me to buy a new device. Sure, I wouldn't do it since my budget is not allowing me to do it. Did you have an iPhone with the corrupt Nand, and did you try to bring in to the independent repairs, to try desoldering and fixing it?

By Unregistered User (not verified) on Friday, January 5, 2018 - 12:45

Hello!

I just wanted to clerify that the problem I'm facing is definitely a hardware falt! I was able to restore the iPhone, but only through DFU mode. Restore completed without problems, but at the last restart, when iPhone is supposed to boot to the setup screen, it goes into a boot loop again! Actually, crap!