(NOTE: This article is aimed at a general audience. For more detail on the technical issues, see our in-depth Tristar damage/repair article.)

The Important Points

  • We can repair iPhones and iPads with various charging-related problems at affordable prices. (Click here to arrange a repair.)
  • These problems are commonly a sign of damaged charging circuits. Such damage is often caused by use of non-approved Lightning cables.
  • Original and MFi-certified Lightning cables contain special chips that set up charging safely and filter the current to remove damaging overcurrent, spikes, ripples, etc. before they reach the iPhone or iPad.

  • Cheap non-MFi-certified cables do not filter the current. They pass it on directly, so there’s a major risk that any fluctuations or spikes from the charger will damage your device sooner or later.
  • Our Lightning cables are officially Apple “MFi” certified making them just as safe and effective as Apple’s own. However, they only cost a few pounds more than other stores’ cheap unprotected cables.

    Introduction

    Having charging or battery problems with your iPhone? Perhaps your iPad won’t charge? If you recognise any of these problems, read on:-

    • Charger isn’t recognised.
    • Charger recognised but you get “Accessory Not Supported”. (Sometimes happens even with a charger or cable that worked before).
    • iPhone or iPad says it’s charging, but it’s obvious that it isn’t.
    • Doesn’t turn on at all.
    • Battery discharges much faster than normal.
    • Charging stops before complete.
    • Switches off when battery drops below a certain point.
    • USB connection to computer erratic in general.

    The bad news is that these are often caused by damaged charging circuitry. The good news is that in many cases this can be repaired. (Click here to skip directly to the repair details or here to arrange the repair itself.)

    However, did you know that such damage is often caused in the first place by fake or unofficial Lightning cables?

    You might understandably think this is scaremongering intended to get you to buy an original (and expensive) Apple lead, and that the only major difference between cheap and official cables is the price!

    However, there are major differences between officially-endorsed Apple cables (including ones from other manufacturers with a genuine Apple “MFi” certification) and cheap or fake ones. In this article, we’ll briefly explain these, and why using a cheap cable could fry your phone.

    (While we’ll often refer to just “iPhone” here for brevity, this article covers all iPads and iPhones that have a Lightning connector).

    How Officially-Certified Lightning Cables Protect Your iPhone and iPad

    Although it’s not obvious to the average user, Apple’s official Lightning cable isn’t just an overpriced USB lead. The connector contains several chips which- amongst other things- set up charging safely and provide a clean, filtered current. (This also applies to cables from other companies that carry a genuine “Made for iPhone/iPad/iPod” (MFi) certficate).

    The most important chip is the “load switch”. This is highly sophisticated and filters the raw charging current in order to protect the iPhone from various electrical nasties (such as surges, ripples, excessive current, overvoltage and reverse polarity).

    Another is the “handshake” chip. Amongst other things, this sends a password to confirm to the iPhone that it’s an Apple-approved cable and that it’s safe for the iPhone to turn off certain protections and start charging (since the load switch will safely filter the current).

    How Non-Certified Cables Can Damage Your iPhone and iPad

    Guess what? The cheap and fake (non-MFi) cables don’t contain these proprietary chips! Most importantly, they don’t have a “load switch” at all. After a fake “handshake” chip essentially lies about the existence of the load chip and cons the iPhone into dropping its protections, the cable passes the dangerously unfiltered current direct from the charger to the phone.

    Now, this may appear to work for a while- such cables will usually charge your iPhone. Unfortunately, as soon as there’s a voltage or current fluctuation from the charger- the sort of thing that’s meant to be safely filtered out- the result may be serious motherboard damage and even, at worst, a dead iPhone.

    What’s Inside- The Real Thing versus the Copy

    Removing the plastic cover on our genuine MFi-certified Sumvision cable.
    Metal compartment removed- the chips are now visible.
    Close-up of the chips in a genuine MFi-certified cable.
    Cheap, non-MFi-certified cable purchased from one of our rivals. Note the totally different chips.

    The Lightning cables we sell are officially “Made for iPhone/iPad/iPod” (MFi) certified by Apple. This means that they use the same chips- supplied by Apple themselves- as you’d find in an original cable, and are just as safe as Apple’s own Lightning cables.

    Out of curiosity, we bought a cheap Lightning cable from one of our rivals. This clearly wasn’t an official product- and to be fair, wasn’t pretending to be- and made no mention of MFi on the pack.

    We took both cables apart. As can be seen from the images, the inside of the connector on our genuine MFi-certified cable included the expected parts from Apple.

    The cheap cable completely lacks these. There’s no current-filtering load chip, and this places your iPhone at serious risk of damage sooner or later.

    What’s worse is that the price difference between the cheap and nasty lead and our one was just £4- that’s hardly worth risking your iPhone worth hundreds of pounds over! (Especially as the difference was barely more than the $4 or so our manufacturer would have paid for the MFi parts!)

    Can You Repair the Damaged Charging Circuit in my iPhone or iPad?

    Unfortunately, if you’re reading this, it’s quite possibly because that your phone is already damaged. The good news is that in many cases we can fix damage to the charging circuit.

    This repair involves replacing the charging chip with a new one, and is not a simple task- it’s something that should only be carried out by an experienced technician. (For example, if the board is overheated during the process, it can result in CPU failure).

    We’ve been in the repair business for over fifteen years, and have been fixing iPhones almost since they first came out over ten years ago. If anyone can be trusted to repair your iPhone or iPad, it’s us.

    We are one of the leading independent Apple repair centres in the East of Scotland. We even accept repairs via delivery service UK-wide and throughout Europe. If your iPhone or iPad doesn’t charge correctly- or if you have any other problems –contact our Dundee store online, by telephone or in person to find out more and arrange your repair.