iPhone self destructs with bulging battery.
My iPhone 4 has dangerously self destructed, with an unexplained bulging of the battery which broke off the rear cover and cracked the front display.
Recently my iPhone 4 has been playing up. It would hold it’s charge all day without trouble, but then at night would completely discharge from full to empty and switch itself off. Then, when I attached the charge cable it would come back to life a few minutes later with 30% or more battery charge showing.
Last weekend I had the phone in my pocket when I thought I felt it vibrate. In fact it had popped open and the front glass was broken. I couldn’t image how this had happened since it was not knocked or banged or dropped. It turns out that the battery had bulged – i.e. swollen up. It was about 3 or 4 mm thicker than it should be, which resulted in enough pressure on the screen to break it, and pop the back cover off.
This is a bit of a worry, as it means the battery is not healthy, and I’ma bit concerned it could explode, overheat or even go on fire. I think the best thing to do is disconnect it and take it to Apple.
Seems I am not alone either.
Reading 1-Wire iButtons using Cypress PSoC 3 and 5/5LP Intel® Galileo Gen2 Product Brief