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Hey everyone, if you haven’t already been tuning into our weekly iPhone in Canada podcasts, then you are missing out on some great iPhone info and chats! One important message I brought up to the listeners was the use of 3rd party iPhone car chargers and how buying them can brick your iPhone!
I received an email from fellow Canadian iPhone user Rico, who told me about his unfortunate situation with his iPhone and a 3rd party iPhone charger off eBay–even though it was advertised to work with the iPhone. In his own words,
“After plugging in my iphone, it just went black and overheated for about
30mins. Right now, it won’t turn on anymore.”
In related news, I had a friend whose iPhone faced the same demise as Rico’s–a similar 3rd party car charger fried his iPhone too! So there you have it folks. Watch out for 8 in 1 car kit iPhone chargers on eBay, or any unofficial 3rd party car charger. They can fry your iPhone! Here’s a picture of the culprit involved:
Anyone else get their iPhone brick’d by a car charger? Let us know in the iPhone in Canada forums!
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That’s scary! I had bought one from Canadian Tire for $15 and it looked exactly like it. I plugged my iPhone in but quickly noticed the audio wasn’t transmitting through the FM transmitter.
Although the iPhone did charge when plugged in, I just use the device with my nano.
What about using FM transmitter? I use the Monster iCarPlay and it seems to work great. Is there a chance that if I leave it on long enough that my phone will overheat?
I just got a simple car charger off ebay, it came in the mail yesterday… thanks for warning me and I will test mine out very cautiously and report back here and in the forums!
now I’m super scared to even attempt using it.
I have a D-Lo FM transmiter/Charger Dock and it works perfectly except for the usual interference when it’s synching with a new tower or when on the phone. Unfortunately that means you can use is as a hands free in Quebec =o)
The OEM chargers output 5VDC and some of these 3rd party chargers (especially from China) output 12VDC! I’m not 100% sure but charging your iPhone at over double the rated voltage doesn’t sound very safe to me.
ok so I tried my charger very cautiously… good thing I had my eye on it because the charger started to smoke and crackle, I quickly unplugged my iphone and it was still ok.
YIKES it was scary lol
LMAO
Funny. I’m in the US and just googled iphone and charger problems. My charger…which I bought at an at&t store just smoked my iphone and now apple is giving me the run around about replacing or repairing it. I even checked out the apple store and found the exact same charger for sale there and yet they say that if the meltdown was caused by the charger then neither my apple protection plan nor the additional insurance that I have on my phone through at&t will cover any repairs so be careful no matter where you buy a charger from. Even if it is sold through apple or at&t it can still kill your iphone.
A good way to test them is by using a Multi-Meter
to insure the output is not too high.
There are many that work fine, and then theres many more that don’t even from Apple. You should also check the Fuse
if it doesn’t have one it’s NOT Safe! Make sure to have a
good quality fuse, it will help protect the phone from shorts and power spikes.
oh I forgot to mention that I emailed the place I bought my last charger for and told them what happened, they sent me another one and it works great… so maybe it was just a faulty charger or something
thats kinda funny. a friend of mine has this exact charger/transmitter for her ipod. We were out camping one weekend and my phone ran out of juice, so I asked her if i could use her charger. I hooked it up to the car and plugged it in. Right off the bat it gave me a warning about not being iPhone compatible. I had seen this warning before on a few other ipod accessories. usually it just means that it wants to put the iPhone into airplane mode before playing music. so i ignored it and let it charge.
About an hour later I came back and found the iPhone smokin hot. I unplugged it immediately and didnt let it charge any more. The phone seemed a bit disoriented/unstable so I rebooted it and it worked fine again. I never thought anything of it again until i read this post.
Thanks!
I received two DOA car chargers for my 1st gen iPhone purchased on Ebay. Seller is supposed to send a third one that he will check.
When plugged in car it did not show the battery charger on the iPhone and screen totally black.
Now that I know this warning perhaps I should just forget about this car charger? thisatd
I bought the linked item off of eBay. The UBS cable works fine. The wall charger is too noisy to use if you’re in the same room. But the real problem is the car charger. It started smoking immediately. I remembered reading about this problem here and unplugged it immediately. If I had left it plugged in I bet I would have either: Bricked my iPhone, blown a fuse in the car or filled the car with a disgusting smoke smell. Maybe it was just a defective unit or maybe this is a case of … If the price seems to good to be true…
Yes this exact same thing happened to me… Bought one from ebay then after about a week it broke my iphone. Luckily i was under the 90 day warranty and got a new one. I now realize that it is probably the crappy ebay fm transmitter/charger that did it but i will never use an fm transmitter on the phone again. Beware!
I bricked my iPhone today by plugging into a non approved car charger. It worked fine in one car (Audi) but bricked it when I plugged it into the socket in a semi. It's only about 60 days old and I'm sending it back to Apple for replacement.
I recently had my 3GS 32GB iPhone bricked from a 3rd party charger, it was from china on ebay and is named “Mobile Power Station”, its a small portable charger that you charge up first and then use later on the go when your low on power on your iPhone.
I've used it many times and then suddenly after only 15 minutes charging on it my iPhone got extremely HOT! and was shut off, i waited until it cooled down which took about 30 mins and after still wont turn back on. Apple is replacing it this week.
I would recommend only buying these chargers from apple and not online from 3rd party vendors.
I used a car charger from Bell and it fried 2 iphones before I figured out that it was the charger. Apparently Bell is aware of the problem but has not taken the chargers off their shelf.
I used a car charger from Bell and it fried 2 iphones before I figured out that it was the charger. Apparently Bell is aware of the problem but has not taken the chargers off their shelf.
I bricked my iPhone today by plugging into a non approved car charger. It worked fine in one car (Audi) but bricked it when I plugged it into the socket in a semi. It's only about 60 days old and I'm sending it back to Apple for replacement.
I wish I had read all these msgs two days ago. I just lost my iPhone 3GS to an e-Bay car charger!! Now I have to pay a bundle to geta new iPhone. I wish I could sue that mofu. He probably knew this problem but never but is making money off people.
Well if you have a $500 phone don't buy a $10 charger on EBAY just to save $20!
This is cool! And so interested! Are u have more posts like this? Plese tell me, thanks
That’s scary! I had bought one from Canadian Tire for $15 and it looked exactly like it. I plugged my iPhone in but quickly noticed the audio wasn’t transmitting through the FM transmitter.
Although the iPhone did charge when plugged in, I just use the device with my nano.
That’s scary! I had bought one from Canadian Tire for $15 and it looked exactly like it. I plugged my iPhone in but quickly noticed the audio wasn’t transmitting through the FM transmitter.
Although the iPhone did charge when plugged in, I just use the device with my nano.
What about using FM transmitter? I use the Monster iCarPlay and it seems to work great. Is there a chance that if I leave it on long enough that my phone will overheat?
What about using FM transmitter? I use the Monster iCarPlay and it seems to work great. Is there a chance that if I leave it on long enough that my phone will overheat?
I just got a simple car charger off ebay, it came in the mail yesterday… thanks for warning me and I will test mine out very cautiously and report back here and in the forums!
now I’m super scared to even attempt using it.
I just got a simple car charger off ebay, it came in the mail yesterday… thanks for warning me and I will test mine out very cautiously and report back here and in the forums!
now I’m super scared to even attempt using it.
I have a D-Lo FM transmiter/Charger Dock and it works perfectly except for the usual interference when it’s synching with a new tower or when on the phone. Unfortunately that means you can use is as a hands free in Quebec =o)
I have a D-Lo FM transmiter/Charger Dock and it works perfectly except for the usual interference when it’s synching with a new tower or when on the phone. Unfortunately that means you can use is as a hands free in Quebec =o)
The OEM chargers output 5VDC and some of these 3rd party chargers (especially from China) output 12VDC! I’m not 100% sure but charging your iPhone at over double the rated voltage doesn’t sound very safe to me.
The OEM chargers output 5VDC and some of these 3rd party chargers (especially from China) output 12VDC! I’m not 100% sure but charging your iPhone at over double the rated voltage doesn’t sound very safe to me.
ok so I tried my charger very cautiously… good thing I had my eye on it because the charger started to smoke and crackle, I quickly unplugged my iphone and it was still ok.
YIKES it was scary lol
ok so I tried my charger very cautiously… good thing I had my eye on it because the charger started to smoke and crackle, I quickly unplugged my iphone and it was still ok.
YIKES it was scary lol
Funny. I’m in the US and just googled iphone and charger problems. My charger…which I bought at an at&t store just smoked my iphone and now apple is giving me the run around about replacing or repairing it. I even checked out the apple store and found the exact same charger for sale there and yet they say that if the meltdown was caused by the charger then neither my apple protection plan nor the additional insurance that I have on my phone through at&t will cover any repairs so be careful no matter where you buy a charger from. Even if it is sold through apple or at&t it can still kill your iphone.
Funny. I’m in the US and just googled iphone and charger problems. My charger…which I bought at an at&t store just smoked my iphone and now apple is giving me the run around about replacing or repairing it. I even checked out the apple store and found the exact same charger for sale there and yet they say that if the meltdown was caused by the charger then neither my apple protection plan nor the additional insurance that I have on my phone through at&t will cover any repairs so be careful no matter where you buy a charger from. Even if it is sold through apple or at&t it can still kill your iphone.
A good way to test them is by using a Multi-Meter
to insure the output is not too high.
There are many that work fine, and then theres many more that don’t even from Apple. You should also check the Fuse
if it doesn’t have one it’s NOT Safe! Make sure to have a
good quality fuse, it will help protect the phone from shorts and power spikes.
A good way to test them is by using a Multi-Meter
to insure the output is not too high.
There are many that work fine, and then theres many more that don’t even from Apple. You should also check the Fuse
if it doesn’t have one it’s NOT Safe! Make sure to have a
good quality fuse, it will help protect the phone from shorts and power spikes.
oh I forgot to mention that I emailed the place I bought my last charger for and told them what happened, they sent me another one and it works great… so maybe it was just a faulty charger or something
oh I forgot to mention that I emailed the place I bought my last charger for and told them what happened, they sent me another one and it works great… so maybe it was just a faulty charger or something
thats kinda funny. a friend of mine has this exact charger/transmitter for her ipod. We were out camping one weekend and my phone ran out of juice, so I asked her if i could use her charger. I hooked it up to the car and plugged it in. Right off the bat it gave me a warning about not being iPhone compatible. I had seen this warning before on a few other ipod accessories. usually it just means that it wants to put the iPhone into airplane mode before playing music. so i ignored it and let it charge.
About an hour later I came back and found the iPhone smokin hot. I unplugged it immediately and didnt let it charge any more. The phone seemed a bit disoriented/unstable so I rebooted it and it worked fine again. I never thought anything of it again until i read this post.
Thanks!
thats kinda funny. a friend of mine has this exact charger/transmitter for her ipod. We were out camping one weekend and my phone ran out of juice, so I asked her if i could use her charger. I hooked it up to the car and plugged it in. Right off the bat it gave me a warning about not being iPhone compatible. I had seen this warning before on a few other ipod accessories. usually it just means that it wants to put the iPhone into airplane mode before playing music. so i ignored it and let it charge.
About an hour later I came back and found the iPhone smokin hot. I unplugged it immediately and didnt let it charge any more. The phone seemed a bit disoriented/unstable so I rebooted it and it worked fine again. I never thought anything of it again until i read this post.
Thanks!
I received two DOA car chargers for my 1st gen iPhone purchased on Ebay. Seller is supposed to send a third one that he will check.
When plugged in car it did not show the battery charger on the iPhone and screen totally black.
Now that I know this warning perhaps I should just forget about this car charger? thisatd
I received two DOA car chargers for my 1st gen iPhone purchased on Ebay. Seller is supposed to send a third one that he will check.
When plugged in car it did not show the battery charger on the iPhone and screen totally black.
Now that I know this warning perhaps I should just forget about this car charger? thisatd
I bought the linked item off of eBay. The UBS cable works fine. The wall charger is too noisy to use if you’re in the same room. But the real problem is the car charger. It started smoking immediately. I remembered reading about this problem here and unplugged it immediately. If I had left it plugged in I bet I would have either: Bricked my iPhone, blown a fuse in the car or filled the car with a disgusting smoke smell. Maybe it was just a defective unit or maybe this is a case of … If the price seems to good to be true…
I bought the linked item off of eBay. The UBS cable works fine. The wall charger is too noisy to use if you’re in the same room. But the real problem is the car charger. It started smoking immediately. I remembered reading about this problem here and unplugged it immediately. If I had left it plugged in I bet I would have either: Bricked my iPhone, blown a fuse in the car or filled the car with a disgusting smoke smell. Maybe it was just a defective unit or maybe this is a case of … If the price seems to good to be true…
Yes this exact same thing happened to me… Bought one from ebay then after about a week it broke my iphone. Luckily i was under the 90 day warranty and got a new one. I now realize that it is probably the crappy ebay fm transmitter/charger that did it but i will never use an fm transmitter on the phone again. Beware!
Yes this exact same thing happened to me… Bought one from ebay then after about a week it broke my iphone. Luckily i was under the 90 day warranty and got a new one. I now realize that it is probably the crappy ebay fm transmitter/charger that did it but i will never use an fm transmitter on the phone again. Beware!
LMAO
LMAO
Yeah mine did. Some cheap one offa amazon uk. Completely dead.