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[Weaver]

My iPad is dying suddenly even though it’s on charge. I’ve changed to a known good USB-C charger cable, one that my wife uses with no problems. I wonder if the AC USB adaptor has gone bad, or maybe the USB hub or whatever Janet has plugged me into has become evil. That’s one of only two things I can think of. I upgraded to the latest iPadOS a couple of days ago, so I’m wondering if that introduced a bug. I should put my iPad into the socket that Janet uses to charge hers from.

Has anyone had any experience like this?

The reported battery level (if real) went down to 30% then down to 11%; by fiddling with cables and rebooting the machine, I got it up to 13%, then it went down to 10% and asked me if I wanted to engage "low battery mode", then the battery level went down 6% then up to 7% after another reboot. I have turned off bluetooth and 4G in a desperate attempt to keep it alive. But I’ve always been able to run lots of apps, and have wireless NIC and Bluetooth and 4G NICs all on at the same time without any problems.

After I’ve ruled out my AC adaptor by changing the iPad from Janet’s power source, what do I do if it still doesn’t work properly?

Do I get in touch with Apple somehow?

I’ve had the machine for just over a year I think, can’t remember.

[burakkucat]

I’ve had the machine for just over a year I think, can’t remember.

I believe it around one year old. I seem to remember you posting about getting a new device.

Are you absolutely sure that the plug is going fully into the socket (on the iPad)? I would check for any fluff/cats' fur that might have got into the socket. The application of a wooden cocktail stick might prove beneficial. 

[Weaver]

Will do the cocktail stick thing. Leads have of course been inserted removed but ant possible fluff could reside happily through all that.

I noticed something while I was in Settings, something that I’ve never seen before. See attached images:



And :-



In the first image we see that the battery level had been slowly descending throughout last night and the whole day. Something very weird is visible in the last-few-days battery consumption thing; the battery consumption or CPU time, not sure which it is, was modest until yesterday when the figure jumped up to 80%. If the figure is CPU consumption then it means that something started thrashing, or the machine was not sleeping when it usually would. If the figure is total power consumption then it could be that it’s not sleeping, or the screen is on and bright, not off.

Whatever is going on, the machine should be able to tackle all normal activities such as bright screen on, network i/o, CPUs thrashing, all withought the battery level going down as it should be able to draw as much current as it needs, surely. So saying it’s using more energy than usual is interesting but a poor excuse.

[burakkucat]

There is certainly something strange about battery usage for today. Your activity with the iPad is quite consistent. Looking closer, it appears that the battery is "being hit" since around about 2230 hours yesterday evening.

[Weaver]

I looked at the DC supply into the USB cable. It was coming from a combined USB hub-plus-3pin-AC-mains distribution block. I am thinking that possibly some water got spilt and got into this kit, because it’s right below where my drink water just sits and I’m pretty good at spilling water everywhere. So I tried plugging the USB cable into a different USB socket on this device and now the battery level indicator has gone up from 6-7% to 17%, so that’s very encouraging, am just hoping that this continues. If so, then I may have found the answer - just possibly then, damaged USB hub. Will keep an eye on it and report back.

[burakkucat]

Correct me if I'm wrong but I believe you reported a similar incident last year. Then it wasn't water but cat's pee onto a multipoint mains supply block.

[Weaver]

Thank you! This is the big problem for me now, by memory is completely shot.

[burakkucat]

Hopefully the battery is now fully recharged and normal iPad operations have been resumed.

[Weaver]

All is now well. The mains / USB distribution unit was guilty.