So a family member gave me their iPhone 17 to look at. It is currently stone dead. No signs of life at all. They said the battery was at 1% and then the screen went black (assume battery died). After that they said they could not turn the phone back on. They left it charging and still could not turn it on.

I took a look myself and see it is completely dead. There's nothing on screen. There's no battery icon or anything to say it's low on battery. The screen just remains black.

I tried the force restart method (says to quickly press volume up, then down and then hold the power button until Apple logo appears) which did nothing. I've tried multiple cables, computers and wall outlets. Still same.

I have a USB amp meter and I can see when I connect cable, it cycles between different watts. It regularly jumps from 0 to about 2.1W. I see frequent 2.1W readings but it keeps going back to 0 and then up again (sometimes at a lower wattage). It's like it's trying to charge, but can't for some reason.

The phone is still in warranty period, so it can be returned. However, I'd like to check if there's maybe anything that can be done to bring it back to life as it does seem weird that it just died after the battery went out.

Anyone know what could be wrong? If it's a hardware issue, then I'll just send it back for a replacement. But I am hoping there's a way to bring it back to life as this will be faster than waiting for a replacement. It's not looking promising though.

⟐ Commented March 29, 2026 at 13:54 MST

Does anyone have insights about the NFC antenna placement on the latest iPhone model? From the teardown I observed, the NFC antenna is located on the front display panel and connected to the main board. However, the maximum electric field is detected at the top edge of the phone. I couldn’t find any antenna traces along the phone’s edge.

How is it possible to have the strongest field at the top if there are no visible antenna traces there? Could there be antenna traces embedded in the phone’s frame?

If anyone has experience or knowledge on this topic, please share how you addressed it.

Thank you!

⟐ Answer edited October 15, 2025 at 8:04 MST