IPhones have a known problem which is occurring frequently. Tristar chip failure. In a nutshell, there is an IC on the motherboard that is known as the “Tristar” chip. Different models of the iPhone have variances in the way this IC functions, but generally speaking, it controls the actual charging function of the phone, along with USB functionality. The iPhone 6 series and above have another chip called “Tigris” which works in tandem with “Tristar”. It has a tendency to burn out, either partially or entirely.

The reason this occurs is not a design or manufacturing fault. Using non-certified charging plugs and poor quality cables are the cause of the problem. This situation started when apple introduced the lightning port devices. The first being the iPhone 5, iPad 4, Mini 1 and so forth. These devices require a carefully regulated charging voltage. If you use something other than the genuine Foxconn/Apple charger that the device came with, it needs to be certified by Apple as meeting specifications. You can safely use non-original cables and chargers, but you must ensure they are “MFI Certified.” MFI stands for Made For iPhone. You can find a lift of MFI certified third parties HERE

Symptoms of Tristar / charging failure.

There are several symptoms of Tristar / Tigris failure. They are:

-The phone gets very hot when charging
-It can show that it’s charging, but the % doesn’t increase.
-Has no power and does not respond when plugging in.
-High battery discharge.
-USB connection to a computer is erratic or non-existent
-It can charge a partially charged battery, but cannot charge a dead battery.
– Known genuine / certified charging accessories can cause “Accessory not supported” to be displayed.
– The phone loses all ability to charge a battery
– The phone can only charge a battery while switched off.

This list is not exhaustive, and you may experience one or more of these symptoms at any given time.

Can it be fixed?

Yes! We can and do carry out component level motherboard repairs at DannStarr Electronics, but our aim is to try to educate our users away from encountering these issues in the first place.

I am a huge fan of repair. It’s both good for your wallet and the environment. However, this is certainly one issue which You can avoid with just a little education (hence I wrote this article for you). Now, armed with this knowledge; you can ensure that you only ever plug a certified or genuine accessory into your iPhone, and avoid 100% of an issue that we at DannStarr Electronics see ever more regularly.

If you want to be confident that you are buying safe charging accessories for your iPhone, you can find these items at great prices in our SHOP.